Catching a Weasel Asleep 139 



that of his mediaeval prototype. If overtaken by an enemy, 

 too strong to be withstood, he will make the best shift he 

 can with such castles, or cairns, as may be at hand, and in the 

 final assault will always die game to the last, hissing defiance 

 at his foes, and never seeking to barter liberty for life. 

 Content to hunt and kill almost anything that comes in his 

 way, he yet seems to prefer a quarry that will put his 

 energies and abilities to the test, and he will stick to the foil 

 of a hunted animal with the pertinacity of a sleuth-hound, 

 despite any checks or intervening cross-scents. 



Like the rabbit, a Stoat seems frequently to make his 

 couch above ground, during fine weather, and in winter at 

 any rate, to prefer a warm and sunny situation for the 

 purpose. The proverbial difficulty of catching a Weasel 

 asleep applies with equal force to most of the lateral 

 branches of the family ; and I was, therefore, much interested 

 one day, when beating through a deep dingle, both sides of 

 which had recently been planted with young fir trees, to see 

 a Stoat, comfortably coiled up on a grassy ledge of rock, 

 exposed to the full rays of the February sun, and sound 

 asleep. The keepers were engaged, at the time, in killing 

 out some rabbits which had found their way into the 

 plantation, and several shots had been fired before we came 

 upon the Stoat, but his slumbers had not been disturbed. 

 Narrowly escaping with his life, from a blow aimed at him 

 with a stick as he slept, he had to run the gauntlet of three 

 or four cartridges that were emptied at him as he dodged 

 through the trees, but, apparently, he got off scot-free, and 

 reached the shelter of a friendly cairn with a whole skin. 



Perfectly white Stoats are rare in these parts ; but a con- 

 siderable proportion of those killed in winter, especially on 

 the higher ground, exhibit more or less of their normal 

 winter coat. I saw some very prettily pied examples, and 

 had further opportunites of confirming what I had elsewhere 

 observed regarding the change of colour in the fur. The 

 change from brown to white has already been proved, on 

 captive animals, to be due to actual alteration in the colour 

 of the hair, induced by a fall in temperature, and to be 

 capable of being completed, upon occasion, with remarkable 



