THE WEASEL. n 



This little animal does more good than harm to the 

 farmer by frequenting the stackyard and destroying a great 

 number of rats and mice in the corn-stacks. At times, 

 when driven by hunger, he preys upon young chickens and 

 pheasants, but its regular food is of the more ignoble kind. 

 It has also been stated that the weasel, like the mungoose, 

 attacks and eats snakes, but from experiments made to 

 verify this it has been found not to be the case. 



The weasel generally kills its prey, if a mouse or a rat, 

 by biting it on the head and thus penetrating the brain 

 with its sharp teeth, and it always begins its meals by 

 devouring the brain, not by sucking the blood, as is gene- 

 rally supposed. Owing to its long and supple body, the 

 weasel can pursue its prey with great facility under ground, 

 and it climbs trees with great ease. 



The weasel swims easily and rapidly, will cross rivers 

 and streams after its prey, and has been known to carry 

 its young across a river when disturbed from its usual 

 haunts. The following account of a weasel swimming is 

 taken from the Zoologist of August 1884 : 



" Walking along the river ' wall ' near here on the 24th 

 June last, I saw a short distance ahead a strange-looking 

 object swimming across the river to the opposite side, 

 which on landing proved to be a weasel, carrying in its 

 mouth a young one, to all appearance more than half the 

 size of its parent. On landing she found herself suddenly 

 face to face with two colts, upon which she dropped the 

 youngster and ran into a clump of brambles and nettles 

 close at hand, but almost immediately returned ; and again 

 taking up the young one, she went ' looping ' along through 

 the long grass at a pace which, considering the weight 

 of her burden and the shortness of her legs, was really 

 wonderful. I could not see what ultimately became of her, 

 but at the time I lost sight of her she was apparently 

 making for a tall thick hedge bordering a ditch, where 

 perhaps she had already fixed upon some safe retreat for 

 her family. I have more than once seen a stoat swimming 

 probably a matter of common occurrence with that 

 species, which is very partial to the banks of rivers, water- 



