CH. VIII.] BOLDNESS AND VORACITY OF STOAT. 243 
in the stones at the entrance. On attempting to 
pull this out I found myself resisted by some force 
pulling hard at it from within, but succeeding, not 
without some difficulty, in doing so, it was followed 
by the head and shoulders of a stoat, making most 
angry and energetic demonstrations of hostility, 
and accompanying them with the same savage hiss 
that I had before heard. I tried to get hold of 
him, but he avoided coming to close quarters, 
luckily for my fingers, so I had my cowardly satis- 
faction by calling in the aid of a keeper, who lived 
not far off. He laid siege to the place with gins, 
and a campaign of a couple of days or so resulted 
in the capture of an old mother stoat and six 
young ones nearly as large as herself. I was 
rather conscience-stricken, when he told me that 
he had first caught the old one, and then a young 
one, using her body as a bait; thinking it was a 
strong case of seething the kid in its mother’s milk. 
I might, however, have spared myself any such 
scruples, for the affectionate infant had, as I found, 
come to his mother, not to suck but to eat; and, 
in fact, not only did he and his brothers .and 
sisters finish her, but the whole of this united 
family, save one who made his escape, eat one 
another up, the survivor going off with the whole 
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