96 COMMON WEES EL. Class I. 



Color. 7'Iic whole upper part of the body, the head, 



tail, legs, and feet are of a very pale tawny brown, 

 llie whole under fide of the body from the chin 

 to the tail is white -, but beneath the corners of 

 the mouth on each jaw is a fpot of brown. 



Prey. This, like the reft of the kind, is very de^ 



ftru6live to young birds, poultry, and young rab- 

 bets ; and befides is a great devourer of eggs. It 

 does not eat its prey on the place; but after killing 

 it, by one bite near the head, carries it off to its 

 young, or its retreat. The weefel alfo preys upon 

 moles, as appears by their being fometimes caught 

 Jn the mole-traps. It is a remarkably a6tive ani- 

 mal, and will run up the fides of walls with fuch 

 facility, that fcarce any place is fecure from it •, and 

 its body is fo fmall, that there is fcarce any hole 

 but what is pervious to it. This fpecies is much 

 more domeftic than the others j frequenting out- 

 houfes, barns, and granaries -, where, to make as 

 it were fome atonement for its depredations among 

 our tame fowl, it foon clears its haunts from rats 

 and mice, being infinitely more an enemy to them 

 than the eat itfelf. It brings five or fix young at 

 a time : its fkin and excrements are mod intole- 

 rably foetid. 



This animal is confounded by Linn^us with the 

 Stoat or Ermine. He feems unacquainted with our 

 weefel in its brown color •, but defcribes it in the 

 white Hate under the title of Snomus^ or Mufiela 



nivalis* 



