MARTENS, POLECATS, WEASELS, STOATS 197 



ing and active than the polecat. Stony places 

 covered with thorns and brambles suit him best, 

 and before those grand old hedges were grubbed up 

 to make way for our modern scientific system of 

 farming the ermines used to make their home there 

 in small colonies. Mice, rats, and our common birds 

 of the fields and hedgerows must have formed the 

 principal portion of their food. I have never heard 

 any complaints from the small farmers and cottagers 

 about them, and, considering the numbers I have 

 known hunt round about some spots, the mischief 

 done by them was very inconsiderable. The ermine 

 will kill game if it comes in his way, but the rabbit 

 is more to his taste, and he must have been a friend 

 to the farmer before the Ground Act came into force, 

 for a rabbit that has been killed by a stoat is good 

 eating and very white in flesh that I can answer 

 for. He kills them neatly too, and cleanly. He is 

 quite at home on the limbs and branches of trees ; 

 many a nest will he rifle and then curl himself up in 

 it to sleep off the effects of a meal of tender young 

 birds. He is apt to gorge to excess at times. His 

 prey he hunts with the * go ' of a foxhound. Shoot 

 him dead as he comes bounding along, and his fun 

 will be as sweet as you could wish it ; get him into 

 close quarters, as I have done more than once, and 



