40 AX ECONOMIC STUDY OF FIELD MICH. 
numerous to have much effect, good or bad, upon the interests of the 
farmer. 
The various species of weasels and wild ferrets are persistent 
destroyers of meadow mice. The smaller weasels easily traverse the 
surface runways of the larger species of Microtus and even follow 
them into underground burrows. The larger Aveasels feed upon 
pocket gophers, prairie dogs, ground squirrels, and various kinds of 
mice and rats. While occasionally they capture game or song birds, 
as well as poultry, their principal food consists of injurious rodents. 
The small American weasels, like European species, have an evil 
reputation among game j:>reservers and farmers, who assert that 
weasels destroy the eggs and young of game birds, as well as young 
chickens and other fowls. However, stomach examinations, supple- 
mented by careful field observations, show that small mammals form 
the principal food of weasels. Among their prey are cottontail rab- 
bits, little chief hares (Ochotona). prairie dogs, ground squirrels, 
Avood rats, field mice, and the house mouse and brown rat. 
A recent advance in the price of weasel skins in white, or winter, 
pelage has already caused a marked scarcity of these animals in some 
of the Northern States. The present abundance of meadow mice in 
the same States is attributable partly to the destruction of weasels. 
A correspondent in Minnesota, in a letter dated April 14, 1900, states 
that field mice were very abundant in his neighborhood during the 
preceding winter and caused much damage in orchards and nur- 
series. He adds: "The animals have never been so numerous here 
as during the last two years. I think weasels used to keep mice in 
check, but the high price of fur has made them very scarce." 
Badgers, when not employed in unearthing larger rodents, devote 
much time and labor to digging out field mice. One will patiently 
excavate every burrow on an acre or more of ground, and, besides the 
litters of young, evidently get a large share of the old mice. Badgers 
have been caught with their intestines full of pellets of fur and bones 
of Microtus. Nevertheless, while doing almost no harm and while in 
general highly beneficial, badgers are destroyed almost everywhere. 
partly for sport, partly because on rare occasions one raids an unpro- 
tected chicken coop. 
Foxes destroy many field mice and other rodents as well as many 
insects, especially grasshoppers, and thus do much to compensate for 
the poultry and game they kill. Although reliable testimony to the 
destruction of domestic fowls by the red fox (Vidpes fulva) is not 
wanting, the habit is by no means common, as is shown by the con- 
tents of stomachs examined by the Biological Survey. In three cases 
remains of the Gambel partridge were found and in one other a 
small bird. On the other hand, harm f til rodents, including field mice, 
were found in over 20 stomachs. Besides these, a mole, a lizard, 
