THE HOME OF A NATURALIST. 303 



generally defiled with numerous carcases nailed upon 

 them as trophies of their slayer's vigilance. Yet every 

 weasel is worth an annual sack of corn to the farmer, 

 even after deducting the value of the few chickens and 

 ducklings which it may destroy. Marauding cats are 

 far more destructive than weasels, and if a farmer could 

 succeed in clearing the neighbourhood of kestrels, rats, 

 and the weasel tribe, his harvests would make but a 

 poor show. There is no more determined enemy of the 

 rat than the weasel and all its tribe. A thousand barn 

 rats are calculated to devour two hundred pounds' worth 

 of produce per annum ; and taking into consideration 

 the extraordinary powers of multiplication possessed by 

 this insatiate devourer, who eats with equal voracity 

 corn, cheese, bread, and meat of all kinds, whether raw 

 or cooked, clambers into the pigeon-houses, murders 

 the young, and destroys the unhatched eggs nibbles 

 its way into the hen-roosts by night, and kills the 

 poultry as they quietly sleep on their perches finds 

 the ducks' nests and depopulates them it is evident 

 that any creature which gives its services in the destruc- 

 tion of this prolific and expensive animal is cheaply 

 repaid at the cost of two or three chickens per annum. 

 Some of the metropolitan hotel-keepers pay a tolerable 

 annual wage to professional ratcatchers, and find them- 

 selves well remunerated for their outlay, even though 

 the price which they pay is at least a hundred times as 

 much as a weasel asks for his unceasing work; 



Here, then, is another case proving the absolute 



