F.2tcat and Rabbit
A naturalist of wide fame (certainly of wider knowledge than mine) writes to ask whether stoats kill rabbits. He acknowledges that the textbooks all say so, but remains rather incredulous. " Has anyone ever seen a stoat tackle a rabbit or a rat ? " With regard to the rabbit, there cannot be any question at all. For myself I once saw a stoat pursue and leap on a rabbit in the midst of a grass field, and the struggle was severe. The rabbit, far from being mesmerized or cowed, fought hard to escape, though already severely wounded, when I ran up and routed the enemy. This is by no means a solitary experience, but is worth quoting because in the very same field on another occasion I saw approaching me in the dusk the least explicable creature of my experience. It re- sembled neither bird nor beast. I stood quite still and the thing came almost to my feet when its oddity of shape, colour and motion became manifest. A stoat was carrying a black- bird in its mouth. Well, this personal experience in one grass field (in Huntingdonshire) is evidence enough, if evidence were needed—and none is needed—that stoats kill both rabbits and birds. Those who argue that stoats should be left free on Scolt Head because they keep down the rabbits, and those who argue that they ought to be killed because they do harm to the birds have in each case the backing of biological experi- ence. A curious illustration of the stoat's appreciation of the rabbit (and it comes from Norfolk and Suffolk) is that when the Government afforesters killed off the rabbits in their new plantations, surrounding estates were infested with more stoats than any keeper had ever seen.
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