130 NORTH AMERICAN MUSTELIDiE. 



vscious of security within the windings of his retreat among the 

 logs, or heap of stones, he permits us to approach him within 

 a few feet, then suddenly withdraws his head ; we remain still 

 for a moment, and he once more returns to his post of observa- 

 tion, watching curiously oiir every motion ; seeming wflling to 

 claim association so long as we abstain from becoming his per- 

 secutor. 



" Yet with all these external attractions, this little Weasel 

 is fierce and bloodthirsty, possessing an intuitive propensity 

 to destroy every animal and bird within its reach, some of 

 which, such as the American rabbit, the ruffed grouse and 

 domestic fowl, are ten times its own size. It is a notorious 

 and hated depredator of the poultry house, and we have 

 known forty well-grown fowls to have been killed in one 

 night by a single Ermine. Satiated with the blood of proba- 

 bly a single fowl, the rest, like the flock slaughtered by the 

 wolf in the sheepfold, were destroyed in obedience to a law of 

 nature, an instinctive propensity to kill. We have traced the 

 footsteps of this bloodsucking little animal on the snow, pur- 

 suing the trail of the American rabbit, and although it could 

 not overtake its prey by superior speed, yet the timid hare 

 soon took refuge in the hollow of a tree, or in a hole dug by 

 the Marmot, or Skunk. Thither it was pursued by the Ermine 

 and destroyed, the skin and other remains at the mouth of the 

 burrow bearing evidence of the fact. We observed an Ermine, 

 after having captured a hare of the above species, first behead 

 it and then drag the body some twenty yards over the fresh 

 fallen snow, beneath which it was concealed, and the snow 

 lightly pressed down over it -, the little prowler displaying 

 thereby a habit of wbich we became aware for the first time 

 •n that occasion. To avoid a dog that was in close pursuit, it 

 mounted a tree and laid itself flat on a limb about twenty feet 

 from the ground, from which it was finally shot. We have 

 ascertained by successful experiments, repeated more than a 

 hundred times, that the Ermine can be employed, in the man- 

 ner of the Ferret of Europe, in driving our American rabbit 

 from the burrow into which it has retreated. In one instance 

 the Ermine employed had been captured only a few days be- 

 fore, and its canine teeth were filed in order to prevent its 

 destroying the rabbit ; a cord was placed around its neck to 

 secure its return. It pursued the hare through all the wind- 

 ings of its burrow, and forced it to the mouth, where it could 



