358 



THE NATURE BOOK 



the rabbit's instinctive sense of danger; 

 his rush to the burrow ; his feehng. call 

 it conscious or unconscious, as you please, 

 that the pursuit is not shaken off ; his 

 rush to the open once more ; back to 

 the burrow ; back to the open ; to the 



pursue that quarry with relentless insis- 

 tence, and the hare or rabbit, as the case 

 may be. is cognisant, not of the jiursuer, 

 but simply of being pursued. 



A Stoat's or a Weasel's larder is usually 

 a mixed one, and bears ample evidence of 



THE STOAT. 

 The picture shows a frequent but momentary attitude which he adopts in stalking. 



field ; to the thicket ; to the haystack ; 

 anywhere ; till at the last his limbs 

 refuse their office. But for such con- 

 ditions it is hardly hkely that the larger 

 animal would be mastered. The dis- 

 parity of size between Stoat and hare, 

 or Weasel and rabbit is very great, and 

 instance after instance has been recorded 

 of a doe-rabbit with young turning the 

 tables by vigorously pursuing the Stoat 

 or Weasel, while a double-barrelled kick 

 from a leaping buck-rabbit would 

 assuredly break the back of either of oiu" 

 small ]\Iustelines. It would seem as if 

 Stoats or Weasels instinctively adopted 

 wearing down tactics before attempting 

 the coup-de-grdce. 



Once they have set themselves to 

 hunt, and selected their quarry, they 



his lumtiiig skill. One such which I 

 exca\'ated at the roots of a hawthorn 

 contained three blackbirds (doubtless 

 caught roosting above), a young rat, 

 several meadow-mice, and two mum- 

 mied frogs. I secured the owner of this, 

 as dainty a fairy as I have yet encoun- 

 tered, a bare six inches from nose-tip 

 to root of tail, and small all over. In 

 West Kent these diminutive (female) 

 Weasels are known as " kines," and I 

 fancy that this word occurs in other 

 ])arts of the country, the vowel being 

 modified to suit the dialect. 



I have no experience of young Stoats, 

 my only acquaintance with them having 

 been a dim uncertain view in the recesses 

 of a hollow tree. During the quarter of 

 an hour I was absent in search of an imple- 



