THE STOAT.

Western Star, Issue 1385, 31 August 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE STOAT.

That beautiful and elegant little animal the stoat or ermine, is Ift. 3in. in length from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail as a rale, though his size varies a little. In the summer his fur is a warm red colour above and creamwhite below, tbe tip of his tail black. If the weither ia hard he will change to a creamy white, the tip of his tail excepted. In that condition it forms the ermine fur of commerce. He is bold as his larger companions and far more dashing than the pslecat. Stony places covered with thorns and brambles suit him best and before those grand old hedges were grubbed up to make way for our modern scientific Bystem of farming, the ermines used to make their home there iu small

colonies. Mice, rats, and our common birds of the fields and hedgerows must have formed the principal portion of their food. I have never heard any complaints from the small farmer and cottagers about them, and, considering the numbers I haye known hunt around some spotp, the mischief done by them was very inconsiderable. The ermine will'kill game, but the rabbit is more to his taste, and he must have been a friend to the farmer before the Ground Act came into force for a rabbit that has been killed bya stoat is good eating and very white in flesh —that I can answer for. He kills them neatly too and cleanly. H« is quite at home on the limbs and branches of trees; many a nest will he rifle and then curl himself up in it to sleep off the effects of a meal of tender youug birds. He is apt to gorge to excess at times. His prey he hunts with the "go" of a foxhound. Shoot him dead as he cosies bounding along and his fur will be as sweet as you could wish it; get him into close quarters as I have done more than once, and you will feel inclined to quit him. The far-famed skunk of North America is not the only animal thac can make you wish that you bad let him alone. If you kill any of the tribe when they are enraged and at close quarters, the fur will retain the abominable odour for months—that of the marten alone excepted.—From " Martens, Polecats, and Stoats," in the Cornhil Magazine.