218 



MARTEN. 



equally "painful and powerful, (For its canines are 

 rough,) and it is so light, that the animal on which it 

 fastens is unable to shake it off. The Scotch name 

 " Whitret," which is given to this animal, is, in the 

 .old language of the country, (not the Gaelic,) remark- 

 ably expressive of its action and manners ; for it im- 

 plies that it is seen one moment and lost the next. 

 As is the case with the whole tribe, and with preda- 

 tory animals generally, the weasel remains in a 

 state of repose during the day. This is not always 

 the case, however, for the writer of this article has 

 seen a weasel fairly run down a leveret along a fur- 

 row of ploughed land, and seize it by the side of the 

 neck, and instantly finish it, at noon day, and under a 

 bright sun. The weasel is indeed remarkably scien- 

 tific in the killing of its prey, and fixes on the place 

 where its bite is most speedily mortal, and the blood 

 of the animal most easily obtained, as correctly as if 

 it had studied anatomy sufficiently to entitle it to 

 a diploma ; it is doubtful indeed, whether, many of 

 those who have got possession of such a document, 

 could kill a hare or a rabbit, and extract its blood, 

 with the same neatness and expedition as a weasel. 

 The weasel is particularly fond of warm blood ; but 

 it is somewhat of an epicure in the matter of flesh. 

 It likes that " high ;" and when one smells the store 

 which it generally has in its larder, in favourable situ- 

 ations, one is forcibly put in mind of the distich of 

 the satirist 



" O blast it, south winds, till a scent prevail, 

 Rank as the ripeness of a rabbit's tail." 



This taste is not, however, peculiar to the weasel, or 

 to the group of carnivora to which it belongs ; for 

 all carnivorous animals give the preference to flesh 

 with the odour of putridity about it, rather than flesh 

 which is fresh and recent. Here again there arises 

 a curious little point, not uninstructive to the human 

 race. The man of wholesome and simple appetite, 

 who lives in great part upon vegetable matter and 

 the product of the living beast without the destruc- 

 tion of its life, and who eats flesh but rarely and 

 as a dainty, likes to have it as fresh and recent as 

 ever he can get it ; but, with a thoroughly carnivo- 

 rous man, the case is different ; he must hang up his 

 mutton a fortnight and his venison six weeks, and can 

 in no case relish grouse unless he can eat it with 

 maggot sauce of its own growth. We must not be 

 astonished at this coincidence between man and the 

 other animals in the matter of food. It is the merely 

 animal man that feeds, not the intellectual man ; and 

 in proportion as man approximates any animal in the 

 nature of his food, he must approximate that animal 

 in his gusto. 



We have remarked that the weasel, when on the 

 hunt, or when by any means excited, is an exceed- 

 ingly energetic and powerful animal for its size , and 

 it is worthy of remark, that its muscles, or working 

 structures, enjoy as complete a relaxation in the time 

 of its repose. During the greater part of the day, 

 unless under peculiar circumstances, such as those to 

 which allusion has been made, the weasel gives itself 

 up to rest and sleep ; and it is impossible to imagine 

 a creature giving more perfect and more equal rest to 

 all the working structures of its frame, than the weasel 

 does upon silch occasions. It has the utmost degree 

 of relaxation, not only in the muscles of the limbs, 

 but in the muscles connected with the spine, which 

 are, indeed, as much called into action as the others, 

 if not more so, during the leaps which the animal has 



to take. If ono takes proper judgment of where the 

 centre of gravity is situated, and so puts his stick 

 under a sleeping weasel, and raises it gently from the 

 ground, it comes head and heels together as easily, 

 and with apparently as little pain to itself, as if one 

 were lifting io>the same manner a bit of ribbon or ;m 

 old stocking. So also, if found sleeping, it may be 

 taken up by the head, the heels, or the tail, and swung 

 pendulumwise for at least a dozen times before it 

 begins to awake. In fact, though it is a snappish 

 little animal when awake, there is none in the whole 

 catalogue of the mammalia with which one may take 

 greater liberties when asleep. 



Weasels have, we believe, only one litter in the 

 year, which circumstance sets them down as beingr 

 properly natives of temperate countries, and not of 

 tropical ones ; for the ferret, which, though not ori- 

 ginally from a region absolutely tropical in respect 

 of latitude, though from one which is certainly tropical 

 in point of climate, has two broods in the year. The 

 female is not, even as brood for brood, so productive 

 as the female ferret, for her litter rarely, if ever, 

 exceeds four or five. She prepares for them a com- 

 fortable bed of dry stalks and leaves and soft moss ; 

 and we are not aware of any recorded instance of 

 her devouring her offspring, as the ferret sometimes 

 does. The period of her gestation is nearly the same 

 as in that species, and the young ones are blind when 

 they are dropped, as is the case with almost all car- 

 nivorous animals. She is an attentive mother, how. 

 ever ; and though she has the same deficiency in suck- 

 ling as the rest of the tribe, she brings them fresh 

 eggs and warm animals quite full of blood in a fluid 

 state. Those stimulating viands whet their young 

 instincts, and cause them to grow apace, so that in a 

 short time they are able to join in the nocturnal 

 forage, and kill their own prey. 



The weasel is not so destructive about farm-yardg 

 as the polecat; it is a much prettier animal; and 

 though the odour of it is no desirable perfume, it 

 does not offend the nostril to such an extent as that 

 of the other does. For these reasons, the weasel it 

 by no means so much persecuted as the polecat j 

 and in country places it is generally rather a favourite 

 than otherwise. Nor is it undeserving of this favour ; 

 for it is a most excellent mouser, and perhaps 

 destroys more of the murine tribe than any other of 

 our wild animals, excepting perhaps the owl. The 

 fur of the weasel is much more close and delicate 

 than that of the polecat, and on these accounts it w 

 held in higher estimation. It also improves in quality 

 in proportion as the animal inhabits a more northerly 

 climate ; and the weasel skins of Siberia fetch a price 

 in the Chinese market (the grand mart for furs) equal 

 to some two or three times their weight in silver. 

 Altogether, indeed, the weasel is a very interesting 

 little animal, and may be considered, in our view of 



the matter, one of nature's chefs d'ceuvre, because it 



P J . . 



contains a maximum 01 power in a minimum ot 



matter. 



The Ermine (P. erminia). The ermine is, in re- 

 spect of its fur, the most celebrated not only of the 

 polecat genus, but perhaps of the whole marten 

 tribe the term ermine being applied as symbolical 

 of the robe of a judge, or anything else which is un- 

 derstood to be of unstained or incorruptible purity. 

 It is only in winter, however, that the fur of the 

 ermine is of that snowy whiteness which makes it so 

 much admired, for in summer it is yellowish. It is 



