256 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



aspect and attitudes of the marten are perhaps 

 more elegant than those of any other of our native 

 quadrupeds. Endowed with great liveliness and 

 activity, its movements are at once rapid and 

 gracile. Its limbs are elastic, its body lithe and 

 flexible, and it bounds over the ground with equal 

 speed and grace. * * * If taken young it is 

 susceptible of great docility ; and the remarkable 

 elegance of its form, the beauty of its fur, and the 

 playfulness of its manners, render it one of the 

 most pleasing of pets." 



The polecat (mustela putorius). The stoat 

 (mustela erminea), and the common weasel (mustela 

 vulgaris), are neither so prepossessing in appear- 

 ance nor so attractive in manners ; while our 

 olfactory nerves especially in the case of the 

 first prompt us to pronounce at once a hasty 

 verdict against them. The last two are very ge- 

 nerally distributed, and, although hostile to game 

 birds, yet perform good service to the agricul- 

 turist in the destruction of four-footed vermin. 

 The weasel is eminently useful in the granary and 

 the straw -yard ; far more efficient than a cat, and 

 a worthy ally of the white owl. Indeed besides 

 the quantity of rats which it destroys, even during 

 a temporary sojourn in such situations, a still 

 greater number of those noxious animals are 

 frequently induced to migrate from the spot 



