169 



NOTES ON THE COMMON WEASEL. 



Rev. E. a. WOODRUFFE PEACOCK, F.L.S., F.G.S., 



Cadney, Brigg. 



Ix 1891 my brother had a sandy barley field badly troubled by 

 rabbits. One evening- I helped him to set 15 traps in neig'h- 

 bouring- burrows. As we were doing- this, Max pointed out the 

 track of a weasel in the sand into one of the holes. It was, 

 however, too late to dig to discover if a weasel had a store 

 there. We visited the burrows early next morning-. Not a 

 rabbit had been taken, but seven traps had destroyed as many 

 weasels — a bitch, 'passed milk,' and her six young-, the males 

 larg-er than their mother. The rabbits no doubt had not been 

 ' at home ' for some time with the stoat pack in their neighbour- 

 hood, but were lying out in the barley, and many of them w^ere 

 shot there the next day. 



On the 27th August 1894 I was going down to Newstead. 

 Just before turning a corner on the grass-causey I heard the 

 warning notes of several sparrows calling together. On round- 

 ing the bend the whole matter became plain, and I stopped 

 short to watch a singular performance. K dozen sparrows were 

 on the grass, about a yard from the ditch, 'tiptoeing' and 

 peeping through or over the grass blades to view a weasel 

 which was working up to them under the cover of the grass 

 about twenty feet nearer me. Whenever the hunter drew 

 within springing distance the birds took wing, and flying- 

 another thirty feet settled in the grass and began to call the 

 weasel on further down the causey. It most eagerly followed 

 them up. The performance went on regularly for some fifteen 

 minutes, gradually drawing the players away from me all the 

 time. It was ended quite unexpectedly by the sudden appear- 

 ance of a sparrow-hawk, no doubt called to the spot by the 

 birds' cries. His stoop at the birds failed, and they sought 

 security in the then thick hedge. The hawk did not attempt to 

 tackle the weasel. I could find no wounded or dead sparrow 

 on the road, and can give no explanation of the manoeuvres ot 

 the birds, unless they were playing with the Weasel out of pure 

 ' cussedness.' 



On Friday, 19th October 1900, a lovely, open autumn day, 

 I visited Kettlebythorpe Wood with my brother Max. Along 

 its side we had a fine view of a weasel following a rabbit by 

 scent like a bloodhound. It ran along the track with its nose 



1905 June I. 



