580 
The body is slender and cylindrical. The neck is remarkably 
long, and nearly as large in diameter as the body. The head is 
small and triangular in shape, thenose being pointed, and the cheeks 
are swollen with the enormous jaw muscles. 
The weasel is probably found under all physiographic conditions 
represented in the county. My own records indicate its greatest 
abundance along the border of smaller watercourses in the till 
plains and the sags of the moraines. This indication of greater 
abundance, however, may be in part due to the fact that weasels 
are more conspicuous in such localities. Unlike the mink, they 
are not aquatic, and are not known to enter water for food: They 
climb readily, and leap from branch to branch like a squirrel. 
All observers of the weasel have been struck with its fearless 
inquisitiveness and indomitable ferocity. Audubon says that it 
seems to possess an intuitive propensity to destroy every animal 
and bird within its reach, even some which are ten times its own 
size. It is, however, preeminently a mouse-catcher, and house- 
mice, field-mice, and voles form the bulk of its food in this locality. 
To these should be added, however, gophers, rabbits, chipmunks, 
birds’ eggs, birds, and poultry—the latter an occasional indulgence. 
It is a question whether in this county weasels or rats should have 
the dubious honor of destroying the greater number of young 
chickens, but as to the destruction of half-grown or full-grown fowls 
undoubtedly the weasel destroys as many as are destroyed by. all 
other pests together. 
The weasel has but one litter a year. In this latitude the young 
are produced in April or May, the number in a litter varying con- 
siderably, from two to twelve having been reported. 
The nests are found under such shelter as logs or stumps, and 
in hollow trees or in burrows. Some observers declare that they 
use the burrows of animals that they have dislodged, while others 
imply that they make burrows themselves. Possibly both state- 
MEnLS thay We tele: 
It can not be denied that the weasel kills many animals that man 
would prefer to kill himself. Besides its raids on the poultry roosts, 
it kills many rabbits, quail, and prairie-chickens. In the northern 
part of its range a single weasel has been known to kill as many as 
eleven rabbits during one night’s raid. These were all dragged a 
short distance and buried in the snow. They had all been killed 
