TAYRAS AND WEASELS 
animal’s diabolical record among the trappers, an uncommonly 
large, clumsy, shaggy marten, of great strength, and display- 
ing extreme perseverance and sagacity in procuring food where 
the supply is limited and precarious. 
Two smaller but very savage and troublesome relatives of 
the martens dwell in Central and South America — the tayra 
and the grison, or hurén. Both are terrestrial and mainly 
nocturnal, and are remarkable for being darker on their ventral 
than on their dorsal surfaces. W. H. Hudson says that on 
the pampas the black tayras hunt in companies, and are often 
seen; ‘‘and when these long-bodied creatures sit up erect, 
glaring with beady eyes, grinning and chattering at the passer- 
by, they look like little friars in black robes and gray cowls; 
but the expression on their round faces is malignant and blood- 
thirsty.” These are weasel traits rather than those of mar- 
tens, and result from their unmartenlike, terrestrial mode of life. 
The weasels, ermines, stoats, polecats, minks, and the like 
form a group distinctly northern, although one species ranges 
southward into the Andes. Slender, lithe, per- Weasel 
fectly toothed, sharp-clawed, secretively colored, 7» 
and endowed with strength, speed, cleverness, and indomi- 
table courage, the weasels are the scourge and terror of all 
the small ground-keeping animals, and do more than any 
other class of agents to restrain mice, gophers, and similar 
nuisances. Some or all can climb, but their preference for 
the ground distinguishes them from the martens, as also do 
the comparatively short tail, close fur, three instead of four 
premolar teeth, and the presence of anal glands whence they 
may discharge a fetid odor. This musky, nauseous secretion 
is most copious and evident in the large European polecat, 
but most distressing to human nostrils in an old mink; and 
ordinarily it is not very noticeable in a weasel. Its emission 
is under control, and becomes perceivable mainly when the 
animal is excited or alarmed. Its service seems to be that 
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