170 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 



Pa. He trapped it on a rocky hill near Rileyville, Dec. 2, 1900. It is in 

 full vfrinter pelage. Mr. Goodnough writes': " I killed one of the same kind 

 about 40 years ago in Wayne Co. It had carried 1 2 small chicks to a pile of 

 stones." As Mr. Goodnough is a trapper in a wild country, often capturing 

 weasels, the fact of his only seeing 2 in 40 years in this part of the lower 

 Canadian fauna is further evidence of the rarity of cicognani in Pa. 



Habits, description of species, etc. — See under next species — P. novebora- 

 eensis. 



New York Weasel, Common Weasel, Long-tailed Weasel. Putor- 

 ius noveboracensis Emmons, 



1840. Putorius noveboracensis Emmons, Report Quadrupeds Massachu- 

 setts, p. 45. 



Typi locality. — Southern New York. 



Faunal distribution. — Canadian, transition and upper austral zones ; south- 

 ern New England to the Carolinas, west to Mississippi Valley. 



Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — More or less numerous in all situations and 

 regions of both states. Least abundant in the pine barrens and maritime 

 regions of southern N. J. 



Habits, etc. — Unceasing activity, boldness and rapacity characterize all our 

 weasels. They are the incarnation of blood-guiltiness and the death-dealing 

 life. Dr. Cones has in his masterly style given us a vivid picture of the living 

 appearance of this animal : " A glance at the physiognomy of the weasels 

 would suffice to betray their character ; the teeth are almost of the highest 

 known raptorial character, the jaws are worked by enormous masses of mus- 

 cles covering all the sides of the skull ; the forehead is low and the nose is 

 sharp j the eyes are small, penetrating, cunning, and glitter with an angry, 

 green light. When the animal is glancing around with the neck stretched 

 up and the flat, triangular head bent forward and swaying from one side to 

 the other, we catch the likeness in a moment — it is the image of a serpent." 



The weasel climbs trees with great ease, leaping about among the branches 

 like a squirrel. It also has the habit of raising up on its hind legs and cran- 

 ing the neck about in making its observations. Its climbing feats enable it 

 to pursue and destroy many animals which would otherwise escape and do 

 escape the depredations of skunks, minks and other non-climbing members 

 of this carnivorous family. On this account the weasel is the more obnoxious 

 to birds than the others named. While the weasel is pre-eminently a mouser, 

 its preference for forests largely confines its depredations along this line to 

 species of muridce which have little direct economic significance to man. 

 When a weasel visits a rat-or-mouse-infested barn it quickly rids the premises 

 of such vermin, but as they are ever on the move, the riddance is only tem- 



