1 877.] The Balance of Nature . 163 
passed upon them by Mr. Morant. These little animals are 
most determined and bloodthirsty destroyers, not merely of 
game, but of poultry and of small birds. Waterton says 
that — “ As wrens and robins and hedgesparrows hop from 
spray to spray, just a few inches from the ground, it seizes 
them there.” He continues— “ I once saw a weasel run up 
an ash-tree, and enter into a hole about 10 feet from the 
ground. A poor starling had made her nest in it, and as she 
stood wailing on the branch close by, the invader came out 
with a half-fledged young one in his mouth, and carried it 
off.” Still Waterton and we believe several naturalists of 
the present day advocate the preservation of the weasel 
tribe, on account of the havoc they make among field-mice 
and rats. “ That man only,” says Waterton, “ who has 
seen a weasel go into a corn-stack can form a just idea of 
the horror which its approach causes to the Hanoverians 
rats) collected there for safety and plunder.” He winds 
up his Essay on the weasel by remarking that — “ In it may 
be found the most efficacious barrier that we can oppose to 
the encroachments and increase of that insatiate and 
destructive animal, the stranger rat from Hanover.” But 
the remedy, if remedy it be, is very little better than the 
disease. How is it, further, that the weasel, which a century 
and a half ago was undoubtedly more numerous than it is 
in our days, and was less interfered with, still allowed this 
strange grey rat to become such a formidable interest in the 
country ? 
Let us now examine the case of the hedgehog. This un- 
fortunate animal is also tried for his life and convicted. “The 
hedgehog is the last wild beast on our list, — the ‘ hypocritical 
hedgehog,’ as Mr. Knox calls him, and ‘ the most insatiable 
of all ovivorous British quadrupeds,’ whatever his well- 
meaning and amiable friends may say to the contrary.” 
“ In innumerable instances this little beast has been de- 
tected whilst destroying eggs and young birds. Asleep all 
day, never seen by man unless a dog hunts him out of a 
hedgerow, he is busy and aCtive enough all night. Can 
anyone doubt that he is continually finding nests, or do they 
believe that he ever passes an egg without eating it ? 
“ He has probably no enemy but man, and if man did 
not reduce his numbers he would do incalculable mischief. 
Our friends the birds will catch all the inseCts he is sup- 
posed (!) to devour, and we will most certainly do without 
him as far as possible, hoping to see them [qy. the inseCts ?] 
much more numerous in his place.” 
In reviewing and reversing this unjust judgment we cannot 
