MAMMALS I HAVE STALKED 



103 



exceeding cunning, are worthy of note. So, too, is its well- 

 known power of reproduction. 



I hesitate to set out in bald numbers the alarming figures 

 associated with the fecundity of this remarkable creature, but 

 here are a few. As a rule, from three to six litters are produced 

 in a year, the female having her first litter when only three 

 months old ! The number in the litter averages about ten, but 

 as many as fourteen and more young have been known to be 

 produced by one female. A writer in Chambers' 1 s Journal states 

 that " if three litters of ten each are produced every year, a 

 single pair, if permitted to breed unchecked, and no losses from 

 death were experienced, would in three years have a progeny 

 of ten generations, numbering twenty million, one hundred and 

 fifty-five thousand, three hundred and ninety-two ! The eleventh 

 generation, due at the beginning of the fourth year, would 

 number over one hundred millions ! " 



FIG. 13. STOAT. 



1 have stalked the wary and inquisitive Stoat many times 

 during my country wanderings, especially in the Spring, when 

 it not only hunts for ground " game," but ascends trees and tall 

 bushes in its search for birds' eggs, for which it shows marked 

 partiality. The eggs are cracked, and the contents sucked clean. 

 Nest after nest in a hedgerow is harried in this way, the empty 

 shells, which are left behind, giving sad evidence of the depreda- 

 tions of this stealthy little beast. Where Jays and Stoats 

 abound, our resident Blackbirds, Thrushes, and Robins possess 

 inveterate poaching enemies early in the year, and it requires 



