248 Practical Game Preserving. 



rabbits in a burrow of not too great extent, and there 

 happen to be four or five weasels together, the one which 

 has discovered the presence of the intended prey will 

 screech in an excited manner, and so summon the others 

 which may be near at hand ; they will then all enter the 

 burrow at the different points of ingress, cautiously 

 search until the rabbit is found, and endeavour, whilst 

 preventing its escape, to get it in a corner, where 

 it can be conveniently disposed of, or, may be, it 

 will be allowed to struggle to the aperture of a hole 

 before its destruction is completed. As far as one can 

 ascertain, this seems the probable way in which weasels 

 capture rabbits in their burrows. 



All similar animals to mice and shrews the weasel kills 

 as it may come across, and rarely makes a regular hunt 

 for them ; but rats are particularly regarded as enemies, and 

 a constant feud is kept up between the common brown 

 rat not the water rat and the rapacious little vermin. 

 In some cases quite a miniature war is waged, more espe- 

 cially when a colony of rats adopt some burrow at the 

 side of a stream or lake, which the weasels, although not 

 inhabiting, consider their rightful property, and naturally 

 determine to occupy, if only in order to turn and keep 

 out the rats. Where these latter named pests take up 

 their quarters, and continuously burrow and destroy the 

 banks of some river or pond, a small number of weasels 

 may be obtained to oust the rats ; they will, however, 

 require similarly treating themselves when the first object 

 is attained, otherwise the weasels will become a much 

 greater nuisance than the evil they were employed to 



