New York Weasel 



and are often to be found in thick growths of young pine and 

 birch that have sprung up, together with blackberry vines and 

 briers, on land cleared of old-growths of pine forests. 



I have known the rabbits when chased by weasels to leave 

 the woods and rush frantically out into the open, as if aware 

 that their enemy was even better suited for rapid progress through 

 briers and brambles than themselves, though they usually seek 

 safety from their foes in just such places. And it certainly 

 seems as if they knew what they were about at such times, 

 for the weasels seldom leave the woods to follow them. 



in summer they catch grasshoppers, crickets, and beetles of 

 various sorts, and rob every bird's nest they find. Ground-feed- 

 ing birds are especially liable to be caught by them, and they 

 have even been seen to spring into the air and catch birds on 

 the wing. 



Owing to their slimness and elastic muscles they have a 

 decided advantage over most of the other wood-dwellers, and 

 have little difficulty in killing birds and animals several times as 

 large as themselves. 



I cannot learn of any other creature that is more thoroughly 

 possessed of the lust for blood than are these slim-bodied little 

 hunters. 



The larger kinds, including the ermine or long-tailed weasel and 

 Bonaparte's weasel, appear to be the most savage and blood- 

 thirsty; the New York and the least weasel, from what I can 

 learn, are somewhat more civilized in their ways. A New York 

 weasel which 1 kept in captivity for a few days was gentle 

 and docile from the very first, and perfectly fearless. 



Within less than an hour from the time she was first removed 

 from the trap to her cage, she would take meat from my hand 

 without the slightest hesitation, and never offered to bite my fingers 

 even when touching them with her nose. This tameness could 

 not have been brought about by hunger, for when I found her in 

 the box-trap she had not wholly eaten the rabbit's head which I 

 had used for bait. 



The weasels of the Northern States and Canada turn white at 

 the approach of winter. The end of the tail, however, does not 

 change colour, but remains perfectly black as in the summer. 



I am inclined to think that this black point serves its owner 

 in a variety of ways, though at first thought one might think it 



•J7 



