238 Practical Game Preserving. 



traits in its habits are so trifling as to be scarcely worth 

 mentioning, while others claim for it the distinction of 

 being extremely useful in the destruction of mice, rats, 

 and moles, in and around farmyards, &c. Be this as it 

 may, our experience has satisfied us that the weasel is as 

 much " vermin " as either the stoat or the polecat ; com- 

 paratively speaking, equally predacious, and equally unwel- 

 come to either the poultry keeper or game preserver. 

 That the weasel is materially less obnoxious than either of 

 the larger vermin is very natural, for, besides, being a 

 lesser and weaker animal, and consequently unable to cope 

 with so many or so large birds, it turns its attention in 

 a direction in which its habits are not so antagonistic to 

 our wishes as they might be were it to follow more closely 

 in the ways of either the polecat or stoat. That the weasel 

 is occasionally, and in certain districts often, found " making 

 it warm" for rats and mice in corn ricks and barns, is 

 no doubt correct ; but to judge by what is most certainly 

 the exception, and form an opinion accordingly, is rather 

 an eccentric mode of determining points of natural history, 

 but this is, nevertheless, the case with the weasel, and, 

 whatever may be said or written, we may rest pretty 

 well assured that it has not earned a bad reputation through 

 good and useful deeds. 



That the weasel has a predilection for game, as far as 

 flesh goes, is obvious, and after that it prefers hares and 

 rabbits, choosing, however, in all cases young birds and 

 young animals where they can be obtained, but, failing 

 this, will attack quite unhesitatingly the full-grown ones. 

 Ducks, fowls, and geese are also acceptable to it, and, 



