rUTORIUS ERMINEA. 



59 



eas)- iDut dangerous feasts on domestic fowls. ... I have observed 

 for se\eral years the presence of a nunil)er of these Weasels in a 

 grove near a farm-)'ard well stocked with poultr}% which they never 

 appeared to enter, though repeatedly visited h)- minks and skunks. 

 Indeed. I am inclined to think that, notwithstanding their occasional 

 predator)- inroads, the)' should not be killed when living permanently 

 about meadows or cultivated fields, at a distance from the poultry; 

 for they are not less destructive to many of the farmer's enemies in 

 the fields. Meadow-mice are certainly tiie greatest pests among 

 mammals in northern Illinois; and of these the Weasel destroys great 

 numbers. I am informed that, upon the appearance of a Weasel in 

 the field, the army of mice of all kinds begins a precipitate retreat. 

 A gentleman of Wisconsin related to me that, while following the 

 plough, in spring, he noticed a Weasel with a mouse in its mouth, 

 running past him. It entered a hollow log. He determined to watch 

 further, if possible, the animal's movements, and presently saw it 

 come out again, hunt about the roots of some stumps, dead trees, and 

 log-heaps, and then enter a hole, from which a mouse ran out. But 

 the Weasel had caught one, and carried it to the nest. Upon cutting 

 open this log. five young Weasels were found, and the remains of a 

 large number of mice, doubtless conveyed there as food. . . . 



" Stacks and barnfuls of grain are often overrun with rats and mice; 

 but let a Weasel take up his residence there and soon the pests will 

 disappear. A Weasel will, occasionally, remain for some time in a 

 barn, feeding on these vermin, without disturbing the fowls. But it 

 is never safe to trust one near the poultry-yard, for, when once an at- 

 tack is made, there is no limit to the destruction. When the animal 

 has entered stacks or barns, it has the curious habit of collecting in a 

 particular place the bodies of all the rats and mice it has slain; thus 

 sometimes a pile of a hundred or more of their victims may be seen 

 which have been killed in the course of two or three nights."'^' 



* The Quadrupeds of Illinois injurious and beneficial to the Farmer. By Robert Kcnnicolt. 

 Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the year 1S57, Agriculture, 1S5S, pp. 104-106. 



