420 



his little heart, as he bounds along in great leaps or 

 runs with remarkable celerity in search of prey. Not 

 to the land alone does he confine himself in this search, 

 however, but in underground passages made by the 

 Rabbit or Mouse and also in the water, his long slender 

 body aiding his advance. The unwary bird who has 

 paused on some low bush to carol forth his song or 

 wet his parched throat in the running brook or rest 

 quietly on the bough in the hush of the night, have 

 frequently met their daath by the teeth of this little 

 creature. Mr. Wm. Macgillivray says of him "in pro- 

 portion to his size he is at least as courageous as a 

 lion." So much for the cognomen Stout and now let 

 us turn our attention to that of "Ph-mine." Dr. Elliott 

 Coues in his admirably written work on "Fur Bearing 

 Animals'' says of this one: "Gwillim," in his "Display 

 of Heraldrie," gives the following etymology of Er- 

 mine: 



"This is a little beast lesse than a Squirrel, that hath his 

 being in the woods of the land of Armenia whereof he taketh 

 his name." 



The latter word is sometimes written in Englisli 

 "ermin" or "ermelin," and the same term occurs in sev- 

 eral other languages. 



THE IMAGE OF A SERPENT. 



The same writer (Coues) also says: 



"A glance at the physiognomy of the Weasels would suffice 

 to betray their character; the teeth are almost of the highest 

 known raptorial character; the jaws are worked by enormous 

 masses of muscles covering all the sides of the skull; the fore- 

 head is low and the nose is sharp; the eyes are small, penetra- 

 ting, cunning and glitter with an angry green light. There is 

 something peculiar, moreover, in the way that this fierce face 

 surmounts a body extraordinary, wiry, lithe and muscular. Tt 

 ends a remarkably long and slender neck in such a way that 

 it may b*> held nl riyrht nnglp with the nxis of the latter. When 



