30 
ANIMALS OP NORTH AMERICA. 
on the number of small quadrupeds which are congregated 
together more thickly than usual, to feed on the mast. In 
the Hudson Bay territory a line of traps will be set for it 
called a, “ a sable line,” sometimes sixty or seventy miles in 
length, at the rate of from six to ten a mile, visited by the 
trappers perhaps once in a fortnight. These traps are very 
simple, being generally made of long chips cut from the 
nearest tree, which driven into the ground form three sides 
of a square about six inches across ; the bait is then placed 
on a stick laid crossways between the main support and prop 
of a heavy log or rough board, which falls the moment the 
bait is touched, crushing all under it ; the top is then covered 
with some boughs of spruce or hemlock thrown lightly over 
it, and left to do its silent work. Fishers and wolverines 
will follow one of these sable-lines, breaking into the traps 
from behind, and destroy the bait as well as the captive if 
any is there. The American sable has-been often confounded 
with, but is quite distinct from the pine marten of Europe. 
The Small Weasel ( Mustela Pusilla) is supposed by 
some to be, and on the authority of Bonaparte is, the ermine 
in its summer coat, but this is very doubtful. It is very 
voracious and very tenacious of life . It is common about old 
walls, farm buildings, thickets near lonely houses, &c. It 
must not be confounded with the 
Ermine QPutorius JErminea). This weasel is very destruc- 
tive to poultry, but its injuries are perhaps counterbalanced by 
the numbers of mice and rats it destroys in barns, stacks, and 
about the farm buildings. It is very active,- nocturnal in its 
habits, and frequents wood-piles ; in its white winter coat, 
with tail tipped with black, it is sometimes called the 
Catamingo, or White Weasel. 
The last of the Weasel family we shall describe is the 
Mink QPutorius Vison). Its name is corrupted from the 
word Mcenk , given by the early Swedish settlers in the 
United States. It is well known, and is met with in all parts 
