THE WEASEL AND THE STOAT (THE ERMINE). 75 



man's thumb, and is designed in every way for 

 hunting underground invading the burrows of 

 the smallest rodents, and negotiating them at such 

 speed that their rightful owners, if caught at home, 

 have no chance whatever of escape. Catching up 

 a mouse by the head, the weasel kills it instantly, 

 then, thrusting it aside, hurls himself furiously on 

 the rest of the family, dealing death left and right, 

 and never ceasing to kill so long as there is a living 

 creature within his reach. Such ruthless and un- 

 warranted massacre is common to all the polecat 

 tribe. They do not kill merely what they require 

 for food, but destroy everything that comes within 

 their reach ; thus, on gaining the interior of a 

 chicken-house, for example, they go mad with 

 blood-lust, killing in a few minutes enough poultry 

 to satisfy their material needs for several weeks. 



I once watched a weasel raiding a water-vole 

 burrow in the centre of an open pasture. About 

 nine voles, young and old, left the burrow immedi- 

 ately he entered it, and squatted trembling in the 

 grass by the mouths of the various holes. The 

 weasel, working underground, nosed them out one 

 by one with lightning rapidity. One just saw his 

 wicked little head dart, like the strike of a rattle- 

 snake, from the mouth of a hole by which a vole 

 was crouching, heard a squeal, and the vole was 

 jerked backwards into the burrow with hardly a 

 kick in self-defence. A second or two later the 

 head of the weasel would appear at another hole, 

 and the same thing would happen, the whole family 

 being exterminated in the course of two or three 

 minutes. I allowed this to happen because the 

 voles were doing considerable damage by under- 

 mining the artificial bank of a stream near by, 

 causing it to flood the meadow; but when the 



