THE WEASEL 87 



me to shoot chipmunks around the corn. While 

 watching the squirrels, a troop of weasels tried 

 to cross a bar-way where I sat, and were so bent 

 on doing it that I fired at them, ^boy-like, simply 

 to thwart their purpose. One of the weasels was 

 disabled by my shot, but the troop was not dis- 

 couraged, and, after making several feints to cross, 

 one of them seized the wounded one and bore it 

 over, and the pack disappeared in the wall on 

 the other side. 



Let me conclude this chapter with two or three 

 more notes about this alert enemy of the birds 

 and lesser animals, the weasel. 



A farmer one day heard a queer growling 

 sound in the grass : on approaching the spot 

 he saw two weasels contending over a mouse ; 

 both held the mouse, pulling in opposite direc- 

 tions, and they were so absorbed in the struggle 

 that the farmer cautiously put his hands down 

 and grabbed them both by the back of the neck. 

 He put them in a cage, and offered them bread 

 and other food. This they refused to eat, but in 

 a few days one of them had eaten the other up, 

 picking his bones clean, and leaving nothing but 

 the skeleton. 



The same farmer was one day in his cellar 

 when two rats came out of a hole near him in 

 great haste, and ran up the cellar wall and along 



