46 NOTES TO THE 



ever there is one distinguishing mark which may always set 

 any question as to species at rest ; it is that the stoat always 

 has a black tip to its tail, and the weasel never. 



From its size and strength the stoat is far more formidable 

 than the weasel, but, with the exception that the latter turns his 

 attention a good deal to mice and moles, to which the stoat 

 seldom condescends, their ravages are very similar. 



In our islands the stoat retains the same coat winter and 

 summer, except in the north, where it is said occasionally in 

 hard winters to assume a white or ermine garb. 



Very often stoats and weasels attack Mr. Davy's call and 

 " brace birds " when he is out bird-catching. They always seize 

 them by the head. The weasel will get through the ordinary 

 water-pot hole of a bird-cage ; he will get through any hole that 

 will pass his head. A tame weasel is a very amusing creature. 



ROOKS, p. 47. Mr. Sawyer, of Kichmond Park, writes : 

 " The best thing I have ever found to keep rooks off, is thin 

 string tied from stick to stick across the field in various direc- 

 tions." 



White rooks are not uncommon. A few white and cream- 

 coloured starlings are seen every year ; if the eye is black, the 

 white starling, after moulting, will come to its proper colour, 

 but if it has a pink eye, it will become white and, as a rule, will 

 have flesh-coloured legs. 



BULLFINCHES, p. 48. Mr. Davy writes : - 



" Black bullfinches by some persons are thought a great rarity, 

 but not so with my bird-catchers ; for when a bird moults out 

 of colour, as a rule, it loses its natural hoop or call ; it is then of 

 course, of no use as a call-bird. The reason of its becoming black is 

 overfeeding with hempseed, which causes weakness in moulting. 

 A bird once black, either cock or hen, may, by breaking off this 

 food by degrees, and feeding on summer rape and canary, be 

 brought to its natural colour in the next moult give plenty of 

 green food also. I know of one cock bullfinch, now in good 

 health, that has been worked out catching, almost daily, nine 

 months in the year ; it is in beautiful plumage, and is kept in a 

 very small cage. This bird has plenty of hemp among its ordi- 

 nary seed, but by being continually exposed to the fresh air in 

 different parts of the country, and constantly getting a ducking 

 with rain, the seed does not affect the plumage. The above call or 

 decoy-bird was four years old in June last ; it has been the means 

 during its career of causing the entrapping by nets and birdlime 

 of not less than from 300 to 400 birds. 



