Short-tailed Weasel 855 



Weasels than by any other foe. Two Weasels cannot live in 

 the same thicket; one of them must fall or flee. It is probable, 

 too, that an unusual increase in Weasels results in such whole- 

 sale extermination of their prey that local famine awaits these 

 bloodsuckers. In the fights for life that follow, the slightest 

 diff^erence in weight counts, and it appears that females are 

 often overpowered and destroyed by their unchivalrous lords, 

 so that a ruthless check is put on the further multiplication of 

 their race, and their number once more brought to its proper 

 low adjustment. 



I never saw one of these Weasel fights, but I have heard of 

 them, and have seen a duel between Martens in which the 

 female was killed. Sex probably counts for nothing among 

 these Weasels, except in the breeding season. 



One of the most curious cases of a Weasel meeting his 

 doom is this recorded by T. McUwraith.'^ He does not give 

 the species of Weasel, but, from the place, it was most likely the 

 present one: "Twenty years ago, I knew a youth who shot 

 one of these birds [Bald Eagle] as it flew over him while he lay 

 concealed among the rushes on the shore of Hamilton Bay 

 watching for ducks. On taking it up he found an unusual 

 appendage dangling from the neck, which proved, on examina- 

 tion, to be the bleached skull of a Weasel. The teeth had the 

 'death grip' of the skin of the bird's throat, and the feathers 

 near this place were much confused and broken. 



"The eagle had probably caught the Weasel on the ground 

 and, rising with his prize, a struggle had ensued in the air, 

 during which the Weasel had caught the bird by the throat 

 and hung there till he was squeezed and clawed to pieces." 



There is a curious and interesting side to Weasel nature antics 

 well-known in England, and doubtless to be discovered in our 

 own species, as soon as it has been observed as fully as its 

 British cousin. The Stoat often practices a piece of perfectly 

 Satanic dissimulation as a ruse to approach some intended 

 prey that is in an open place. 



" Birds of Ontario, 1894, pp. 209-10. 



