The Common Weasel. 459 



in the sheepfold, it may return to commit further depredations ; 

 but wlien it has taken up its residence under stone heaps and 

 fences, in his fields, or his barns, the farmer would consult his 

 interest by suffering it to remain, as by tbus'inviting it to a home, 

 it will probably destroy more formidable enemies, relieve him 

 from many petty annoyances, and save him many a bnshel of 

 grain." 



The Ermine brings forth its young from four to seven at a litter 

 in the months of April and May, and it is said that the family 

 usually remain in the same locality until autumn, "With respect 

 to the change of colour, Audubon is of opinion that it is effected 

 by shedding the hair, the new coat coming out in a different color. 

 On the other hand, an European naturalist, Mr. Bell, -thinks that 

 the hair changes colour. Upon this subject, and also upon the 

 habits of the species in Britain, we make the following extract 

 from Knight's English Cyclopaedia, page 1006 : — 



With regard to the mode in which this alteration is brought 

 about, Mr. Bell expresses his belief that the winter change is ef- 

 fected not by the loss of the summer coat and the substitution of 

 a new one, but by the actual change of colour in the existing fur ", 

 and he cites, in proof of this view of the subject, the case of the 

 Hudson's Bay Lemming, which in Captain Sir John Ross's first 

 Polar Expedition was exposed in its summer coat on the deck to 

 a temperature of 30 '-' below zero, and the next morning the fur 

 on the cheeks and a patch on each shoulder had become perfectly 

 white. Next day the shoulder-patches had considerably extended, 

 and the posterior part of the body and flanks had turned to a dirty 

 white. At the end of a week the winter change was complete,. 

 with. the exception of a dark band across the shoulders prolonged 

 down to the middle of the back. 



That change of temperature, and not merely change of season 

 is necessary to effect the alteration of colour is evident from Mr. 

 Hogg's observations. (5th vol. of Loudon's ' Magazine of Nat. 

 Hist. ;' Bell, ' British Quadrupeds.') 



Mr. Hogg, whose remarks appear to have been made in the 

 county of Durham, states that within the last nine years from the 

 date of his communication he had met with two Ermines alive, and 

 in the most different winters that had occurred for many years. 

 One was observed in the extremely severe winter (January to 

 March) of 1823 ; the other in the extremely mild January of 

 1832. 



