As the summer wanes, families of stoats and weasels break up, and
parents cease to have any dealings with their offspring. This severance
of the family ties throws a light upon wild creatures and their young.
Having given their young ones a good start in life, many seem to
dismiss them from their minds. One grove will not nurture two robins,
and the day comes when Cock Robin will drive his young hopeful into
the world, and will attack him fiercely if he dare again approach his
presence. The wild rabbit that on one day, in defence of her young
ones, faces and drives away a stoat, her deadliest foe, on the next
day leaves them to the mercy of fate--a new family having arrived. The
mother stoat stays with her young ones for a long while, sometimes
until they are much larger than herself; but sooner or later comes the
day of parting.
* * * * *