FREQUENTING THE HOLES OF FIELD-MICE. 121 



have watched him enter a wheat-rick at the bottom, and in 

 less than a minute seen him peeping out under the thatch : 

 but in mentioning this I am on dangerous ground ; I fear 

 I shall neither make you nor your readers believe that 

 wheat-ricks are very often a complete honeycomb, with the 

 galleries made in them by mice and rats, extending from 

 the very crown to the faggots on which they are built ; 

 and that hundreds of these vermin are frequently found in 

 one rick. However, where there are many rats there are 

 few mice, and where there are many mice there are few 

 rats ; because the rats, being strongest, expel the mice. 

 To return to the weasel : his usual habitation is the gal- 

 lery of a field-mouse on whom he has served a writ of 

 ejectment, and he usually chooses one in a bank in which 

 the roots of bushes are tolerably plentiful and strong, as he 

 well knows that these will effectually prevent his being 

 dug out by any evil-disposed person or persons : he also 

 invariably takes the precaution to select a burrow with two 

 openings, so that, if one is besieged, he makes his exit at 

 the other. I very well recollect seeing a weasel go into a 

 little round hole, scarcely bigger than the hole of a wasp's 

 nest ; I immediately put my foot on it, and despatched a 

 lad who was with me for a spade, determined to take the 

 little fellow alive. The spade came, we dug away, cut 

 through roots, pulled down the bank, and did no end of 

 mischief; and, after two hours' labour, found that the hole 

 went right through the bank, and came out on the other 

 side. 



The weasel has an excellent nose, as I think I have 

 pretty clearly shown above ; but it is not exercised on the 

 trail of rats only. I have, on two occasions, seen rabbits 

 pursued by him, run down, and killed : one was on Munsted 



