THE WEASEL KIND. 



331 



as well as the weasel, in the most northern 

 parts of Europe, changes its colour in winter, 

 and becomes white, yet even then the weasel 

 may be easily distinguished from the ermine 

 by the tip of the tail, which in the latter is 

 always black. 



It is well known that the fur of the ermine 

 is the most valuable of any hitherto known ; 

 and it is in winter only that this little animal 

 has it of the proper colour and consistence. In 

 summer, the ermine, as was said before, is 

 brown, and it may at that time more properly 

 be called the stoat. There are few so unac- 

 quainted with quadrupeds as not to perceive 

 this change of colour in the hair, which in 

 some degree obtains in them all. The horse, 

 the cow, and the goat, all manifestly change 

 colour in the beginning of summer, the old 

 long hair falling off, and a shorter coat of hair 

 appearing in its room, generally of a darker 

 colour, and yet more glossy. What obtains in 

 our temperate climate, is seen to prevail still 

 more strongly in those regions where the win- 

 ters are long and severe, and the summers 

 short and yet generally hot in an extreme de- 

 gree. The animal has strength enough during 

 that season to throw off a warm coat of fur, 

 which would but incommode it, and, conti- 

 nues for two or three months in a state some- 

 what resembling the ordinary quadrupeds of 

 the milder climates. At the approach of v\ inter, 

 however, the cold increasing, the coat of hair 

 seems to thicken in proportion ; from being 

 coarse and short, it lengthens and grows finer, 

 while multitudes of smaller hairs grow up be- 

 tween the longer, thicken the coat, and give 

 it all that warmth and softness which are so 

 much valued in the furs of the northern ani- 

 mals. 



It is no easy matter to account for this re- 

 markable warmth of the furs of northern 

 quadrupeds, or how they corne to be furnished 

 with such an abundant covering. It is easy 

 enough indeed, to say that nature fits them 

 thus for the climate ; and like an indulgent 

 mother, when she exposes them to the rigour 

 of an intemperate winter, supplies them with 

 a covering against its inclemency. But this is 

 only flourishing : it is not easy, I say, to tell 

 how nature comes to furnish them in this man- 

 ner. A few particulars on this subject are 

 all that we yet know. It is observable among 

 quadrupeds, as well as even among the human 



wo. 29 & 30. 



species itself, that a thin sparing diet is apt to 

 produce hair ; children that have been ill fed, 

 i'amished dogs and horses, are more hairy than 

 others whose food has been more plentiful. 

 This may, therefore, be one cause that the 

 animals of the north, in winter, are more hairy 

 than those of the milder climates. At that 

 season, the whole country is covered with 

 deep snow, and the provisions which these 

 creatures are able to procure can be but pre- 

 carious and scanty. Its becoming finer may 

 also proceed from the severity of the cold, that 

 contracts the pores of the skin, and the hair 

 consequently takes the shape of the aperture 

 through which it grows, as wires are made 

 smaller by being drawn through a smaller 

 orifice. However this may be, all the animals 

 of the arctic climates may be said to have their 

 winter and summer garments, except very far' 

 to the north, as in Greenland, where the cold 

 is so continually intense and the food so 

 scarce, that neither the bears nor foxes change 

 colour.* 



The ermine, as was said, is remarkable 

 among these for the softness, the closeness, and 

 the warmth of its fur. It is brown in summer, 

 like the weasel, and changes colour before the 

 winter is b^gun, becoming a beautifdl cream 

 colour, all except the tip of the tail, as was 

 said before, which still continues black. Mr. 

 Daubenton had one of these brought him with 

 its white winter fur, which he put into a cage 

 and kept, in order to observe the manner of 

 moulting its hair. He received it in the be- 

 ginning of March ; in a very short time it 

 began to shed its coat, and a mixture of brown 

 was seen to prevail among ^he white, so that 

 at the ninth of the same month its head was 

 nearly become of a reddish brown. Day after 

 day this colour appeared to extend, at first 

 along the neck and down the back, in the 

 manner of a stripe of about half an inch broad. 

 The fore-part of the legs then assumed the 

 same colour ; a part of the head, the thighs, 

 and the tail, were the last that changed ; but 

 at the end of the month there was no white 

 remaining, except on those parts which are 

 always white in this species, particularly the 

 throat and the belly. However, he had not 

 the pleasure of seeing this animal resume its 

 former whiteness, although he kept it for 



a Krantz's History of Greenland, vol. i. p. 72. 

 3F 



