STOATS AND WEASELS.
TC Til 1 ; r.DITOK OF "TJtE TRESS." Sir,—On the 2oth inst. I noticed a letter in 'The Press," written by Edgar F. Stead, ''ltegarding stoats and weasels." He seems to have a fixed idea that they kill lambs, and calls on anyone who can give any information in the matter. In Roxburghshire, Scotland. froni my boyhood days until I was nearly 21, I went amonget lambing ewes cverv season, and although stoats and weasels abounded there, _ I have never on any occasion either seen or heard of stoats and weasels killing or attacking lambs. I havo also on various occasons spoken to sheep men from both England and Scotland, and none of men ever f-aw biich a tiling. Mr Xicol makes an extraordinary statement when he says be has found a 6 many as 23 dead lambs in a morning. and in one morning 14 within an area of a square chain. He must ha.ve had them shut in a yard, surely. I have 'an idea that if Messrs Stead. Xicol and Punch, and Dr. Feltham were to go and keep a strict watch in the T\ aimarino or Rangataua districts, they tnav find it much more likelv to bo. the work of vampires that is killing their lambs. Ihan stoats and weasels, as all these liimhs liave evidently been killed in their sleep.—Yours, etc..
STRATHSPEY.
TO THE EDITOR OV ''TUB PRESS." Sir, —The information given by Mr Edgar P. Stead in your issue of the i'.jth inst. regarding the supposed killing of lambs by stoats is very interesting; but the direct charge against the stoats of having actually killed the lambs does not seem to be conclusively proved. There is a weak link in the evidence. I think it may lie concluded that if a stoat got hold of a lamb the latter would not give in without a struggle, and the fact that Mr Frederick Nicol, in his statement quoted by Mr Stead, says he found on one occasion fourteen lambs within an area of a square chain bearing the same punctures and marks of attack, shows that the lambs could uot have been disturbed. Surely that number on such a small area would leave some on the ground that there had ben a struggle, for a stoat could not hold a lamb down, nor even hold it on its feet, .though the stoat could no doubt hang on to the lamb. It is a'well-known fact that at this time of the year large number of the best lambs die, and is if not probable that in Mr Nicol's case the lambs were dead or dying when the stoats' attack began? He says he found lambs up to 301b weight that had been killed—the class of lamb most likely to die from overfeeding in the spring. The matter wants further looking into before it ean be definitely said that the lambs we're killed by the stoats. —Yours, etc., SOUTH CANTERBURY.
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Press, Volume LX, Issue 18217, 30 October 1924, Page 12
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495STOATS AND WEASELS. Press, Volume LX, Issue 18217, 30 October 1924, Page 12
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