Least Weasel 863 



ging the body. When it came within about three feet of me, I 

 moved a little to see what it would do. It dropped its victim 

 and ran into the ravine. The Mouse had a drop of bright red 

 blood in the centre of its white throat. I waited near by for 

 fifteen or twenty minutes, thinking the Weasel might come 

 back, but it did not show up again; even an hour later the 

 Mouse had not been disturbed."' 



W. H. Osgood, while collecting in Cook's Inlet, Alaska, 

 secured an example, of which he says:' 



"One adult female was taken in a swampy place near 

 Tyonek, September 19. It was caught in a small mouse-trap 

 in a Microtus runway, and doubtless would have escaped had 

 it not thrashed into a pool of water and drowned." 



"The natives," he adds, "regard the capture of one of indian 

 these rare animals as a piece of great good fortune. One old stition 

 Indian who frequently visited our cabin told us that his brother 

 who had caught one, when a small boy, had in consequence 

 become a 'big chief; and he assured me that since I had 

 caught one I must surely be destined to become a man of great 

 wealth and power." 



This brief account contains everything that is on record 

 about this wide-spread but furtive species. 



Direct observation fails us here, and for further light we 

 must look to the next best thing — the analogy of its kindred. 

 The nearest well-known relative of our tiny carnivore is the 

 Little Weasel or Mouse-hunter (P. nivalis) of Great Britain. 

 This differs chiefly in being slightly larger; and there is no 

 reason to doubt that in habits, as in anatomy, they are very 

 similar. 



According: to Thomas Bell,° the Little Weasel in Great British 



. • WEASEL 



Britain preys chiefly on Mice, for which reason he regards it as 



' Personal letter, December 26, 1907. 



' N. A. Fauna, No. 21, September, 1901, pp. 69-70. 



' British Quadrupeds, 1874, pp. 183 et seq. 



