CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS 253 



avoid a dog that was in close pursuit, it mounted a 

 tree and laid itself flat on a limb about twenty feet 

 from the ground, from which it was finally shot. We 

 have ascertained by successful experiments, repeated 

 more than a hundred times, that the ermine can be 

 employed, in the manner of the ferret of Europe, in 

 driving our American rabbit from the burrow into 

 which it has retreated. In one instance the ermine 

 employed had been captured only a few days before, 

 and its canine teeth were filed, in order to prevent 

 its destroying the rabbit; a cord was placed around 

 its neck to secure its return. It pursued the hare 

 through all the windings of its burrow, and forced 

 it to the mouth, where it could be taken in a net, or 

 by the hand. ' ' 



Seton, in his magnificent work on Northern 

 Mammals, relates many instances of the wea- 

 sel's work in Canada, mentioning among other 

 facts its persistent preying upon rabbits. In 

 Lantz's Economic Study of Field-Mice is given 

 a letter from a farmer in Waukegan, 111., who 

 writes : 



"Two years ago a pair of weasels took up their 

 abode in our tree-cellar, breeding there last year. 

 They kept most of the mice killed off. In the sum- 

 mer we saw the old one quite often carrying mice to 

 its young from outside the shed." 



