92 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



in strength is counterbalanced by a stoat's activity. 

 I should say that a pitched battle between a stoat 

 and a ferret would be a right royal contest, though 

 doubtless the result would depend on whichever got 

 first grip in a vital part. I know of one instance 

 only in which a stoat failed to bolt before a ferret, 

 for the very sufficient reason that the ferret killed 

 it. I had lined a dog ferret of ordinary size into a 

 rabbit burrow, and as he hung tightly to something, 

 I dug after him. There were no more signs of a 

 struggle than a ferret and rabbit usually make not 

 even a chatter of anger. When I reached the ferret 

 he had eaten several mouthfuls of a large dog stoat 

 which evidently he had just killed, and near them 

 lay a dead rabbit, also just killed. Either the ferret 

 and stoat had fought for the rabbit, or the stoat had 

 failed to get past the ferret, the part of the burrow 

 in which they were being a cul-de-sac. 



A stoat chased by a dog, or bolted by a ferret, or 

 knowing that it is otherwise hunted, offers the most 

 difficult shot I know of going like a streak, bound- 

 ing onwards and leaping in a most puzzling zigzag 

 way at the same time, so as to make its real direction 

 difficult to follow, even in a clear space. Both 

 stoats and weasels are of a curious disposition. For 

 instance, when, alarmed but not pursued, they have 

 sought refuge in a hole, they are no sooner inside 

 than they will appear at the entrance ; but so quick 

 are they that as a rule it is impossible to get your gun 



