NATURE NEAR LONDON 



as if there were a band of stronger light there, I 

 saw a white animal under a heap of poles by the 

 wayside, near the great hedge I have mentioned. 

 It immediately concealed itself, but, thinking that 

 it was a ferret gone astray, I waited, and presently 

 the head and neck were cautiously protruded. 



I made the usual call with the lips, but the crea- 

 ture instantly returned to cover. I waited again, 

 hiding this time, and after an interval the creature 

 moved and hastened away from the poles, where it 

 was, in a measure, exposed, to the more secure 

 shelter of some bushes. Then I saw that it was of a 

 clear white, while so-called white ferrets are usually 

 a dingy yellow, and the white tail was tipped with 

 black. From these circumstances, and from the 

 timidity and anxious desire to escape observation, 

 I could only conclude that it was a white stoat. 



Stoats, as remarked previously, are numerous in 

 these hedges, and it was quite possible for a white 

 one to be among them. The white stoat may be 

 said to exactly resemble the ermine. The interest 

 of the circumstance arises not from its rarity, but 

 from its occurring so near the metropolis. 



