Foure-Footed Beastes. 279 



liow she flattereth by rubbing her skinne against 

 ones Legges, how she whurleth with her voyce, 

 having as many tunes as turnes, for she hath 

 one voice to beg and to complain, another to 

 testifie her delight and pleasure, another among 

 hir own kind by flattering, by hissing, by 

 puffing, by spitting, insomuch as some have 

 thought that they have a peculiar intelligible 

 language amongst themselves. Therefore how 

 she) beggeth, playeth, leapeth, looketh, catcheth, 

 tosseth with her foote, riseth up to strings held 

 over her head, sometimes creeping, sometimes 

 lying on the back, playing with one foot, sometime 

 on the bely, snatching now with the mouth and 

 anon with the foot, apprehending greedily any- 

 thing save the hand of man with divers such 

 gestical actions it is needlesse to stand upon." 

 As showing that our author was not ignorant of 

 the habits of animals that came under his own 

 observation, we may notice that he states that 

 weasels "kill, eat, and devour" moles, "because 

 of their long slender bodies, they are apt to creep 

 into the holes of the earth " ; a fact which, if we 

 may judge from correspondence which from time 

 to time appears in the natural history columns of 

 the Field, is not even yet as well know as it should 

 be. The following a propos of moles, is too good 

 to be omitted : " When the wortnes are followed 

 by molds (for by digging and heaving they fore- 

 know their owne perdition) they fly to the super- 

 ficies and very toppe of the earth, the silly beast 



