little puffed with the effort, lay in hiding among the bushes and grass at the
top. Peering in I failed to see the Stoat, but saw the dead rat lying by
itself, so—thinking to prolong the interesting spectacle a little—I put in my
stick, and began drawing out the body of the rat, meaning to put it on the
road again. Suddenly there was a spring: the Stoat seized the rat, and, though
I resisted as well as I could, he pulled it by main force from under my stick,
and sprang down the other side of the fence with his prey in his mouth, and I
saw them no more.’
Stoats have a habit of storing provisions and forming larders, and this seems
to be a general practice of the smaller Mustelids. In some hole in an old tree
or stone walls they will pack a heterogeneous mass of dead rats, rabbits, small
birds, and eggs. I think they sometimes forget all about their stores when game
is plentiful, as I have found a mass of small skeletons and eggs, which had
apparently never been touched since they had been collected together.1
Mr. De Winton, writing in ‘ Lydekker’s British Mammals,’ 2 says that old
Stoats whose teeth are worn are inveterate egg-stealers. Colonel E. A. Butler
says in a letter to me: ‘ I once saw a Stoat in the act of rolling a hen’s egg
R , across a road, and as the way in which it is done may not be generally known
I will briefly describe what took place. The Stoat held the egg under its throat,
with its chin resting upon it to keep it steady, and pushed it along rapidly with
its fore feet until it caught sight of me, when it dropped the egg and ran into
the fence. I stood perfectly still so as not to frighten it, and in a few seconds
it reappeared, took up the egg, and rolled it down a bank into the ditch by the
side of the road. I went up to the spot, and on seeing me it ran away, leaving
the egg unbroken. Mr. Hunt, gamekeeper on the Somerton Estate, near Bury
St. Edmunds, where Stoats are unusually common, told me that he had also once
seen a Stoat rolling a partridge’s egg from a nest in exactly the same way that I
have described.’
I f you hear an unusual commotion amongst the small birds in a wood you
may be sure that the cause of excitement is either a Stoat or a weasel. Blackbirds,
thrushes, chaffinches, and tits all pay particular attention to the movements
of these small Mammals—partly, it seems, out of curiosity, and partly from fear.
When the marauder has succeeded in capturing some of their number the excitement
is tremendous, and they will rush and peck at the sinner with the greatest
boldness. Birds seem much shyer of the Stoat than the weasel, and I have not
1 For accounts of Stoats’ larders see Field, vol. xcix. pp. 445 and 477. 2 P. 120.
yet satisfied myself whether the former ever actually captures fascinated birds as
the latter does. Many chaffinches are found in Stoats’ larders, and Mr. Boyes
suggests that they are captured at roost; but they may be caught by fascination.
Mr. Lionel Adams kindly sends me the following interesting note of a Stoat
which had attacked a pheasant: ‘ C. E. Wright was informed by a keeper at
Weekly Hall Wood, Northants, that he saw a pheasant rise into the air carrying
with it a Stoat that had fastened upon its neck. He fired and brought both
down. This occurred on September 28, 1896.’
No one seems to have bred Stoats or weasels in confinement ; consequently
we do not know for certain the period of gestation. Mr. A. H. Cocks says in a
letter to me that he expects it to be ‘ about forty days,’ that being the time of
gestation in certain Stoat-ferret hybrids which he bred. That of the polecat is
about forty days and the ferret forty-two.
The number of young produced by the female Stoat seems to vary more
than in the case of any other British Mammal. The usual number is from five
to eight, but as few as two and as many as twelve and thirteen young ones have
been noticed- by reliable observers.1 The young, which are generally deposited in
holes in stone walls, banks, stumps o f trees, or rabbit-holes, have even been found
in a nesting box up in a tree.2
Mr. Lionel Adams sends me the following account of a Stoat’s nest in a
t r e e ‘ C. E. Wright, writing from Rockingham Forest in April 1900, s ay s : “ I
found a Stoat’s nest to-day up a tree, fourteen feet from the ground. The nest
was composed of fine grass lined with rabbit’s fur, and placed in a hole in the
trunk. My friend Abbot put his hand in the hole, when the Stoat screamed
out. Then I went up and got my hand in the hole, but the animal got out and
escaped. We gave chase, but the Stoat got away down a rabbit-hole. In the
nest was a young rabbit with its head off, and we had already found the fore feet
lying at the bottom of the tree. The Stoat must have used much strength to
take the rabbit up the tree, which was perpendicular. The Stoat was heavy with
young, but very active.” ’
Concerning the climbing powers of the Stoat, Colonel E . A. Butler sends me
the following note: ‘ I once saw £ Stoat in winter, when the ground was covered
with snow, curled up asleep in an old thrush’s nest in the middle of a thick
hedge, about eight feet from the ground. I should probably have passed without
1 See Corbin, Zoologist, July 1896, pp. 253, 254, and Davenport, ibid. August 1896.
2 Meade-Waldo, Field, May 14, 1904.
VOL. II.