90 ' THE COMMON WEASEL. 



" A bargeman,, of the name of Isles, procured a ferret to kill 

 the rats which did great mischief in his barge. Not seeing the 

 ferret for a considerable time, and supposing that it was feasting 

 on some of its prey, the man went to sleep, but was awakened 

 early next morning by the ferret making a regular attack upon 

 him. The animal had seized him near his eyebrow 5 and the 

 man having vainly attempted to shake him off, at length cut off 

 the body with a knife, but the head still stuck so fast as to be 

 with difficulty removed."* 



THE COMMON WEASEL. (Mustela vulgaris.) 

 Wlnttret, or Withret. 



The common weasel inhabits England, Wales, Scotland, Ire- 

 land, and most other parts of Europe, f 



The male is ten inches and a half in length, from the nose 



* Brown's Anecdotes of Quadrupeds (1831), p. 150. 



t Neither our common weasel (Mustela vulgaris} nor our ermine (M. 

 erminea) are found in America; the most common species inhabiting that 

 quarter being a distinct though intermediate one, according to that zealous 

 and acute zoologist, Charles Lucien Bonaparte, who has given it the name of 

 Mustela cicognanii. These distinctions should be remembered, as much con- 

 fusion has already occurred in European and American publications on zoology, 

 owing to the authors of them taking it for granted that the commonest animals 

 of a genus in both these quarters of the globe are the same. Thus a red- 

 breasted thrush, improperly called the American robin, has had its habits 

 introduced into the natural history of the true robin of Britain ; and a species 

 of grosbeak, improperly called the Virginian nightingale, has had its history 

 mixed up with that of the true Philomel of the poet and naturalist. 



