THE WEASEL AND THE STOAT (THE ERMINE). 89 



it down with its large and powerful feet, then to 

 deliver several sledge-hammer blows at the victim's 

 head with its beak secretary-bird fashion. 



The best cure for stoats, however, is the steel 

 trap, and the destruction of these hateful and 

 bloodthirsty little animals, which are a terror to 

 the woods they inhabit and certainly no ornament 

 at the best of times, is a worthy pastime for the 

 country boy with idle moments to spare, and an 

 act which will be appreciated by game-warder and 

 landowner. 



HABITS IN SNOW. 



In deep snow, when the Hunger Moon reigns, 

 the weasels do not share in the general famine 

 which then prevails over the land. Indeed, deep 

 snow and frost suit them exactly, for they are as 

 much at home in the snow as the otter is in water. 

 Working beneath it, among the roots of the heather 

 or under the thick entanglement of bracken and 

 briar, it matters not to the stoat and the weasel 

 how wildly the blizzard blows overhead, for these 

 animals live now in an underground world, secure 

 from gale and tempest, with the frozen snow as their 

 roof and the crisp leaves as their bed. Sometimes 

 the animal rises to the surface, breaking through the 

 crust as an otter breaks the surface of the water ; 

 then, diving below the surface again, quick as a seal, 

 he pursues his unseen way secure from his foes. 



At this season of the year many of the mice 

 have stopped up the entrances of their burrows to 

 exclude the cold, and are sound asleep underground ; 

 but the keen scent of the weasel enables him to 

 locate them and dive in upon them, the mice, 

 torpid in their winter sleep, making never a kick 

 in self-defence. The rats are gone from the banks 



