THE ERMINE, OR STOAT. 331 



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 

 color. 



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 color before 

 the winter is begun, becoming a beautiful cream color, all 

 except the tip of the tail, as was said before, which still con- 

 tinues black. Mr. Daubenton had one of these brought with 

 him its white winter fur, which he put into a cage and kept, 

 in order to observe the manner of moulting its hair. He re- 

 ceived it in the beginning of March ; in a very short time it 

 began to shed its coat, and a mixture of brown was seen to 

 prevail among the white, so that at the ninth of the same 

 month its head was nearly become of a reddish brown. Day 

 after day this color 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 

 color ; 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 above two years ; which, 

 without doubt, was owing to it& imprisoned state ; this color 

 being partly owing to its stinted food, and partly to the rigor 

 of the season. During its state of confinement, this little ani- 

 mal always continued very wild and untractable ; for ever in 

 a state of violent agitation, except when asleep, which it often 

 continued for three parts of the day. Except for its most dis- 

 agreeable scent, it was an extremely pretty creature,- its eyes 

 sprightly, its physiognomy pleasant, and its motions so swift 



