Practical Game-Preserving. 300 



ordinary acuteness of scent and pertinacity, so that rarely 

 does its quarry succeed in escaping. Hares, chiefly in 

 the leveret stage, seem to the stoat more palatable than 

 rabbits where both are abundant, and upon the former it 

 loves to prey. Being a small and short-legged animal, 

 it is, as far as regards speed, quite unable to cope with the 

 hare, but will run one down in the same determined 

 manner as its larger relations. 



When hares are not plentiful, the stoat finds in rabbits 

 an excellent substitute. It is particularly fond of steal- 

 ing upon them when, half-sleeping, they lie ensconced in 

 their forms, or seats, certainly preferring this mode to the 

 more laborious one of catching them in their burrows, 

 which it does in much the same way as the polecat, only 

 that in both cases, hare and rabbit alike, it kills by fasten- 

 ing either on to the neck of its captive or, like the ferret, 

 below the eye (it prefers, however, the former place), 

 and sucking the blood until its victim expires from the 

 loss of it. 



Being an excellent climber, the stoat is a greater enemy 

 of birds than the polecat, and pheasants, as well as 

 partridges, suffer sadly from its depredations ; but, unlike 

 the fitch, it has as much liking for eggs and young birds 

 as for the full-grown ones. 



The nest, or rather store-house and lair combined, of 

 the ermine is often constructed, as far as safety and 

 concealment are concerned, in a most clever manner, and 

 to this suitably contrived larder it conveys that portion of 

 the number of victims destroyed which are considered 

 fit and acceptable food for consumption. These lairs 

 are generally employed also as the nest in which the 

 young may be born and brought up. The stoat, during 

 this period, namely, while the breeding-season continues, 

 seems rather to depart from its usual mode of diet, and 



