198 WOODLAND, MOOR, AND STREAM 



you will feel inclined to quit him. The far-famed 

 skunk of North America is not the only animal that 

 can make you wish that you had let him alone. If 

 you kill any of the tribe when they are enraged and 

 at close quarters, the fur will retain the abominable 

 odour for months that of the marten alone excepted. 



The nimble little weasel is the smallest of his 

 tribe, only measuring ten and three-quarter inches. 

 His colour is like that of the stoat, except that his 

 tail is always the same colour as his upper parts, and 

 red. White varieties have occurred, but I have never 

 seen any white weasels in the hard winters. 



There is a small kind of weasel called the Cain, 

 Kane, or mouse-killer, that I have often seen. The 

 rustics have called him by that name from my earliest 

 recollections, which go a long way back. He is very 

 small, not much longer than the short-tailed mouse 

 that he feeds on. Naturalists have not yet deter- 

 mined what he is a variety, or a small separate 

 species ; it does not matter. I have seen him and 

 the common weasel come on to the velvety lawn of a 

 country house, and play there the most extraordinary 

 antics, their sole object being the capture of some 

 wagtails that were running nimbly about, catching 

 insects at every tumble and vault. They managed 

 to p-et nearer to the birds, and their movements were 



