108 ITS HABITAT AND HABITS. 



male ferret, but of a fuller form and less active 

 habit. It is found scattered over a very wide 

 extent of country, ranging from the north of the 

 Gulf of Mexico almost to the southern confines of 

 the Hudson Bay Territory. 



As might be expected in climates of such a 

 diverse character, their habits, food, modes of life, 

 and even the colour of their coat, vary much. Still 

 all display that insatiable craving for blood so 

 characteristic of the weasel family. They are a 

 constant scourge to the settlers, whose poultry they 

 destroy ; and are no less obnoxious to sportsmen, 

 being the implacable foes to all descriptions of game. 

 In the more densely settled portions of the United 

 States, where this animal is constantly hunted down 

 and destroyed by the inhabitants, they have become 

 comparatively scarce; but in the large forests of 

 the west, more especially in those that margin 

 rivers, it is no uncommon occurrence for the traveller 

 to find numbers of them. When such is the case 

 they do not seek to conceal themselves, or to avoid 

 the attack directed against them, but seem to 

 regard their enemy's presence with perfect indiffer- 

 ence, often tempting the incautious and inexperienced 

 traveller within reach, and without fail treating 

 him to a sprinkling of their fetid secretion, the 

 strength of which is so great, and its power to 

 resist evaporation so unusual, that clothes which 

 have once been contaminated by it are for ever 

 after unfit for use. The distance at which this 



