short-tailed Weasel 847 



The following note, which I made on a pair of Black- 

 footed Ferrets at the New York Zoological Park, may be ad- 

 duced as collateral evidence, for mating habits do not vary 

 much in the same family: The male Ferret is very aggressive. 

 He utters a loud, harsh, barking a dozen times in rapid succes- 

 sion, also a loud hissing. Nothing enrages him more than any 

 interference with the female. As this is true the year round, it 

 points to permanent mating. 



From these facts, then, we must assume that this Weasel 

 pairs and that the male, sometimes at least, takes an interest 

 in the young. 



The only detailed evidence I can find on the dens of this dens 

 Weasel is as follows: 



John Burroughs, in November, 1893, saw a Brown Weasel 

 carrying Mice into its burrow, as narrated in the paragraph on 

 storage. He dug after it for several hours one day. Next 

 day he returned with better tools and tried again, moving over 

 a ton of rooty earth and exposing many more galleries, but 

 finding no larder. He found, however, several little "ex- 

 pansions and at last one of his banqueting halls, a cavity about 

 the size of one's hat, arched over by a network of fine tree 

 roots. The occupant evidently lodged or rested here also. 

 There was a warm, dry nest made of leaves and fur of Mice 

 and Moles. I took out two or three handfuls. In finding this 

 chamber I had followed one of the tunnels around till it brought 

 me within a foot of the original entrance. A few inches to one 

 side of this cavity there was what I took to be a back alley 

 where the Weasel threw his waste; there were large masses of 

 wet, decaying fur here, and fur pellets such as are regurgitated 

 by hawks and owls. In the nest there was the tail of a Flying- 

 squirrel, showing that the Weasel sometimes had this game 

 for supper or dinner."" After this the Weasel's labyrinth 

 seemed to grow more complicated as well as expand to include 

 the neighbouring country, and the digger had to give it up 

 without finding the store of Mice. 



" Squirrels and Other Fur-bearers, 1900, pp. 77-8. 



