BRITISH MAMMALS 97 



the imprisonment, loudly protesting all the 

 time in a voice like the squeaking of a rat, 

 and it was surprising to see how nearly he 

 managed to get out, though the sides of the 

 box were almost two feet high. 



Stoats, commonly called weasels with us, 

 were fairly common when we had more rats 

 and rabbits, but we do not often see one now 

 (1912). We had a white terrier that killed 

 several, though I had an idea that dogs 

 looked on stoats as a kind of ferret and did 

 not hurt them. 



We can count a fox among our occasional 

 visitors. I have watched one for some time 

 that was smelling about among the shrubs 

 just opposite to the front door about eight 

 o'clock on a Sunday morning. 



We are out of the regular beat of the 

 Cheshire Hounds here, and I fancy the secret 

 slaying of a fox is not accounted a very 

 heinous crime, certainly the foxes that are 

 often reported soon disappear. In 1899 a 

 fox had its " earth " in the Abbey Croft, a 

 field next to the garden, and we used to like 

 to hear him barking in the still summer 

 evenings. In the end, however, the keepers 

 were too many for him, and he had to shift 

 his quarters or else it may have been his lease 

 of life ran out. 



We suffered very much at one time from 

 the plague of rats. They infested the out- 

 buildings and the house itself, and for a long 



