WEASEL KIND. Hi 



mals care to come near;* so that it continues 

 eating and sleeping till its prey be devoured, 

 bones and all ; and then it mounts a tree, in quest 

 of another adventure. 



The glutton, like many others of the weasel 

 kind, seems to prefer the most putrid flesh to that 

 newly killed; and such is the voraciousness of 

 this hateful creature, that, if its swiftness and 

 strength were equal to its rapacity, it would soon 

 thin the forest of every other living creature. 

 But fortunately it is so slow, that there is scarce- 

 ly a quadruped that cannot escape it, except the 

 beaver. This, therefore, it very frequently pur- 

 sues upon land ; but the beaver generally makes 

 good its retreat by taking to the water, where the 

 glutton has no chance to succeed. This pursuit 

 only happens in summer ; for in winter all that 

 remains is to attack the beaver's house, as at that 

 time it never stirs from home. This attack, how- 

 ever, seldom succeeds ; for the beaver has a covert 

 way bored under the ice, and the glutton has 

 only the trouble and disappointment of sacking 

 an empty town. 



A life of necessity generally produces a good 

 fertile invention. The glutton, continually press- 

 ed by the call of appetite, and having neither 

 swiftness nor activity to satisfy it, is obliged to 

 make up by stratagem the defects of nature. It 

 is often seen to examine the traps and the snares 

 laid for other animals, in order to anticipate the 

 fowlers. It is said to practise a thousand arts to 



* Linnaei Systema, p. 67. 



