CHAPTER XIX 



ERMINE OR WHITE WEASEL 



Ermine, or white weasel, is the smallest of all the North American 

 furbearers, and is a vicious and blood-thirsty killer. It preys on 

 rabbits and all kinds of small quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles. It 

 is especially fond of young rabbits and is said to kill large quantities 

 for the pure love of killing. It pursues its game with great deter- 

 mination and rarely allows it to escape. It is a great plunderer of 

 birds' nests and its favorite method of attack is to catch the bird 

 by the throat and suck its blood. On account of its small size 

 and lightning-like quickness it is able to escape most of its enemies 

 and it will fight a larger animal without any provocation. 



Nature has been very kind to the weasel in giving it a beautiful 

 white coat in the winter and a brown coat in the summer. The white 

 weasel running along the snow in the winter time is almost invisible 

 except for the black speck at the end of the tail. This really is an 

 added advantage to the weasel for the reason that if it is pursued by a 

 hawk, the bird will make a swoop for the black tip and usually miss 

 the weasel's body in doing so. The tail of the weasel is fully one 

 half as long as the body and the black tip is all that is visible when it 

 is flying over the snow. 



The fur of the ermine is snow white and very beautiful, and has 

 long been prized by royalty for use on the royal robes. The Siberian 

 weasel is a little larger and a bit heavier in fur than the American 

 weasel. Some of our American weasel are just as large as the Russian 

 ermine, and just as fine in quality, although on the average this is 

 not true, the Russian ermine being the better so far as size and quality 

 is concerned. 



While the ermine is snow white in the Winter with the exception 

 of the black tip at the end of the tail, it turns brown in the Summer, 

 nature thus again aiding the animal in that it is very hard to dis- 

 tinguish it from its surroundings in its brown coat, where it would 

 stand out very prominently if it were snow white. The fur of the 

 brown coat is not as thick or as long as that of the white coat, and 

 up until a few years ago the summer coat of the white weasel was 

 considered of no value; but in recent years it has been made up into 



