COMMON SHREW I WEASEL. 



alive upon the snow here the other day, and brought 

 into the house, and placed in a glass box : a piece of 

 raw mutton was given to it, which it attacked with 

 the greatest voracity the moment it smelt it ; and 

 it continued eating almost without intermission till it 

 had devoured the whole of it. The piece, I should 

 think, could not have weighed less than half or three 

 quarters of an ounce. When the shrew first seized 

 it, it shook it as a dog does a rat, and then began to 

 gnaw it with its sharp-pointed grinders on one side of 

 the mouth. It lived for a couple of days, almost 

 continually eating; and previous to its death, which 

 was very sudden, seemed in perfect health." 



WEASEL.* 



WHITE has observed, in his Natural History of 

 Selborne, that " weasels prey on moles, as appears 

 by their being sometimes caught in mole-traps." 

 Some years since a mole-trap was found at Bottisham 

 Hall, having two weasels in it. These animals had 

 both been hunting their prey in its subterranean 

 paths but not, as it might be supposed, in concert : 

 they had come in opposite directions, and, by a 

 curious coincidence, must have both sprung the trap 

 at the same instant. 



STOAT. f 



MR. BELL has observed, in his British Quadrupeds, 

 that " the stoat is certainly one of the boldest ani- 



. * Mustela vulgaris, Linn. f Mustela erminea, Linn. 



