Stoat, s. An animal of the weasel tribe.
This animal, which is equally agile and mischievous with the weasel in pursuit and destruction of the hare, and all other sorts of game, poultry, and eggs, has, from its habits and the small difference in shape from the weasel, been often described under the same denomination. Its height is about two inches; the tail five and a half, very hairy, and at the points tipped with black; the edges of the ears and ends of the toes are of a yellowish white; in other respects it perfectly resembles the weasel in colour and form. In the most northern parts of Europe the stoat regularly changes its colour in winter, and becomes perfectly white, except the end of the tail, which remains invariably black. It is then called the ermine: the fur is valuable, and sold in the country where caught, from two to three pounds sterling per hundred. The animal is either taken in traps, made of two flat stones, or shot with blunt arrows.
The stoat is sometimes found white during the winter season in Great Britain, and is then commonly called the white weasel. Its fur, however, having neither the thickness, the closeness, nor the whiteness, of those which come from Siberia, is, with us, of little value.
To destroy these worst of all four-footed vermin to game in its infant state, the following mode is recommended:—Provide small square-made steel traps, with a small chain and iron peg to fix them down; get two drachms of musk, shoot some small birds, and dip the tail of these birds in the musk; tie one on the plate of each trap, and set in the hedges, or where it is suspected they frequent: this will soon reduce the number, should it be ever so considerable: if it so happen, that no musk is immediately to be got, the trap must be baited with a bit of rabbit; and it should be remembered that this bait cannot be too stale.
Some time since, as Mr. Clarke, of Horndean, was going a few miles on foot, in the forest of Bere, to visit a friend, he observed a hare come into the green road before him, which seemed to be listening, and looking back for something which pursued her. He stood still, and hearing no dog, was curious to discover the cause of her alarm; when, to his great surprise, he discovered the object of it to be a small yellow red and white stoat, which hunted her footsteps with the utmost precision. He, wishing to know if so diminutive an animal could have a chance of coping with the great speed of the hare, retreated to a holm-bush hard by, where he was an attentive observer of this silent hunt for near two hours, during which, he is certain to have seen both hare and stoat at least forty times. They were frequently gone for five or ten minutes; but the hare, still unwilling to leave the place where she was found, came round again, and her little pursuer sometimes close at her heels. Towards the end of this remarkable chase, which became uncommonly interesting, the hare took advantage of the thickest covert the place afforded, and made use of all her cunning and strength to escape, but without effect; till at length, wearied out by the perseverance of the stoat, Mr. C. heard her cry for some time.
At last, the cries coming from one point, he concluded she was become the victim of the chase; on which he went to the spot, where he found the hare quite dead, and the stoat so intently fastened on her neck, as not to perceive his approach. The stoat, in its turn, now fell a victim to Mr. C’s stick; after which, he proceeded with both hare and stoat to the house of his friend.—Sporting Anecdotes.
Stock, s. The trunk, the body of a plant; a log; a post; the handle of anything; a support of a ship while it is building; a close neckcloth; a race, a lineage, a family. Vide Gun.
Stock, v. To store, to fill sufficiently; to fit a gun stock.