106 NORTH AMERICAN MUSTELID^. 



Upper Missouri regions, Oregon and Washington Territory, 

 are other recorded localities. According to Mr. Allen, it is 

 rather rare in Massachusetts — much more so than P. erminea. 

 The total lack of citations of the species from Southern or even 

 Middle districts in the United States is in evidence, though of 

 a negativ^e character, of the geographical distribution at i)res- 

 ent assigned. 



Habits. 



Oui- accounts of the habits of this animal are lamentably 

 meagre; nor can I add to them from personal observation. 

 De Kay says it is by no means a rare animal, but one difficult 

 to capture; that it feeds on mice, insects, young birds, eggs, 

 &c., and possesses all the rapacity characteristic of the tribe. 

 Audubon repeats this, in substance, with the inference that, 

 owing to its small size, it would not be mischievous in the 

 poultry-house, and would scarcely venture to attack a full- 

 grown Norway Kat. 



In this dearth of facts respecting the animal in America, we 

 turn to other authors. One of the most particular, and at the 

 same time interesting and apparently reliable accounts, is that 

 given by Thomas Bell (who was evidently familiar with the 

 animal) in the work above cited. Comparing its habits with 

 those of the Stoat, Bell finds them considerably distinct, 

 and believes that the accusations current against the Weasel 

 should mostly be laid rather at the door of the Stoat. He 

 continues : — 



"It is not meant to be asserted that the Weasel will not, 

 when driven by hunger, boldly attack the stock of the poultry 

 yard, or occasionally make free wilh a young rabbit or sleep- 

 ing imrtridge ; but that its usual prey is of a much more igno- 

 ble character is proven by daily observation. Mice of every 

 description, the Field and Water Vole, rats, moles, and small 

 birds, are their ordinary food ; and from the report of unpre- 

 judiced observers, it would appear that this pretty animal 

 ought rather to be fostered as a destroyer of vermin, than ex- 

 tirpated as a noxious depredator. Above all, it should not be 

 molested in barns, ricks or granaries, in which situations it is 

 of great service in destroying the colonies of mice which infest 

 them. Those only who hare witnessed the multitudinous num- 

 bers in which these little pests are found, in wheat-ricks espe- 

 cially, and have seen the manner in which the interior is 

 drilled, as it were, in every direction by their runs, can at 



