THE WEASEL KIND, 



17 



vermin, doing some good certainly, but not nearly sufficient 

 to counteract the harm. We now come to an animal which 

 may fairly be said to do quite as much good as harm. But 

 it is hardly necessary to say that in those cases of excessive 

 game-preserving, when on a given extent of ground a far 

 larger head of game is m.aintained than nature ever intended 

 it to maintain, man, having already violently upset the 

 balance of nature, is obliged to go a little farther, and not 

 only remove every stoat from the temptations arising from a 

 residence among semi-tame pheasants andswarmiing ground- 

 game, but also trap the rats with which the stoats would 

 have contented themselves to a large extent under ordinary 

 conditions of life. It is not to be denied that the stoat is a 

 terrible enemy to rabbits, and will and does kill not only 

 those, but hares also ; that probably now and again it 

 succeeds in surprising an old pheasant or partridge (to say 

 nothing of young ones) or that it is an occasional and 

 most unwelcome visitor to henroost and dovecot. At the 

 same time its favourite prey is the rat, and in pursuit of this 

 it hunts the hedgebanks in summer and comes into the 

 stackyards in winter. The stoat may often be seen 

 hunting along the stream-banks in pursuit of the water- 

 vole and of the common brown rat, large numbers of 

 which latter animal take to the stream-banks during summer, 

 and are confused by unobservant people with the compara- 

 tively harmless water-vole. Many mice are also killed by 

 the stoat, which is figured on page 19. In the Blue-book 

 embodying the Report of the Royal Commission upon the 

 Field Vole plague, the stoat is described as among the 

 deadliest and most persevering enemies of small rodents." 

 Like some of its congeners, the stoat hunts by nose, follow- 

 ing the scent of rats or rabbits with the greatest pertinacity. 

 It often takes to the v/ater, swimming with ease and 

 rapidity, and is equally well capable of climomg trees. 



c 



