CHAPTER XXXVII 
THE MARTEN FAMILY 
WEASELS, SKUNKS, AND BADGERS 
This family of flesh-eating animals includes most of our 
smaller fur-bearers, such as the marten, otter, mink, fisher, 
weasel, skunk, badger, and wolverene. On account of the 
value of their skins they have been trapped in large numbers, 
and most of them have become scarce in all settled regions. 
Nearly all of them are also in disrepute among farmers be- 
cause of the poultry they sometimes kill, but in condemn- 
ing them no account has been taken of the service they render 
in clearing the country of 
pests that are far worse. 
Only the weasel, skunk, 
and badger are now at all 
common in the northern 
states. We give a brief 
description of these. 
The Weasel is the small- 
Lonc-raep WEASEL IN Winter Coat €St member of the family 
and has the long, slender 
body that is typical of the marten, mink, otter, and fisher. 
Its legs are very short and set far apart, so that it walks 
with a peculiar gait. There are a dozen or fifteen species. 
Ours are brown above in summer and yellow or white below; 
but in winter, like all weasels in northern latitudes, they 
assume a white color all over, excepting the tip of the tail, 
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