THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
“Swift and sure-footed, he makes open chase and runs down his prey; 
keen of scent he tracks them, and makes the fatal spring upon them una- 
Weasel wares; lithe and of extraordinary slenderness of body, he fol- 
Traits. lows the smaller through the intricacies of their hidden abodes, 
and kills them in their homes. And if he does not kill for the simple love 
of taking life, in gratification of superlative bloodthirstiness, he at any rate 
kills instinctively more than he can possibly require for his support. I 
know not where to find a parallel among the larger Carnivora. Yet once 
more, which one of the larger animals will defend itself or its young at such 
enormous odds? 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 muscles 
covering al] the side of the skull. The forehead is low and the nose is sharp; 
the eyes are small, penetrating, cunning, and glitter with an angry green 
light. There is something peculiar, moreover, in the way this fierce face 
surmounts a body extraordinarily wiry, lithe, and muscular. It ends a 
remarkably long and slender neck in such a way that it may be held at 
a right angle with the axis of the latter. When the creature is glancing 
around, with the neck stretched up, and flat, triangular head bent forward, 
swaying from one side to the other, we catch the likeness in a moment, — 
it is the image of a serpent.” So writes Dr. Coues.1% 
Out of the many things which might be said further in respect 
to these interesting little bandits, whose bright eyes gleam out 
at you from a cranny in a lichen-scaled wall “like dewdrops 
caught in a spider’s web,” as Rowland Robinson pictures it, 
one thing only can be given space —the change of color 
from summer’s brown to winter’s white and back again each 
year, which so many undergo, and which gives value to ermine. 
“Ermine’’ is the modern form of the ancient Teutonic name of the 
weasel known in Great Britain as ‘“‘stoat”; but the term is rarely used 
anywhere now except for the fur of its white winter dress. The pelts 
come to market from Alaska, Canada, Lapland, Russia, and Siberia, and 
are used not only for ladies’ garments, but for the robes of kings and 
nobles, and for their crowns and coronets. This came to be 
a matter for royal regulation in England from the time of Ed- 
ward ITI, various ranks of officers being designated by the way the crmine 
tails were arranged. It was especially prominent in the regalia of judges; 
and the idea survives in our figurative expression “the ermine” for the ju- 
170 
Ermine. 
