THE WEASEL AND THE STOAT 

 (THE ERMINE). 



THOUGH easily distinguishable from one an- 

 other in habits, the stoat and the weasel are 

 very similar, and in the following the word ' weasel ' 

 can be taken as applying to both unless a distinction 

 be made. The stoat is much the larger, and gener- 

 ally a shade lighter in colour, while the conspicuous 

 black tail- tip, fleeing always in pursuit of his sinister 

 little form, proclaims from afar : ' I am a stoat, and 

 not a weasel ! ' 



The weasel lives chiefly on mice, moles, rats, and 

 so on, and though often guilty of grave misdeeds, 

 such as wholesale murder in the hen-house, it 

 probably pays its way so far as the farmer is con- 

 cerned. Gamekeepers, on the other hand, destroy 

 weasels whenever an opportunity occurs, knowing 

 that they will attack game of any kind as impartially 

 as they will attack anything else there is the faintest 

 chance of their pulling down, and the fact that the 

 weasel destroys vast quantities of small ground- 

 vermin does not exonerate him in the keeper's eyes. 

 On game-reserves, however, the weasel is much 

 less harmful than the stoat, as the latter, being 

 larger, is unable to make such free use of the 

 burrows of small rodents which perforate the fields 

 and hedgerows ; and, hunting more in the open, it 

 makes a business of searching during the season for 

 sitting birds, destroying the mother and the whole 

 clutch or brood should it locate her. 



Though capable of surprising destruction, the 

 weasel is very little thicker in the body than a 



