LETTER XIV. 143 



thirsty of all vermin, living almost upon the blood of the 

 animals and birds which they destroy. Rabbits are 

 their chief prey, which have little chance of escape, as 

 they not only seek them in their burrows, but, when 

 driven out, hunt them by scent, and seldom lose their 

 o-ame. It has been said that weasels and stoats form 

 themselves into packs, for the purpose of running down 

 hares and rabbits. This is partly correct. I have ray- 

 self seen a litter of young stoats, with their mamma at 

 their head, in hot pursuit of a rabbit ; and so intent were 

 they on their sport, that, although they met me in full 

 career in a narrow lane, they paid no attention to my 

 presence, but went on with the chase ; neither did I 

 (struck with the novel sight) interfere with them. In 

 the winter season, however, I have seldom seen more 

 than two together. Their method, in killing hares and 

 rabbits, is to seize them behind the ear ; and so firm is 

 their hold that no efforts of the poor animals can remove 

 their remorseless enemy. They then suck the blood, 

 gnawing into the vertebrae of the neck or brain. In 

 this state the rabbit is abandoned, and a fresh pursuit 

 commences. " Catch a weasel asleep" is rather an old 

 saying, and a tolerably correct one. They are an ever 

 restless, busy, meddling race, and I have met with them 

 at all hours of the day, and night too. Where rabbits 

 are scarce, they hunt the hedgerows in fields for other 

 game, and nothing comes amiss to them. Hen pheasants 

 and partridges, which often make their nests in banks or 

 under walls, fall an easy prey ; young leverets are equally 

 helpless. 



I must here, however, make some distinction between 

 the stoat and the weasel, which are often confounded 



