282 DECEMBER 



truth, far more beneficial than hurtful. Warm were 

 the praises, in a small northern town well known to 

 me, bestowed upon a cat for destroying a weasel 

 which entered a house one night last month (1895). 

 It does not appear that it occurred to anybody to 

 speculate what business the weasel was after in the 

 dwelling-house. Bad as is its reputation, it can 

 hardly have been suspected of designs upon the 

 inmates, or the tea-spoons, or the contents of the 

 till. No; the weasel came for precisely the same 

 reason that set Greymalkin on the prowl. It was 

 after mice ; for mice, rats, and young rabbits are 

 the staple diet of this fine little beast of prey. Un- 

 luckily, nine people out of ten confound weasels 

 with stoats. A hen pheasant killed on her nest, or a 

 pullet sucked to death is set down as readily to the 

 account of one of the Mustelidse as to that of an- 

 other. Besides the greater size of the stoat, it is 

 easily distinguished from the weasel by the black 

 brush at the end of the tail, which is wholly want- 

 ing in the smaller animal. The shepherds of Ettrick 

 and Eskdale bore willing testimony before the Vole 

 Plague Committee to the good service done by the 

 weasels 'whittrets/ as they call them, i.e. white- 

 throats among the swarming voles. 



