CHAP, xiii.] STOATS WEASELS. 103 



throat cut ; and the tracks of the weasel again appeared, as if he 

 had come down with the bird, and having sucked its blood, had 

 gone on it> way, looking for a new victim. 



The stoat is also very common here, and equally destructive 

 and sanguinivorous if I may use such a word. Being larger, 

 too, he is more mischievous to game and poultry, and not so 

 useful in killing mice. I often see the stoat hunting in the 

 middle of an open field : its activity is so great that few dogs can 

 catch it. When pursued, it dives into any rat's or mole's hole that 

 lies in its way. I find that a sure mode of driving all animals of 

 this kind out of a hole, is to smoke tobacco into it. They appear 

 quite unable to stand the smell, and bolt out immediately in the 

 face of dog or man, rather than put up with it. Tobacco-smoke 

 will also bring a ferret out of a rabbit-hole, when everything 

 else fails to do so. In winter the stoat changes its colour to the 

 purest white, with the exception of the tip of the tail, which 

 always remains black. The animal is then very beautiful, with 

 its shining black eyes and white body. The fur is very like that 

 of the ermine, but is quite useless, owing to the peculiar odour 

 of the animal, which can never be got rid of. It is worthy of 

 note that the stoat does not emit this odour excepting when 

 hunted or wounded. When I have shot one, killing it on the 

 spot, before he has seen me, no smell is to be perceived. The 

 same thing I have also observed when it has been caught in a 

 large iron trap, which has killed it instantaneously, before there 

 has been time for fear or struggling. When, however, I have had 

 some chace after a stoat before shooting it, or have caught one 

 olive in a trap, the stench of the little animal is insupportable, - 

 and .sticks to the skin, in spite of every attempt to get rid of it. 



The attachment of the stoat and weasel to their young is very 

 great. I chased a weasel into a hollow tree : she was carrying 

 some animal in her mouth, and though I was on the very point 

 of catching her before she got to her refuge, she would not drop 

 it. I fancied that it was a newly-born rabbit that site was 

 carrying off. I applied smoke to the hole, and out came the 

 weasel again, still carrying the same burden. She ran towards 

 a stone wall, but was met by a terrier halfway, who killed her, 

 catching her with the greater facility in consequence of her ob- 

 stinacy in carrying away what I still thought was some prey. 



