MAMMALS OF UTAH 147 



After a period of forty days gestation, from four to 

 eight young are born, which the mother hides and guards 

 with a courage that y/ould tackle an elephant. The little 

 ones are blind for nine days and not until they are six or 

 eight weeks old does the mother take the troop of young 

 pirates forth to their lessons of carnage. The dying squeak, 

 the final spasmodic quiver, the hot gushing blood — these are 

 the delights of the weasel. 



Ground squirrels are its principal food though it actu- 

 ally chases down the cottontail, which, trembling with fear, 

 rushes into its burrow and awaits the' inevitable assassin. 

 Everything from a mouse to a turkey is included in the 

 weasel's fare. Fifty chickens have been known to lie, the 

 silent evidence of one night's work. Climbing better than 

 chipmunks, the weasel chases them to their doom and for- 

 ever prays on squirrels as well. 



Weasels have a strongly developed storage habit. They 

 have been known to drag from fifty to seventy-five rats 

 into a compact heap, or cover a rabbit with snow — and then 

 leave them to spoil! 



Weasels are weasels' foes; for once the breeding is 

 over, all of the adults fight, the males even fighting the 

 females to death, the slightest difference in weight de- 

 termining the victor. 



Brown weasel skins are worth from 5 cents to 15 cents 

 each, the white pelts being from 20 cents to $3.00 each. 



MINK 



PUTORIUS VISON LUTREOCEPHALUS (Harlan) 



Mustela lutreola Porst. Phil. Trans. LXII, 1772, p. 371. (nee 



Linn.) 

 Mustela canadensis Erxl. Syst. Keg. Anim. I, 1777, p. 455. 



(nee M. 1 eanadensis of Schreber.) 

 Mustela vison Schreber, Saugth, III, 1777, p. 463. 

 Mustela winingus Barton, Am. Philos. Trans. VI, 1809, p. 70. 

 Mustela minx Ord. Guthrie's Geogr. 2d Am. ed. II, 1815, p. 291. 

 Mustela lutreocephala Harlan, Faun. Amer. p. 63, 1825. 

 Putorius nigrescens Aud. & Bach. Quad. N. Am. Ill, 1853, 



p. 104, pi. CXXIV. , „ 



Putorius vison Elliot, Syn. N. Am. Mamm. F. C. M. Pub. II, 



1901, p. 338, fig. 67. Zool. Ser. 

 Putorius vison lutreocephalus Elliott, Syn. N. Am. Mamm. 



F. C. M. Pub. II, 1901, p. 339. Zool. Ser. 



Description — An ordinary male weighs about 2 pounds, 

 but I have seen adults that were only 1 1/2 to 1% pounds. 

 The largest I ever weighed was taken at Winnipeg, Novem- 



