79° 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



my observation as jet, All the small weasels that I have seen have 

 proved on close inspection to be young ermines with thickly furred 

 black-tipped tails; in the least weasel the tail is thinly covered with 



short hair and without any black whatever. Late in the autumn 

 or early in the winter the ermine changes from reddish-brown to 

 white, sometimes slightly washed with greenish-yellow or cream color, 

 and again as brilliantly white as anything in Nature or art; the end 

 of the tail, however, remains intensely black, and at first thought 

 might be supposed to make the animal conspicuous on the white back- 

 ground of snow, but in reality has just the opposite effect, Place 

 an ermine on new-fallen snow in such a way that it casts no shadow, 

 and you will find that the black point holds your eye in spite of your- 

 self, and that at a little distance it is quite impossible to follow the 

 outline of the weasel itself. Cover the tail with snow, and you can 

 begin to make out the position of the rest of the animal, but as long 

 as the tip of the tail is in sight you see that and that only. The ptar- 

 migan and northern hare also retain some spot or point of dark color 



when they take on their win- 

 ter dress, and these dark 

 points undoubtedly serve the 

 same purpose as in the case of 

 the ermine. 



An old hunter, one of the 

 closest observers of Nature I 

 have ever known, once told 

 me that female minks hiber- 

 nated in winter in the same 

 manner as bears, though it 

 was his belief that, unlike 

 the bears, they never brought 

 forth their young at that season. At first I refused to take the 

 slightest stock in what he said; the whole thing appeared so 

 absurd and so utterly at variance with the teachings of those 

 naturalists who have made the closest possible study of the habits 



