CHAP. xm1I.] WEASELS—FERRETS. 101 
CHAPTER XIII. 
Weasels—Ferrets: Fierceness of—Anecdotes—Food of Weasels—Manner of 
Hunting for Prey: — The Stoat—Change of Colour—Odour of — Food 
of—Their catching Fish :—Polecat—The Marten Cat—Habits—Trapping 
—Kating Fruit—Activity of :—Different Species. 
THE bloodthirstiness and ferocity of all the weasel tribe is per- 
fectly wonderful. The proverb “ L’appétit vient en mangeant” 
is well applied to these little animals. The more blood they 
spill, the more they long for, and are not content till every 
animal that they can get at is slain. A she ferret, with a litter 
of young ones, contrived to get loose a few nights back, and 
instinctively made her way to the henhouse, accompanied by 
her six kittens, who were not nearly half-grown, indeed their 
eyes were not quite open. Seven hens and a number of tame 
rabbits were killed before they were discovered; and every 
animal that they killed, notwithstanding its weight and size, was 
dragged to the hutch in which the ferrets were kept, and as they 
could not get their victims through the hole by which they had 
escaped themselves, a perfect heap of dead bodies was collected 
round their hutch. When I looked out of my window in the 
morning, I had the satisfaction of seeing four of the young 
ferrets, covered with blood, dragging a hen (who I had flattered 
myself was about to hatch a brood of young pheasants) across 
the yard which was between the henhouse and where these ferrets 
were kept; the remainder of them were assisting the old one in 
slaughtering some white rabbits. Their eagerness to escape 
again, and renew their bloody attacks, showed the excited state 
the little wretches were in, from this their first essay in killing. 
In the same way the wild animals of the tribe must be wofully 
destructive when opportunity is afforded them. Sitting opposite 
a rabbit-hole, I one day saw a tiny weasel bring out four young 
rabbits one after the other, and carry, or rather drag them away 
one by one towards her own ahode in a cairn of loose stones; 
