WEASEL KIND. 81 



for the most part, is of a deep chocolate colour ; 

 it is white about the mouth ; the ears are short, 

 rounded, and tipt with white ; a little beyond the 

 corners of the mouth a stripe begins, which runs 

 backward, partly white and partly yellow : its 

 hair, like that of all this class, is of two sorts, the 

 long and the furry ; but in this animal the two 

 kinds are of different colours ; the longest is black, 

 and the shorter yellowish :* the throat, feet, and 

 tail, are blacker than any other parts of the body ; 

 the claws are white underneath, and brown 

 above ; and the tail is above two inches long. 



It is very destructive to young game of all 

 kinds :t but the rabbit seems to be its favourite 

 prey ; a single polecat is often sufficient to des- 

 troy a whole warren ; for, with that insatiable 

 thirst for blood which is natural to all the weasel 

 kind, it kills much more than it can devour ; and 

 I have seen twenty rabbits at a time taken out 

 dead, which they had destroyed, and that by a 

 wound which was hardly perceptible. Their 

 size, however, which is so much larger than the 

 weasel, renders their retreats near houses much 

 more precarious ; although I have seen them 

 burrow near a village, so as scarcely to be extir- 

 pated. But in general they reside in woods or 

 thick brakes, making holes under ground of about 

 two yards deep, commonly ending among the 

 roots of large trees, for greater security. In 

 winter they frequent houses, and make a common 

 practice of robbing the hen-roost and the dairy. 



* Ray's Synopsis. f British Zoology, vol. i. p. 78. 



VOL. III. F 



