84 ARDENMOHR. 



look on the hoodie as more mischievous than the* 

 falcon, which hunts so far and wide after game and 

 wild-fowl, as she only knocks down a grouse or a 

 black-cock now and then about any one place ; but 

 the " hoodie crow" haunts the same range day after 

 day, and is, besides, peculiarly destructive to the eggs 

 and young of grouse, and she is continually on the 

 outlook. The common rook sometimes pilfers eggs. 

 I saw one take the whole of the eggs in succession 

 from a wild duck's nest on an island, and although I 

 shouted at the outrage from the lake-side. 



As for weasels, they are mauvais sujets; but they 

 kill rats a worse vermin than themselves, and might 

 be forgiven if their love of destruction had limits : 

 their motto seems to be kill, kill, every bird in a nest, 

 mother included, when they find one. 



A curious circumstance with a weasel was told me 

 lately by a country gentleman and a close observer 

 of nature. He was sitting at the edge of a wood 

 when he noticed a rabbit run from cover into the 

 open field, and as its movements seemed peculiar, he 

 kept quiet and watched ; presently a weasel came out 

 on the rabbit's track, and Bunny, on seeing the 

 weasel, lay on the ground and squealed, and the little 

 wretch ran in and seized it by the head, and when 



