"8 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



appeared at the foot of a thistle, and I imagined he had gone 

 into a hole. I waited, however, to see what would happen, as, 

 from the way he had been hunting about, he evidently had 

 some mischief in' his head. Soon a eorn-bunting alighted on 

 the very thistle near which the weasel had disappeared, and 

 which was the highest in the field. The next moment I saw 

 something spring up as quick as lightning, and disappear again 

 along with the bird. I then thought it time to interfere, and 

 found that the weasel had caught and killed the bunting, 

 having, evidently guided by his instinct or observation, 

 waited concealed at the fool: of the plant where he had ex- 

 pected the bird to alight. A friend of itiine, who was a great 

 naturalist, assured me that, tracking a weasel in snow on the 

 hill-side, he found where the animal had evidently sprung upon 

 a grouse ; and, on carrying on his observation, he had convinced 

 himself that the bird had flown away with the quadruped, and 

 had fallen to the ground about thirty yards off, where he found 

 it . with its throat cut ; and the tracks of the weasel again 

 appeared, as if he had come down with the bird, and having 

 sucked its blood, had gone on his way, looking for a new victim. 

 The stoat is also very common here, and equally destructive 

 and sanguinivorous — if I may use such a word. Being larger, 

 too, he is more mischievous to game and poultry, and not so 

 useful in killing mice. I often see the stoat hunting in the 

 middle of an open field : its activity is so great that few dogs 

 can catch it. When pursued, it dives into any rat's or mole's 

 hole that lies in its way. I find that a sure mode of driving 

 all animals of this kind out of a hole, is to smoke tobacco into 

 it. They appear quite unable to stand the smell, and bolt out 

 immediately in the face of dog or man, rather than put up 

 with it. Tobacco -smoke will also bring a ferret out of a 

 rabbit-hole, when everything else fails to do so. In winter the 

 stoat changes its colour to the purest white, with the exception 

 of the tip of the tail, which always remains black.^ The 

 animal is then very beaofciful, with its shining black eyes and 

 white body. The fur is very like that of the ermine, but is 

 quite useless, owing to the peculiar odour of the animal, which 

 can never be got rid of It is worthy of note that the stoat 

 does not emit this odour excepting when hunted or wounded. 



^ The weasel never turns white, but only the stoat. — C. St. J, 



