CHAP. XI11.] STOATS—WEASELS, 103 
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 its 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 isso 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 beautiful, 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. When I have shot one, killing it on the 
spot, before he has seen me, no smell is to be perceived. The 
same thing I have also observed when it has been caught ina 
large iron trap, which has killed it instantaneously, before there 
has been time for fear or struggling. When, however, I have had 
some chace after a stoat before shooting it, or have caught one 
alive in a trap, the stench of the little animal is insupportable,— 
and sticks to the skin, in spite of every attempt to get rid of it. 
The attachment of the stoat and weasel to their young is very 
great. I chased a weasel into a hollow tree: she was carrying 
some animal in her mouth, and though I was on the very point 
of catching her before she got to her refuge, she would not drop 
it. I fancied that it was a newly-born rabbit that she was 
carrying off. I applied smoke to the héle, and out came the 
weasel again, still carrying the same burden. She ran towards 
a stone wall, but was met by a terrier halfway, who killed her, 
catching her with the greater facility in consequence of her ob- 
stinacy in carrying away what I still thought was some prey. 
