WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



always remains black. The animal is then very beautiful, 

 with its shining black eyes and white body. The fur is very 

 like that of the ermine, but is quite useless, owing to the 

 peculiar odour of the animal, which can never be got rid of* 

 It is worthy of note that the stoat does not emit this odour 

 exceptingwhenhuntedor wounded. When I have shot one, 

 killing it on the spot, before he has seen me, no smell is to 

 be perceived. The same thing I have also observed when 

 it has been caught in a large iron trap, which has killed it 

 instantaneously,beforetherehasbeentime for fearor strug- 

 gling. When, however, I have had some chace after a stoat 

 before shooting it, or have caught one alive in a trap, the 

 stench of the little animal is unsupportable, and sticks to 

 the skin, in spite of every attempt to get rid of it. 



The attachment of the stoat and weasel to their young 

 is very great. I chased a weasel into a hollow tree: she was 

 carrying some animal in her mouth, and though I was on 

 the very point of catching her before she got to her refuge, 

 she would not drop it. I fancied that it was a newly-born 

 rabbit that shewas carrying off. I applied smoke tothehole, 

 and out came the weasel again, still carrying the same bur- 

 den. She ran towards a stone wall, but was met by a terrier 

 halfway, who killed her, catching her with the greater fac- 

 ility in consequence of her obstinacy in carrying away what 

 I still thought was some prey. On picking it up, however, 

 I found that it was a young weasel, unable to run, which its 

 mother was endeavouring to carry to a place of safety, her 

 former hole in an adjoining field having been ploughed 



* If this were correct, ermine fur would be of no commercial value, whereas of old it 

 was the royal fur. Ermine and stoat are different names for one and the same species — 

 Putoritis erminea. — Ed. 



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