184 A COUNTRY READER. 



England. Its body is about 1 2 inches long, with 

 a long and slender tail with a black tip to it. 

 The body is scarcely broader than the head. Its 

 colour is brown above and white below. It lives 

 mostly in fields in the neighbourhood of plan- 

 tations and woods. It is specially abundant 

 amongst sandhills, because dry and warm land is 

 the most suitable land for rabbits to breed and 

 multiply. 



It usually follows its prey, mice, rats, rabbits, 

 and hares, at night. It is more useful than 

 destructive. 



Weasel. The weasel is smaller than the stoat. 

 Its head is larger and thicker than its slender 

 snake-like body. It is a sharp little animal and 

 easily passes through mouse-holes. Its colour is 

 black and brown, with a white belly. 



It feeds on field voles, rats, and water voles, 

 young hares and rabbits, birds building near 

 the ground, also eggs, which in some cases the 

 weasel carries home under its chin. It also eats 

 lizards, blind worms, snakes and frogs. If it gets 

 into the fowl-house it will do damage. 



Because of the quantity of mice and voles it 

 destroys, it is said to do far more good than 

 harm. 



A few years ago there was a plague of field 

 voles in Scotland. These little animals devas- 

 tated large areas of land in the lowlands of 



