The Weasel will pursue its prey over fields, in trees, in subterranean burrows, or across water. Like many of the wild Cats, it kills far more than is necessary for its support, and in pursuance of its favourite occupation of slaughter shows an unequalled courage and pertinacity. Its power of keeping its presence of mind under very trying circumstances is well shown in the following anecdote related by Bell:—A gentleman, “while riding over his grounds, saw at a short distance from him a Kite pounce on some object on the ground, and rise with it in his talons. In a few moments, however, the Kite began to show signs of great uneasiness, rising rapidly in the air, or as quickly falling, and wheeling irregularly round, whilst it was evidently endeavouring to force some obnoxious thing from it with its feet. After a sharp but short contest, the Kite fell suddenly to the earth, not far from where Mr. Pindar was intently watching the manœuvre. He instantly rode up to the spot, when a Weasel ran away from the Kite, apparently unhurt, leaving the bird dead, with a hole eaten through the skin under the wing, and the large blood-vessels of the part cut through.”
THE ERMINE.[171]
The Stoat, or Ermine, is an important species closely allied to the Weasel, from which it differs chiefly by its greater size, and by the peculiarities of its colouring. In summer the upper parts vary from yellowish-brown to mahogany brown, while the under side is white tinged with sulphur-yellow, except on the throat, which is pure white. The tail is tipped with black. The brown upper and white under surfaces are separated by a perfectly distinct line of demarcation, which extends from the snout to the root of the tail, dipping down at the limbs, so as to include the outer surfaces of the latter in the dark area. In winter, on the other hand, the skin is, with the exception of the tip of the tail, which always remains black, pure white, tinged here and there with sulphur-yellow. Intermediate states between full winter dress and full summer dress are often found, and these, curiously enough, show their half-way character in two ways. Sometimes there is an alteration in level of the line of demarcation between the white and brown portions of the skin, the latter being occasionally found restricted to a narrow strip along the back, but remaining still without any admixture of white hairs. In other cases, again, the line of demarcation remains unaltered, but the dark portions become gradually lighter and lighter, until the final white dress is assumed.
As to the interesting question of the exact manner and cause of this change, it is sometimes stated that the direct influence of cold produces a rapid lightening in the colour of individual hairs, while there are also facts to show that the change is not due to an alteration in colour of existing hairs, but to a renewal of the coat, the hairs of one colour being replaced by those of the other. Dr. Elliott Coues, who has worked up the subject in an able and exhaustive manner, has satisfied himself that the change may take place in either way. Some of his specimens, “notably those taken in spring, show the long woolly white coat of winter in most places, and in others present patches—generally a streak along the back—of shorter, coarser, thinner hair, evidently of the new spring coat, wholly dark-brown. Other specimens, notably autumnal ones, demonstrate the turning to white of existing hairs, these being white at the roots for a varying distance, and tipped with brown. These are simple facts not open to question. We may safely conclude that if the requisite temperature be experienced at the periods of renewal of the coat, the new hairs will come out of the opposite colour; if not, they will appear of the same colour, and afterwards change; that is, the change may or may not be coincident with shedding. That it ordinarily is not so coincident seems shown by the greater number of specimens in which we observe white hairs brown-tipped. As Mr. Bell contends, temperature is the immediate controlling agent. This is amply proven in the fact that the northern animals always change; that in those from intermediate latitudes the change is incomplete, while those from farther south do not change at all.” The advantage of the change to the animal is manifest; its colour becomes that of the snow over which it travels in pursuit of game, so that it is less easily seen and avoided. Unfortunately for it, however, a similar “protective colouring” is adopted by some of its victims.
WEASEL (1) AND ERMINE (2) IN THEIR WINTER CLOTHING.
The habits of the Stoat resemble those of the Weasel; it is dangerous both to the sheep-fold and to the poultry-yard, but partly atones for its poaching by the immense number of Rats and Mice it is capable of destroying. Audubon relates that he “once placed a half-domesticated Ermine in an outhouse infested with Rats, shutting up the holes on the outside to prevent their escape. The little animal soon commenced its work of destruction. The squeaking of the Rats was heard throughout the day. In the evening it came out, licking its mouth, and seemed like a hound after a long chase, much fatigued. A board of the floor was raised to enable us to ascertain the result of our experiment, and an immense number of Rats were observed, which, although they had been killed in different parts of the building, had been dragged together, forming a compact heap.”
Both Weasel and Ermine are found over the greater part of Northern Europe, Asia, and America.
THE POLECAT.[172]
In form this animal does not differ very markedly from the Marten, except for the fact that its head is broader, its snout blunter, and its tail very much shorter: the latter being about five and a half inches, while the head and body together are nearly a foot and a half long. The neck is considerably shorter, and the body stouter than in the Weasel and Stoat. The fur is made up of hairs of two kinds, the shorter woolly and of a yellowish colour, the longer black or brownish-black and shining. One of its most marked characters is its horrible stench. This is produced, like the scent of the Civets, in a pair of glands near the root of the tail, which secrete a yellowish creamy substance of the most fetid character.