2444 Letters of Rusticus. 



trice the fellow was unearthed, and he afterwards turned to a ghost-moth or yellow 

 underwing, I can't say which, for both came out in one cage. 



" The hedgehog is properly a nocturnal carnivorous animal ; he prowls about at 

 night, like an owl, looking after the nests of pheasants, partridges, corncrakes and 

 larks : he kills the old ones if he can, and sucks their eggs if he can't : now and then 

 he overruns a rabbit ; but his favourite dish is a snake or an adder : he catches these 

 while dozing under cover, and suffering from repletion caused by four or five mice 

 lying undigested in their stomachs, tail on ; and it is then that desperate fights ensue : 

 it is then that his armour stands hoggy in good stead : the deadly adder, infuriated 

 at feeling hoggy's teeth griping her back, lashes her head against a skin less vul- 

 nerable than that once said to have been worn by a Mr. Achilles. The pluck and 

 power of both is tried to the utmost, but hoggy is almost sure to triumph in the end, 

 and the adder, half devoured, is often found next morning by the countryman, who 

 wonders ' how he come so mauled.' I take it that the spiny coat of the hedgehog is 

 Nature's defence against the poison fangs of his favourite prey." — p. 109. 



The Weasel. — " While seated on a stile there a very large rat came bustling down 

 the hedge just before us, bringing with him a lot of loose earth : my friend was just 

 jumping down for a stone to whirl at him, when a little bit of a weasel followed the 

 rat down the bank, holding his head well up, like a fox-hound running breast-high. 

 The rat had crossed the path, and got into a little, low bank on the other side of the 

 foot-path, over which he scrambled, and came out among some swede turnips in the 

 adjoining field, at the very moment the weasel went into the low bank hunting him. 

 The turnips were so small, and so far apart, that we did not once lose sight of the 

 rat. He ran in and out among them, continually crossing his own track, and then, 

 making a little circle, he came to the bank a good way from where we sat, and, 

 climbing over it, got into the foot-path about a hundred yards from us ; he then ran 

 towards us with all his might, straight along the middle of the path, and passed un- 

 der the stile on which we were perched, motionless and smiling, like the statues of 

 Tam o' Shanter and Souter Johnny, and about ten yards behind us he went into the 

 thick bank, and was lost to our view. The weasel hunted well in the little, low bank, 

 and seemed a good deal puzzled, staying there much longer than the rat ; at last he 

 seemed to find out that the game had taken to the turnips : here he pursued him with 

 great earnestness ; but, finding the trick that had been played to puzzle him, he made 

 a cast, like a well-trained fox-hound, going completely outside all the trail : by this 

 scheme he gained on the rat by hitting off the scent just where he had gone over the 

 little bank the last time. In a few moments he was in the foot-path, and came gal- 

 loping towards us in fine style, his back arched, his head up, and his tail in a straight 

 line behind him. He passed under us, and in his eagerness overshot the spot where 

 the rat had gone into the bank : it was only for a moment, he came back, quartered 

 the ground, found the trail, and was in the bank in no time. A blackthorn overhung 

 the path ; we saw something move in it ; it was the rat ; the weasel was going up the 

 stem ; he was close after him ; he evidently viewed him ; he gained on him ; the rat 

 dropped himself into the foot-path ; the weasel did the same, and followed him up 

 the bank within a foot : we heard a shrill cry, first long, then short, shorter, then all 

 was still ; we went quietly to the place ; the weasel left his prey, hissing at us like an 

 angry cat ; the brain of the rat was laid completely bare, but his little heart continued 

 beating for nearly a minute as I held him in my hand." — p. 118. 



" When I got home I sat down and made these notes for you, and as they do not 



