HABITS OF THE FITCHET WEASEL. 
35 
I have read the discussion carried on on this subject by Mr. Waterton, in 
Loudon’s Magazine of Natural History; I was always of opinion that Mr. 
Waterton was right, and I am now confirmed in that opinion. Certainly, in 
the case in question, the Crows must have been directed to their food by the sense 
of smell alone, no part of the carcass being visible to the sight. The conclusion 
is obvious.—Q. E. D. 
Jan, 1, 1837. 
HABITS OF THE FITCHET WEASEL (Mustela putorius, Linn.) 
The habits of few of our native animals are less known than those of the 
Fitchet Weasel. The shy dispositions and secluded residences of the Weasel 
family generally render it difficult to observe minutely on their manners and 
characters ; whilst, also, by many of those persons whose situations give them 
opportunities of making observations upon them, they are looked upon as 
enemies, and persecuted to the death,” The farmer may sometimes permit 
the little red Weasel to find a home in the stack-yard or barn, from the 
enmity it bears to the Rat; yet, should his dame have a poultry-yard, the 
tenure of the Weasel will be, at best, but insecure. That foe* to all vermin, the 
gamekeeper, pursues the race with unmitigating vengeance, and mankind 
generally look upon ^em as ugly and loathsome. 
With the naturalist, however, they are a more favoured race; and to him 
the Weasel, as it gambols and skips before him, bending its limber body into 
many a graceful curve, cannot but be a pleasing and interesting object. 
The Fitchet is the largest and most ferocious of this family. It is very 
seldom seen during the day, keeping then closely to its den. Sometimes, 
however, it may be found in a shallow hole basking in the sun, and 1 remember 
once disturbing one that had taken up its abode amongst some newly-cut 
grass y but yet they are rarely found to expose themselves so much during 
daylight. 
The time when this animal pursues its labours and its recreations is in 
the silent hour of night; then it is abroad, and the ground over which it will 
travel in the course of ten or twelve hours, shows that it is not a loiterer. Six, 
seven, or eight miles are not uncommon distances for it to traverse in its 
nightly perambulations ; and I have sometimes known them go still more. 
When it is the resident of a Rabbit-warren, it may, perhaps, not wander so far 
from home. 
In the spring of the year I have found that they stray to the greatest dis¬ 
tances, probably on account of the sexual propensity being then most active. 
A person inforiRs me hg once followed one for upwards of ten miles, not in- 
