488 Quadrupeds. 



state of the Society, and also the substance of the various papers read during the past 

 year. He also staled the various presents made to the Society since the last anniver- 

 sary, and concluded by noticing the death of two of the members. 



The Society then proceeded to the election of the President and other officers, and 

 of four members of Council for the ensuing year, when Thos. Bell, Esq., F.R.S., Pro- 

 fessor of Zoology, King's College, was elected President, the other officers remaining 

 as before. 



The Society afterwards adjourned to a soiree, at which' upwards of two hundred 

 persons were present, and some exceedingly beautiful and interesting objects were ex- 

 hibited by the aid of the three microscopes belonging to the Society, and of a number 

 of others furnished by the kindness of the members present. —J. W. 



Some Remarks on the habits and utility of the Stoat and Weasel. 

 By Sir Oswald Mosley, Bart., F.L.S. 



It appears to be the beneficent intention of an all-wise Creator to 

 keep within due bounds the increase of animal life, by permitting one 

 race of beings to prey upon another ; but the short-sighted policy of 

 man not unfrequently interferes with this salutary provision, and the 

 bad effects of such interference is soon felt in the losses he sustains 

 from the inordinate increase of the less persecuted race, in conse- 

 quence of this natural check upon it having been removed. Thus, 

 rats and mice have multiplied exceedingly since the indiscriminate 

 destruction of their appointed enemies — stoats and weasels. Not 

 long ago there was hardly one of the latter to be met with, so vigi- 

 lantly had sportsmen and gamekeepers pursued their attempts to ex- 

 terminate them, but our hedge-banks and fields were almost riddled 

 into holes by the swarms of the former vermin which frequented them ; 

 and in proportion as the slaughter of their persecutors has been stay- 

 ed, rats and mice have become less prevalent. 



With these facts before me, I feel desirous of advocating the cause 

 of stoats and weasels, and of claiming for them some slight share of 

 protection. I will not deny that they may occasionally make free 

 with the innocent inhabitants of game-preserves and poultry-yards, 

 but 1 merely contend that the good they effect in one way, more than 

 counterbalances the evil they may produce in another. My gardener 

 has fortified this opinion of mine, by stating that last summer his hot- 

 beds were infested with rats and his borders with mice ; their decrease 

 has partly been accomplished by the incessant warfare he has been 

 carrying on against them ; but he had a very useful ally, of which he 

 was not aware, until the removal of a plank discovered the abode of a 

 little weasel, and revealed at once its active services by the number 



