202 THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



well hidden away, whereas those of the hares are born furred and 

 active. This is confirmed by the fact that the peculiar hispid 

 hare which has also naked young also makes burrows. Another 

 obviously interesting point is that the wild rabbit is the wild stock 

 from which all our races of domesticated rabbit have been derived. 



On seashore links, separated from the sea by dunes thickly 

 covered with bent grass and other sand binders, I once had the 

 pleasure of seeing a whole family of stoats (Mustela erminea) 

 passing swiftly inland, about ten of them nose to tail, the mother 

 leading, at first sight curiously like a brown snake wriggling 

 through the grass. The weasel is smaller than the stoat, it has 

 a shorter tail without a black tip, it turns slightly paler but not 

 white in winter (except as a great rarity). Lydekker * points out, 

 that although the weasel may destroy a young bird now and then, 

 " the benefits it confers far outweigh the injuries it inflicts ; . . . 

 it pursues in their tortuous underground runs both the field-vole 

 and the mole ; and from its relentless pursuit, both of the former 

 and the common rat, this little carnivore ought to receive all 

 encouragement at the hands of the farmer, more especially in 

 districts subject to seasonal vole-plagues." Cases like this, of 

 obvious practical interest and importance in regard to which 

 the pupils may be able to furnish data at firsthand, should be 

 used, in a judicious way, to illustrate the struggle for existence. 



Wheatear. In the wilder parts of the links where the rabbits 

 are very much at home, and on the moor where there are rabbits 

 too, we often see a very distinctive bird, the wheatear. 



Like the rabbit, it is protectively coloured when at rest, and 

 we may hear its " chat " or " click " without seeing the bird. 

 But the moment it gets on the wing its white rump is as con- 

 spicuous as the rabbit's " cotton-tail." " Must we conclude that 

 the white rump of the wheatear is meant to show the young the 

 course the parent bird has taken across the moor ? . . . The 

 wheatear reaches the Scots moors for it is a migrant as early 

 as March. The apology for a nest, with its faint blue almost 

 white eggs will be in many of the disused holes of his comrade 

 the rabbit. They are easily found, because of his slovenly habit 

 of leaving chopped pieces of bracken round the opening. As in 



1 See (Lydekker) p. 222. 



