108 NORTH AMERICAN MUSTELID^. 



monly received notion. The first gripe is given on the head, 

 the tooth in ordinary cases piercing the brain, which it is the 

 Weasel's first act of Epicurism to eat clean from the skull. 

 The carcase is then hidden near its haunt, to be resorted to 

 ^yhen required, and part of it often remains until it is nearly 

 putrid. 



" The Weasel pursues its prey with facility into small holes, 

 and amongst the close and tangled herbage of coppices, thick- 

 ets and hedge-rows. It follows the Mole and the Field Mouse 

 in their runs ; it threads the mazes formed in the wheat- 

 rick by the colonies of Mice which infest it, and its long flexi- 

 ble body, its extraordinary length of neck, the closeness of its 

 fur, and its extreme agility and quickness of movement, com- 

 bine to adapt it to such habits, in which it is also much aided 

 by its power of hunting by scent — a quality which it partakes 

 in equal degree with the Stoat. In pursuing a rat or a mouse, 

 therefore, it not only follows it as long as it remains within 

 sight, but continues the. chase after it has disappeared, with 

 the head raised a little above the ground, following the exact 

 track recently taken by its destined prey. Should it lose the 

 scent, it returns to the point where it was lost, and quarters 

 the ground with great diligence till it has recovered it ; and 

 thus, by dint of perseverance, will ultimately hunt down a 

 swifter and even a stronger animal than itself. But this is not 

 all. In the pertinacity of its pursuit, it will readily take the 

 water, and swim with great ease after its prey. 



" It is, however, sometimes itself the prey of hawks, but the 

 following fact shows that violence and rapine, even when ac- 

 companied by superior strength, are not always a match for the 

 ingenuity of an inferior enemy. As a gentleman of the name 

 of Pinder, then residing at Bloxworth in Dorsetshire, was rid- 

 ing over his grounds, he saw, at a short distance from him, a 

 kite pounce on some object on the ground, and rise with it in 

 its talons. In a few minutes, however, the kite began to show 

 signs of great uneasiness, rising rapidly in the air, or as quickly 

 falling, and wheeling irregularly round, whilst it was evidently 

 endeavoring to force some obnoxious thing from it with its feet. 

 After a short but sharp contest, the kite fell suddenly to the 

 earth, not far from where Mr. Pinder was intently watching the 

 manoeuvre. He instantly rode up to the spot, when a Weasel 

 ran away from the kite, apparently unhurt, leaving the bird 

 dead, with a hole eaten through the skin under the wing and 

 the large blood-vessels of the part torn through. . . . 



