APRIL 28, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 

Weasel’s Ways. 
HarrisBurG, Pa.—Editor Forest and Stream: 
I am constrained to reply to the last effort of my 
friend Manly Hardy on the matter of what he 
does not know about weasels, and hope you will 
permit me to say a word which shall be final, so 
far as I am concerned, on this subject. 
The writings of noted naturalists, such as Au- 
dubon, William MacGillivray, Dr. Elliot Coues, 
Robert Kennicot, of Illinois; Dr. C. Hart Mer- 
riam, of Washington, D. C.; Dr. Warren, of 
Pennsylvania, and many others, among the rest 
Mr. Hogg, who, as far back as 1831, wrote for 
the London Magazine, all unite in saying that 
the weasel is the most cruel, fierce, active, swift, 
relentless and sanguinary animal found in the 
world. Some of these eminent authorities com- 
pare the weasel with the lion in the matter of 
courage, and I want to impress upon you that 
these gentlemen have written upon what they 
know about this matter, and not upon what they 
do not know, 
Hogg says: 
of a stoat being able to pursue its prey on scent.” 
Coues says: “Swift and sure-footed he makes 
open chase and runs down his prey. Keen of 
scent he tracks them. * * * One chicken will 
satisfy his appetite, but after that is gratified he 
does not leave. He kills and slays without 
mercy all the remainder of the poor frightened 
chickens, until there are none left, and not until 
then does he leave the scene of. carnage. He 
sucks eggs also, leaving in some instances the 
unlucky farmer, who has unwillingly and unwit- 
tingly been his host, completely routed as regards 
his efforts in the poultry line.” 
Robert Kennicot, in his report on the quadru- 
peds of Illinois, says: “A more fierce and cruel 
anima! does not exist in America than the 
weasel. The courage and sanguinary disposition 
of the panther are insignificant in comparison, 
having regard to the strength of the two. * * * 
When a weasel has gained access to the poultry 
yard it will frequently kill every fowl within 
reach in a single night. A weasel will occasion- 
ally remain for some time in a barn feeding on 
vermin without destroying the fowl, but it is never 
safe to trust it near a poultry yard, for when 
once an attack is made there is no limit to the 
destruction. When the animal has entered stacks 
or barns it has a curious habit of collecting in a 
particular place the bodies of rats and mice it has 
slain. Thus sometimes a pile of 100 or more of 
the victims may be seen that have been killed in 
the course of two or three nights.” 
Dr. Warren says: “The activity and strength 
of the weasel are such that it is able to climb 
trees with great ease either to escape from its 
enemies or to search for food. This ability as a 
tree climber enables it to destroy the eggs and 
young of the different species of birds. The 
nests of grouse, wild turkey, Bob White or quail, 
besides those of other species of the feathered 
kinds, which nest on or near the ground, are 
often, it is asserted, pillaged by the inquisitive 
and bright-eyed weasel.” 
I might give you many other illustrations of a 
like character, all agreeing in the opinion that the 
weasel is one of the most sanguinary animals 
found in the world, and all certify to the fact 
that it slaughters in many instances, simply from 
the love of slaughter. Mr. Malloy has addi- 
tional reasons for this killing,and touches upon 
other peculiarities of the weasel that have not 
been noticed or at least that have not been writ- 
ten about by others. For instance, he says that 
while the weasel is able to take game, even the 
active squirrel in the tree tops, it is unable to 
descend the body of a tree, as does the squirrel, 
head first, but is compelled to come down bear 
fashion or tail first. He asserts that the weasel 
is the most restless of all wild animals, and ap- 
“T was an eye-witness to the fact 
parently never rests. He cites many instances of 
where he has followed the tracks of a weasel in 
the snow and has never yet found where it had 
rested outside of its own lair. He asserts that a 
weasel will suck its own blood until death en- 
sues, and cites an instance of where he caught a 
weasel in one of his traps, and in the presence of 
several witnesses stabbed the animal in the flank 
with a piece of sharp wire. As soon as the blood 
began to flow the weasel placed its mouth to the 
opening and sucked until it fell dead. He asserts 
that a weasel cannot live more than thirty-six 
hours without food, and cites numerous instances 
where he has had them in traps, absolutely unin- 
jured, and declared that he never had a weasel 
live in such confinement without food more than 
that time. In the matter of excessive killing, Mr. 
Malloy gives an additional reason for that al- 
ready recorded, and in a letter written to Dr. 
Warren more than ten years ago, among other 
things, says: “The weasel has great digestive 
powers. I find that when it is getting all the 
blood it wants that in about every seventy-five 
yards in the snow you will find its excreta, about 
three-fourths of an inch long, thick as a common 
slate pencil and like frozen blood.” 
Mr. Malloy tells me that when a weasel has 
killed a coop full of chickens you will invariably 
find a pile of excreta, the size of the pile gauged 
by the time limit that the weasel was in said 
coop. Mr. Hardy apparently does not know of 
these peculiarities of the weasel, and seems to 
think that they should retain their food for at 
least a stated period, perhaps twenty-four hours 
or more in length. He apparently forgets that 
serpents, even though they may not pass excreta 
as do weasels, are still able in very many in- 
stances to take food, exceeding in weight fully 
half if not more than that of their own body. 
I was once in the revenue service, and during 
that time knew a man to drink a sextal (forty 
pints) of beer in three hours and heard him offer 
to bet that he could drink a like quantity in the 
next three hours. No one took the bet. I have 
frequently heard brewers say that certain of their 
drivers could and did drink from fifty to one 
hundred glasses of beer every day, and without 
getting drunk at that. Surely no one dreams for 
one moment that these men retained all this 
liquid at one time. Mr. Hardy can find lots of 
people who never heard of such drinking pow- 
ers. If he will go to the right people, he will find 
many men who know this to be true. I can find 
many farmers who have never had trouble with 
weasels. That is no evidence, however, that no 
one has been troubled by weasels. I am also 
satisfied that Mr. Hardy knows but little about 
trapping of weasels. I have set some traps in 
my time and never caught a single weasel; still 
I do not consider that absolute proof that no 
weasels could be found in that neighborhood. 
Mr. Hardy tells me the number of weasels 
taken by him in steel traps is limited indeed, and 
that his method is to take a common wire rat- 
trap, strengthen it with additional wires so that 
the ribs cannot be forced apart, as would be the 
case if the weasel had half a chance. He places 
in such traps a live rat or squirrel or several mice 
or a small chicken or bird, feeding and watering 
the prisoners until such time as the weasel comes 
along, which is usually inside of three or four 
days. Mr. Malloy has taken by this method 
as many as five weasels in a single night and as 
many as 200 in one year. I have seen in Mr. 
Malloy’s possession. more than 200 weasel skins 
at one time. I now have in my possession thir- 
teen skins of weasels taken within a short time 
by Mr. Malloy. What he says regarding this 
animal is based upon what he knows. I have the 
utmost confidence in every word that he says 
upon this subject, even in the face of Mr. 
Hardy’s convincing “pig story.” 
JosEPH KALBFUS, 
Sec’y of Game Commission of Pennsylvania. 
Coyotes Nursed by Cat. 
RoMuLUS AND REMUS are the names of two 
coyote pups, adopted and nursed by a Californian 
cat bereaved of her own offspring. The pups 
were dug from a den on the Empire ranch, Kings 
county, by Frank Parks. A pack of hounds ran 
a female coyote to earth and followed her into 
the den. A tremendous row was going on inside 
when the hunters arrived, and they started in to 
dig. The hole or tunnel was forty feet long, and 
at the end chamber the roof was four feet below 
the surface of the ground. 
Parks and his companions found three female 
coyotes and eighteen pups. The hounds killed 
the mothers and most of the little fellows, but 
two were saved and turned over to the family 
cat by way of experiment. Puss adopted the 
young wolves without hesitation, and is as fond 
of them as if they were of her own kind. The 
little fellows are as playful and as confiding as 
young dogs. The family has been brought to 
Los Angeles and installed in the Park Zoo. 
A female fox terrier in Los Angeles recently 
adopted a brood of incubator chickens. She took 
care of them with affectionate solicitude, but ap- 
peared to be puzzled by their failure to take ad- 
vantage of the opportunities for obtaining nour- 
ishment which she offered to them. 

CAT 
NURSING COYOTE PUPS. 
