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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



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FOOTPRINTS OF A WIIITK-l'OOTl-.D MOUSK 



When reduced to scale, the large tracks on 

 the left side are life size, showing the animal 

 making the ordinary bounds of about 3 inches 

 between each set of tracks. In speeding, the 

 space may increase to 12 inches. The tail usu- 

 ally shows in the deermouse track, and this, 

 with the pairing of the fore paws, is a strong 

 characteristic (see pages 521 and 530). 



THE LARGE WEASELS, OR STOATS 

 (Mustela arcticus and its relatives) 



(For iUustratioii, see page 554) 



The weasel family includes not only the true 

 weasels, but numerous other carnivores, as the 

 sable or marten, mink, ferret, skunk, and land 

 and sea otters, all of which rank among our 

 highly valued fur-bearers. The large weasel 

 may be distinguished from others of its family 

 by the small size and the snakclike propor- 

 tions of the flattened and pointed head, com- 

 bined with a long, extremely slender neck and 

 body and a comparatively long tail. The best 

 known of these animals are the stoat of the 

 northern parts of the Old World {Mustela 

 erminea) and its close relative in northern 

 North America {Mustela arcticus), the winter 

 skins of which furnish the famed ermine, once 

 sacred to the trappings of royalty. 



The northern weasels are strongly marked by 

 their habit of changing their brown coat to 

 one of snowy wdiite at the beginning of winter. 

 To the south the change becomes less com- 

 plete as the winter snows decrease, and south 

 of the limit of snow the brown coat is retained 

 throughout the year. The time of change de- 

 pends on the coming of the snow and varies 

 with the year, and the time of resumption of 

 the brown coat in spring depends in the same 

 way on the season. The white winter coat of 

 the larger and medium-sized species is accom- 

 panied by a strongly contrasting jet black tip 

 to the tail. 



Weasels are circumpolar in distribution and 

 occupy nearly all parts of Europe, Asia, and 

 North and South America, the greatest number 

 and variety of species occurring in North 

 America. Surprisingly enough, the largest of 

 these eminently northern animals is found in 

 the forests of the American tropics. The Arctic 

 weasel ranges to the northernmost polar lands 

 of North America, where its presence has been 

 recorded many times by ice-bound explorers. 

 Other species are more or less generally dis- 

 tributed over the remainder of the continent. 

 In ^lexico I have found them from sea level 

 to al)ove timljerline, at more that 13,000 feet 

 altitude on the high volcanoes. 



The strong personality of the weasels as a 

 group is based mainly on their extraordinary 

 celerity of movement, their courage, and their 

 insatiable desire to kill. They are not satis- 

 fied with supplying the call for food, but when- 

 ever opportunity arises kill from sheer lust of 

 slaughter. 



Their slender forms enable them to follow 

 their prey to the remotest depths of their re- 

 treats, and that all rodents have an abiding 

 liorror of them is shown by the effect of a 

 weasel's appearance. Rabbits, although many 

 times tlicir size, become easy victims, and in 

 one instance when a large rat, which had 

 fought its human captor viciously, was put in 

 a cage with a weasel, it at once lost all its 

 courage and permitted itself to be killed with- 

 out an effort at defense. 



Weasels are wonderfully endowed for their 

 predatory work and are undoubtedly the most 



