28 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



two instances, both occurring in the month of November, 

 several weasels were caught in traps, in the course of 

 three successive nights, and one was found to be an adult 

 male, another a female, while the others, being smaller, 

 were therefore believed to be the young. 



I have knowledge, also, of a man being attacked by 

 several weasels and badly bitten by them. Before he es- 

 caped from their fury, he managed to kill two of them, 

 and I judged these at the time to be an adult male and 

 a young one of the summer just past. The man who 

 passed through this novel but dangerous experience be- 

 lieved there was " at least a dozen of them in all " ; and I 

 have no doubt but that it was a family of weasels that 

 were then hunting or traveling in company. 



During the past few years I have, during winter, 

 met with an occasional specimen of the smaller weasel, 

 one of which was white. It fell into the hands of a taxi- 

 dermist, and was lost to science. It measured, before 

 skinning, six and one half inches from the tip of the 

 snout to the root of the tail. The tail itself measured 

 two and one fourth inches to the tip of the last caudal ver- 

 tebra, beyond which extended a few coarse hairs. 



Like all of the tribe to which this little mammal be- 

 longs, this creature has the graceful, wavy gait, when 

 rambling about, that is so characteristic of the common 

 or larger weasel. If unmolested, it moves deliberately, 

 and from side to side, as though ever on the watch for 

 prey. If pursued, the gait alters somewhat, the body is 

 less curved, and it scampers off at great speed, although 

 not so fast that a good running dog or even a cat can not 

 overtake it. 



Quite diurnal in their habits although nocturnal, 

 too, I suppose they not unfrequently come to our very 

 door-yards, and I have known one to be killed by the cat, 



