427 



very conclusively that he is thorouj^hly acquainted 

 with their hauLts ai:d sangninary ways: 



The Weasel is Jhe only animal to my knowledge that never 

 rests; it is always on the move and the more game he kills 

 the more he wants to kill. I have followed the track of this 

 animal every winter, for twenty years, and I was never able 

 to run one down by following the track. He never walks; his 

 jumps are from eighteen to twenty-two inches, and any person 

 following his tracks on the snow, when there has been a light 

 snow squall at intervals of two or three hours, during forty- 

 eight hours as I have done, to learn if he had any home, will 

 find that he rests only while killing his victim. The snow is 

 never too deep or the weather too cold for him. I have followed 

 his track when it was seven degrees below zero, and snow 

 eight inches deep. 



HE KILLS BUT DON'T DISFIGURE. 



I have followed the back track to see where he came from 

 and found eleven dead Rabbits killed by him. and all of them 

 hidden either in the hole that he started them from or pulled 

 under the snow; sometimes twenty feet to some brush pile. The 

 "Weasel, to my mind, has a great instinct. If you follow the 

 track on very deep snow, you will find frequently a small hole- 

 in the snow where he went down and came up, perhaps fifty 

 feet away; you will discover also, every time, a Rabbit hole at 

 the very spot that he went into the snow, and if a Rabbit is in 

 the hole, it will have gone only about twenty yards, when you 

 find the snow tramped for about six feet square and you may 

 see a little fur; then look sharp and you will discover where 

 the Rabbit was pulled back into the same hole, and by putting 

 a briar or rod into the hole you can twist it fast to a dead 

 Rabbit, with a small hole between the ear and eye. After it 

 has killed four or five in a few hours, you will not find any mark 

 on them, as it sucks the blood without making any visible 

 marks until you pull the skin off the head and neck. 



While the "Weasel will stand any cold, when at liberty, if 

 you confine.it in a box or cage, it will be dead in a few hours, 

 by having to remain still, even when it is not zero weather. 



The Weasel has great digestive powers. I find, when it is 

 getting all the blood it wants, that in about every twenty yards, 

 in the snow, you will find its excreta about three-fourths of an 

 Inch long, thick as a common slate pencil and like frozen blood. 



