88 THE WEASEL AND THE STOAT (THE ERMINE). 



a yard or more on the leeward side, the distance 

 depending upon the strength of the wind. This 

 can be seen by any one who studies weasel signs 

 in the snow. 



It is a fact that sometimes a bitter feud will 

 open up between a stoat and a fox, the stoat 

 following the fox for great distances, probably 

 with the idea in the first place of profiting by 

 his hunting. It is part of the nature of the stoat 

 to follow and follow on till he has killed the 

 creature he is pursuing, and perhaps it is some 

 such notion that causes him to follow a fox in this 

 way, irritating and threatening poor Reynard till 

 he is at his wits' end. A fox will seldom turn on 

 a weasel of any kind if he can conveniently lope 

 away, but to be followed and molested for hours 

 on end is more than any self-respecting fox can 

 be expected to endure. So, having left the stoat 

 behind half-a-dozen times, he probably turns in 

 the end and ' chops ' it, and there is one little 

 murderer less in the woods. 



The weasels are the sworn enemies of every 

 creature of the moors and the forests, rooks and 

 crows mobbing them on sight, or hovering about 

 with loud cries till the little assassins are driven to 

 take cover. A friend of mine living in the High- 

 lands kept for many years a tame buzzard, which 

 used to hop about the garden, and during its career 

 it succeeded in catching a large number of weasels, 

 to which it was very partial. Certainly there is 

 no accounting for tastes ! I knew also of a large 

 game cockerel, the property of a Lowland keeper, 

 which not only killed rats and mice, swallowing the 

 latter whole, but was reputed by its owner to have 

 killed weasels and stoats. Its method was to 

 pounce upon the creature, stamping and holding 



