360 THE WEASEL. 
can wage a sharp battle even with such powerful foes, and refuses to yield except at the 
last necessity. 
The proportions of the Weasel ave extremely small, the male being rather larger than 
the opposite sex. In total length, a full-grown male does not much exceed ten inches, 
of which the tail occupies more than a fifth, while the female is rather more than an inch 
shorter than her mate. The colour of its fur is a bright reddish-brown on the upper parts 
of the body, and the under portions are of a pure white, the line of demarcation being 
tolerably well defined, but not very sharply cut. This contrast of red and white renders.it 
an exceedingly pretty little animal. The tail is of a uniform tint with the body, and is 
not furnished with the tuft of jetty hairs that forms so conspicuous a decoration of the 
stoat. 
The audacity of this little creature is really remarkable. It seems to hold every being 
except itself in the most sovereign contempt, and, to all appearance, is as ready to match 
itself against a man as against a mouse. Indeed, it carries its arrogant little pretensions 
so far, ‘that, if elephants were inhabitants of this country, the Weasel would be quite 
w illing to dispute the path with them. I remember being entirely baffled by the imper- 
tinence of one of these animals, although I was provided with a gun. While I was 
walking along a path that skirted a corn-field, a stir took place among some dried leaves 
by the “hedge-side, and out ran something small and red along the bottom of the hedge. 
I instantly fired, ‘but without success, at the mov ing object, “which turned out to be a 
Weasel. The little creature, instead of running away, or appearing alarmed at the report 
and the shot, which tore up the ground around it, coolly ran into the middle of the path, 
and sitting up on its hind legs, with its paws crossed over its nose, leisurely contemplated 
me for a moment or two, and then quietly retired into the hedge. 
It is a terrible foe to many of the smaller rodents, such as rats and mice, and performs 
a really good service to the farmer by destroying many of these farmyard pests. It follows 
them wherever they may be, and mercilessly destroys them, whether they have taken up 
their summer abode in the hedgerows and river-banks, or whether they have retired to 
winter quarters among the barns and ricks. Many farmers are in the habit of destroying 
the Weasels, which they look upon as “vermin,” but it is now generally thought that, 
although the Weasel must plead guilty to the erime of destroying a chicken or duckling 
now and then, it may yet plead its great services in the destruction of mice as a cause of 
acquittal. The Weasel is specially dreaded by rats and mice, because there is no hole 
through which either of these animals can pass which will not quite as readily suffer the 
passage of the Weasel ; and as the Weasel is most determined and pertinacious in pursuit, 
it seldom happens that rats or mice escape when their little foe has set itself fairly on their 
track. 
Not only does the Weasel pursue its prey through the ramifications of the burrows, 
but it possesses in a very large degree the faculty of “hunting by scent, and is capable of 
following its prey through all its w vindings, even ‘though it should not come within sight 
until the termination of the chase. It will even cross water in the chase of its prey. 
When it has at last reached its victim, it leaps upon the devoted creature, and endeavours 
to fix its teeth in the back of the neck, where it retains its deadly hold in spite of every 
struggle on the part of the wounded animal. If the attack be rightly made, and the 
animal be a small one, it can drive its teeth into the brain, and cause instantaneous 
insensibility. The gamekeeper has some reason for his dislike to the Weasel, as it is very 
fond of eggs and young birds of all kinds, and is too prone to rob the nests of eggs or 
young. It is said that an egg which has been broken by a Weasel can always be 
recognised by the peculiar mode which the little creature employs for the purpose. 
Instead of breaking the egg to pieces, or biting a large hole in the shell, the Weasel 
contents itself with “making quite a small aperture at one end, through which it abstracts 
the liquid contents. 
So determined a poacher is the Weasel that it has been seen to capture even full-grown 
birds. A Weasel has been seen to leap from the ground into the midst of a covey of 
partridges, just as they were rising on the wing, and to bring one of them to the earth. 
When the spectator of this curious occurrence reached the spot, he found the Weasel in 
