286 REMIXISCEN^CES OF A SPORTSMAN. 



furnished with the tuft of jetty hairs that forms so 

 conspicuous a decoration of the stoat. The audacity of 

 this little creature is really remarkable, it seems to hold 

 every being except itself in the most sovereign con- 

 tempt, and, to all appearance, is as ready to match 

 itself against a man as against a mouse. Mr. Wood 

 says, ''I remember being entirely baffled by the im- 

 pertinence of one of these animals, although I was 

 provided with a gun. While I was walking along 

 a path that skirted a corn field, a stir took place 

 among some dried leaves by the hedge side, and out 

 ran something small and red along the bottom of the 

 hedge. I instantly fired, but without success, at the 

 moving object, which turned out to be a weasel. The 

 little creature, instead of running away, or appearing 

 alarmed at the report of the gun, which tore up the 

 ground around it, coolly ran into the middle of the path, 

 and sitting up on its hind legs, with its paws crossed 

 over its nose, leisurely contemplated me for a moment 

 or two, and then quietly retired into the hedge." 



Many farmers are in the habit of destroying the 

 weasel, which they look upon as vermin, but it is 

 now generally thought that although the weasel must 

 plead guilty to the crime of destroying poultry now 

 and then, it may yet plead its great services in the 

 destruction of rats and mice. There is no hole through 

 which either of these animals can pass which will not 

 quite as readily suffer the passage of the weasel ; and 

 as the weasel is most determined and pertinacious in 

 pursuit, it seldom happens that rats or mice escape 

 when their little foe has set itself fairly on their track. 

 It has also got as acute a scent as the stoat, which 

 makes it a most formidable enemy, and it will even 



