THE COMMON WEASEL.[170]
The Weasel, like the remaining members of the genusPutorius, are very often called “vermiform,” and a better name could scarcely be applied to them, for anything more worm-like could hardly be imagined in a hairy quadruped. The legs are extremely short in relation to the body, which is attenuated in the highest degree, and almost regularly cylindrical from one end to the other. Then the neck is of most disproportionate length, and carries the head out so far, that the fore legs appear asif placed quite at the hinder end of the chest, instead of in the front of it. The head passes almost insensibly into the neck, and the neck into the body. The head is flattened, and bears little glittering savage-looking eyes, and small rounded ears. The length from snout to root of tail does not exceed eight inches. The tail is about two inches long. The fur is light reddish-brown above, and white below; in northern latitudes the brown parts assume a much lighter colour in winter, so that the Weasel undergoes a change of coat similar to, but less extensive than, that undergone by the Ermine.
COMMON WEASEL.❏LARGER IMAGE
COMMON WEASEL.
❏LARGER IMAGE
The Weasel is a good climber, and makes use of its skill in this accomplishment to prey upon birds, their eggs, and young. Rats and Mice are, perhaps, its staple food. Of these it makes great havoc, and is therefore a useful hanger-on to the farm-yard, notwithstanding its occasional depredations in the hen-roost. When it catches a Mouse or Rat, it gives it one bite on the back of the head, piercing the most vulnerable part of the brain, and killing instantly. Professor Thomas Bell says:—“I have observed that when a Weasel seizes a small animal, at the instant that the fatal bite is inflicted, it throws its long, lithe body over its prey, so as to secure it should the first bite fail, an accident, however, which I have never observed when a Mouse has been the victim. The power which the Weasel has of bending the head at right angles with the long and flexible, though powerful neck, gives it a great advantage in this mode of seizing and killing its smaller prey.” The first part eaten is usually the brain. The stories of the Weasel’s blood-sucking propensities are probably false, or at any rate grossly exaggerated.
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.”