WEASEL FAMILY. 



63 



companies the better to effect their object. Thus the late Richard Jefferies mentions 

 that he has seen five, and heard of eight weasels together. " The five I saw/' 

 writes this observer, " were working a sandy bank drilled with holes, from which 

 the rabbits in wild alarm were darting in all directions. The weasels raced from 

 hole to hole, and along the sides of the bank exactly like a pack of hounds, and 

 seemed intensely excited. Their manner of hunting resembles the motions of ants ; 

 these insects run a little way very swiftly, then stop, turn to the right or left, make 

 a short detour, and afterwards on again in a straight line. So the pack of weasels 

 darted forward, stopped, went from side to side, and then on a yard or two, and 

 repeated the process. To see their reddish heads thrust for a moment from the 

 holes, then withdrawn to reappear at another, would have been amusing had it not 



the weasel (^ nat. size). 



been for the reflection that their frisky tricks would assuredly end in death." In 

 another passage the same author graphically describes the chase of an unfortunate 

 rabbit by a weasel — the timid fear and almost complete paralysis of the pursued 

 through sheer terror, and the bold confidence of the bloodthirsty pursuer. 



In all cases the weasel is a bold and inquisitive animal, exhibiting but little 

 fear of man, and poking out its nose from some hole or cranny to survey his pro- 

 ceedings with the greatest indifference and self-possession. In spite, however, of 

 this curiosity, the weasel is ever on the alert to withdraw its head at the slightest 

 symptom of attack. When on the ground, weasels generally proceed in a series of 

 small leaps, stopping at intervals to take a careful survey of their surroundings, 

 and not unfrequently raising themselves on their haunches in order to obtain a 

 better view. From its elongated, almost snake-like, body the weasel can follow most 

 of the small mammals on which it preys to their holes or hiding-places. As Bell 



