FEB. 10, 1906.] 

FORE pies ND STREAM. 

INA\ 

Weasels. 
WHILE afew years ago the United States had 
a book written on hawks and owls urging their 
protection as friends of the farmer and the State 
of Maine has passed a law protecting that noted 
pirate, the bald eagle, no one ever speaks a word 
in favor of the weasel, and everyone seems to 
think he has done the world a service when he 
has killed one. Only last spring I knew of two 
being killed by farmers at houses but half a mile 
apart, and one of those was in the act of killing 
a rat when murdered. Neither of those men 
realized that he was killing one of his best 
friends. 
I have studied weasels a great many years and 
am convinced that there is no animal which needs 
protection more than the weasel. If there were 
a perpetual close time on them and a heavy fine 
for killing one it would do more to rid the coun- 
try of mice and chipmunks in a year than all the 
hawks and owls would do in a century. 
While weasels are said sometimes to kill poul- 
try 1 have never known an authentic instance. I 
think that a large part of what is charged to 
weasels is done by mink, and I know that not one 
man in ten could tell a mink from a weasel when 
the latter is in summer dress, as one rarely gets 
a fair sight of either. I have known of several 
instances where mink have been killed in the act 
of killing hens a long distance from any water. 
Had they not been killed the blame would prob- 
ablv have been laid on weasels. 
As to the weasel’s killing game birds or birds 
of any kind, I think the cases must be extremely 
rare. It is safe to say that I have employed ten 
men for an average of a hundred days each year 
working in the woods for the last fifty years, 
making an aggregate of 50,000 days. I have been 
around among them a large part of the time and 
I have never known one of my men finding either 
a grouse or a rabbit killed by a weasel, while I 
have known of their killing many mice, moles and 
rats. A weasel can go into any hole that a rat 
or chipmunk can enter. and as he devotes his 
whole time ‘to killing mice, moles, rats and chip- 
munks, he must kill a very large number. When 
a weasel visits farm buildings or camps he clears 
the premises of vermin in short order. Farmers 
complain of fruit trees being girdled by mice. 
Now few hawks or owls ever visit orchards in 
winter, which is the season when the mice damage 
the trees; but the weasel will search every nook 
and cranny of the stone walls and brush heaps, 
and few mice can escape him, as he will follow 
a track by scent just as a hound does. 
hile a weasel can climb trees as well or bet- 
ter than a squirrel, I have never known of one’s 
touching either young birds or the eggs, though 
I have known of many instances of squirrels do- 
ing it, and have myself seen them in the act. It 
would be far more excusable in the weasel, as he 
lives entirely on meat while the squirrel has a 
plenty of other food. 
One great complaint against the weasel is that 
he is “bloodthirsty”; but really how much more 
so is he than the average sportsman or fisherman? 
The weasel hunts for a living; the sportsman 
leaves a home where he has food in plenty just 
for the sake of killing something he does not 
need, and often kills to waste. I think that, if 
the case could be tried before a fair-minded jury, 
the verdict would be in favor of the weasel as 
to either bloodthirstiness or cruelty. I have had 
a good many weasels get into traps set for other 
animals anda have never known one weasel to eat 
another, either when in the trap or when thrown 
behind it after being taken out; but a red or a 
flying squirrel will eat his relatives whenever he 
can find them. 
Weasels are as much at home in trees as sables 
(pine marten), and one who has never seen a 

FRAIL ETSTORY 
white weasel in winter in an everereen trees has 
no idea what the word “arboreal” means: Neither 
red nor gray squirrels can handle themselves in 
a tree as a weasel can. A _ squirrel stands no 
chance if pursued by one. I knew of one chasing 
a chipmunk up a tree; the weasel was so close 
that the chipmunk ran out on a limb and dropped 
and dodged into a stone wall; but the weasel 
dropped also, and a squeak in the wall the next 
moment ended the story without the word finis. 
Mrs. Jane G. Swisshelm once wrote of a tame 
weasel whieh she had, which was a very interest- 
ing pet, and I particularly remember of her telling 
of his loving to roll on a piece of wet cloth, 
which with him took the place of a bath. She 
also mentions what I have never known any nat- 
uralist to speak of, that when pleased he would 
purr just like a kitten, only not so loud. I can 
corroborate this from personal observation. In 
the fall of 1859 my partner and I built a camp 
near the head of Caucomgomoc Lake for a fall 

A WEASEL HUNTING. 
From ‘“‘The Gamekeeper at Home.’’ 
fur haunt. ‘Shortly after getting it 
weasel came to us and as we treated him well 
stayed with us while we were there, some eight 
weeks. When he first came he was brown above, 
but this soon changed to maltese, and in a short 
time to pure white. One of our standard natural 
history books tells us that a weasel never changes 
as far south as the United States, but every one 
in Maine who knows a weasel, knows that one 
is pure white, except the black tip of the tail, 
from the first of November until April. 
Our camp had a second roof of cedar splits, 
leaving a space between of about six inches, and 
this space was the favorite resort of the weasel. 
At night he would often haul the bodies of sable 
around over our heads just as a rat will drag ears 
of corn in a garret. We had put these bodies be- 
tween the roofs to keep them from Canada jays, 
as we wished them for bait. We were gone sev- 
eral days of the week and always felt safe about 
mice injuring our furs or hard bread when we 
had the weasel for camp-keeper. Usually, on re- 
turn, we would not be chopping camp wood long 
before our weasel would glide out from some 
brush pile, and we would see his head peer out 
from between the roofs. He became quite tame 
and would often put his head up through a knot- 
hole in the floor right between my feet and stare 
at me with his black beady eyes. He always 
seemed pleased when we brought home meat, and 
finished a- 

on one occasion when we hung the saddle of a 
bear: close beside«the door; he came out between 
the roofs and patted the meat with his fore paws, 
and as I was standing close to it, I could dis- 
tinctly hear him purr. I think that. sometimes 
he followed us, unseen by us. 
Once, on coming home, I found that half a 
beaver which lay near our canoe landing had been 
hauled into the water by a mink; I went up to 
the camp, which was fifty yards from the water, 
for a trap, but had hardly begun to set it in the 
spur of a large spruce when the weasel peered out 
at me, first from one side and then from the other 
so fast that it seemed as if he were on all sides 
of the tree at once. As I was kneeling down to 
set the trap he was within two feet of my face a 
large part of the time. Feeling sure that as soon 
as I left the trap he would be running over it, I 
set it so hard that his weight could not spring 
it and found the mink in it when I next looked 
in. I feel sure that in this case the weasel had 
followed me. It seemed singular that in all the 
time we were there he never in any instance 
touched partridges, which we often had in the 
camp, or gnawed any kind of meat. We were 
greatly attached to him and were careful not to 
set any trap so as to catch him. When we left 
the camp for good we left a large supply of meat 
for him in the camp. 
There is an old wives’ story which has been 
handed down for ages of the body of a woman’ 
being found in some part of England or Scotland 
which had been somewhat eaten by weasels, and 
from this has come the idea that the woman was 
killed by weasels. While it is possible that 
weasels, finding a dead body, might eat from it, 
I do not think that a weasel would ever attack 
any person. I have known of many cases where 
rats have attacked persons and have bitten chil- 
dren when in bed, but I would much rather have 
a weasel for a camp-mate than a red squirrel. 
Few people have any idea-of the strength of a 
weasel or a mink, Either of them will easily drag 
along at least eight times his own weight. I have 
seen a weasel drag the whole hind half of one 
of our large northern hares. Hawks quite fre- 
quently catch weasels and usually find that they 
have “caught a Tartar,’ as the weasel will twist 
around so as to disable them and sometimes to 
kill them.. I once found a pigeon hawk (Falco 
columbarius) which was unable to fly, and on 
skinning it found that the cords of the wing had 
been cut by the sharp teeth of a weasel. Last 
year my son, by a curious happening, found where 
a weasel had killed a hawk. He had shot a Bar- 
tram’s plover and had placed it under the floor of 
an old hay barn while he hunted for more. On 
coming back for his plover it was gone, and when 
he reached under the barn he drew out a sparrow 
hawk (Falco sparverius). On tearing up the 
barn floor he found his plover some distance from 
where he had placed it. The hawk showed that 
it had been killed by a weasel, which it must first 
have caught. Just why the weasel saw fit to ex- 
‘change game is still among the things which are 
unknown. 
I find on examining encyclopedias and natural 
history books that naturalists divide the weasel 
into the “little weasel” and the “least weasel.” 
The only difference that I can find claimed is 
that the little weasel is from eight to nine inches, 
exclusive of the tail, which is five inches, while 
the least weasel is said to be eight inches on an 
average, with tail three to four inches. Having 
handled from 100 to 200 of skins of weasels and 
having taken in traps set for other animals at 
least forty more—(the apparent disproportion be- 
ing explained by the weasel never having had any 
commercial value, so that hunters rarely skinned 
them)—I feel sure that there is but one weasel 
in Maine and New Brunswick. I have caught 
some weasels in winter when all should be fully 
