GROUP OF THE MARTENS. 



227 



The ermine knows no danger; it attacks even 

 man, or at least offers an obstinate resistance 

 to him. If it cannot consume its prey it licks 

 up its blood. The almost incredible boldness 

 of this little animal is combined with much 

 cunning and caution. Sometimes several 

 ermines unite in order to render each other 

 assistance in mastering a larger animal. 

 Since it is small the ermine is of use to the 

 farmer in destroying vermin ; if it were larger 

 it would be the most dangerous enemy man 

 had to fear. 



The wearing of the fur of the white ermine, 

 on which were fastened the black terminal 

 tufts of the tail, was formerly regarded as a 

 prerogative of princes. Now this fur is very 

 much out of fashion. The ermine is hunted 

 in winter for its fur in northern lands. The 

 skins of our ermines are worth nothing. 



The Weasel Proper (Putorius (Musteld) 

 vulgaris), fig. 120, is still smaller than the 

 previous species. The body is eight inches 

 in length, and the very short tail, which has 

 no tuft, scarcely two inches. The weasel is 

 of a chestnut-brown colour with a reddish 

 shimmer on the back, white underneath, and 

 does not change its colour in the winter The 

 little creature advances no further north than 

 the south of Sweden, but on the other hand 

 makes its way much further south than the 

 ermine, and is found all along the northern 

 shores of the Mediterranean. Its life, its 

 habits, and its qualities are in no respect dif- 

 ferent from those of the ermine, only it attacks 

 smaller animals. Before the introduction of 

 the cat it was used by the ancient Greeks, 

 like the polecat, as a domestic animal for the 

 hunting of mice. 



The Visons, which have been united in a 

 sub-genus under the name of Lutreola, ap- 

 proach the polecats in their general organiza- 

 tion, but are distinguishable by the uniform 

 brown colour of their short, thick, glossy fur, 

 by their stouter, although still rather long 

 body, by having a very large and massive 

 tubercled tooth in the upper jaw, by their 



longer and more bushy tail, and their shorter 

 legs, the toes of which, especially on the hind- 

 feet, are united by a web extending to the 

 root of the short claws. The ears are very 

 short, the muzzle rounded and blunt. The 

 anal glands, so highly developed in the pole- 



Fig. 120. The Weasel (Putorius vulgaris). 



cats, are not indeed altogether wanting, but 

 are very unimportant. Only in cases of the 

 utmost need do the visons diffuse a very dis- 

 agreeable smell. At other times their smell 

 is not indeed pleasant, but still no worse than 

 that of most other carnivores. 



The visons are a transitional form between 

 the martens on the one hand and the otters 

 on the other, and the habits, practices, mode 

 of life, and kind of food correspond to this 

 intermediate position between two otherwise 

 well-defined types. The visons, in fact, live 

 more in the water than on the land. Low- 

 lying tracts of land, marshes, thickets on the 

 banks of rivers, rivers themselves, lakes, and 



