A Rat's Enemies Whether stoats attack rats is less certain.
It is commonly believed in country places that even the little weasel will attack the rat. There is no evidence of so unlikely a combat, but it is quite possible that the rat removes from the neigh- bourhood of the weasel (as a farmer of my acquaintance holds) ; and there is a good deal of evidence to suggest that where weasels or stoats are numerous rats are few. On one estate, where accurate lists of vermin were kept for a number of years, stoats were killed yearly in large numbers and rats were hardly known. This was some 80 years ago. A good many years later the rats greatly outnumbered the stoats. Whether the rat or the stoat is the less desirable presence on a shoot or in a sanctuary is a question about which keepers and watchers are undecided ; but you will certainly diminish the tale of rats by encouraging the stoats. The two classes of vermin have a mutual repulsion. As for the foxes, many prefer rats to most other forms of food, though tastes arc individual, and any lame or wounded fox prefers the egg and the bird as being easier to secure.
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