A Fighting Weasel
I am indebted to Mr. E. R. Cobb for an account of a weasel's attack on a cat. The account is given in a letter from Mr. Cobb's son who lives at Trumpington near Cambridge and is dated November 5th. "Yesterday, Bossy, our cat, which weighs 16 lbs., appeared with a weasel in his mouth. I fetched a spade and Bossy dropped the weasel which then faced him on the lawn uttering loud cries and every now and then leaping up in his face. Bossy was backing away. The attitude of the weasel threatening him was like that of a dog waiting to jump at another in play, and its jumps took it about a foot in the air... I went quietly behind but it heard or winded me and looked over its shoulder and threatened and jumped at me in the same way. It was so brave that I felt inclined to let it go but thought of the hens and killed it." Neither weasels nor stoats lack courage. I have watched the way they come back to have a second look when they have been disturbed. It is not curiosity mastering fear but an entire absence of fear and a cold courage that would do credit to a wild beast a thousand times their size.
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