174 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



defence of her young ones, faces and drives away 

 a stoat, her deadliest foe, on the next day leaves 

 them to the mercy of fate a new family having 

 arrived. The mother stoat stays with her young 

 ones for a long while, sometimes until they are much 

 larger than herself ; but sooner or later comes the 

 day of parting. 



She is an admirable mother. Her litters are large 

 ones numbering as a rule from five to eight, though 

 occasionally as many as twelve are found 



and the feedin g of these hungry mouths 

 can only be a work of desperate energy in 

 the weaning days. It is a fine sight to see the mother 

 foraging at the head of her grown-up family. A 

 long time passes before the young stoats can cater 

 for themselves. The mother does not leave them 

 until they are perfectly qualified to hunt on their 

 own accord which their innate blood-thirstiness at 

 last prompts them to do in preference to eating food 

 which their mother has captured. In the young 

 stoat's natural love of hunting lies the cause of the 

 final severance of family ties. With many animals 

 it appears that motherly solicitude continues relatively 

 to the relief obtained through the young taking their 

 mother's milk. Yet in the stoat there appears to be a 

 scrap of the human mother's reasoning love for her 

 children. We have known a stoat whose young 

 had been destroyed, when as large as herself, to seek 



