WEASELS AND THEIR HABITS 



165 



roost at night. The weasel was content to take only a 

 bite or so from each head and suck all the blood he could, 

 escaping down a rathole, and being smart enough not to 

 come out again while the writer was there with the 

 lantern. But after all, the service these little rascals 

 render about the barns and outbuildings, in the way of 

 destroying scores upon scores of rats and mice, far more 

 than compensates for the loss of a few hens. In short, 

 we may believe with Benjamin Scott that "if considera- 

 tions of profit and loss are to determine, according to 

 modern tendencies, the fate or the survival of our smaller 

 wild birds and quadrupeds, we cannot too strongly incul- 

 cate the doctrine that nothing is really gained by destroy- 

 ing the balance of nature; while the extinction even of 

 an animal so apparently insignificant as a weasel would 

 be a loss, not to be repaired by any supposed utilitarian 

 advantage to those who, in reverent pursuit of natural 

 science 'love to 

 view these 

 things with cu- 

 rious eyes, and 

 moralize.' " 



The writer 

 has several 

 times caught 

 the New York 

 weasel in a box 

 trap, and it is 

 remarkable to 

 see how gentle 

 they are when 

 taken captive ; 

 they do not 

 seem to know 

 what fear is. 

 Witmer Stone 

 once caught a 

 female speci- 

 men of the same species in this way, and said that "with- 

 in less than an hour from the time she was first removed 

 from the trap to her cage, she would take meat from my 

 hand without the slightest hesitation, and never offered to 

 bite my fingers even when touching them with her nose. 

 This tameness could not have been brought about by 

 hunger, for when I found her in the box trap she had 

 not wholly eaten the rabbit's head which I had used 

 for bait." 



A weasel's nest is generally made up of old, dried 

 leaves or grass, and rendered warm, dry, and comfortable. 

 It is usually placed in the hollow root of some dead tree, 

 or in a hole in a bank somewhere. At other times they 

 select the burrows of other animals, as chipmunks, rab- 

 bits, and gophers, frequently killing and devouring the 

 rightful owner prior to occupancy. 



Weasels are very prolific, in some regions having two 

 or three litters a year, and from three to five weaselets to 

 the litter. Females, which in some of the species are 

 considerably smaller than the males, are fearless to a 

 fault when called upon to defend their young. Regard- 



OTHER SMALL WEASELS, OTHER THAN OUR LEAST WEASEL (Fig. 3), OCCUR IN OUR WEST- 

 ERN TERRITORIES, AND THIS IS ONE OF THEM 



Fig. 5. This one has received the name of Puget Sound Weasel (P. atreatori), and it is to be m:t with 

 atong the coasts of Oregon and Washington. 



less of the size of the assailant, she will at once fly at 

 him, be it man, dog, or feathered foe, and she is quite 

 ready to sacrifice her own life in defense of her precious 

 young. From all we can gather, it would appear that the 

 period of gestation in any of the weasels is between six 

 and seven weeks. In the Southern States they breed 

 earlier than in the North. Along the southern border of 

 the United States the young may be produced as early as 

 the latter part of March; we may count a month later 

 for the middle districts, while those in the far north are 

 not produced until well into the month of May. When 

 unencumbered by the cares of a family, weasels become 

 great travelers, and will, even in the space of one night, 

 wander several miles. This they will continue to do for 

 a month or more. 



The New York weasel, like others of its kind in the 

 northern geographical ranges, assumes a pure white coat 



on the ap- 

 proach of win- 

 ter, the tip of 

 the tail alone 

 remaining per- 

 fectly black, as 

 it does through- 

 out the year. 

 In the summer 

 the upper part 

 of its coat and 

 the feet are of 

 a deep choco- 

 late brown. To 

 a moderate ex- 

 tent this en- 

 croaches on the 

 lower part, the 

 latter being 

 white, faintly 

 shaded with 

 pale yellow. In winter this pale yellow may become 

 persistent on the lower parts of the animal, but not in- 

 variably so. As spring approaches, the weasels, in shed- 

 ding their coat, present a mottled or pied appearance; 

 and in some of the southern districts the change from the 

 pure white to the summer coat is said to be never quite 

 complete, as it always is with typical northern forms. 

 Usually it is the end of the tail that remains black, and 

 this is strikingly conspicuous when the remainder of 

 the coat is white. It is rendered still more so as the 

 animal passes over the snow. Under these conditions the 

 black tip may be of service to a weasel, for it is this 

 which, above everything else, rivets the gaze of the 

 beholder. One sees the black pencil of a tail only, as the 

 white and hard-to-be-seen creature flees over the fresh 

 snow. Doubtless this likewise holds true for the enemies 

 of the weasel among the owls and hawks and others. 

 Were a hawk, for instance, to pounce upon one of 

 these little fellows, he would naturally attempt to seize 

 with his talons the part most evident to his sight that 

 which held it and influenced the effort to capture. A 



