PUTORIUS. 529 



suit. Weasels are fierce and bloodthirsty and destroy many more 

 animals than they can possibly devour, merely to gratify their passion 

 for killing. Rats and mice speedily disappear from a locality in 

 which a weasel has taken up its abode, and in performing this service 

 it confers a benefit on the farmer, and so makes some amends for the 

 destruction it may commit among the poultry. This active creature 

 seems ever in motion, and its course is marked by blood and rapine, 

 as it investigates every hole and burrow, penetrating to the very 

 extremity of the galleries and slaying all creatures it may meet that 

 may not be too powerful for it to grapple with successfully ; and while 

 on these forays an abundance of food does not restrain it or cause it 

 to remain near a well-stocked larder, but its bloodthirsty proclivities 

 impel it onward in search of more opportunities to kill. If the great 

 cats were endowed in proportion to their size with an agility and 

 physical power equal to that of this little murderer, it would be a 

 doubtful question if even man could successfully cope with them in a 

 struggle for the mastery. The weasel is not abundant in any locality, 

 and it is a solitary animal, but a family usually passes the first summer 

 together. It is mostly a nocturnal animal, rarely seen by day, and 

 lives in crevices of the rocks, in hollow stumps or trees, and also in 

 burrows underground, selecting those of rodents it has either 

 destroyed or driven away. The average litter is about six, but at 

 times this number is greatly exceeded. Anal glands are present in 

 weasels which contain a fluid that can be ejected in a fine spray, and 

 which is very offensive, only slightly less so than that of the skunk. 



1O1. Putorius. Weasels. 



T 3-3. p I-I - P 3 ~ 3 - M I ~ I I* 



S-3' U M ^-3=3' M -^-34. 



O. Bangs. A Review of the Weasels of eastern North America, 

 Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., 1896, pp. 11-24. 



C. H. Merriam. Synopsis of the Weasels of North America, N. Am. 

 Faun., No. n, 1896, pp. 5-36. 



Putorius Frisch, Nat. Syst. vierfuss. Thiere, in Tab. n, Tab. Gen., 



1775. Cuv., Regn. Anim., i, 1817, p. 147. Gray, List Spec. 



Mamm., Brit. Mus., 1843, P- 64. Type Mustela putorius 



Linnaeus. 

 Arctogale Kaup, (nee Peters), Entw.-Gesch. Nat. Syst. der Europ. 



Thierw., i, 1829, p. 30. 

 Ictis Kaup, Entw.-Gesch. Nat. Syst. der Europ. Thierw., i, 1829, 



p. 40. 



