More significant than the above compilation, of course, are the results of careful studies of the food of the long-tailed weasel in restricted areas. Examples of such studies are those of Polderboer, Kuhn and Hendrickson (1941) and Hamilton (1933:333).

According to Hamilton's (1933:332) observations on captive weasels, "There seems to be little relative difference in the amount they eat, regardless of their activities.

"In general, more food is taken in summer than in winter. Usually about a third their weight every 24 hours is eaten, but a growing young weasel will consume much more. A young male noveboracensis, weighing 145 grams, consumed an entire chipmunk, fur and bones, weighing 85 grams, in 24 hours. A day later it ate all of a partly grown rat, 105 grams, in the same length of time."

Moore (1945:253) records that a captive male that he obtained at Gainesville, Florida, consumed, on the average, between 63 and 70 grams of flesh and blood per day. The weasel itself weighed approximately 320 grams.

Sanderson (1949:413), concerning seven young weasels from Manitoba, that he raised in captivity, writes: "From the fifth to the seventh week of age, they consumed approximately 22 per cent of their body weight per day; from the eighth to the tenth week (just before reaching mature size) they consumed approximately 24 per cent; but after reaching maturity they consumed only 18 per cent. When given all the food they would take in one day, they ate as much as 40 per cent of their body weight."

Criddle and Criddle (1925:143, 146) say that weasels drinking at a bird trough "held their mouths very close to the water and as far as we could see, lapped the liquid up with rapid movements of the tongue. As a rule, after drinking, they would merely spring to the ground and vanish amid a bunch of scolding birds, but occasionally we have seen an animal slowly drag itself through the water and follow this performance by some rapid gambols, or a quick run, a method of drying which most of us have practiced in our youth." According to Hamilton's (1933:332) observations on captives, "Weasels are great drinkers, and while they take but little at a time, about 25 c.c. is drunk by a large animal during a day. . . ."