300 
THE WEASEL. 
pigeon-cot being in jeopardy by a three weeks' visit 
from the weasel. 
About a year ago, my worthy tenant, Mr. Words- 
worth, of Walton village, remarked that the in- 
terior of his pigeon-cot was every now and then in 
commotion. I observed to him, that, as amongst 
other English delicacies, the Hanoverian rats are 
known to be very fond of young pigeons^ it was 
possible that they might have put his pigeon-cot 
under a contribution. But he thought otherwise ; 
and as his head man had seen an animal from time 
to time near the place, which, by the length and 
colour, he took to be a weasel, I was led to conclude 
that, in this case, the Hanoverians were not to 
blame ; and so the gamekeeper was ordered to set 
the box-trap with a hen's egg in it, by way of a 
decoy. A weasel was taken prisoner in due course 
of time ; and being in great beauty, I transferred 
it to the Museum, where u remains at present. 
These are heavy charges — heavy enough to put 
the weasel upon an uneasy footing with the country 
gentleman and the farmer s wife, were it not that its 
many good offices rectify the occasional mistakes 
which it is apt to make in the farm-yard and on the 
manor, when the ungovernable pressure of its 
stomach eggs it on to the loss of character, and, 
perhaps, of life to boot. 
The weasel, like the wood-owl, is a great de- 
vourer of beetles; and it is known to make inces- 
sant war on the mole, the mouse, and the rat — the 
last two of which draw most extravagantly on the 
hard-earned profits of the husbandman. These 
