Dr. Buchanan on the wound of the Ftrret. 100 



bites it with fury ; and, if the rabbit be alive, the Ferret takes it by 

 the neck, or by the nose, and sucks its blood." — In the Dictionnaire des 

 Sciences Naturolles,* Ferrets are described as being of a most sanguinary 

 nature — " It is even more the blood than the flesh which they seek for 

 their nourishment." — MM. Geoftroi St. Hilaire, and Fred. Cuvier, the 

 authors of the splendid work," Histoire Naturelle des Mammifieres," 

 repeat the same opinion : — " The Ferret, in attacking a rabbit, seizes it 

 by a part of the head, masters it, and sucks its blood, and, as soon as 

 satisfied, falls asleep." 



As the above quotations refer chiefly to the rabbit, and as it was 

 possible the Ferret might not practise the same mode of attack upon that 

 animal as upon the rat, I resolved to put the matter to the test of expe- 

 riment. My first trial was made with a full-grown male rabbit, and a 

 Ferret nine months old, which had never seen a rabbit before. The 

 Ferret immediately commenced the attack, but it was always repulsed, 

 and ultimately obliged to retire altogether ; the rabbit adopting a very 

 remarkable mode of defence, — for whenever the Ferret came near, he 

 sprung right upwards, and came down with the whole force of his hind 

 legs upon the head of his assailant. I now sent off the rabbit, to be tried 

 with the old Ferret which had killed the two rats, as mentioned above. 

 The distance was too great to admit of my being present ; but I received 

 a full report of what passed from the friend already mentioned, whose 

 zeal in natural science led him to take an interest in the experiment. The 

 rabbit pursued the same tactics in defending himself as before ; and so long 

 as he had free space for his evolutions, he came off victorious, as the Ferret 

 could never get an opportunity of laying hold of him. They were there- 

 fore put together into a box. There the Ferret soon succeeded in seizing 

 the rabbit across the root of the nose, shaking him, as a dog does, from 

 time to time, and never letting go the hold till the rabbit ceased to live. 

 Instead, however, of despatching him in the course of a few seconds, there 

 was a full half hour from the commencement tijll the end of the struggle. 

 It was agreed by all present, that while the Ferret held on by means of 

 her teeth, she sucked the blood flowing from the wound. The dead rabbit 

 being sent to me for examination, I found the vessels as full of blood as 

 usual ; the brain had not been injured ; the bones of the nose and orbit 

 had been pierced ; but the main injury done had been to the eyes, which 

 were completely disorganised and full of blood. 



It thus appeared that the idea of the Ferret sucking blood was not 

 without some practical foundation. I was, however, at the same time 

 convinced that the observations from which it had been inferred, that the 

 animal always causes death by the abstraction of blood, must have been 

 very superficially made. I have been assured by persons well versed in 

 such matters, that even the rabbit is frequently destroyed by a wound in 



* Article Martes, division Putoia. 



