LITTLE BEASTS OF FIELD AND WOOD 



Is able to keep to these for miles together, 

 squeezing into the smallest crevices in pursuit 

 of mice or chipmunks. All the weasels travel 

 in a similar manner — that is, by a series of leaps 

 or bounds in such a way that the hind feet strike 

 exactly in the prints made by the fore-paws, so 

 that the tracks left in the snow are peculiar and 

 bear a strong family resemblance. On soft snow 

 the slender body of the ermine leaves its imprint 

 extending from one pair of footprints to the 

 next, and as these are from four to six feet apart, 

 or even more, the impression left in the snow is 

 like the track of some extremely long and slen- 

 der serpent with pairs of short legs at intervals 

 along its body. I have said that the ermine is 

 the only weasel I have found in this vicinity, but 

 this is not strictly true. One winter I repeat- 

 edly noticed the tracks of an exceedingly large 

 weasel — they were so very large, in fact, that 

 I was almost forced to believe that they were 

 those of a mink. The impression of its body in 



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