244 Practical Game Preserving. 



the run for the purpose of bringing off a litter of young 

 ones. 



The localities which the weasel likes to frequent are 

 similar to those of the stoat or fitch, and differ considerably 

 from those in which it constructs, or in some cases finds, 

 its breeding place. Preferring more open and sunny spots, 

 and courting at no time darkness and solitude, the weasels 

 form themselves into small communities, which, compared 

 with those of the stoat, are large, ranging in all instances 

 from about six to even fifteen members, generally an equal 

 number of males and females. Affecting always situations 

 of a corresponding kind to those agreeable to the stoat, 

 the vermin under notice, however, choose those situated 

 on high ground, which is well open to the sun, and among 

 the most favoured spots may be enumerated the following, 

 as showing the general nature of the locality in which 

 they may be mostly looked for. At all times stone walls 

 are its special resort, and particularly those forming boun- 

 daries to fields, made of large stones or boulders piled up 

 with a sort of half regularity, which have always one or 

 two gaps where the stones have fallen away from their 

 placed position. Along such boundaries brambles and gorse, 

 besides low bushes, are sure to be present, and should 

 this wall be the parting between a covert or wood, then 

 it is certainly a " most likely place, and no mistake." 

 Again, those small hollows sometimes present in pasture 

 fields a sort of miniature gravel pits which are always 

 partly covered with a rough brake of brambles and the 

 like ; along high banked roads, too, where cutting has been 

 made to acquire a better level, or where the road is cut 



