THE WEASEL 9 



and invade cultivated ground, doing more harm by their larvae 

 than the mole, kept within bounds, itself commits by tunnelling, 

 underdraining, aerating, and top-dressing the ground, blending 

 the subsoil constituents with the surfacing debris. 



The WEASEL (Mustela vulgaris), Fig. 7, a species of carnivorous 

 mammals, belonging to the family Mustelidae, is characterized by 

 an elongated body, about 10 in. long in the male and 8 or 9 

 in the female ; head, long ; legs, short ; feet, each five toes ; muzzle, 

 rounded; body, bright brown on the upper parts, the under 

 parts white ; and tail tinted uniformly with the body. It is a highly 

 courageous animal, and attacks mice, rats, and voles, hares and 

 rabbits the five worst enemies of the forester, farmer, and gardener. 

 On the other hand, the weasel is very fond of young partridges and 

 pheasants, also chickens, and even pigeons, hence those interested 

 in game and poultry-rearing regard it as only deserving of exter- 

 mination. Albeit, the weasel destroys vast numbers of rodents or 



FIG. 7. THE WEASEL. 



gnawing animals, and in this respect confers more benefit than 

 damage on the farmer. 



The male weasel is so small that it can pass along mole runs easily, 

 not perhaps so much in quest of this animal as for the grass mice 

 or voles frequently harboured in forsaken mole-tunnels ; we have 

 caught weasels in traps set for moles, while the female weasel 

 is so wonderfully slim as to follow field mice underground. In 

 hedgerows mice and even rats find no abiding-place where the weasel 

 exists, and in cornstacks, often at a distance from the homestead, 

 there is no tunnelling of them by mice and rats when weasels 

 guard the environs ; while in case of rats and mice in possession 

 of a wheatrick, a weasel's appearance on the scene implies a speedy 

 clearance. In grassy places where voles, or so-called field mice, are 

 fostered the weasel is earnest in its breeding season, bringing mice 

 for the young at the rate of four per hour in one instance of obser- 

 vance, while the rodents passed out from the grassy places and 

 invaded the adjacent cultivated ground, the weasels being such 



