88 ANIMALS IN MENAGERIES. 



to foreigners or travellers for facts and anecdotes of those 

 animals which live under our very threshold. As with 

 us, the ermine often domesticates itself in the habi- 

 tations of the American fur traders, where it may be 

 heard the live-long night, pursuing the white-footed 

 mouse {Mus leucopus), a species peculiar to those coun- 

 tries. Captain Lyon, in his usual animated style, men- 

 tions his having seen an ermine track the steps of a 

 mouse, like a hound after a fox. " I also observed," 

 says he, " a curious kind of burrow in the snow, made 

 by the ermines, which was pushed up in the same man- 

 ner as the tracks of moles through the earth in Eng- 

 land. These passages run in a serpentine direction ; 

 and near the hole, or dwelUng- place, the circles are mul- 

 tiplied, as if to render the approach more intricate." 

 Captain Lyon also gives us the following amusing 

 sketch of an ermine he kept alive : — '''■ He was a fierce 

 little fellow ; and the instant he obtained daylight 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 

 would induce him to retire to the sleeping-place ; and 

 whenever he did so of his own accord, the slightest rub - 

 bing on the bars was sufficient to bring him out. 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." 



The fur, some twenty years ago, was one of the most 

 expensive sorts, — a small tippet being then sold at from 

 three to five guineas ; at present, however, its value is 

 considerably less, — indeed, so little, that Dr. Richardson 

 says the skins will not repay the Hudson's Bay com- 

 pany the expense of collecting ; hence very few are 

 brought to England from that quarter. 



The stoat is as common in America as it is in the 

 colder parts of Europe and of Asia. It was very common 

 near the Carleton House Station, and in the most remote 

 arctic districts, and extends to the middle parts of the 

 United States. 



