348 Rough Notes on the Zoology of Candahar. [No. 161. 



immediately behind the ear, which at once secured himself from in- 

 jury and soon rendered his foe helpless. When the rat ceased to 

 struggle, he bit him once or twice sharply through the back of the skull, 

 and as the blood flowed from the wound, the ferret lapped it up with 

 his tongue. There was never any attempt to suck the blood of his 

 prey, as is commonly but erroneously asserted of his tribe, though he 

 continued both with birds and beasts to lick up the warm stream as 

 long as it flowed from the wounds he had inflicted. One would have 

 thought that the slaughter and the blood of the three birds and two 

 large rats would have satiated his ferocity for a time, but although he 

 made no attempt to devour the prey he had slain, his appetite for blood 

 and murder was still as keen as ever, and scarcely had he finished his 

 second draught ere he sallied forth to slaughter two young rats which 

 had been introduced along with the old ones. These, being as yet blind, 

 he seized by the nape of the neck, and having killed them with one 

 bite, carried them also into his den, where he stored them up in a cor- 

 ner with their murdered parents, and the remains of the wagtails. 

 In the evening, after nightfall, when all was getting hushed and dark, 

 he came forth, and then regaled himself on the store of provisions he 

 had laid up. 



I was amused one day at the successful defence of a Shrike (Lanius 

 lahtora). On introducing the bird into the box, it kept for some time 

 twisting and turning itself about, and flitting its tail from side to side, 

 watching the ferret with evident alarm. At last it flew so near that 

 the ferret sprung at and caught it by the wing, and then lay with his 

 fore-feet upon the bird, and began to peer sharply round to see that no 

 intruder was near to interrupt his meal. As he turned his head back 

 to begin the feast, the Shrike who had watched his movements, seized 

 him so suddenly by the nose, that the ferret in astonishment and pain 

 shook his head and jumped up, thus releasing the bird which I per- 

 mitted to escape as a reward for his valour, and he flew away chatter- 

 ing, as if laughing in his sleeve at the trick he had played his enemy. 



These animals are, strictly speaking, nocturnal, though not unfre- 

 quently on the move during the day ; this however may probably be 

 owing to bad success during the night in finding food, so that hunger 

 may compel them sometimes to wander forth during the day time. Those 



