New York Weasel 
Dark chocolate-brown above, white on under parts, terminal 
third of the tail black. In winter pure white except the 
black of the tail. This change in colour is complete only 
in the northern part of its range. The difference in size of 
the male and female is remarkable, and the latter is some- 
times confused with Bonaparte’s weasel, which has a much 
shorter tail. 
Range. Eastern United States, New Hampshire to Virginia, and 
westward to Illinois. To the north and west and in higher 
parts of North Carolina it is replaced by very closely allied 
varieties. 
The various kinds of weasels in this country are much alike 
in their habits, and there is probably as much difference to be 
observed between the ways of individuals of each species as 
between the different species. There are certain family charac- 
teristics, however, which apply to all of them. First of all, they 
are hunters; if they ever follow the example of the majority of 
the flesh-eaters and partake of beechnuts, berries, mushrooms, or 
herbs on occasions, they have evidently never been caught at it 
and reported by the student of nature. 
They hunt tirelessly, following their prey by scent, and kill 
for the mere joy of killing, often leaving their victims uneaten and 
hurrying on for more; when game is abundant they content 
themselves with sucking the warm blood. In cold weather they 
frequently hide the game they are unable to eat as a provision 
against period of hunger. 
They like best to follow old tumble-down stone walls over- 
grown with weeds, squeezing into every crevice that may har- 
bour a mouse or chipmunk; white-footed mice in particular furnish 
them no end of sport, for they are scarcely inferior to the 
weasels themselves in leaping powers, and are very abundant 
everywhere in the woods. In eating a mouse, the weasel first 
sucks the blood through the large veins of the neck, then bites 
through the skull and eats the brains, and after that, if still 
hungry, he eats the flesh, turning back the skin as he does so, 
leaving it turned inside out with the feet and tail attached. 
Meadow-mice, moles, shrews, and the common mice and rats 
of barns and corn ricks, are also hunted ‘by the weasel, but 
where white-footed mice are abundant they are pretty certain 
to receive his first attention. 
In winter the larger weasels kill large numbers of gray rabbits, 
236 


