70 ANIMAL LIFE OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



the stack, and that some other predatory animal had threatened 

 danger to them just before we passed, and had aroused the 

 maternal rage. In spite of its small size the bloodthirsty 

 Weasel is full of courage, and will attack creatures larger 

 than itself. We have seen it, in the neighbourhood of a barn, 

 struggling to haul along a nearly full-grown Rat, two or three 

 times its own weight, after it had paralysed its victim by biting 

 through the base of the skull. Sometimes it hunts in couples, 

 or family packs. 



Although, like the other members of its family, the Weasel is 

 chiefly nocturnal in habit, it is also active by day, and may be 

 encountered frequently in our rambles. His diet is varied, and 

 includes rats, mice, voles, moles, frogs, small birds, and chickens. 

 He will swim in pursuit of the Water Vole, and will climb trees 

 and bushes in order to rob a bird's nest of eggs or young. 

 Voles and mice are probably his principal victims, his small 

 size enabling him to pursue them in their underground runs. 

 But though the farmer may lose some of his chickens through 

 want of care in protecting fowl-houses and runs, he has in the 

 Weasel a most efficient guardian of his mangold-caves and 

 other consumable stores. Many farmers have testified that 

 their poultry is untouched by the Weasel, but destroyed by the 

 Stoat. 



One winter's day in Cornwall we were strolling up a road 

 from the sea that ran between farm buildings, when our atten- 

 tion was attracted to the peculiar movements of some object on 

 the road about a quarter of a mile ahead. Screaming cries 

 came from the rolling mass, and soon we got near enough to 

 see that a struggle was going on between two creatures who 

 were mixed intimately ; and finally saw that a large, well-fed 

 Rat had been taken in charge by a lithe little Weasel. Spots of 

 blood on the road and the redness of the rodent's neck-fur 

 showed that the bite that rendered the Rat powerless had been 

 given already. So intent was the Weasel upon the work in 



