258 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



that continually reached me, touching his robbery 

 of pheasants' nests and even now I am satisfied 

 that his destruction of worms, insects, mice and 

 snakes, fully atones in a general sense for his 

 poaching offences ; but as an egg-devourer he 

 stands pre-eminent among British quadrupeds. 

 To a superficial observer his structure would ap- 

 pear to be rather of a defensive than an offensive 

 character, but e facts are stubborn things.' I 

 speak from personal experience when I say that 

 if a steel trap be set over night in any wood where 

 hedgehogs are known to exist, and baited with an 

 egg, the capture of one of those animals will, in 

 nine cases out of ten, be the result. 



The weasel frequently pursues moles into their 

 subterranean habitations, and is then occasionally 

 caught in the springes which are in ordinary use 

 for their destruction. I have received two speci- 

 mens from my own neighbourhood within the last 

 few years which had been killed in this way. 

 Here, I am inclined to think that these particular 

 weasels perhaps met with their deserts, for they 

 were engaged in the pursuit of an animal scarcely 

 less useful than themselves, in many points of 

 view, to the farmer. This may appear a bold 

 statement to those cultivators of the soil who have 

 all their lives been engaged in the persecution of 

 the mole ; who only regard the partial injuries 



