LITTLE BEASTS OF FIELD AND WOOD 



to glide along rather, with unarched backs, like 

 serpents, and invariably vanished for good and 

 all before going many feet. 



I remember that before I had formed any very 

 definite impression of the nature of a weasel, 

 I was informed by another boy of about my own 

 age, that a weasel had three pairs of legs, which 

 may have been his way of accounting for their 

 peculiar manner of running, for he claimed to 

 have chased and killed two that morning. 



Yesterday, March 12, 18 gg, I found an ermine 

 caught in a box-trap which I had set for the 

 purpose, hoping to keep one in confinement 

 during the spring months in order to observe 

 closely the change from white to red which 

 occurs each spring. 



On first looking into the trap I supposed it 

 to be empty ; but opening it pretty wide, I dis- 

 covered a weasel crouched in one corner and 

 partly hidden behind the rabbit's head which 



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