MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 171 



porary, and when the mice fail them they begin to destroy the farmer's 

 poultry at such a rate as quickly counteracts their good services. The man- 

 ner of killing its smaller prey is by a bite on the head. The brain is often 

 the only part eaten. Its blood-sucking has been greatly exaggerated. Where 

 many small, or a large animal, like a rabbit or fowl, is killed, they could drink 

 but little, owing to lack of capacity. Dr. Warren, quoting Hugh Malloy, of 

 Luzerne Co., Pa., who has made a specialty of weasel hunting and trapping, 

 narrates some points regarding their habits which may be summarized. 

 Malloy declares they never rest, but are always kilhng, summer and winter ; 

 even when snow was 8 inches deep and the mercury 7 degrees below zero, 

 he was unable to catch up with one by tracking when the weasel was on a 

 hunting journey. On one occasion he found " eleven dead rabbits," killed 

 by a weasel along whose track in the snow he had followed. All these were 

 " either hidden in the hole that they were started from, or pulled under the 

 snow, sometimes 20 feet to some brush pile." These rabbits are killed by 

 biting between the ear and eye, the wound being so small it is difficult to 

 find. Regarding its capacity for blood he says it " has great digestive powers. 

 I find when it is getting all the blood it wants, that in about every 20 yards 

 in the snow you will find its excreta about ^ inch long, thick as a slate pen- 

 cil and like frozen blood." They do not kill old pheasants (grouse), but 

 destroy many young ones. Quails are a favorite winter food, at night whole 

 coveys being destroyed at once, and when found in spring are supposed to 

 have been frozen or starved to death in snow-drifts. Malloy found in one 

 place 100 quail thus killed, a small mark at base of head showing what the 

 murderer had been. They track rabbits with great perseverance over snow 

 or bare ground by the power of scent, and rarely give up the hunt till the 

 rabbit is dead. The weasel often burrows long, deep and intricate passage- 

 ways for its home in some bank. John Burroughs describes how he watched 

 one of these (probably cicog?ia?ii) make repeated journeys over a certain 

 course in the woods from such a bank into the swamp, returning every few 

 minutes with a mouse (probably Evotomys^ which was stored in this burrow. 

 As I remember, a score or two of mice were thus stored away while Burroughs 

 sat watching the extraordinary feat. In attempting to unearth this cache 

 Burroughs was completely baffled by the extent and windings of the burrow. 

 They oftener hide and make their homes in stone heaps and rock piles. The 

 young are said to number on the average 5 or 6 in a litter, born in April or 

 May. In defending these they defy and attack any large animal, fastening 

 upon them until killed. 



Description of species. — The lesser weasel {cicognani) may immediately be 

 distinguished from its associate, our common species, noveboracensis, by the 

 relative shortness of the tail, that member rarely exceeding, in the male, 3 

 inches, and in the female, 2J/S inches, whereas in the other species the males 



