A VERMIN'S AFFECTION. • The story of the courageous behaviour
of a young weasel, told in this place the other day, has evoked many parallels ;from eorrespOndents. The most interesting comes from a %yell-known sportsman in Sussex. He writes
" Ten days ago two boys on the Chichester high road close to 'Arundel saw, as they thought, two young squirrels : they ran after them and overtook them, when one of them turned upon the boy, and he killed it with his foot. They proved to be weasels. 'He threw the dead body to the side of the road into the rough grass and growth. Within two minutes the live weasel returned, quartered the ground till he got the scent of the dead comrade, and seizing it made off with it -into the undergrowth of the wood on the roadside. The occurrence was witnessed by the maid- servant of the writer, together with her father, an under-gardener 'at Arundel Castle. When the weasel turned upon the boy, the 'man called out to him to kill it. From the- description of their 'size and tails it is quite clear they were weasels, not stoats. The ,attack on the bOy is peculiar, but still more extraordinary is the :,dragging away of the dead body by its mate. Probably he was ,the male, for the smaller female would hardly have had the requisite strength. One would like to fathom the reason of the withdrawal of the dead one. Was it from affection, or in the hope of recovering life, or some other cause ? The idea of decent sepulture seems too
extravagant ! "
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