158 DIVISION I. VERTEBKAL ANIMALS. — CLASS I. JIAMMAHA. 



Weasels seem to unite, in many cases, for mutual defence, or the attack 

 of man. la January, l.SlS, a laborer in the parish of Glencairn, Dum- 

 friesshire, was suddenly attacked by six weasels, which rushed upon him 

 from an old dike in the field where he was at work. The man, alarmed at 

 such a furious onset, instantly betook himself to fiiglit ; but he soon found 

 he was closely pursued. Although he had aljout him a large horsewhip, 

 with which lie endeavored, by several back-handed strokes, to stop them, 

 yet so eager was the pursuit of tjic weasels, that he was on the point of 

 being seized by tiie throat, when he luckily noticed, at some distance, the 

 fallen branch of a tree, which he made for, and, hastily snatching it up, 

 manfully i-allied iijion his enemies, and iiad such success that he killed 

 three of them, and put the remaining tlu'ce to llight. 



A slmilaV case occurred some years aijo at Gilmerton, near Edinbur"h, 

 when a gentleman, observing a person leaping about in an exti'aordinary 

 manner, made u[i to him, and found him beset, and di'eadfully Ijitten, by 

 about tii'teen weasels, which continued their attack. IJeing both strong 

 persons, they succeeded in killing a niunber, and the rest escaped l)y (lying 

 into the iissuri'S ol' a ntigliboring rock. The account tlie persDU gave of the 

 commencement of the alfray was, that, walking t!u"ough the park, he ran at 

 a weasel which he saw, and made several attempts to strike it, remaining 

 between it and the rock, to which its retreat lay. The animal, being thus 

 circumstanced, s(jueaked aloud, when an instantaneous sortie was made by 

 the Colony, and an attack connnenced. 



The weasel is exceedingly dilKcult to tame. ^\'ben kept in a cage, it 

 seems in a perpetual state of agitation, is terrified at tlic siglit of all wlio 

 approach to look at it, and generally endea\ors t(j hide itself behind the 

 straw or other suljstanccs which may be at the bottom of its cage. Yet 

 instances are not wanting to jirove that the weasel maybe l)rought into 

 C(im[)lete subjection. iMademoisellc de Laistre, in a letter on this subject, 

 gives a very [}leasing account of the education ;uid manners of a \vcasel 

 which she took under her protection, and wiiich frecpicntly ate fnjui Jicr 

 hand, seemingly more delighted willi this manner of feeding than any other. 

 "If I pour," says this lady, "some milk into iny hand, it will drink a good 

 deal ; but if I do not pay it this compliment, it will scarcely take a drop. 

 A\ hen satisfied, it generally goes to sleep. ]\Iy chamber is the place of its 

 residence ; and I have found a method of dispelling its strong smell by per- 

 fumes. 15y day it sleeps in a quilt, into which it gets by an luisewn place 

 which it has discovered ou the edge ; during the night it is kept in a wired 

 box or cage, which it always enters with reluctance and leaves with pleas- 

 ure. 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 on my hand or on 

 my bosom. 



