846 



Life-histories of Northern Animals 



of March and that the species pairs; but the male does not 

 trouble his head about wife or family after the love season is 

 over — though there may be some exceptions to this, as the 

 following cases show: 



Charles G. D. Roberts tells me that one day when he was 

 a boy, living in Westmoreland County, N. B., he was sitting 

 in a field near a stone heap, by the edge of Tantramar 

 Marsh, when two large Weasels (Ermine) came out of the 

 stone pile and ran round him in a manner so threatening that 



Fib 20S — skulls of Short tailed Weasel. 

 J ^dult male. 

 4. Adult female. 



From C. H. .Merri.ims Synopsis, N. A. Fau.13, No. 11. 1C96. Plates II. and p. 

 Survey. U. S. Dept. of Agricullure. 



Cuts supplied liy the Biological 



he was afraid of them. He remained very still and at length 

 they disappeared into the stone pile. He took them for a pair, 

 as they were obviously associated, and he thinks the nest was 

 in the pile. As cicognanii is the only species of the size known 

 from New Brunswick, the identification is good. 



E. A. Samuels records' having seen a pair of fV easels pur- 

 suing a Chipmunk about the middle of June, 1901, near Ford- 

 ham, N. Y. The present was probably the species he saw, 

 and the fact that two were united at that season for a common 

 purpose is a shred of evidence that the species pairs. 



John Burroughs tells me that one summer, fifty-five years 

 ago, when he was a boy in the Catskills, he saw 2 old Weasels 

 and 3 young ones together run across an open lane. 



'Forest and Stream, July 27, 1901. 



