72 ANIMALS OF THE 



The stoat or ermine differs from the weasel in 

 size, being usually nine inches long, whereas the 

 former is not much above six. The tail of the 

 ermine is always tipped with black, and is longer 

 in proportion to the body, and better furnished 

 with hair. The edges of the ears and the ends 

 of the toes in this animal are of a yellowish white ; 

 and although it is of the same colour with the 

 weasel, being of a lightish brown, and though 

 both this animal 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 er- 

 mine 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 unacquainted with quad- 

 rupeds 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 mani- 

 festly 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 winters are 

 long and severe, and the summers short and yet 

 generally hot in an extreme degree. The animal 



