870 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



to wild goose, and a full investigation will probably show that 

 Mice are its most important year-round diet. 



COURAGE The following adventure that I witnessed in 1897 is good 



evidence of the ferocity and courage of this animal: On 

 September 5, I was out near Medora, N. Dak., with several 

 men on a Wolf hunt. At night, as we were about to roll up in 

 our blankets, a member of the party called out: "Say, Jack, 

 there's a Pack-rat just run under your saddle." As a Pack- 

 rat (Neotoma) is a notorious mischief-maker among leathers, 

 Jack went over and gave his saddle a kick. Then we heard 

 him gasping, swearing, and finally shouting for help. In the 

 dim light we could see him dancing like a maniac and clutching 

 at his throat. The campers all sat up and answered his calls 

 for help with jeers and derision. "Look at Jack; he's got 'em 

 again. Kill them. Jack; the air's full of them," etc. 



A white bull-terrier with us now rushed forth growling, and 

 seemed also to leap at the man's throat, then to shake himself. 

 Now the man grew calm, and we learned that he had 

 kicked out, not a Pack-rat, but a Long-tailed Weasel, which 

 immediately attacked him. It ran up his legs a number of 

 times, aiming at his throat. He had clutched it and cast it off 

 again and again, but it had persisted, and might have done 

 him serious injury but for the prompt assistance of the bull- 

 terrier. The specimen is now in the Field Museum. 



As long as farmers farm, they will doubtless consider it a 

 solemn duty to kill a Weasel at sight, and this is one of the 

 duties they never wilfully dodge. We cannot blame them if 

 we read of the destruction a Brown-weasel can do in a hennery, 

 and, remember, the Long-tailed Weasel is a Brown-weasel 

 multiplied two diameters by weight; but it is well to recall 

 first, the havoc the species makes among Mice and Ground- 

 squirrels, and second, that certain individuals only go a-hen- 

 ning; others, of a different mood, are content to go a-mousing 

 and a-squirrelling all their lives, and these we do not need to 

 destroy. That is, kill only those that come to be killed in the 

 barnyard. 



