226 Practical Game Preserving. 



tactics to the polecat, and pursues with the same extraordinary 

 acuteness of scent and pertinacity of endurance exemplified 

 in the fitch, and rarely indeed does its quarry succeed in effect- 

 ing its escape. Hares seem to the stoat more palatable than 

 rabbits where both are abundant, and upon the former it 

 chiefly loves to prey. Being a small and short-legged animal 

 it is, as far as regards speed, quite unable to cope with the 

 celerity of the hare, and accordingly endeavours to run them 

 down in the same determined manner of its larger relations. 

 Many wonderful accounts have been written, chiefly in 

 natural histories, on the fascination a pursuing stoat exerts 

 over the hare, but exaggeration of what is rather a reasoning 

 power into the result of fascination is but a short step, and 

 one which, we are inclined to think, more often taken than 

 is advisable. 



When a stoat finds a hare, it first endeavours to come 

 upon it unawares, and, failing this, of course, must seek to 

 attain its desire by taking advantage when the hare is not 

 looking, and making a dash. Should this succeed, then it is 

 all over with puss ; but if she gets away unhurt she ambles off 

 (as we may term it) at a rate sufficiently swift to distance 

 the stoat, and continues it, hoping that her most persevering 

 enemy will relinquish the chase. But the stoat is of a 

 stubborn nature, and occasionally will decidedly not relinquish 

 its aim, and, following steadily upon the hare's track, will, 

 owing to its keenness of scent, eventually come up with her, 

 while she is, perhaps, taking a short nap, the only recorded 

 instance of which is not when the fabled race was run in 

 which the tortoise played the most conspicuous part. The 

 result, of course, is the usual one namely, death on the 



