CHAPTER IV 



BRITISH FLESH-EATING LAND MAMMALS {continUed) 



2. The Weasel Family 



A DEAD Weasel looks a small animal when held in the 

 hand. You can pull its body through the opening 

 when you press the thumb and forefinger together. 

 Yet a dead Weasel is entirely a different subject from 

 the one that hunts along the hedgerow. It is a brown- 

 coated creature with a lithe, elongated frame, rather 

 rudimentary legs and tail, and a front and underparts 

 of a white colour. A pronounced feature of this little 

 animal is its deep black beady eyes. As a hunter, it is 

 endowed with a singularly pliant body, and may be said 

 to possess the sinuous adaptabilities of the adder. 

 There is, indeed, no wild animal of the fields that owns 

 natural endowments superior to the Weasel. 



These talents are utilized to the utmost, and are 

 transmitted from the one generation to the other with 

 an exactness that is truly striking. The adult Weasel 

 goes foraging with one aim — that is, to kill. It will 

 slay a mouse under the hay-heap, and turn from its 

 quarry to kill the Field Vole whose shadow it sees 

 amongst the rank grasses a yard away. Once on the 

 track, the Weasel seldom slackens its pace until it 

 slays. Through the labyrinth of weeds the creature 



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