1186 The Zoologist— May, 18G8 



of bringing him to account. He made rapidly off at the usual long 

 bounding gallop, disappearing through a fence, the boundary of a thick 

 gorse fox-cover. The rabbit I found squatted in the spot where the 

 chase had terminated, and might easily have taken it, but thought it 

 only fair after so desperate a struggle that the poor creature should 

 save its life : it too retreated towards the fox-cover, but in a very dif- 

 ferent manner and pace from the stoat's, entering thegorse at the same 

 run through which its enemy had preceded it. It proved an 

 unfortunate line of retreat, for almost immediately after this there was 

 a shrill squeal of distress ; evidently the stoat had turned again, and 

 was now completing his work : this proved the case, and on my 

 entering the plantation I found the little brute dragging the now 

 motionless rabbit across the ride into the gorse, exhibiting an extra- 

 ordinary amount of strength, resolution and ferocity, not relinquishing 

 his fatal death-grasp till his own life was in danger ; and even after I 

 had robbed him of his prey, and was walking off with it, he kept ad- 

 vancing from the gorse, running wildly about in the most excited 

 manner, evidently very reluctant lo abandon the hard-won prize. A 

 k\r minutes after its death the rabbit became quite rigid, like a hare 

 killed after a severe course. 



Weasel. — A white weasel, probably an albino, has taken up his 

 quarters in an oat-stack in my yard. It appears to be yet an open 

 question whether the weasel, like the stoat, becomes white in winter. 

 The late Mr. Wheelwright was decidedly of opinion that it does change 

 colour, and states he has seen pure white specimens killed during the 

 winter in Wermland. He goes on to say " I can prove by specimens 

 kept in confinement that the change of colour from the red summer 

 dress to the white of winter takes place by an actual change or 

 shedding of the old coat, and not by the old hair changing colour." 



While or Cream-coloured Moles. — There is a beautiful variety of 

 mole occasionally trapped in Lord Yarborough's plantations near 

 "Pelham Pillar," the highest point of the Lincolnshire North Wolds. 

 An old mole-catcher informs me that he has taken them in this locality 

 for many years, and considers them a distinct race. They are not 

 white, but a beautiful rich cream-colour. This man has also taken 

 moles in this same plantation cream-coloured, mottled with black. 



John Cordeaux. 



Great Cotes, Ulceby, Lincolnshire, 

 March 21, 1868. 



