QUADRUPEDS. 137 



their trophies nailed to a tree, or against a barn- 

 door. 



Smaller than the Polecat, but equally active and 

 courageous, is the Stoat or Ermine, although less 

 confined to thickets, and rather an animal of the 

 heath or moor than of the woodland. 



Similarly, the Weasel is found in woods in com- 

 mon with other places, such as hedges, stack- 

 yards, and the vicinity of human habitations. It is 

 smaller than the Stoat, and preys principally on mice, 

 moles, and small birds. Both the Stoat and the 

 Weasel will climb trees in pursuit of birds. Many 

 anecdotes are related of the boldness of these little 

 creatures. One day in June, says a writer in the 

 " Zoologist/' as a lady was sitting in a room at Ilford, 

 the window of which opened to the ground, she was 

 very much surprised by the appearance of a weasel, 

 which, after trying round the window for an entrance, 

 stood up on its hind legs against one of the panes of 

 glass, and remained there, notwithstanding the furious 

 barking of a little terrier that was in the room, until 

 the window was opened, when he started off very 

 leisurely, but was overtaken and killed by the dog. 



"One evening in summer," Charles Waterton tells us 

 in one of his charming essays, " I sat down on a lonely 

 bank near a plantation. A full-grown rabbit made its 

 appearance. It took a circuit of nearly ten paces 

 and re-entered the plantation. Scarcely had it dis- 

 appeared from view when a weasel came out upon its 

 track and followed scent with the sagacity of a hound. 

 The rabbit soon came out of the wood again in violent 

 agitation, and quickly returned to cover. Out came 



