Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/270

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The old axiom of" Give a dog a bad name and hang him" may be well bestowed on our poor little friendly weasel. That he is an egg-sucker no one would be rash enough to deny ; but I know, from personal knowledge of his habits, that the good he does in the destruction of field mice far outbalances any harm he may do to the young of game or poultry. I never destroy a weasel or allow one to be destroyed if I can prevent it, yet 1 defy any one to show a better head of either ground or winged game on the same extent of open country than 1 can. That the weasel bore a bad character, even in Shakspeare's time, will appear from the following quotations.

Its propensity for eggs is referred to by the melancholy Jaques, who says—

" As quarrelous as a weasel" (Cymbeline, Act iii., Scene 4) may be termed a Shakspearian proverb.

Even at the present day, many sportsmen and country people, who really ought to know better confuse this animal with the weasel ; we are, therefore, less surprised that Shakspeare does not mention the stoat or ermine. No doubt much of the mischief attributed to the weasel could be rightly laid to the credit of its larger and more powerful congener, the stoat.

Only once do we find that Shakspeare mentions the otter, and then apparently only to record the ancient belief that it was a very mysterious animal — a kind of hybrid between fish and beast. That he was better informed is pretty evident from the fact of his entrusting the description of it to our amusing friend Falstaff (Henry IV., Part I., Act iii., Scene 3).

The very cruel practice, unworthy the name of sport, of badger- baiting, could scarcely have been indulged in in Shakspeare's lime, otherwise we should probably find some allusion to it. Once only does our poet mention this poor persecuted animal, under its more