Ground Vermin The Stoat. 



227 



one hand, self satisfaction on the other. This is about 

 all "this strange lassitude" consists of, and, looking at 

 things from a common-sense view, we soon learn to shun a 

 desire, always more or less predominant, to turn everyday 

 occurrences of a commonplace nature into " powers of 

 fascination," resulting in " failing faculties and oppressions 

 of weird lethargy." We may take it as a fact that such 

 occurrences as the habitual and perpetual persecution of 

 one animal by another as a natural result of their existence 

 simultaneously in the same locality will eventually so in- 

 fluence the nature of the one persecuted that it will not 

 devote the same active exertions to escape as it would 

 were such a persecution an occasional incident. This being 

 so, theories as to fascination, and the like, may be entirely 

 discarded. 



When hares are not plentiful, the stoat finds in rabbits a 

 most excellent substitute. It is particularly fond of stealing 

 upon them when, half sleeping, they lie ensconced in their 

 forms or seats, preferring, certainly, this mode to the more 

 laborious manner of catching them in their burrows, which 

 it does in much the same way as the polecat, only that in 

 both cases, hare and rabbit alike, it kills by fastening 

 either on to the neck of its captive or, like the ferret, below 

 the eye (it prefers, however, the former place), and sucking 

 the blood until the hare or rabbit, as the case may be, 

 expires from the loss of it. 



Being an excellent climber, the stoat is a greater enemy 

 of birds than the polecat, and pheasants, as well as partridges, 

 suffer sadly from its depredations ; but, unlike the fitch, it has 

 as much liking for eggs and young birds a^for the full grown 



