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belly. The eyes are small and black; the ears short and roundish; and the nose is furnished with whiskers, like those of a cat. It moves by unequal leaps, and can spring several feet from the ground, or run up a wall without difficulty.

When a weasel enters a hen-roost, it never meddles with the cocks or the old hens; it makes choice of the pullets, the young chickens, and these it kills with a single stroke on the head, and carries away one after another. The eggs it sucks with incredible avidity; making a small hole at one end," through which it licks out the yolk. In winter, it generally resides in some granary, or hay-loft; where the female often continues even in the spring, in order to bring forth her young among the hay or straw. During this time, the weasel makes war with the rats and mice, with more success than the cat, since, following them into all their holes, it is next to an impossibility for them to escape. It also climbs up to the pigeon houses, to the nests of sparrows, &c., and commits great havoc. In summer, it removes to some distance from the houses, always choosing the lower lands about the mills and streams, hiding itself among the bushes, in order to catch the birds, and not unfrequently taking up its habitation in the hollow of an old willow. The female generally brings forth four or five. The young ones come forth with their eyes shut, but in a little time they attain a sufficiency of growth and strength to follow their mother to the chase. They attack adders, water rats, moles, field mice, &c., and, traversing the meadows, devour quails and their eggs.

Like the polecat and the ferret, these animals have so strong a scent that they cannot be kept in any place that is inhabited. As their own smell is. very bad, they seem to sustain no inconvenience from any foreign stench or infection. A peasant took, one day, three weasels newly brought forth in the carcass of a wolf, which had been suspended by its hind legs, from one of the branches of a tree; and though the wolf was almost entirely rotten, the old weasel, nevertheless, brought moss, straw, and leaves, in order to make a bed for her young ones in the cavity of the thorax. The weasel may be tamed, and is then very good tempered, and excessively curious.

THE ERMINE, OR STOAT.1

THE weasel with a black tail is called the ermine when it is white, and the stoat, when it is red or yellowish. Though it is a less common animal than the weasel, yet there are numbers to be found in the old forests, and sometimes during the winter in the neighborhood of woody grounds. It is always easy to distinguish it from the common weasel, because the tip of its tail is uniformly of a deep black, while the edges of its ears, and the extremities of its feet, are white.

1 Mustela erminea, DESM.

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Godman considers the common weasel of the United States to be the same as the ermine or stoat of Europe. He says that in the middle and eastern States, it is most generally known as the weasel. Farther north, it is called stoat in its summer, and ermine in its winter pelage of pure white. Richardson says that both the ermine or stoat, and the common weasel of Europe, are indubitably found in America; the former extending to the most remote arctic districts, and the latter as far north as the Saskatchewan river.

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ORIGINALLY a native of the north, is in a manner peculiar to that climate, where it is so numerous, that the quantity of furs produced from this animal alone, and carried into foreign countries, is actually astonishing. In temperate climates, on the contrary, it is rarely, and in warm climates never, to be found. Some there are in Burgundy, and some in the forest of Fontainbleau; but in general they are as scarce in France as the beech marten is common. It is not uncommon in the wild parts of Scotland, among the wooded ravines of the mountains.

Alike averse to open countries, and to countries which are inhabited, it remains in the bosom of some forest, ranges below through the labyrinths of the thicket, or towers aloft upon the branches of trees. It subsists by the chase, and destroys a prodigious quantity of birds, whose nests it searches for, and invades, in order to devour the eggs. Of the squirrel, the dormouse, &c., it also makes a prey; and it is known to eat honey, as well as the beech marten. In the description of the wild cat, will be found an account of the combats of that animal with the pine marten.

To this, may be added, with respect to the latter, that it is said to be sometimes victorious, even over the golden eagle, when that bird pounces on it as its prey. It seizes the aggressor by the throat, and the loss of blood soon brings down the eagle lifeless from its "pride of place."

Its neck is yellow, whereas that of the beech marten is white; and its hair, at the same time, is much finer, thicker, and less subject to shed.

When the female is near her time, her custom is to climb to the nest of some squirrel, to drive her from it, to enlarge it for her own purpose, and to

1 Mustela martes, LIN.

bring forth her young in it. In the same manner, she occupies the old nests of the owl and the buzzard, as also the hollow places of trees, from which she presently dislodges the woodpecker, and other birds.

THE SABLE.1

THIS animal resembles the marten, and is found in great numbers in Siberia and Kamtschatka. Its fur is very valuable, and the Russian government derives considerable revenue from its sale. Pennant and Godman both say it is found in the northern parts of our continent; but Richardson does not mention it in his Fauna Boreali Americana.

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THIS animal inhabits the whole of North America, and is also found throughout a part of the southern portion of that continent. A considerable number of animals of this genus are natives of America, resembling each other strongly in form and size, but differing in the number and variety of their stripes and markings, have been described by authors as so many distinct species. Baron Cuvier thinks that the present state of our knowledge of these animals does not warrant us in considering them otherwise than as varieties of a single species, and of these varieties he enumerates fifteen.

1 Mustela zibellina, PALLAS.

2 Mephitis Americanus, DESM. The genus Mephitis has six upper and six lower incisors; two upper and two lower canines; eight upper and ten lower molars. Body elongated, arched; toes of the foot separated, and armed with strong nails, the anterior formed for digging; tail long and bushy, or none.

This animal is of a brown color, marked sometimes with two white stripes. The faculty this animal possesses, of annoying its enemies by the discharge of a noisome fluid, causes it to be rather shunned than hunted, which the value of its skin would otherwise be sure to occasion. The smallest drop of this fluid is sufficient to render a garment detestable for a great length of time. Washing, smoking, baking, or burying articles of dress, seem to be equally inefficient for its removal,

The skunk is generally found in the forests, having its den either in the stump of an old tree, or in an excavation in the ground. It feeds on the young of birds, and upon small quadrupeds, eggs, wild fruits, &c. It also does much mischief in the poultry yard.

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THE common otter is of a deep brown color, and is usually about two feet in length from the tip of the nose to the insertion of the tail; the head and nose are broad and flat; the mouth bears some similitude to that of a fish; the neck is short, and equal in thickness to the head; the body long; the tail broad at the insertion, but tapering off to a point, and about sixteen inches long; the eyes are very small, and placed nearer to the nose than is customary in quadrupeds. The legs are very short, but remarkably strong, broad and muscular, and so placed as to be capable of being brought into a a line with the body, and performing the office of fins; and each foot is furnished with five toes, connected by strong, broad webs, like those of water fowl.

Accurately considered, the otter cannot be pronounced an amphibious animal. We even find them drowned, when they happen to have been entangled in a net; and this, evidently, for want of having had time to destroy it, and thereby effect their escape. For want of fish, frogs, water rats, or other nourishment, it will eat the young branches and the bark of aquatic trees; and in spring it will eat new grass.

1 Lutra vulgaris, LIN. The genus Lutra has six upper and six lower incisors; two upper and two lower canines; ten upper and ten lower molars. Head large and flattened ears short; body long; low upon the legs; toes webbed; nails crooked; tail long, flattened horizontally.

These voracious animals are generally found at the sides of lakes and rivers, but particularly the former, in which they destroy so much more than they devour, that they will sometimes spoil a pond in the space of a few nights. They do equal mischief by tearing in pieces the fishermen's nets, which they infallibly do, whenever they happen to get entangled in them. In forming its retreat the otter displays great sagacity. It makes the entrance under water, burrows upwards, provides several cells to retire to in case of floods, and opens on the surface a small orifice for the admission of air, which orifice it contrives so as to be concealed by a thick bush. The female goes with young about nine weeks, and generally produces four or five at a time. These are always found at the edge of the water; and, if under the protection of the dam, she teaches them, on the approach of an enemy, to plunge, like herself, into the deep, and escape among the weeds or rushes that fringe the stream. It is, therefore, only in the absence of the dam, that the young can be taken; and in some places there are dogs purposely trained for discovering their retreats. One of the favorite pastimes of the otter is, to get on a high ridge of snow, bend his fore feet backward, and slide down the side of it, sometimes to the distance of more than twenty yards.

If taken while young, the otter may be tamed and taught to fish for its master, and will become almost as affectionate and docile as the dog.

For the destruction which he makes among the finny tribe, and also the disturbance which he gives them in their haunts, the otter is an object of abhorrence to the angler. Old Izaak Walton calls them "villainous vermin," and many other hard names, and declares that, in his judgment, "all men that keep otter-dogs ought to have pensions from the king, to encourage them to destroy the breed of these base otters."

Unless it can be shot, it is difficult to capture the otter, when the water is not frozen, as it takes to the water, dives, and occasionally "vents," as the hunter terms it; that is, raises its nose to the surface to breathe. "The old hunters, (says a recent writer,) who set more value upon the difficulty of the capture, than on the prey itself, attack the otter in posse comitatus, beat the banks with dogs, hedge in a space with nets, and assail the otter with clubs and spears, when he comes up to breathe." This was precisely the manner in which an otter hunt was conducted in the days of honest Izaak, and he seems to have considered it as the finest of all sports, except angling.

THE CANADA OTTER.1

THE Canada otter resembles the European species in its habits and food, but it may be distinguished from it, by the fur of its belly being of the same

1 Lutra Canadensis, DESM.

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