34 Chameleons in Fur [FIFTH WEEK 



chocolate hue and dons a pure white fur, a change which 

 would seem to put the poor mice and rabbits at a hopeless 

 disadvantage. Nevertheless the ermine, as he is now 

 called (although wrongly so), seems just able to hold his 

 own, with all his evil slinking motions and bloodthirsty 

 desires; for foxes, owls, and hawks take, in their turn, 

 heavy toll. Nature is ever a repetition of the " House that 

 Jack built"; this is the owl that ate the weasel that 

 killed the mouse, and so on. 



The little tail-tips of milady's ermine coat are black; 

 and herein lies an interesting 

 fact in the coloration of the 

 weasel and one that, perhaps, 

 gives a clue to some other 

 hitherto inexplicable spots 

 and markings on the fur, 



*~*r - feathers, skin, and scales of 



i i \ 



wild creatures . Whatever 

 the season, and whatever the 



WEASEL IN SUMMER 



colour of the weasel's coat, 



brown or white, the tip of the tail remains always black. 

 This would seem, at first thought, a very bad thing for 

 the little animal. Knowing so little of fear, he never 

 tucks his tail between his legs, and, when shooting across 

 an open expanse of snow, the black tip ever trailing after 

 him would seem to mark him out for destruction by every 

 observing hawk or fox. 



But the very opposite is the case as Mr. Witmer Stone 

 so well relates. " If you place a weasel in its winter white 

 on new-fallen snow, in such a position that it casts no 



