THE STORY OF THE WEASEL. 



No one would think, on seeins^ a weasel for the hrst time, that the 

 graceful, slender little animal, w-ith its brown back, pretty, white throat, 

 funny face, and sparkling eyes, was such a fierce, bloodthirsty creature. But 

 that little head is full of murderous designs, and has the courage of a giant. 

 Rats and mice are everywhere hunted out and destroyed by the weasel. It 

 inflicts a bite on the head which pierces the brain, and seldom fails to lay 

 the victim dead at its feet by one stroke. 



The weasel is also a destroyer of newly-hatched chickens and young 

 ducks, as well as of the smaller feathered tribe; and although it does good 

 service in keeping down the mice, it is a bad neighbor to the hare and rabbit- 

 warren. It is a most active and persevering hunter; few trees will stop it 

 when in search of birds' nests, which it robs, not only by sucking the eggs, 

 but by carrying off the young. 



The weasel is excessively useful to farmers on account of its unrelenting 

 war on rats and mice, and in an incredibly short space of time it extirpates 

 them from a barn or stack. It hunts by scent like dogs, and tracks the 

 unfortunate rat with the most deadly certainty. It is so courageous that 

 it will even attack men, and is by no means a despicable antagonist, as its 

 instinct invariably leads it to dash at the throat, where a bite from its long 

 sharp teeth is always dangerous. 



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