456' 



The Common Weasel. 



mantles of nobles and kings. The best naturalists, after the most 

 careful examination and comparison of specimens from all the 

 countries inhabited by this species, have failed to detect any dif- 

 ference whatever of sufficient importance to justify the separation 

 of the American from the European or Asiatic Ermine, Its geo- 

 graphical range therefore is enormous, being nearly the whole of 

 the northern part of the world as far south as latitude 40°. 



The length of the ermine from the point of the nose to the root 

 ■of the tail is about ten inches, length of tail five inches and a-half. 

 The color is pure white or yellowish-white in winter, and in sum- 

 mer reddish-brown above and white beneath. The tip of the tail 

 is always black. The body is slender, legs short, five toes on each 

 foot, inner toe the shortest, ears broad and rounded, the fur soft 

 and_^short, and the tail somewhat bushy at the end, 



Audubon describes the Weasel as " fierce and bloodthirsty, pos- 

 fiessing an intuitive propensity to destroy every animal and bird 



within its reach, some of which, such as the American rabbit, the 

 rufi"ed grouse, and domestic fowl, are ten times its own size. It is 

 a notorious and hated depredator of the poultry house, and we 

 have known forty well grown fowls to have been killed in one 

 night by a single Ermine. Satiated with the blood of probably a 

 single fowl, the rest, like the flock slaughtered by the wolf in the 

 sheepfold, were destroyed in obedience to a law of nature, an 

 instinctive propensity to kill. We have traced the footsteps of 

 this bloodsucking little animal on •the snow, pursuing the trail of 

 the American rabbit, and although it could not overtake its prey 

 by superior speed, yet the timid hare soon took refuge in the 

 hollow of a tree, or in a hole dug by the marmot, or skunk. 

 Thither it was pursued by the Ermine, and destroyed, the skin and 

 other remains at the mouth of the burrow bearing evidence of the 

 fact. We observed an Ermine, after having captured a hare of the 

 above species, first behead it and then drag the body some twenty 



