Round the Country-side
' Stoats and Weasels '
C. C. Gaddum
Seen flashing across the road or through the grass, a stoat and a weasel look very much alike. They are, as a fact, first cousins, both hunters, both lithe and long and short-footed, both white underneath, and nut-brown on top. Yet, as C. C. Gaddum is to point out today, there is no need to confuse them. The stoat is twice as long as the weasel. The weasel has a two-inch stub of tail, the stoat has five or six inches of tail, which is black-tipped. In winter the stoat's nut-brown turns to white, but the black tip to its tail remains, and it is known as an ermine. But in Britain the weasel's brown coat never whitens. They have another feature in common. These pertinacious little hunters love hunting on. their own, yet occasionally hunt in packs.
Mr. Gaddum will speak of the stoat's power of fascination over its victims and show how the weasel is the farmer's friend, inasmuch as in the course of a year it kills many hundreds of mice and rats.
2.25 Interlude
2.30 English Literature-2
Famous Writers
' Sir Walter Raleigh '
2.55 Interlude
3.0 Concert Lesson
' Minuet and Trio—The Oboe '
THOMAS Armstrong , D.Mus.
3.30 ' Interlude
3.35 Early Stages in French
Y. Salaun and YVETTE PARAY