THE COMMON WEASEL. 93 



thorn which overhung the path. The weasel was close after 

 him, and gained on him ; when the rat dropped down into the 

 footpath, and the weasel did the same, and followed him up the 

 bank within a foot. We heard a shrill cry, then short, shorter, 

 then all was still : we went quietly to the place, and then the 

 weasel left his prey, hissing at us like an angry cat. I picked 

 up the rat, and found that his brain was laid completely bare, 

 but his little heart continued beating for nearly a minute."* 



The late Mr. White, farmer, in Derbyshire, speaks thus highly 

 of the weasel's services. " It was of great value to me during 

 the years 1802, 1803, and 1804, in killing the mice which in- 

 fested my wheat-ricks. One day I saw on the roof of a wheat- 

 rick a weasel, seemingly intent upon watching for its prey : he 

 suddenly entered a hole in the thatch, and brought out a mouse, 

 and was immediately followed by another weasel, also carry- 

 ing a mouse. They entered another hole in the rick, and 

 came out at the bottom, each bearing its prey. They crossed 

 the rick-yard, and entered a hole in a bank, which led under an 

 ash-tree. In about five minutes they returned without their 

 loads, crossed the yard, and entered the same rick again ; when 

 one of them stationed itself by the hole, as before. On the 

 approach of a mouse to the hole, in the hope of escaping, 

 the weasel again darted into the hole, and very shortly both 

 the weasels returned, each bearing a mouse, as before, which 

 they conveyed to their nest under the ash-tree; and this they 

 repeated four times in about an hour and a half thus destroy- 

 ing eight mice. I soon afterwards saw them, accompanied by 

 four young ones, enter the wheat-ricks again. This favourite 

 pair continued for three years, each year producing a young 

 brood, which disappeared the following spring." f 



Mr. Thomas Blair, of Stamford-hill, says, that some years 

 ago, while he was standing on the top of a ladder, he observed 

 " a mouse come from a thick yew hedge, in a peculiarly hurried 

 manner, and make various doublings among some beds of very 



* Mag. Nat. Hist. (1833), vol. vii. p. 195. abridged. 

 f Ibid. (1835), vol. viii. p. 610 ; abridged. 



