CHAP, xiii.] WEASELS FERRETS. 101 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Weasels Ferrets : Fierceness of Anecdotes Food of Weasels Manner of 

 Hunting for Prey: The Stoat Change of Colour Odour of Food 

 of Their catching Fish : Polecat The Marten Cat Habits Trapping 

 Eating Fruit Activity of: Different Species. 



THE bloodthirstiness and ferocity of all the weasel tribe is per- 

 fectly wonderful. Tne proverb " L'appetit vient en mangcant " 

 is well applied to these little animals. The more blood they 

 spill, the more they long for, and are not content till every 

 animal that they can get at is slain. A she ferret, with a litter 

 of young ones, contrived to get loose a few nights back, and 

 instinctively made her way to the henhouse, accompanied by 

 her six kittens, who were not nearly half-grown, indeed their 

 eyes were not quite open. Seven hens and a number of tame 

 rabbits were killed before they were discovered ; and every 

 animal that they killed, notwithstanding its weight and size, was 

 dragged to the hutch in which the ferrets were kept, and as they 

 could not get their victims through the hole by which they had 

 escaped themselves, a perfect heap of dead bodies was collected 

 round their hutch. When I looked out of my window in the 

 morning, I had the satisfaction of seeing four of the young 

 ferrets, covered with blood, dragging a hen (who I had flattered 

 myself was about to hatch a brood of young pheasants) across 

 the yard which was between the henhouse and where these ferrets 

 were kept; the remainder of them were assisting the old one in 

 slaughtering some white rabbits. Their eagerness to escape 

 again, and renew their bloody attacks, showed the excited state 

 the little wretches were in, from this their first essay in killiijg. 



In the same way the wild animals of the tribe must be wofully 

 destructive when opportunity is afforded them. Sitting opposite 

 a rabbit-hole, I one day saw a tiny weasel bring out four young 

 rabbits one after the other, and carry, or rather drag them away 

 one by one towards her own abode in a cairn of loose stones ; 



