MAMMALS. 



175 



Mr. R. Thomson of Ferness defends the character of the 

 Weasel — we think with some justice — as *a welcome yisitor 

 about the farm-square and stack-yard, where it is of great 

 service in destroying mice, rats, and voles, which prey upon 

 the farmer's crops.* 



Mustela erminea, L. Stoat. 



Local Names. — Fite Futterets, i.e. AVhite Whitterets (Edward). 



Still abundant and universally distributed; and its frequency no 

 doubt in part arises from the same causes as mentioned under 

 the AVeasel. To these may be added the increase in the number 

 of Rabbits of late years. At the same time, Hepburn informs us, 

 in his papers in the Zoologist before mentioned, that Stoats were 

 very abundant in the forest of Glen AflVic, where, at the time 

 he ^vrote, there were no Rabbits : they were commoner than 

 Weasels. We are not certain that the Stoat is so dependent 

 upon supplies of Rabbits as the Weasel is ; indeed, the two species 

 occupy somewhat diflferent ground, as a rule, in their respective 

 areas of dispersal. 



We do not know whether it has been recorded that Stoats kill 

 Squirrels, but a ghillie we had in Caithness, in the autumn of 1891, 

 informed us that he had himself seen one in a tree in pursuit of a 

 Squirrel when staying with an uncle of his — a Air. AI'Nicol, at 

 Highfield, near Tain. 



Mr. R. Thomson, to whom we are indebted lor so many useful 

 local notes from Ferness on the Findhorn, very concisely compares 

 its numbers in his district ^\*ith those of the smaller allied species, 

 thus : — ' Not so frequent as the former-mentioned species. A 

 specimen or two may be met with now and again all over the 

 parish. Sometimes during winter (Mr. R. Thomson here refers 

 to comparatively low altitudes) it becomes perfectly white, except- 

 ing the tip of the tail, which remains black throughout the 

 season.' 



The O.S.A. is silent as regards the Stoat, but no doubt this 

 arises from a misconception of the differences of the two allied 

 species, all entries being simply under 'Weasel.' 



In Glenlivet, Mr. J. G. Phillips notes it as 'far more plentiful 

 and far more destructive than the rarer Martin,' or Polecat. 



