stoat

Now it was a lithe, furtive stoat which shot across the path upon some fell errand of its own; then it was a wild cat which squatted upon the outlying branch of an oak and peeped at the traveller with a yellow and dubious eye.

Ah, naughty, naughty, would you take a nip at the gentleman?" This to a stoat which thrust its wicked head and red eyes between the bars of its cage.

Marty was quite sure he saw a yellow-hammer on the boughs of the great ash, and while he was peeping, he missed the sight of a white-throated stoat, which had run across the path and was described with much fervour by the junior Tommy.

Bob knew, directly he saw a bird's egg, whether it was a swallow's, or a tomtit's, or a yellow-hammer's; he found out all the wasps' nests, and could set all sort of traps; he could climb the trees like a squirrel, and had quite a magical power of detecting hedgehogs and stoats; and he had courage to do things that were rather naughty, such as making gaps in the hedgerows, throwing stones after the sheep, and killing a cat that was wandering incognito .

The first 400 of 7,000 traps to be used in the Orkney Native Wildlife stoat eradication project are being laid in South Ronaldsay and Burray.

Six specially trained dogs are to be brought in to help rid Orkney of the invasive non-native stoat.

I once had a similar experience with a stoat, but this was definitely a weasel.

I well remember watching a pure brown stoat - except for the black tip to its tail and its white chest - making its way through a rabbit warren.

Elisa Allen, director for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said: "Culling - a euphemism for killing - is a hideously cruel and ineffective way to manage stoat populations on Orkney.