FUR-CLAD FIGHTERS. 139 



earnivora. ... A glance at the physiognomy of the 

 weasels would suffice to betray their character. The 

 teeth are almost of the highest known raptorial" 

 [preying] " character ; the jaws are worked by enor- 

 mous masses of muscles covering all the side of the 

 skull. The forehead 

 is low, and the nose 

 is sharp ; the eyes 

 are small, penetrating, 

 cunning, and glitter 

 with an angry green 

 light. There is some- 

 thing peculiar, more- Face of a western Weasel 



(^Putarius nigripes). 



over, in the way that 



this fierce face surmounts a body extraordinarily wiry, 

 lithe, and muscular. It ends a remarkably long and 

 slender neck in such a way that it may be held at 

 right angles with the axis of the latter. When the 

 creature is glancing around, with the neck stretched 

 up and flat, triangular head bent forward, swaying 

 from one side to the other, we catch the likeness in 

 a moment — it is the image of a serpent ! " * 



It seems as if this uncompromising, unquahfied 

 exposure of bad character was sufficiently convincing 

 to go no further ; but I must repeat what John Bur- 



* Fur-bearing Animals. 



