COMMON WEASEL, 183 



The near approximation in figure and character, and 

 the great general similarity in hahits, which a comparison 

 between the Stoat and Weasel presents, have occasioned 

 considerable confusion in some of the accounts which 

 have been given of their history ; though the difference 

 of size and colour would at once be suiEcient to distin- 

 guish the species, were there no other points of disagree- 

 ment between them. The Stoat is brown above, dirty 

 white beneath ; the tail always black at the tip, longer 

 and more bushy than that of the Weasel, and the former 

 animal is twice as large as its elegant little congener ; 

 the Weasel, on the other hand, is red above, pure white 

 beneath, the tail red and uniform. Their habits also, 

 though generally similar, are, in many of their details, 

 considerably distinct ; and we are fully borne out by 

 observation, in saying that the accusations which are so 

 current against the Weasel, of the mischief which he is 

 said to perpetrate in the farmyard and the hen-roost, as 

 well as amongst game of every description, on Hares and 

 Rabbits no less than on the feathered tribes, are princi- 

 pally due to the Stoat. 



It is not meant to be asserted that the Weasel will not, 

 when driven by hunger, boldly attack the stock of the 

 poultry-yard, or occasionally make free with a young 

 Rabbit or a sleeping Partridge ; but that its usual prey 

 is of a much more ignoble character, is proved by daily 

 observation. Mice of every description, the Field and 

 the Water Vole, Rats, Moles, and small birds, are their 

 ordinary food ; and from the report of unprejudiced 

 observers, it would appear that this pretty animal ought 

 rather to be fostered as a destroyer of vermin, than extir- 

 pated as a noxious depredator. Above all, it should not 

 be molested in barns, ricks, or granaries, in which situa- 

 tions it is of great service in destroying the colonies of 



