76 A FRIENDLY STOAT 



tits, and other pensioners, selecting a suitable 

 morsel, with which it scampered off into the 

 nearest bushes. A lean-to outbuilding at the 

 back of the house, under which the rats had 

 made their runs, proved an attractive shelter 

 for our pretty visitor, although not more than 

 four or five yards from the windows ; from this 

 it would dart out to the food-supply and return 

 with its chosen tit-bit. Never once did it make 

 the slightest attempt to attack any of the birds 

 feeding there in flocks ; nor did they seem to 

 take much notice of their somewhat uncanny 

 visitor, merely fluttering aside a few yards until 

 it disappeared again. 



Nothing could be more graceful or agile 

 than this lithe little creature in all its move- 

 ments and actions, sometimes sitting up like a 

 squirrel, or bounding away like a flash when 

 a specially attractive morsel was secured. As 

 the days lengthened and became milder its 

 visits grew rarer, its regular stay coming to an 

 end about the middle of February, some three 

 months from its first appearance. By this time, 

 no doubt, the field-mice and voles were stirring 

 from their winter torpor, and its natural prey 

 would be more to its taste than the food pro- 

 vided for the birds, supplemented as that was 

 by little delicacies specially provided for it under 



