234 Union Bay 



fore fills a unique and perhaps beneficial place. The hate 

 heaped upon the weasel is not always justified, and I have 

 thought it largely due to the charge— which is sometimes 

 true— that it kills far more than it can use. 



The manager, raised on a farm where he had witnessed 

 the ferocity of the weasel when the animal was loose in a 

 henhouse, has a quite definite opinion of it. When we saw 

 one standing on the bank, he said: 



"That fellow's going to have a short life if it keeps fooling 

 around here." 



"You haven't much love for weasels," I said. 



Unsmiling, he replied: 



"I don't concern myself with them when they are just trav- 

 eling. But when they begin using the birds around here for 

 their meal ticket, then it's different." 



"Do you keep them cleaned up?" 



"The dogs do a pretty good job, but once in awhile an ani- 

 mal starts hanging around," he said. "Then I make it my 

 business. I'm not going to have a weasel staying and bother- 

 ing the young birds that feed at the float and live around 

 here." 



"Do you think there are many?" I asked. 



"If there was only one, it would' be too many as far as I'm 

 concerned. All farmers feel the same way. They look after 

 and feed the birds and they don't like to have the young dis- 

 appearing one by one until they are all gone. They size up 

 the weasel as a plain murderer and they take steps to stop it. 

 A man's got a perfect right to protect himself against such 

 vermin." 



Incidentally, the manager thinks that weasels are easily 

 eliminated. The cat is not the only animal that becomes the 

 victim of curiosity. A weasel may make a terrific dash for 

 shelter, but before retiring permanently it frequently steps 

 out for a look-see. This habit is often its undoing. 



