Mousehunt (Vol. ix., pp. 65, 135.).—A short time ago I was informed by a gamekeeper, that this little animal is found in the Holt Forest. He told me that there are three kinds of the weasel tribe in the woods: the weasel, the stoat or stump, and the mousehunt or mousehunter, which is also called the thumb, from its diminutive size. It feeds on mice and small birds; but my informant does not think that it attacks game.
White of Selbourne mentions that such an animal was supposed to exist in his neighbourhood:
"Some intelligent country people have a notion that we have, in these parts, a species of the genus Mustelinum, besides the weasel, stoat, ferret, and polecat: a little reddish beast, not much bigger than a field-mouse, but much longer, which they call a cane. This piece of intelligence can be little depended on; but farther inquiry may be made."—Natural History of Selbourne, Let. 15.
Frederick M. Middleton.
As I can completely join in with the praise your correspondent Mr. Tennyson awards to Mr. Fennell's Natural History of Quadrupeds (except as regards some of its woodcuts, which I understand were inserted by the publisher in spite of the author's remonstrance), I feel induced to protect Mr. Fennell from the hypercritical commentary of your correspondent J. S.s. (p. 136.).
In the passage quoted and commented on, had Mr. Fennell used the word beach, it would certainly have referred to the sea; but the word "shore," which he there uses, applies to rivers as well as seas. Thus Spenser, speaking of the river Nile, says:
"... Beside the fruitful shore of muddy Nile,
Upon a sunny bank outstretched lay,
In monstrous length, a mighty crocodile."
The passage, therefore, in Mr. Fennell's work does not seem to me to be incorrect, as it may have reference to the shore of the Tweed, Ettrick, Yarrow, or some other rivers in Selkirkshire.