104 THE STOAT, OR ERMINE. 



nonchalance and impudence of the tribe,, stood up upon its hind- 

 legs, crossed its fore-paws over its nose, and surveyed its enemies 

 for a moment or two, and then bounded into a saugh* bush. 

 The eagle was dead, and covered with blood which had issued 

 from a wound in the throat. 



" On another occasion, a person observed on the snow the 

 track of a stoat, which is easily distinguished from that of the 

 smaller species, by the larger foot-print and length of the bound 

 or spring. He followed the track for some time, along the side 

 of a hill, until he came to the marks where a pair of grouse had 

 been sitting, when he lost all trace of the stoat. As there was 

 no appearance of a hole, he was much surprised ; but on close 

 attention he felt convinced that it had seized one of the birds, 

 which had flown away with it."f 



" About the middle of July, 1 827, a gentleman at Cathcart 

 wounded a stoat. The animal having escaped into a hole in 

 an old stone wall, the gentleman explored its retreat, when the 

 first victims he met with, were a couple of leverets, unmutilated ; 

 a little further on, two young partridges, also entire ; and a 

 pheasant's egg, unbroken. Beyond these, were found the heads 

 of two other leverets, in a state of putrefaction ; and at the 

 extremity of the hole, the little marauder was lying dead. It 

 might have been thought that this extraordinary accumulation 

 was the result of a provident disposition in the animal 5 but the 

 putrid state of the detached heads of the two leverets, seems to 

 confirm the common statement of naturalists, that the weasel 

 tribe seldom devour any of their prey till it begins to putrefy." | 

 Fleming says that the stoat is fond of eggs and putrid flesh. 



The female stoat brings forth about five young ones in April 

 or May. Mr. Blyth says that, in confinement, the stoat has 

 been known to breed with the ferret and the domesticated 

 polecat. 



Sir Oswald Mosley thinks that the stoat, whose propensities 



* Id est, a willow. f Mag. Nat. Hist,, vol. viii. (1835), p. 609. 



% Brown's Sketches and Anecdotes of Quadrupeds (Glasgow), 1831, p. 148. 

 Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. viii. p. 199. 



