126 
NATURE NOTES 
in the mole-hill by that predaceous animal the stoat. In the Country Side for 
Tune 9 , an instance is given of a pheasant’s nest containing fourteen eggs having 
being robbed by an old male stoat, which had stowed away its booty in the run 
or hole of a mole. 
Fyjield, near Abingdon. W. Ii. Warner. 
357. — The eggs found by Mr. Nield were placed in the mole-hills either by 
a stoat or a rat, more probably the former, as being more likely to enter a mole 
run than a rat. Both stoats and rats are much given to stealing eggs and carrying 
them to a distance. They hide them up in any place that comes handy to 
them. 
\June, 1906. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
358. Stoats Carrying Eggs.— I hope Mr. Hagen will not look on me 
as unkind in throwing doubt on the method by which he thinks stoats and rats 
carry eggs, viz., by clasping the egg in their paws, lying on their backs and 
permitting a friend to drag them along by the tail. This matter, in the case of 
rats, I threshed out in Nature Notes six or seven years ago. It is an ancient 
fable that dies hard, like that of hedgehogs sucking cows and vipers swallowing 
their young to save them from danger. No animal would trust its tail in 
another animal’s teeth for the purposes of a tow rope. The skin of the tail 
would not stand the strain, nor would the animal allow its hair to be rubbed the 
wrong way by being dragged along the ground when lying on its back with an egg 
on top. The hair would come off and the back become sore. Stoats and rats 
carry off eggs by rolling them along the ground, and also by holding them under 
their chins against the breast. 
June, 1906. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
359. — With reference to Natural History Note No. 350 in June issue, it is 
well known to gamekeepers that stoats will steal eggs from pheasants’ nests, 
and that the means adopted for taking them to a hiding place are as follows : The 
egg is placed on the ground and is then rolled along by the crafty animal pushing 
its nose against it. I knew of an instance of over 100 pheasants’ eggs conveyed 
to a hiding place in this way by a pair of stoats. Every egg was packed in a series 
of rows, and not a single egg was broken or even cracked. 
W. Percival Westell, F.R.H.S., M.B.O.U. 
St. Albans, Herts, June 13, 1906. 
360. — An intelligent working man saw a stoat carry six young ones (as big 
as field mice) one after another to an old willow slump, close to where he 
was working last week, and a friend of mine also saw a weasel carrying a liny 
young one in its mouth last year. W. A. Shaw. 
Haselbeech, Northants. 
361. Lamb and Lapwing. — On my way to Pocklington the other day 
I heard a lapwing making a most unusual fuss. On looking over the hedge 
I saw a sturdy lamb standing in a defiant attitude, and the lapwing striking at 
it with its wing and screaming in distress and anger : the lamb never flinched. 
Suspecting what was the matter, I drove the lamb away and found a baby plover 
crouching on the ground. W. D. Wood-Rees. 
362. London Birds. —With reference to Mr. Walter Johnson’s interesting 
article hereon in the }une issue, I should like to state that I have seen a specimen 
of the Greater Whitethroat in the very heart of the City, namely, in Basinghall 
Street. If I remember rightly, it was during the springtime of 1900 . Last 
year I was much interested in seeing a magpie flitting about in Regent's Park, 
and, of course, the well-known “ Don’t scold so, Sukey ” notes of the ring-dove 
or wild wood-pigeon may be heard in the Park almost at any time. The last 
occasion when I went across the Broad Walk, I espied a female ring-dove 
sitting on her nest in an elm tree, and the male bird uttering his love song and 
cheering on the brooding dame. 
W. Percival Westell, F.R.H.S., M.B.O.U. 
St. Albans, Herts, 
June 13, 1906. 
