Stoats and Weasels.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 16 January 1892, Page 2

Stoats and Weasels.

7 'ac few four-footed beasts that aro lofi; io us are for the most part such lovers of the dark, and are so seldon; seen abroad in the open daylight, that th°y are very inconspioioui figures in" the landscape. But theiu are some of them that contrive to make their presence felt plainly enough, and only exist at all because their nooturnal habits make it no easy thing to extirpate them.: ; Tiie fox, it is true, is a privileged marauder. Them can Jbe few large farms on whiefrhe does not^at times levy blackmail, tfhere miistVbe few keepers in all England, wjjip. have suffered nothing froin hM nsd-night raids. But it is not oftfen that 'the fox feels the weight of any man's re- » sentment. There are cases of course — perhaps more than come to the ears of the master of the hounds — in which his ill-deeds in poultry yard or warren have been visited with swift and well merited retribution. Pt does sometimes happen ' that an' angry tanner, driven beyond all,endurance, settles the account with a charge of buckshot. Nor, perhaps, is the keeper greatly to be blamed if, , when his pheasants are slaughtered without any compensation frpm the, Hunt, he takes the law into hip own hands, and puts down poison in the covers. But the fox as a rule, gets off scot free. His thefts are made good by public subscription, and when his time comes to die, it is . , with high honour, with music of hound and horn, and all the bravery of the shouting chase. But there is in the Woods and the open country a whole race of creatures, of I tamper and habits very similar -who have no such privilege — a fierce and bloodthirsty set, outlaws all of them over whose devoted hgads, tfye ban has hung so long;thaf there {& $j&6re than one member of the clan likely soon to follow to the happy punting grounds the great carnivora that in pre-historic days roamed free over the hills of Britain. Weasels we still have, happily in plenty. Stoats are in many places even commoner , •—too common, doubtless. But it-is a rare thing nowadays, even in the. most secluded spots, to see a polecat.': while the death of a pine marten is an event to be gloated over by the slayer., and recorded with triumph in the papers like' the ; murder of a kite or an eagle.

Life in the woods and fields, is no less than that of towns and villages, a continual struggle ior existanee, Among the lower animals, at least, it is greatly to the interest, not only of the strong, but of the whole com* munity, that the weakest should go to the wall. In the natural course of things, it is probably the sickly birds that are taken by the hawk, the unhealthy fish that ■ fall the first victims to the. otter* It is a pity that we are., not ■ content to stand aside rather more and let nature's plan have fairer- . play. It is our clumsy, short-sighted tinkering with the balance of power, our purposeless slaughter of hawks ,*• and owls, of weasels, and, perhaps, even of stoats and polecats that gives the rats and mice a chance to multiply until they threaten to rival the very plagues of Egypt, We have heard several times how parts of the east of England Ijaye^been,,, visited with destructive swarms of rats and field- voles. It is interesting to recall in this connection that one man in Lincolnshire sent off to New Zealand, with a view to thin out the rabbits in that colony, hundreds of, stoats and weasels, one consignment alone consisted of three hundred collected from all parts of ! fche'vOTy' ' •■" county that hag since been overrun -with vermin. It may be considered' '• more than doubtful if the fifty pounds which was paid for that last catch of three hundred would jjaakeuplpr the .. damage which has since been caused " by their removal. Now the weasel,' ' at least, is a most useful and, valuable ; < ally of the farmer. It keeps in iijheckT *' the already vast population, of rajis and mice, which otherwise, would leave us little grain to bring to the the mill. In fields > and farmyards, in particular, it should Be protected, not destroyed. If its record is not wholly clean in the matter of young rabbits, if it does at times misappropriate a stray chicken or two, its services at other times for more than makes amends. The weasel is a tiny little creature, with a, body, much longer, indeed, but hardly less slender, than that of a fuli.grown field-mouse. But it has a bpjrit , , which Has prompted it, many a time,' to show fight even to amanVwT many tales have been related of How a troop of weasels have attacked the person who has, in some way, done a wrong to one of their hot-tempered little clan. But while the weasel nas earned 4 an undoubted right to rank amone^ the farmer's friends, the stoat is a beast of a very different temper. He has all the weasels undeniable thirst for blood, while bis greater size and streugth— which naturally lead him to look for larger game- make him a real and dangeroua foe to, both the keeper and the farmer. Of the whole crew, the polecat has the blackest I reputation, and it is always a redletter day for the keeper wKeirhe can hang up the body of one of ihese bold marauders in the row btcailij 7 corpses on his gallows. But %£ poleoat has of late years become so

rare that his raids are seldom hearf of. Now and then his brown fur may be seen upon the keeper's tree or nailed up over the barn-door ; bu the keenest of observers seldom cai do more than catch a glimpse of hi? stealthy living figure. Perhaps it i; well. A single polecat has beer known to kill sixteen turkeys in on< night feasting on their blood anc? brains. But even he does yeoman* service in thfi slaughter of rats am mice, and it is only to the warren o 1 to the poultry yard that he ? dangerous enemy. But the stoai. is ' the commonest, as he undoubtedly is the most destructive — since the polecat cannot compete with him in point of numbers— oi the entire tribe. One afternoon ir September of this year, a lady whosi suspicions were aroused by the move ments of some strange object near c hen coop, a few yards from the house stepped through the low window jusi in time to see a stoat vanish througfc a neighbouring hedge with some thing in its mouth. It was then found that the old hen had forced her way through the bars of the coop and was crouching on the ground in an agony of fear and rage. Whet she was lifted it was discovered that six chickens had been carried off, in not much more than the same number of minutes, and in broad daylight too. Another stoat wasj observed, this summer on Exmoor, carrying a young rabbit. It did not drag it, but went along in a series of leaps, though the burden must have been quite as heavy as itself. Both these cases were long before sundown and indeed it is by no means an uncommon thing to see a stoat come out of hiding in the daytime, and if you are still and quiet he may even stop to take stock of you, perhaps with his forepaws resting on a stone over which peer his keen black eyes and sharp-looking features. A pretty creature enough, with his brown back and pale lemon .tinged -breast. A dainty figure. Who would imagine there could be such a weight of guilt upon his soul? .Strange? too, that the coat of such a criminal should have been fixed on as the emblem of absolute integrity. The vermin which we look upon as the symbol of judicial honour is nothing but the far of the cruel, cunning, bloodthirsty stoat, whitened by the rigour of a northern winter.— Daily News.