THE TRAGEDIES OF THE NESTS 85 



that infests the place; kill every weasel also. The 

 weasel is a subtle and arch enemy of the birds. It 

 climbs trees and explores them with great ease and 

 nimbleness. I have seen it do so on several occa- 

 sions. One day my attention was arrested by the 

 angry notes of a pair of brown thrashers that were 

 flitting from bush to bush along an old stone row 

 in a remote field. Presently I saw what it was 

 that excited them, — three large red weasels, or 

 ermines, coming along the stone wall, and leisurely 

 and half playfully exploring every tree that stood 

 near it. They had probably robbed the thrashers. 

 They would go up the trees with great ease, and 

 glide serpent-like out upon the main branches. 

 When they descended the tree they were unable to 

 come straight down, like a squirrel, but went around 

 it spirally. How boldly they thrust their heads 

 out of the wall, and eyed me and sniffed me as I 

 drew near, — their round, thin ears, their promi- 

 nent, glistening, bead-like eyes, and the curving, 

 snake-like motions of the head and neck being very 

 noticeable. They looked like blood-suckers and 

 egg-suckers. They suggested something extremely 

 remorseless and cruel. One could understand the 

 alarm of the rats when they discover one of these 

 fearless, subtle, and circumventing creatures thread- 

 ing their holes. To flee must be like trying to 

 escape death itself. I was one day standing in the 

 woods upon a flat stone, in what at certain seasons 

 Was the bed of a stream, when one of these weasels 



