80 THE WEASEL AND THE STOAT (THE ERMINE). 



in some chosen direction, plainly with some fixed 

 goal in view. 



This habit of evening listening is shared equally, 

 or perhaps to even a greater extent, by the stoat, or 

 it may be that the stoat is more conspicuous than 

 the weasel, and therefore more often seen. In his 

 winter garments, however, seated thus against a 

 background of snow, it would require a very keen 

 eye to locate a stoat at all, or, having located 

 him, to keep the sight focussed upon him. While 

 hunting, also, these animals pause to listen every 

 few paces, evidently making greater use of their 

 sense of hearing than their sense of smell. 



It has often occurred to me that since the hear- 

 ing of a weasel is tuned to catch sounds much too 

 high for the human ear to hear at all, it is quite 

 reasonable to suppose that the other extreme 

 applies also that is, that there are many deep 

 sounds which, disturbing enough to us, escape a 

 weasel's senses. Certain it is, as already stated, 

 that a gun-shot does not disturb these creatures 

 in the least, and the question arises as to whether 

 so deep a report is within the range of their 

 hearing. 



THE MURDERER ABROAD. 



Though the weasel's underground habits tend 

 to reduce the destruction it does, for the reason 

 that, progressing thus, the animal comes across 

 sufficient rodents to keep it busy and prevent it 

 devoting its destructive abilities in other directions, 

 at the same time the weasel often uses these 

 underground runways as a means of circumventing 

 game which otherwise would be out of reach. 

 One would not imagine the blind, subterranean 

 mole to be in any way an enemy to game-birds, 



