Weasels Take to Destroying Fish.

Otago Witness, Issue 2934, 8 June 1910, Page 89

Weasels Take to Destroying Fish.

TO THE EDITOR-. j Sir, —Since I came back to Hawea Flat last January I have been taking notice of how thick weasels are becoming in this district. I hare seen as many as eight ' weasels in one day, and several nests of young ones. I have heard of them killing' Jambs and poultry, and also climbing trees after birds’ nests and sucking the eggs. Two gentlemen told roe they saw a weasel j come out of a stack and run a distance of I' about two chains to a hen’s nest, and then begin shifting an egg by carrying it between its two front paws and chin. It succeeded in shifting the egg about half a chain, when it noticed it 'was being i watched. It dropped the egg* and ran back to the stack. As twc deer-stalkers and myself were walking down the Upper I 'Dingle Creek bed about the middle of April I we noticed a weasel running from the creek to the bush with something' .n its mouth. We followed it to where it climbed a tree, but dropped its prey at the bottom. To our surprise "we found the animal had dropped a live fish 6|in long. It is evident the weasel is acquiring a taste for fish as well as eggs. No doubt the presence of weasels accounts tor the scarcity of native pigeons, kakas, and blue mountain duck, which were to be found in large numbers in every rock-bound creek, but are now almost extinct. —I am, etc.. S. W. E. John.

[These vermin are becoming umerous around Dunedin, and suburban\ residents near the Town Belt find it almost iih* possible to protect their fowls from them. They steal the eggs also, and will not even leave porcelain nest eggs.—Ed. O.W.]