92 THE COMMON WEASEL. 



of prey, which it hunts not only by sight but by scent.* Usually 

 the prey is hunted by only one, or a pair of weasels, but some- 

 times several associate together in a pack, consisting of a dozen 

 or more; and thus united, they chase and kill hares, rabbits, and 

 sometimes even the bolder species of mammals. Dr. Kidd says, 

 that as he and a friend were sitting on a stile at Northbrook, a 

 very large rat came bustling down an adjoining bank, pursued by 

 a weasel. " The rat," the Doctor says, " had crossed the path, 

 and got into a little low bank on the other side of the footpath, 

 over which he scrambled, and came out in the adjoining field, at 

 the very moment the weasel went into the low bank hunting 

 him. The rat ran in and out of some small turnips, sown wide 

 apart, and then making a little circle, he came to the bank a good 

 way from where we sat, and, climbing over it, got into the footpath 

 about a hundred yards from us. He then ran towards us with 

 all his might, straight along the middle of the path, and passed 

 under the stile on which we were perched as motionless as 

 statues, he then entered a thick bank, and was lost to our sight. 

 The weasel hunted well in the little low bank, and seemed a 

 good deal puzzled, staying there much longer than the rat ; at 

 last he seemed to have found out that his game had taken to 

 the turnips, and he pursued him with great earnestness ; but, 

 finding the trick that had been played to puzzle him, he, like a 

 reasoning creature, made a large circle, going completely outside 

 all the trail : by this scheme he recovered the scent just where 

 the rat had last gone over the little bank. In a few moments the 

 weasel was in the footpath, and came galloping towards us in 

 .fine style, his back arched, his head up like a fox-hound running 

 breast high, and his tail in a straight line behind him. He 

 passed under us, and, in his eagerness, overshot the spot where 

 the rat had gone into the bank j but he soon came back, 

 quartered the ground, found the trail, and immediately entered 

 the bank. Presently we saw the rat ascend the stem of a black - 



* Captain Lyon appears to be the first observer of this habit of the weasel 

 tribe, for he says that in North America he has seen an ermine (M. 

 hunt the footsteps of mice like a hound after a fox. 



