CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS — 253 
avoid a dog that was in close pursuit, it mounted a 
tree and laid itself fiat on a limb about twenty feet 
from the ground, from which it was finally shot. We 
have ascertained by successful experiments, repeated 
more than a hundred times, that the ermine can be 
employed, in the manner of the ferret of Europe, in 
driving our American rabbit from the burrow into 
which it has retreated. In one instance the ermine 
employed had been captured only a few days before, 
and its canine teeth were filed, in order to prevent 
its destroying the rabbit; a cord was placed around 
its neck to secure its return. It pursued the hare 
through all the windings of its burrow, and forced 
it to the mouth, where it could be taken in a net, or 
by the hand.’’ 
Seton, in his magnificent work on Northern 
Mammals, relates many instances of the wea- 
sel’s work in Canada, mentioning among other 
facts its persistent preying upon rabbits. In 
Lantz’s Economic Study of Field-Mice is given 
a letter from a Poneen in Waukegan, IIl., who 
writes : 
‘““Two years ago a pair of weasels took up their 
abode in our tree-cellar, breeding there last year. 
They kept most of the mice killed off. In the sum- 
mer we saw the old one quite often carrying mice to 
its young from outside the shed.”’ 
