The Weasel (_fig. 69._) is as frequent in warm and temperate climates,
as it is scarce in cold ones; the ermine (_fig. 70._) on the contrary,
is numerous in the northern, is scarcely to be met with in the
temperate, and never in the warm climates. These animals, therefore,
form two distinct species. The circumstance who may have given rise
to their being confounded, was possibly our common weasel being
sometimes white during winter: in this characteristic they are alike;
but there are others in which they widely differ. The ermine, red in
the summer, and white in winter, has, at all times, the end of the
tail black; whereas the end of the weasel's tail is yellow, even of
that which turns white in the winter; it is besides much smaller, and
its tail is shorter; nor does the weasel shun the habitations of man
like the ermine, to reside in woods and deserts. I have kept both
species together, but found no reason to suppose that animals which
differ in climate, temperament, and disposition, would intermix. Among
the weasels, it is true, there are some larger than others; but this
difference never exceeds an inch in the whole length of the body; but
the ermine is full two inches longer than the largest weasel. Neither
of them are to be tamed, but must always be kept in an iron cage.
Neither of them will eat honey, nor ransack the bee-hives, like the
marten and polecat; and therefore, the ermine is not the wild weasel,
the ictis of Aristotle, which he says is easily tamed, and very fond
of honey. So far are the weasel and ermine from being easily tamed,
that they will not even eat if taken notice of, but are in continual
agitations, endeavouring to conceal themselves; and in order to
preserve them it is necessary they should be supplied with a parcel of
wool or flax, in which they may hide themselves, and which they make a
receptacle for whatever is given them, and seldom ever eat but in the
night; and rather than eat fresh meat they keep it for two or three
days that it may corrupt. They sleep three parts of the day, and even
when at liberty they set apart the night for the search of their prey.
When a weasel enters a hen-roost he never meddles with the cocks or old
hens, but singles out the pullets and young chicks, which he kills by
a single bite on the head, and then carries away the whole, one after
another; he also destroys the eggs, and sucks them with incredible
avidity. In winter they generally reside in granaries, or hay-lofts,
where the females often continue in the spring, and bring forth their
young among the hay and straw; and during this period she makes war
with the rats and mice with more success than the cats, since she
follows them into their holes, and so renders it impossible for them
to escape; she also attacks and destroys the pigeons in their houses,
and sparrows, and other birds, in their nests. In summer they remove to
some distance from the houses, always choosing low grounds, about mills
and streams, hiding themselves among the bushes, to catch the birds;
they sometimes take up their abodes in old willows, where the females
bring forth their young, for which she prepares a bed of grass, straw,
and leaves; she litters in the spring, and it generally consists of
from three to five. They are brought forth with their eyes closed but
they very soon acquire growth and strength sufficient to follow the
mother to the chace. They attack adders, water-rats, moles, field mice,
&c. and traversing the meadows devour quails and their eggs. They have
not a regular walk, but bound forward by unequal and precipitate leaps;
when inclined to mount a tree they make a spring, by which they are
elevated several feet at once; and thus they also act when they attempt
to seize a bird.
These animals have also a very strong and disagreeable smell, which is
much worse in summer than winter, and when pursued or irritated they
infect the air to a great distance. They always move with all possible
silence, and never exert their voices but when they are hurt, of which
the sound is rough, and very expressive of anger. As their own odour is
very bad they seem to feel no inconvenience from any foreign stench.
A peasant in my neighbourhood took three new-littered weasels out of
the carcass of a wolf, which had been suspended by its hind legs from
a branch of a tree; for though the wolf was almost rotten, the female
weasel had brought grass and leaves, and made a bed for her young in
the thorax of this putrid carcass.