CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 5. CARN1VURA. 313 



least three bushels of different species of mice had been killed out of one wheat-rick, a number 

 that will not surprise those who have seen a good thoroughly routing mouse-hunt in a grain rick- 

 yard or granary, where the mice have taken up their quarters in earnest. Great good the weasel 

 certainly does, and its usual mode of attack, when it reaches its prey, shows that small quadru- 

 peds and birds form its staple food. It inflicts a bite on the head, which pierces the brain, and 

 seldom fails to lay the victim dead at its feet by a single stroke. But there can be no doubt that 

 it is a destroyer of newly hatched gallinaceous and grown birds and young ducks, as well as the 

 smaller feathered tribes, and that although it does good service in keeping down the mice, it is a 

 bad neighbor to the hare and rabbit warrens. Not that a weasel will do one third the mischief 

 that a stoat will, nor upon animals of such large growth; but it will do enough. It is a most act- 

 ive and persevering hunter; few trees will stop it when in search of bird's nests, which it robs not 

 only by sucking the eggs, but by carrying off the young. It will hunt the mole, the field-mouse, 

 and other small quadrupeds in their usual haunts, not only by the eve, but by scent, like a stoat, 

 and most amusing it is to see one of these flexible, agile little creatures tracing up the scent when 

 it is at fault. They will quarter the ground like a dog till they hit it off, and to lose no help 

 from the eye, will occasionally sit up, raising themselves on their hind-quarters to gain a more 

 extended view around them. Their perseverance will tire down animals larger and stronger than 

 themselves, nor will water stop them when their prey takes to it for safety. In they plunge, and 

 seldom quit their object till the fatal bite is inflicted. The brain is generally first eaten, and the 

 body of the victim kept as a supply near the haunt of the little hunter; but it seems very ques- 

 tionable whether they are addicted to the blood-sucking propensities which the vulgar attribute 

 to them. The probability is that this charge has been greatly exaggerated. 



The last-named acute zoologist throws well-grounded doubt on the assertion that the weasel 

 will attack and destroy snakes; and, indeed, he believes such a notion to be entirely erroneous. 

 He placed a weasel and a common snake together in a large cage, in which the former had the 

 opportunity of retiring into a small box in which it slept. Mutual fear was manifest, and the ani- 

 mal kept at a distance; the snake, however, showing as much disposition to be the assailant as 

 the weasel, which at last gave the snake an occasional slight bite on the side or on the nose, 

 without, however, materially injuring the reptile, and evidently without any instinctive desire to 

 feed upon it. After they had remained two or three hours together, the animals appeared almost 

 indifferent to the presence of each other. The snake was then removed. 



"How different was this weasel's conduct," says Bell, after relating the experiment above stated, 

 "when a mouse was introduced into the cage! It instantly issued from its little box, and in a mo- 

 ment one single bite on the head pierced the brain, and laid the mouse dead without a struggle 

 or a cry. I have observed that when a weasel seizes a small animal, at the instant that the fatal 

 bite is inflicted, it throws its long, lithe body over its prey, so as to secure it should the first bite 

 fail; an accident, however, which I have never observed to occur when a mouse has been the vic- 

 tim. The power which the weasel has of bending the head at right angles with the long and 

 flexible, though powerful neck, gives it great advantage in this mode of seizing and killing its 

 smaller prey." 



This destroyer becomes itself a victim to birds of prey. We have all heard the story of the 

 eagle and cat, and how the maddened quarry brought the mighty bird that had snatched it away 

 down again to the earth in the agonies of death. In the "Magazine of Natural History" a similar 

 anecdote is recorded of a stoat and an eagle, not, however, with any strong voucher. But Mr. 

 Bell, on the authority of Mr. Pindar, residing, when the event occurred, at Bloxworth, in Dorset- 

 shire, relates the following passage in the life of a weasel, and as there is no ground whatever for 

 doubt, it affords a striking instance of the murderous instinct of this little quadruped. 



Mr. Pindar, while riding over his grounds, saw at a short distance from him a kite pounce on 

 some object on the ground, and rise with it in his talons. "In a few moments, however, the kite 

 oegan to show signs of great uneasiness, rising rapidly in the air, or as quickly falling, and wheel- 

 ing irregularly round, while it was evidently endeavoring to force some obnoxious thing from it 

 with its feet. After a sharp but short contest, the kite fell suddenly to the earth, not far from 

 ■vhere Mr. Pindar was intently watching the manoeuvre. He instantly rode up to the spot, when 

 Vol. I.— 40 



