Letters of Rusticus. 2445 



fill my paper, I will add one or two mems about the weasel, which have for a long 

 time been standing by to be let go. The weasel is a very awkward-looking animal 

 when running on level ground ; his great length and slenderness of body, and the 

 shortness of his legs, are very much against speed ; but in climbing trees, or thread- 

 ing the long and narrow galleries of field-mice, this seeming disproportion is of the 

 greatest use to him. I have seen him coursing along the boughs of a tree, winding 

 himself round, above or below, just as suited his purpose, with all the ease and agility 

 of a squirrel. I have watched him enter a wheat-rick at the bottom, and in less than 

 a minute seen him peeping out under the thatch : but in mentioning this I am on 

 dangerous ground ; I fear I shall neither make you nor your readers believe that 

 wheat-ricks are very often a complete honeycomb, with the galleries made in them by 

 mice and rats, extending from the very crown to the faggots on which they are built; 

 and that hundreds of these vermin are frequently found in one rick. However, where 

 there are many rats there are few mice, and where there are many mice there are few 

 rats ; because the rats, being strongest, expel the mice. To return to the weasel : his 

 usual habitation is the gallery of a field-mouse on whom he has served a writ of eject- 

 ment, and he usually chooses one in a bank in which the roots of bushes are tolerably 

 plentiful and strong, as he well knows that these will effectually prevent his being dug 

 out by any evil-disposed person or persons : he also invariably takes the precaution to 

 select a burrow with two openings, so that, if one is besieged, he makes his exit at the 

 other. I very well recollect seeing a weasel go into a little round hole, scarcely big- 

 ger than the hole of a wasp's nest ; I immediately put my foot on it, and despatched 

 a lad who was with me for a spade, determined to take the little fellow alive. The 

 spade came, we dug away, cut through roots, pulled down the bank, and did no end 

 of mischief ; and, after two hours' labour, found that the hole went right through the 

 bank, and came out on the other side. 



" The weasel has an excellent nose, as I think I have pretty clearly shown above ; 

 but it is not exercised on the trail of rats only. I have, on two occasions, seen rab- 

 bits pursued by him, run down, and killed : one was on Munsted Heath, the other on 

 Highdown Ball. In both instances, the rabbit seemed stupified or fascinated by 

 fright ; in one instance running round and round, and not taking the right precaution 

 for escape ; in the other, starting, stopping, and, as I fancied, trembling with fear. 

 When its prey is taken, the weasel rarely eats more than the brain." — p. 120. 



Sea Birds, Isle of Wight. — " We had reached the region of birds. Between the 

 highest part and Sun Corner the cliff is more than perpendicular, it positively over- 

 hangs : here, then, is the retreat of innumerable sea-birds ; here the foot of man has 

 never trodden ; here patent percussions were of no avail. The inmates were already 

 on the move : guillemots and razor-bills, in parties of tens, twenties, and thirties, were 

 continually dropping from their stations, and whirling on rapid wing towards the 

 ocean ; the great burgomasters, far, far above the summit, were wheeling round and 

 round, like eagles, and uttering continually their sonorous and piercing call ; while in 

 the distance the smaller herring-gulls were collecting by hundreds about the Needles. 

 The fishermen now pulled us right in for the cliff; and, as we approached, what a 

 sight did we witness ! Every inch of projecting rock was occupied : there were hun- 

 dreds, thousands, millions of birds. I should premise, that throughout the surface of 

 the cliff are excavated ledges, which are caused by layers of a softer substance inter- 

 vening, that has crumbled, perhaps partly with frost, and partly with the operations 

 of the tenants : these softer strata are perforated like honey-combs by the puffins, 

 VII Q 



