420 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



It should be observed that the Weasel is a much smaller 

 animal than the Stoat, averaging 7 in. or 8 in. in length, exclusive 

 of the tail, which is about 2 in., as against 9 in. or 10 in. for the 

 sexes of the Stoat, which has a tail of 5 or 6 in. invariably 

 terminating at all seasons in a black tuft. 



Weasels and Stoats hunt in family parties, and sometimes 

 even in little packs, like hounds. The late Mr. E. T. Booth, in 

 * The Field ' of 6th Oct., 1883, gave a most graphic description 

 of an encounter which he once had in East Lothian with a pack 

 of Stoats which attacked a terrier he had with him, and of which, 

 with the aid of the dog and his breechloader, he killed a dozen 

 or fourteen. 



Richard Jefferies also, in his * Gamekeeper at Home' (p. 121), 

 has written from personal observation as follows : — 



11 Weasels frequently hunt in couples, and sometimes more 

 than two will work together. I once saw five, and have known of 

 eight. The five I saw were working a sandy bank drilled with 

 holes, from which the rabbits in wild alarm were darting in all 

 directions. The Weasels raced from hole to hole, and along the 

 sides of the bank, exactly like a pack of hounds, and seemed 

 intensely excited. To see their reddish heads thrust for a 

 moment from the holes, then withdrawn to reappear at another, 

 would have been amusing, had it not been for the reflection that 

 their frisky tricks would assuredly end in death. They ran their 

 quarry out of the bank and into a wood, where I lost sight of 

 them. The pack of eight was seen by a labourer returning down 

 a woodland land from work one afternoon. He told me he got 

 into the ditch, half from curiosity, to watch them, and half from 

 fear — laughable as that may seem — for he had heard the old 

 people tell stories of men (in the days when the corn was kept 

 for years in barns and so bred hundreds of rats) being attacked 

 by these vicious little brutes. He said they made a noise, crying 

 to each other, short snappy sounds; but the pack of five I myself 

 saw, hunted in silence."* 



The female Weasel is smaller than the male, and is no doubt 

 " the little reddish beast not much bigger than a field-mouse but 



* Other instances of Weasels hunting in packs might be quoted on good 

 authority. See Atkinson, 'Zoologist,' 1844, p. 490; Shand, 'The Field,' 

 21st July, 1891 ; and Witchell, 'Fauna of Gloucestershire,' 1892, p. 20. 



