THE STOAT. 
led to believe that by weasel he meant stoat. Macgillivray tells us (Brit. 
Quad. p. 164) that the weasel “ is generally distributed in Ireland,” but 
no authority is given. Mr. J. Y. Stewart notes both the weasel and stoat 
as occurring in County Donegal ; and two skins of the true weasel were 
given to me, in 1842, which were said to have been obtained at Tor Head 
(County Antrim). Information from Tipperary and Kerry is in favour of 
its being found there, but no proof has been afforded ; and correspond- 
ents in various localities, to whom the species is known as distinct from 
the stoat, are of opinion that the former is not indigenous to Ireland. It 
is, I understand, common in some of the counties of Scotland which lie 
nearest to Ireland. Both the weasel and stoat are, according to my 
friend Mr. Robert Langtry, found at Dunskey, Wigtonshire. The agent 
there told Mr. L. that, seeing a weasel ( Mustela vulgaris) in pursuit of a 
rabbit, he sat down and watched the issue. The rabbit had superior 
speed, but the enemy followed by scent ; and after dislodging it several 
times from burrows, eventually killed it. 
The Stoat (commonly called Weasel in Ireland), 
Mustela Erminea, Linn., 
Is abundant throughout Ireland. 
It varies considerably in size, but is generally about 10 inches long in 
head and body ; tail (to tip of hair), 5^ to 5f inches. Macgillivray (Brit. 
Quad. p. 156) enters particularly into the question of the difference of size 
in the stoat. He believes them all to be of one species. 
Common as this animal is in Ireland, I have never seen or heard of a 
white one being taken in winter. Towards the end of our most severe 
winters in the north, I never saw any change of fur in these animals. 
Yet in the part of Scotland nearest to Ireland, where the difference of 
climate from that of the opposite coast must be most trivial, the stoat 
becomes white every winter ; and even southwards, to Cornwall, in Eng- 
land, it is occasionally seen in this attire (Couch, in Bell’s Brit. Quad. p. 
151). On 24th March, 1838, I watched a stoat for a long time near Bel- 
fast. It had not a white spot upon it, though the winter had been re- 
markably severe. 
A friend, who has occasionally resided at shooting quarters in Scotland, 
informed me, on 9th December, 1838, that a few days previously he saw 
two stoats, which had been killed at Glenappe (Ayrshire), and which 
were nearly all white. There had been scarcely any frost or snow during 
the winter. 
The same gentleman also saw three of these animals taken in the early 
part of January, 1839, near Ballintrae, all of which were pure white, with 
the exception of the tips of their tails, and some portions of the face 
Although a veteran sportsman, he had never seen one even approaching 
to white in Ireland. On 27th January, 1846, a stoat, killed in Wigton- 
shire, was brought for my inspection. It was wholly white, except a 
patch of brown on each side of the face, and, of course, the lower half of 
the tail, which was black. The winter had been remarkably mild, with 
no frost or snow, although there was abundance of rain and storm. 
The gamekeeper at Tollymore Park (County Down) informed me, in 
June, 1838, that he had on two occasions seen nests of this species. In 
one were about a dozen mice — a young rabbit and a young hare — also 
all the feathers and tail of a young woodcock. In the other he found 
six or seven mice, in addition to other things. They were packed regu- 
larly on the top of each other — “ all laid the one way ” — in beautiful ar- 
