102 WILD SPORTS CF THE HIGHLANDS. [CHAP. xm. 



and, a few days ago, I saw one bring three young landrails in as 

 many minutes out of a field of high wheat. In fact, as long as 

 she can find an animal to kill, so long will a weasel hunt, whether 

 in want of food or not. I have frequently seen a weasel, small 

 as he is, kill a full-grown rabbit. The latter is sometimes so 

 frightened at the persevering ferocity of his little enemy, that it 

 lies down and cries out before the weasel has come up. Occa- 

 sionally these animals join in a company of six or eight, and 

 hunt down rabbit or hare, giving tongue and tracking their un- 

 fortunate victim lite a pack of beagles. 



There is no doubt that in some degree they repay the damage 

 done to game, by the number of rats and mice which they destroy 

 '(the latter being their favourite food). The weasel will take up 

 its abode in a stack-yard, living on the mice and small birds that 

 it catches for some time, and the farmer looks on it as a useful 

 ally ; till, some night, the mice begin to grow scarce, and then 

 the chickens suffer. Eggs, fresh and rotten, are favourite dain- 

 ties with the weasel. 



I once witnessed a very curious feat of this active little animal. 

 I saw a weasel hunting and prying about a stubble field in which 

 were several corn-buntings flying about, and every now and then 

 alighting to sing on the straggling thistle that rose above the 

 stubble. Presently the little fellow disappeared at the foot of a 

 thistle, and I imagined he had gone into a hole. I waited, how- 

 ever, to see what would happen, as, from the way he had been 

 hunting about, he evidently had some mischief in his head. Soon 

 a corn-bunting alighted on the very thistle near which the weasel 

 had disappeared, and which was the highest in the field. The 

 next moment I saw something spring up as quick as lightning, 

 and disappear again along with the bird. I then thought it time 

 to interfere, and found that the weasel had caught and killed the 

 bunting, having, evidently guided by his instinct or observation, 

 waited concealed at the foot of the plant where he had expected 

 the bird to alight. A friend of mine who was a great naturalist, 

 assured me, that, tracking a weasel in snow on the hill-side, he 

 found where the animal had evidently sprung upon a grouse ; 

 and, on carrying on his observation, he had convinced himself 

 that the bird had flown away with the quadruped, and had fallen 

 to the ground about thirty yards off, where he found it with its 



