FERRET VERSUS RABBIT. 
129 
been obliged to demand the assistance of a Roman legion against 
the invasion of rabbits, you will gently feel that the question of the 
ferret enlarges, and you will understand the importance of the serv- 
ices rendered by him to humanity. 
The ferret appears to be one of man’s oldest friends, since he is 
hardly anywhere met with in a wild state. He is originally from 
Africa, whence he has passed into Spain with the Arabs and the 
rabbit. He has come to us from Spain in company with these in- 
vaders. In France the ferret lives only in a domestic state ; he 
seems to entertain a profound contempt for all his congenera. 
I consider it impolitic to say much evil of a beast which is aux- 
iliary to us. Therefore I have preferred to reserve for the article 
Marten my general observations on the not very edifying morals of 
the family of blood-drinkers. It is wiser policy to veil the turpi- 
tudes of one’s friends, then indemnify one’s self for this reserve 
when it comes to the enemy’s turn. 
The ferret is the black beast of the rabbit, and reciprocally. It 
has been created in the interest of the human species, in order to 
oppose a barrier to the invasions of the rabbit, whose excessive fe- 
cundity might have covered the globe. The field-laborer has no 
greater enemy than the rabbit. 
The education of the ferret costs no very great trouble ; it is 
suj0ficient to leave him to his natural impulses, which lead him 
straight to the earth of the rabbit. 
He, enters, rummages the galleries, creates a disturbance there, 
and expels all the inhabitants. His fixed idea is to drive one of 
them into a place whose only outlet he occupies himself, and if 
he attains this result, unless he has been muzzled and well fed be- 
fore the chase, he immediately kills his victim and sucks its blood 
until he is drunk with it ; and as he always falls asleep as soon as 
he is filled, all have to wait until he wakes up, to continue the 
search. A not less disastrous event in hunting with the ferret is 
the unforeseen meeting of a badger or a fox in a rabbit-warren ; 
the ferret in such case runs great danger of sleeping the sleep that 
knows no waking. 
I cannot like a beast that belongs to the tribe of the blood- 
drinkers, an insatiable, crafty, and stinking beast. I cannot, how- 
