80 SQUIRRELS AND OTHER FUR-BEARERS 



was surrounded by little passages and flourishes 

 between the leaves and the ground. If any of 

 my readers find a weasel's den, I hope they will 

 be wiser than I was, and observe his goings and 

 comings without disturbing his habitation. 



A few years later I had another adventure 

 with a weasel that had its den in a bank on the 

 margin of a muck swamp in the same neighbor- 

 hood. We had cleared and drained and redeemed 

 the swamp and made it into a garden, and I had 

 built me a lodge there. The weasel's hunting- 

 grounds, where doubtless he had been wont to 

 gather his supply of mice, had been destroyed, 

 and he had " got even " with me by preying 

 upon my young chickens. Night after night 

 the number of chickens grew less, till one day 

 we chanced to see the creature boldly chasing 

 one of the larger fowls along the road near the 

 henhouse. His career was cut short then and 

 there by one of the men. We were then igno- 

 rant of the den in the bank a few yards away. 

 The next season my chickens were preyed upon 

 again ; they were killed upon the roost, and 

 their half-eaten bodies were found under the 

 floor. One night I was awakened about mid- 

 night by that loud, desperate cry which a barn 

 fowl gives when suddenly seized upon its roost. 

 Was I dreaming, or was that a cry of murdei 



