Stoats and Weasels 137 



that one head is worth more than two legs. From personal 

 knowledge, I could relate several similar experiences. 

 Having followed a track in the snow for several miles, this 

 keeper at length ran it to ground in a cairn, the " signs " 

 round about which told him their own tale. Leaving it 

 undisturbed, he returned next day, with two or three 

 sparrows dosed with strychnine, and left them carefully 

 concealed from harm's way amongst the rocks. At intervals, 

 he left twenty-three sparrows similarly doctored, after which 

 they ceased to be taken away, showing that the list of 

 "callers" had been exhausted. Round about, at different 

 times, he picked up eight dead Stoats, all males, and no 

 doubt these were only a portion of those that had been 

 destroyed, many having, doubtless, crept out of sight to die. 

 On another occasion he tracked a Stoat to a peat stack on 

 the hill, and worked it in similar fashion. Many Sparrows 

 disappeared, but not a single dead Stoat was gathered. 

 During the following summer, however, when the farmer 

 was removing the peat, a great many skeletons, and mummy 

 Stoats, were found inside the stack. I forget the exact 

 number counted, but at any rate it ran well into double 

 figures. 



The track left by a Stoat in the snow is very characteristic, 

 but easily overlooked by a person unacquainted with it. 

 When travelling at an ordinary pace, about a foot, or 

 perhaps a little more, is covered at each " stride," and all 

 four footprints are so close together that, looked at casually, 

 they form little more than a single spot in the snow. When 

 examined more closely, however, the impression of each 

 foot can generally be made out clearly enough, showing that 

 the hind feet are placed slightly in advance of the others. 

 When the animal is urged to a faster pace, the hops are 

 correspondingly further apart, and in a " spring," a yard 

 is comfortably covered. The track of a Weasel closely 

 resembles that of a Stoat in miniature, but the individual 

 footprints are often more widely separated and better 

 defined. Except where the Stoat is occasionally hunted by 

 hounds, few people have any idea how far the animal may 

 wander in the course of a night. From five to ten miles is 



