VERMIN 191 



the mass of his enormities, and the 

 extreme penalty of the law is all that this 

 cunning and enterprising ruffian can look 

 to receive at our hands. 



The weasel, often, though needlessly, 

 confused with his larger congener, is a 

 more difficult case to dispose of. There 

 is certainly a strong opinion among out- 

 side authorities that is to say, naturalists 

 who have never had a hand in preserving 

 game themselves that keepers bear an 

 unjust grudge against the weasel, and 

 wrongly place him on the list of pro- 

 scription. We are told that the misdeeds 

 of the stoat are attributed to the weasel, 

 and that in truth the good he does 

 to agriculture far outweighs any trivial 

 injury he may inflict on game. But is 

 this injury so trivial, we would ask ? 

 Doubtless rats, voles, mice, and small 

 birds form his staple diet, but that so 

 swift and fearless a hunter can ever be 

 expected to spare our game is more than 

 we can believe, nor can he be acquitted 

 of being a persistent egg-thief. One 



