THE WEASEL AND THE STOAT (THE ERMINE). 85 



his dog gave chase to a stoat. The man readily 

 lent a hand, when he was surprised to see more 

 stoats, and still more, bounding towards him and 

 his dog, giving tongue angrily like so many little 

 panthers. The man stuck to his ground, and 

 during the next few minutes he and his dog 

 killed a large number of the little brutes. Finally, 

 however, they were compelled to withdraw, the 

 dog becoming tired ; and it is a fact that the animal 

 retained so strong a ' weasel ' smell that for two or 

 three days after the encounter it was not permitted 

 to enter the house, having to sleep out in the 

 barn. 



Scottish shepherds regularly recount similar en- 

 gagements with these small creatures both stoats 

 and, less commonly, weasels which, for their size, 

 are the fiercest and most terrible fighting-machines 

 in all wild nature. 



POSSIBLE ENEMIES. 



Though so fierce and formidable a fighter, the 

 weasel does not always get it his own way with 

 the creatures he sets out to destroy, and working 

 a drain or a barn freely inhabited by house-rats is 

 risky work for him. Rats have sufficient intelli- 

 gence to combine against a common foe, and some- 

 times a veritable army of them will unite to drive 

 a weasel from their habitat, handling him very 

 roughly or even killing him. Generally, however, 

 a weasel succeeds in getting away when thus set 

 upon, probably leaving a train of dead, limping, 

 and staggering rats behind him ; for, though he 

 bites and holds on bulldog fashion when hunting 

 to kill, he strikes like a rattlesnake to left and 

 right when fighting in self-defence. 



Nevertheless, an old buck-rat will sometimes 



