170 CASSELL'S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



the father of Captain Brown, the naturalist, was returning from Gilmerton, near Edinburgh, by the 

 Dalkeith road. He observed, on the high ground, at a considerable distance, betwixt him and Craig- 

 inillar Castle, a man, who was leaping about, performing a number of antic gestures, more like those 

 of a madman than of a sane person. After contemplating this apparently absurd conduct, he 

 began to think it might be some unfortunate maniac, and, climbing over the wall, made directly 

 towards him ; when he got pretty near, he perceived that the man had been attacked, and was defending 

 himself against the assaults of a number of small animals, which he tit first took for rats, but which 

 in fact turned out> on getting closer, to be a colony of from fifteen to twenty weasels, and which the 

 unfortunate man was tearing from him, and endeavouring to keep from his throat. He joined in the 

 combat, and, having a stick, contrived to hit several of them, and laid them lifeless. Seeing this, the 

 animals became intimidated, and speedily fled towards a rock hard by, and disappeared in its fissures. 

 The gentleman was nearly overcome with fatigue and exhaustion, having been engaged in his struggle 

 with the weasels, as far as he could guess, upwards of twenty minutes ; and but for the fortunate and 

 timely assistance he received, he said he must have inevitably fallen a victim to their fury, as he found 

 himself quickly losing strength from the violence of his exertion. His chief attention was turned to 

 keeping them from his throat, to which they seemed instinctively to direct their course. He was a 

 powerful man, otherwise he must have sunk under their ferocity. He had squeezed two to death while 

 tearing them from him. His hands were much bitten, and were streaming with blood from the wounds. 

 The account he gave of the commencement of the affray was, that he was walking slowly through 

 the park, when he happened to see a weasel ; he ran at it, and made several unsuccessful attempts to 

 strike it with a small ratan he had in his hand ; on coming near the rock above mentioned he got 

 betwixt it and the animal, and thus cut off its retreat ; the weasel squeaked aloud, when an instanta- 

 neous sortie was made by the whole colony, and the attack commenced, 



THE STOAT, OR ERMINE WEASEL.* 



THIS creature is very closely allied to the weasel, but is considerably larger, being upwards of nine 

 inches long, excluding the tail. Its habits are precisely the same as those of that animal, but it preys 

 habitually on larger game, as hares, leverets, &c. ; but not excluding the rat, and the water-rat. Of 

 the latter, indeed, it destroys great numbers, following them into their burrows. It hunts its prey by 

 the scent. 



Some idea of the Stoat's depredations may be conceived from the circumstance of two leverets, two 

 leverets' heads, two young partridges, and a pheasant's egg having been found in the retreat of one. 

 In our climate the stoat becomes partially white during the winter, but in more northern regions this 

 change is complete, the tip of the tail alone remaining black. Large importations of ermine-fur are 

 made from Russia, Norway, and Siberia, to our country. The British importation in 1833 was 

 105,139 skins; and 187,000 in 1850. 



Captain Lyon, R.N., gives a graphic account of a captive ermine : " He was a fierce little fellow, 

 and the instant he obtained day-light in his new dwelling he flew at the bars, and shook them with 

 the greatest fury, uttering a very shrill, passionate cry, and emitting a strong, musky smell. No 

 threats or teasing could induce him to return to the sleeping-place, and whenever he did so of his own 

 accord, the slightest rubbing on the bars was sufficient to bring him out to the attack of his tormentors. 

 He soon took food from the hand, but not until he had first used every exertion to reach and bite the 

 fingers which conveyed it. This boldness gave me great hopes of being able to keep my little captive 

 alive through the winter, but he was killed by an accident." 



THE MARTENS. 



THESE animals differ from the weasel and others of the family, merely by the addition of a false 

 ' tooth on each side above and below, and by a little tubercle on the inner side of their lower 

 sanine. The fur of all the species is exquisitely soft and beautiful. 



* Mustela erminea. , 



