: 



MtTSTELTD^. 



HUSTELID.E. 



1004 



Teeth oT Wcurl, Zorllln, and Mrti-n. 

 UpptT ttt, t llttl* Bora than twice the lse of nature j awn ct, nearly twice 



M mtcla. Body elongated, vermiform. Feet short; toe* separate; 



4 4 



claws sharp. Molar teeth, r UK- 



Jf. vulgarii, 'the Common Weaacl. Reddish-brown above ; white 

 beneath ; tail of the same colour an the body. 



It is found in Europe and North America, Pennant states that this 

 specie* inhabits the Hudson's Bay countries, Newfoundland, and the 

 United States. God man, in his account of the animals of the United 

 States, omits it Prince Bonaparte thinks that what has been con- 

 sidered as the Common Weasel in the United States is the Ermiin- in 

 its summer fur. Lawson notices it in his 'History of Carolina,' saying 

 that it is the same as in England, but very scarce. Catesby also men- 

 tions it, writing ' Weasle ; ' and in the ' New Description of Virginia ' 

 (1649), ' Weasels' are mentioned among their congeners, but with this 

 saving clause, evidently written to soothe settlers " but these vennine 

 hurt not hens, chickins, or eggs, at any time." Sir John Richardson 

 remarks that both the Weasel and the Ermine are indubitably inhabit- 

 ants of the American continent, the Ermine extending to the most 

 remote arctic districts, and the Weasel as far to the north, at least, at 

 the Saskatchewan 1 



Common Weasel (Ituitela 



Mr. Bell observes that the near approximation in figure and character, 

 and the great general similiarity in habits, which a comparison between 

 the Stoat and Weasel presents, have occasioned considerable confusion 

 in some of the accounts which have been given of their history ; though 

 the difference of size and colour would at once be sufficient to distin- 

 guish the species, were there no other points of disagreement between 

 them. 



" The Stoat," says Mr. Bell, " is brown above, dirty white beneath ; 

 the tail always black at the tip, longer and more bushy than that of 

 the Weasel, and the former animal is twice as large a-s its elegant little 

 congener. The Weasel, on the other hand, is red above, pure white 

 beneath, the bill red and uniform. Their habits also, though generally 

 similar, are in many of their details considerably distinct ; and we are 

 fully borne out by observation in saying that the accusations against 

 the Weasel of the mischief which he is said to perpetrate in the farm- 

 yard and the hen-roost, as well as amongst game of every description 

 on hares and rabbits no less than on the feathered tribes are 

 principally duo to the Stoat. It is not meant to be asserted that tin. 

 Weasel will not, when driven by hunger, boldly attack the stock of 

 the poultry-yard, or occasionally make free with a young rabbit or a 

 sleeping partridge ; but that its usual prey is of a much more ignoble 

 character is proved by daily observation. Mice of every description, 

 the field and the water vole, rats, moles, and small birds, arc tin ir 

 ordinary food ; and from the report of unprejudiced observers it would 

 appear that this pretty animal ought rather to be fostered as a destroyer 

 of vermin than extirpated ta a noxious depredator. Above all, it 

 should not be molested in barns, ricks, or granaries, in which situations 

 it is of great service in destroying the colonies of mice which infest 

 them. Those only who have witnessed the multitudinous numbers in 

 which these little pests are found, in wheat-ricks especially, and have 

 seen the manner in which the interior is sometimes drilled, as it were, 

 in every direction by their runs, can at all appreciate the amount of 

 their depredations ; and surely the occasional abduction of a chicken 

 or a duckling, supposing it to be even much more frequently charge- 

 able againrt the Weasel than it really is, would be but a trifling set-off 

 ngainst the benefit produced by the destruction of those swarms of 

 little thieves." 



Mr. Bell adds, as ground for this defence of the Weasel, that a 

 friend of his assured him that at least three bushels of different species 

 of mice had been killed out of one wheat-rick, a number that will not 

 surprise those who have seen a good thoroughly-routing mouse-limit 

 in a grain rick-yard or granary where the mice have taken up their 

 quarters in earnest. Great good the Weasel certainly does, ami its 



