174 



" It 18, however, sometimes itself the prey of ha-wks, but the following fact shows that 

 Violence and rapine, even when accoJnpanied by superior strength, are not always a 

 match for the ingenuity of an inferior enemy. As a gentleman of the name of Finder, 

 then residing at BloxWorth, in Dorsetshire, was riding over his grounds, he saw, at a 

 short distance from him, a iiite potince upon some otgeot on the ground, and rise with it 

 in its talonsi In a few minutes, however, the kite began to show signs of great uneasi- 

 ness, rising rapidly in the ait, or as quickly falling, and wheeling irregularly around, 

 whilst It was evidently endeavoring to force some obnoxious thing from It With its feet. 

 After a short but sharp contest, the kite fell suddenly to the earth, not far from where 

 Mr. Finder was intently watching the manitBuvre. He instantly rode up to the spot, 

 when a Weasel ran away from the kite, apparently unhurt, leaving the bird deaxl, with 

 a hole eaten through the skin under the wing, and the large blood-vessels of the part 

 torn through." 



According to the same authoi-, the female Weasel bringiS forth four or 

 five young, and is reported to breed more than once each year. The nest 

 is a hole in a bank, or perhaps in a hollow tree, lined with leaves and 

 herbage. She defends her young' even to the sacrifice of her own life, 

 STUshing from her nest and fastening upon the nose or lips of whatever 

 animal may assail her. 



Dr. Coues remarks that the name "Weasel" should, in strictnesa, be 

 given to the present species, as distinguished from its allies, the Stoats 

 •and Ferrets, although it has come to have rather a generic application 

 to the various species of the same immediate group. The derivation 

 is obscure. Webster does not give the meaning, but suggests that the 

 Crerman Wiese is a meadow. The vernacular names of this species are 

 fully given in the synonymy v 



Geographical Distribution.-^Thw animal is of circumpolar distribution. 

 It is found in the northern parts of the United States, in British Amer- 

 ca and Alaska, and the northern parts of the Old World. 



Dr. Coues remarks, in his Monograph of North American Mustelidse, 

 that " the total lack of citations of this species from southern or even 

 Middle districts in the United States, is an evidence, though of a nega- 

 tive character, of the geographical distribution at present assigned," 

 evidently not having Seen Dr. Kirtland's Keport of the Mammals of Ohio, 

 in which the Weasel is included under the name Mustela vulgaris, and 

 with the note that " the Weasel is becoming more common as the country 

 becomes populated." In the same report, Dr. Kirtland, speaking of the 

 Ermine, under the name Mustela <erminea^ says : " This beautiful animal 

 is occasionally met with, but is mistaken for a WMte WeaseV 



Dr. Wheaton killed an animal of this genus in May, 1860, at Black 

 Hand Rock, on the borders of Licking and Muskingum counties, Ohio, 

 which he was not able to preserve, and which at the time he took to be 

 the Least Weasel. He describes it as " smaller than the Chipmunk, 



