UNDER THE NORTH STAR 325 



the trapper, the snow-fall covered the trail. Exactly — that is 

 why the little ermine dives under snow just as it would under 

 water, running along with serpentine wavings of the white 

 powdery surface till up it comes again where the wind has blown 

 the snow-fall clear. Along it runs, still intent, quartering back 

 where it loses the scent — along again till suddenly the head 

 lifts — that motion of the snake before it strikes ! The trapper 

 looks. Tail feathers, head feathers, stupid blinking eyes poke 

 through the fluffy snow-drift. And now the ermine no longer 

 runs openly. There are too many victims this time — it may get 

 all the foolish hidden grouse ; so it dives and if the man had not 

 alarmed the stupid grouse, ermine would have darted up through 

 the snow with a finishing stab for each bird. 



By still hunt and open hunt, by nose and eye, relentless as doom, 

 it follows its victims to the death. Does the bird perch on a tree ? 

 Up goes the ermine, too, on the side away from the bird's head. 

 Does the mouse thread a hundred mazes and hide in a hole ? The 

 ermine threads every maze, marches into the hidden nest and takes 

 murderous possession. Does the rat hide under rock ? Under the 

 rock goes the ermine. Should the trapper follow to see the out- 

 come of the contest, the ermine will probably sit at the mouth of the 

 rat-hole, blinking its beady eyes at him. If he attacks, down it 

 bolts out of reach. If he retires, out it comes looking at this strange 

 big helpless creature with bold contempt. 



The keen scent, the keen eyes, the keen ears warn it of an enemy's 

 approach. Summer and winter, its changing coat conceals it. The 

 furze where it runs protects it from fox and lynx and wolverine. Its 

 size admits it to the tiniest of hiding-places. All that the ermine 

 can do to hunt down a victim, it can do to hide from an enemy. 

 These qualities make it almost invincible to other beasts of the 

 chase. Two joints in the armor of its defence has the little ermine. 

 Its black tail-tip moving across snow betrays it to enemies in winter : 

 the very intentness on prey, its excess of self-confidence, leads it 

 into danger; for instance, little ermine is royally contemptuous of 



