THE WEAZEL. 189 



from it with its feet. After a short but sharp contest, 

 the kite fell suddenly to the earth, when the gentleman, 

 who had intently observed what was occurring, rode up 

 to the spot. At this moment a weazel, apparently un- 

 hurt, ran away from the kite, leaving the bird dead. 



The following is a fact of a different kind : " One 

 fine summer evening," says Captain Brown, " my father 

 was returning from Gilmerton, near Edinburgh, by the 

 Dalkeith road. He observed on the high ground, at a 

 considerable distance betwixt him and Craigmillar 

 Castle, a man, who was leaping about, performing a 

 number of antic gestures, more like those of a madman 

 than of a sane person. After contemplating this appa- 

 rently absurd conduct, my father began to think it might 

 be some unfortunate maniac, and climbing over the 

 wall made directly towards him ; when he got pretty 

 near, he perceived that the man had been attacked, and 

 was defending himself against the assaults of a number 

 of small animals, which he at first took for rats, but 

 which, in fact, turned out, on getting closer, to be a 

 colony of from fifteen to twenty weazels, and which the 

 man was tearing from him, and endeavouring to keep 

 from his throat. 



" My father joined in the combat, and, having a 

 stick, contrived to hit several of them, and laid them 



