58 
WHITE WEASEL. 
HABITS. 
The name of Ermine is associated with the pride of state and luxury, 
its fur having from time immemorial been the favourite ornament of the 
robes of princes, judges and prelates. From its snowy whiteness it is 
emblematic of the purity which they ought to possess. 
To us the Ermine, in its winter dress, has always appeared strikingly 
beautiful. On a wintry day, when the earth was covered with a broad 
sheet of snow, our attention has sometimes been arrested by this little ani- 
mal peering out from a log heap, or the crevices of a stone fence ; its eyes 
in certain shades of light appearing like sapphires, its colour vicing in white- 
ness and brilliancy with the snowy mantle of the surrounding landscape. 
Graceful in form, rapid in his movements, and of untiring industry, 
he is withal a brave and fearless little fellow; conscious of security 
within the windings of his retreat among the logs, or heap of stones, 
he permits us to approach him to within a few feet, then suddenly with- 
draws his head ; we remain still for a moment, and he once more re- 
turns to his post of observation, watching curiously our every motion, 
seeming willing to claim association so long as we abstain from becoming 
his persecutor. 
Yet with all these external attractions, this little Weasel is fierce and 
bloodthirsty, possessing an intuitive propensity to destroy every animal 
and bird within its reach, some of which, such as the American rabbit, 
the ruffed grouse, and domestic fowl, are ten times its own size. It is a 
notorious and hated depredator of the poultry house, and we have known 
forty well grown fowls to have been killed in one night by a single Er- 
mine. Satiated with the blood of probably a single fowl, the rest, like 
the flock slaughtered by the wolf in the sheepfold, were destroyed in obe- 
dience to a law of nature, an instinctive propensity to kill. We have 
traced the footsteps of this bloodsucking little animal on the snow, pur- 
suing the trail of the American rabbit, and although it could not overtake 
its prey by superior speed, yet the timid hare soon took refuge in the hol- 
low of a tree, or in a hole dug by the marmot, or skunk. Thither it was 
pursued by the Ermine, and destroyed, the skin and other remains at the 
mouth of the burrow bearing evidence of the fact. We observed an Er- 
mine, after having captured a hare of the above species, first behead it and 
then drag the body some twenty yards over the fresh fallen snow, be- 
neath which it was concealed, and the snow tightly pressed over it ; the 
little prowler displaying thereby a habit of which we became aware for 
the first time on that occasion. To avoid a dog that was in close pursuit. 
