CARNIVORA 2O9 



to $ioo, 12 while in the Northwest in 1926 they were selling for from 

 $20 to $125, and those of the .pine marten for from $10 to $5O. 13 



The term ermine is applied to the white winter pelage of northern 

 weasels, long used in England as a symbol of rank, especially in the 

 regalia of judges, and also recognized in heraldry, now frequently 

 used in the manufacture of coats, or more commonly as trimming for 

 garments. 



The larger weasels feed chiefly upon mice > squirrels and the like, and 

 are great enemies of ground squirrels and pocket gophers, whose bur- 

 rows they are able to enter easily. They "kill every small animal that 

 comes within their reach . . . far more than they can eat . . . killing 

 for the sheer lust of it, as well as for a little blood, which they take 

 from each individual," moving on when the rodents in the neighbor- 

 hood are gone, occasionally raiding poorly-constructed henhouses, which 

 may be prevented by proper construction. 14 Though their fur is valu- 

 able, the live weasels are probably worth much more as rodent destroy- 

 ers. "In the winter the larger weasels kill a large number of gray rab- 

 bits. ... In summer they catch grasshoppers, crickets and beetles of 

 various sorts, and rob every bird's nest they can find." 15 Malloy -found 

 eleven dead rabbits killed by a weasel whose track in the snow he was 

 following. 16 The destruction of poultry by the long-tailed weasels is 

 only occasional, while its destruction of mice and other injurious ro- 

 dents and insects is continual, and it is said to be the most important 

 enemy of the prairie pocket gopher, yet Pennsylvania paid bounties for 

 the killing of 422,457 of these valuable mousers from 1915 to 1924." 



The least weasel (Mustela rixosa rixosa) is too small to damage 

 poultry very much, and is a very valuable agent in the control of field 

 mice and other small rodents and insects. 18 A den in Manitoba contained 

 six dead Micro tus, two Evotomys and remnants of six or eight other 

 rodents. All of the 27 vole communities (Microtus minor) examined 

 had been raided by these weasels. "Thus from being an abundant ani- 



12 Jones, Fur farming in Canada, pp. 79~8o I 9 I 3- 



"Taylor and Shaw, Mammals of Mt. Rainier National Park, pp. 47, 48, 50, 1927. 



"Bailey, Farmers' Bull., No. 335, p. 30, 1908; N. Amer. Fauna, No. 49, pp. 166, 

 169, 1926. Gary, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 33, p. 186, 1911. 



15 Howell, AT. Amer. Fauna, No. 45, p. 35, 1921, quoting Stone and Cram, 

 American animals, pp. 236-237, 1902. 



16 Rhoads, Mammals of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, p. 171, 1903. 



"Criddle, Journ. Mammalogy, xi, 265-280, 1930. Seton, Lives of game animals, 

 n, Part 2, pp. 612-632, 1929. One million golden weasels are exported annually from 

 China, according to the China Journal, as cited in Journ. Mammalogy, xn, 173, 1931. 



18 Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 49, p. 169, 1926. Criddle, Weasels of Manitoba, 

 Canada, Field Nat., Sept., 1925. Seton, Lives of game animals, 11, Part 2, pp. 634- 

 639, 1929- 



