LITTLE BEASTS OE EIELD AND WOOD 



that would at least furnish some excuse for the 

 general prejudice against them, but would really 

 be no more than some of our commonest weasels 

 do whenever it serves their purpose. I remem- 

 ber one summer afternoon I was trout-fishing 

 along a little brook that ran between pine-cov- 

 ered hills. As I lay stretched on the bank at the 

 foot of a great maple I saw a weasel run along 

 in the brush fence some distance away. A few 

 seconds later he was standing on the exposed root 

 of the tree hardly a yard from my eyes. I lay 

 motionless and examined the beautiful creature 

 minutely, till suddenly I found myself staring at 

 the smooth greenish gray root of the maple with 

 no weasel in sight. Judging from my own expe- 

 rience, I should say that this is the usual ter- 

 mination ot any chance observations of either 

 weasels or minks. 



Occasionally they may be seen to dart into 

 the bushes or behind some log or projecting 

 bank, but much more frequently they vanish 



66 



