THE WEASEL. 419 



on and sucks the blood like a leech. Others maintain that the 

 first bite is always fatal, owing to the perforation of the spinal 

 cord at the base of tbe skull. In the case of young rats and 

 mice killed by the Weasel, this is doubtless true ; their skulls 

 are so thin that they may be easily crushed between the finger 

 and thumb ; but in the case of a larger animal like the Rabbit it 

 is otherwise. 



Some years ago Dr. Buchanan, of Glasgow University, con- 

 tributed to the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History ' a 

 paper " On the Wound of the Ferret,' in which he showed that 

 while small animals were killed by the brain being pierced, larger 

 victims died rather from nervous exhaustion, and in no case was 

 any blood-sucking observable. Mr. S. Woodcock, of Bury, also, 

 writing in * The Field ' of Dec. 27, 1862, expressed a similar 

 opinion, his experiments proving that the assailant does not 

 retain his first grip as has been so often stated, but worries and 

 tugs at the head and neck, so that the cause of death seems to be 

 exhaustion and shock to the nervous system rather than the 

 effect of any mortal wound. The late Mr. E. R. Alston 

 examined a young Rabbit which had been rescued alive from a 

 Stoat. No external injuries were visible, save slight blood-stains 

 on the head and neck ; but the poor beast was in a semi-torpid 

 state, sitting with its eyes half closed and its head twisted to the 

 left side. On being pushed, it moved one step in a helpless 

 mechanical way, and then remained motionless again. Post 

 mortem dissection disclosed a large quantity of clotted blood 

 beneath the skin, and on this being removed the skull was found 

 to be fractured in several places, and pressed in on the brain in 

 a way which fully accounted for the powerless and stupefied 

 condition of the animal. 



After the prey is killed, the first tit-bit is usually the neck ; 

 sometimes the eyes are torn out and devoured ; and then the 

 carcase is dragged off and concealed near the habitation of the 

 destroyer. The power which the Weasel has of bending the 

 head at right angles with the long and flexible yet powerful neck, 

 gives it, as Bell has remarked, great advantage in the mode of 

 seizing and killing its prey. It also frequently assumes this 

 position when raising itself on its hinder legs to look round — a 

 very characteristic attitude, which has been well depicted by 

 Mr. G, E. Lodge in the accompanying illustration (Plate II.) 



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