This animal is a native of Africa, and requires much care to preserve
it alive in cold countries. It is kept for the purpose of dislodging
rabbits from their warren, and has such a natural antipathy to these
animals, that, if a dead one be presented to a young ferret, though it
has never seen a rabbit before, it will eagerly seize it. Like the rest
of the species, it is remarkable for the pertinacity with which it
retains the bite which it has once taken. This circumstance is
illustrated by the following occurrence: A man, of the name of Isles, a
bargeman, finding himself much incommoded by the repeated mischief done
in his barge by rats, procured a ferret to destroy them. The ferret
remaining away a considerable time, he thought it was devouring some
rats that it had killed, and went to sleep, but was awakened early next
morning by the ferret, who was commencing an attack upon him. The
animal had seized him near his eyebrow; and the man, after endeavoring
in vain to shake him off, at length severed the body from the head with
a knife,--the latter still sticking so fast, as to be with difficulty
removed.