THE WEASEL, ITS FEROCITY. 287 



cross water in pursuit of its prey. Like the stoat, it 

 fixes its teeth in its devoted victim on the back of the 

 neck, where it retains its deadly hokl in spite of all the 

 struggles of the wounded animal. 



Gamekeepers have good reason to wage an active war 

 against the weasel, as it is very fond of eggs and yoinig 

 birds of all kinds. So determined a poacher is the weasel 

 that it has been known to capture full grown birds. A 

 weasel has been seen to leap from the ground into the 

 midst.of a covey of partridges, just as tliey were rising on 

 the wing, and to bring one of them to the earth. This event 

 took place at Mansfield in the month of October. A gen- 

 tleman who had discovered a furtive nest made by one 

 of his hens in a hedge-row, was witness to a curious scene. 

 Just as a hen had laid an egg, she issued from her nest, 

 cackling triumphantly ; a weasel, which had been ob- 

 served at a great distance stretching its neck as if 

 watching for its prey, darted towards the spot, but just 

 before it reached the nest it was anticipated by a crow, 

 which seized the egg and bore it off in triumph. " In 

 January 1818, a man in the parish of Glencairn, Dum- 

 friesshire, was suddenly attacked by six weasels, which 

 rushed upon him from an old dyke in a field ; alarmed 

 by such a furious onset he took to his heels, but he soon 

 found he was closely pursued, and although he endea- 

 voured to protect himself by several backhanded 

 strokes with a horsewhip, yet so eager was their pursuit 

 that they were about to seize him by the throat, when 

 he hastily snatched up the fallen branch of a tree, when 

 he killed three of them, and put the other three to 

 flight." A few years ago, a boy was hoeing a quick-set 

 hedge, when several weasels ruslied upon him, and 



