3 6 4 



THE WEASEL. 



Weasels for their timely interference on his behalf. However, the Weasels, having 

 eaten all the rats, began to extend their operations farther afield, and invaded the 

 neighboring premises in search of more game. Chickens, eggs, and young rabbits were 

 continually carried off, and the owner of the pond was soon as anxious to rid himself 

 of the Weasels as he had been desirous of destroying the rats. The Weasels, however, 

 were not so easily driven from their usurped burrows, and continued to hold their ground. 

 The Weasel affords another example of the hasty manner in which so many animals 

 are calumniated. It is said by Buffon to be wholly untameable, sullen, and savage, and 

 to be insensible to every kindness that could be lavished upon it. Yet we find that the 

 true disposition of the Weasel is of a very different character, and that there is hardly 

 any of our British animals which is more keenly susceptible of kindness, or which will 

 more thoroughly repay the kind treatment of a loving hand. A lady who had taken a 

 fancy to a Weasel, and had succeeded in gaining its affections, wrote a most charming 

 account of the habits of the little creature which she had taken under her protection. 

 She writes as follows : 



" If I pour some milk into my hand," says this lady, " it will drink a good deal, but if 

 I do not pay it this compliment it will scarcely take a drop. When satisfied, it generally 

 goes to sleep. My chamber is the place of its residence ; and I have found a method of 

 dispelling its strong smell by perfumes. By day, it sleeps in a quilt, into which it gets 

 by an unsewn place which it has discovered on the edge ; during the night, it is kept in 

 a wired box or cage, which it always enters with reluctance, and leaves with pleasure. 

 If it be set at liberty before my time of rising, after a thousand little playful tricks, it gets 

 into my bed, and goes to sleep in my hand or on my bosom. If I am up first, it 

 spends a full half-hour in caressing me ; playing with my fingers like a little dog, jump- 

 ing on my head and on my neck, and running round on my arms and body with a 

 lightness and elegance which I have never found in any other animal. If I present 

 my hands at the distance of three feet, it jumps into them without ever missing. It 

 exhibits great address and cunning to compass its ends, and seems to disobey certain 

 prohibitions merely through caprice. 



During all its actions it seems solicitous to divert and to be noticed ; looking at 

 every jump and at every turn to see whether it be observed or not. If no notice be 

 taken of its gambols, it ceases them immediately, and betakes itself to sleep, and even 

 when awakened from the soundest sleep it instantly resumes its gaiety, and frolics 

 about in as sprightly a manner as before. It never shows any ill-humor, unless when 

 confined, or teased too much ; in which case it expresses its displeasure by a sort of 

 murmur, very different from that which it utters when pleased. 



In the midst of twenty people this little animal distinguishes my voice, seeks me 

 out, and springs over everybody to come at me. His play with me is the most lively 

 and caressing imaginable. With his two little paws he pats me on the chin, with an air 

 and manner expressive of delight. This, and a thousand other preferences, show that 

 his attachment to me is real. When he sees me dressed for going out, he will not leave 

 me, and it is not without some trouble that I can disengage myself from him ; he then 

 hides himself behind a cabinet near the door, and jumps upon me as I pass, with so 

 much celerity that I often can scarcely perceive him. 



He seems to resemble a squirrel in vivacity, agility, voice, and his manner of mur- 

 muring. During the summer he squeaks and runs about the house all the night long ; 

 but since the commencement of the cold weather I have not observed this. Sometimes 

 when the sun shines while he is playing on the bed, he turns and tumbles about and 

 murmurs for a while. 



From his delight in drinking milk out of my hand, into which I pour a very little at 

 a time, and his custom of sipping the little drops and edges of the fluid, it seems prob- 

 able that he drinks dew in the same manner. He seldom drinks water, and then only 

 for want of milk, and with great caution, seeming only to refresh his tongue once or 

 twice, and even to be afraid of that fluid. During the hot weather it rained a good deal ; 

 I presented to him some rain-water in a dish, and endeavored to make him go into it, 

 but could not succeed. I then wetted a piece of linen cloth in it, and put it near him, 

 and he rolled upon it with extreme delight. 



