242. DETERMINATION OF HAWK—STOAT. [PART II. 
of the other was still suspended, firmly clutched 
by the neck in her strong gripe, the partridge, of 
which she had never for a moment relinquished 
her hold from the time she was taken up, although 
it had been thus suspended during the whole of 
his walk to the house, a distance of fully half a 
mile; so loth was she to part with her ill-gotten 
booty. 
The following singular instance of the boldness 
and extreme voracity of the Stoat came under 
my notice about the same time. I was riding 
up a lane accompanied by a retriever, when he 
went to investigate the mouth of a drain closed 
in by loose stones, but immediately jumped back, 
evidently startled by something—a snake, as I 
thought. I rode up to see what it was, and he 
went to have another look at the place, but again 
retreated, repelled, as I then heard, by a deter- 
mined spitting hiss. Upon this I got off my horse, 
tied him up to a gate, and went to satisfy myself as 
to the nature of the beast from which this noise 
had proceeded, when I was in my turn similarly 
saluted, whilst I could distinguish some animal 
rushing to the mouth of the drain. I then saw 
something protruding from it, which turned out 
to be the hind-quarters of a young rabbit stuck 
