OF HARTING. 237 



became not only tolerable, but sufficiently agreeable 

 to answer the purpose of a sachet in the linen chest ! 

 The weazel and the stoat are found here in tolerable 

 numbers, notwithstanding the attentions of the keepers. 

 Like the polecat, they are very destructive creatures, 

 killing many more victims than they can possibly 

 require for food, their prey consisting of rats, mice, 

 moles, and even birds, birds' eggs and frogs, to say 

 nothing of hares and rabbits, the latter of which 

 they regularly hunt by scent, sometimes singly, some- 

 times in packs. The fur of both the weazel and the 

 stoat undergoes a change of colour in winter, but we 

 have only met with examples of this in the stoat, 

 which, by-the-bye, is only another name for the 

 celebrated ermine. Specimens of stoats in their winter 

 suit of yellowish white, the tail retaining its usual dark 

 tuft, might have been seen not many years back in 

 more than one cottage in the parish, and we once 

 shot an individual in Park copse, in the early part of 

 March, the head and cheeks of which were so thickly 

 covered with enormous ticks, that it presented a very 

 singular appearance. 



The Badger (Meles Taxus\ although no longer a 

 member of our community, was not unfrequently found 

 here in byegone years ; and some persons are still 

 living who may recollect that one individual of the 

 species once took up its quarters in the Leith, from 

 which place it paid frequent visits to the neighbouring 

 pig-sties, a practice that indirectly led to its destruction. 

 This occurred about fifty years since, and an old game- 

 keeper on the estate had the circumstance painfully 

 impressed on his memory by a " scratch " from the 

 tooth of the animal, which nearly cost him his arm ! 



The Otter (Lutra vulgaris) is not unfrequently met 

 with in the Sheet river, and sometimes makes in- 

 cursions in our Harting waters. In the autumn of 

 1873 a fine young one was killed among the sedge at 

 the tail of the Great Pond, and since then other young 



