CHAPTER X

THE WEASEL TRIBE

Almost all the animals which belong to this tribe have very long, slender bodies and very short legs; and the reason is a simple one. They feed on living prey, which they often have to follow through a long and winding burrow. Now if they had stout bodies or long legs they could not do this. Most likely they could not enter the burrow at all; and even if they did so they would be almost sure to find, before they had gone very far, that they could neither move forward or backward. But, having such snake-like bodies and such very short limbs, they can wind their way through the tunnels without any difficulty, and then spring upon their victim at the end.

They always try to seize their prey by the throat, in order to tear open the great blood-vessels which pass through that part of the body. One who had a personal experience of the strength and sharpness of their teeth thus tells it: "I was walking through a park one day early in the autumn, when I noticed that the dead leaves under a tree were tossing and tumbling about in a very curious manner. On going a little closer I found that a mother weasel and her little ones were playing together. When I came up of course they all ran away. So I ran after them, and caught one of the little animals by putting my foot on it, just hard enough to hold it down on the ground without hurting it. And immediately the little creature, which was only about six inches long, twisted itself round, and drove its sharp teeth into the edge of the sole of my shoe, both from above and below. So that if I had done what I thought of doing at first and had stooped to pick it up, its teeth would certainly have met in my finger."

The weasel is common in many parts of the United States as well as in Europe. In some regions you can scarcely take a walk along the roads or through the fields without catching sight of it. Very likely it will poke its head out of a hole in the bank at the side of the road, and watch you in the most inquisitive manner as you go past. Or you may notice it slipping in and out of the herbage at the foot of a hedge, as it searches for the small creatures on which it feeds. But very often it will leave the hedge, and follow a mole along its burrow. Or it will make its way to a wheatstack, and pursue the mice through their "runs." And it is very fond of going out bird's-nesting, and robbing the nests of the eggs or little ones which they contain. But the weasel is not always successful when he sets out on one of these expeditions. While coming down Helvellyn, a mountain in England, a writer witnessed a strange little scene. "Hearing a loud chattering," he says, "I looked up, and saw just above me a pair of stonechats and a weasel. Evidently the weasel had come too near the nest of the birds, and they were trying to entice him away. And this is how they managed it. First the cock bird sat down on a stone about a yard in front of the weasel, and began to flap his wings, and to chatter and scream. The weasel immediately darted at him, and the bird flew away. Next the hen bird sat down on another stone a yard farther on, and began to flap her wings and to chatter and scream. Then the weasel darted at her, and _she_ flew away. As soon as she had gone the cock came back, sat on a third stone, and played the same trick again. And so the two birds went on over and over again, till they got the weasel far up the mountain side, quite two hundred yards from the nest, when they quietly left him and flew away together.

"Wasn't it clever of them? And the odd thing was that the weasel never realized that he was being taken in, but evidently thought he was going to catch one of the birds every time that he darted at them."

When fully grown the European weasel is from eight to ten inches long, about one-fourth of that length being occupied by the tail. The fur of the upper parts of the body is brownish red in color, while that of the throat and lower surface is white.

In the United States are found various species of weasels, the largest of which is called the New York weasel. The length of the male is sixteen inches, that of the female thirteen inches, the tail being more than one-third of the total length. It is also called the long-tailed weasel. The smallest species is the least weasel, only six inches long. Both bear much resemblance to stoats. "The various kinds of weasels in this country," say Stone and Cram in their "American Animals," "are much alike in their habits.... They hunt tirelessly, following their prey by scent, and kill for the mere joy of killing, often leaving their victims uneaten and hurrying on for more."

THE STOAT, OR ERMINE

This is the commonest and most widely distributed of all the weasel tribe. The name is British. The fur of the lower parts of the stoat's body is pale yellow instead of white, while the tip of the tail is black. In very cold countries the whole of the fur becomes white in winter, like that of the arctic fox, the tip of the tail alone excepted. Indeed, the famous ermine fur which we value so highly, and which even kings wear when they put on their robes of state, is nothing but the coat of the stoat in its winter dress.

The stoat preys upon rather larger animals than do other weasels, and many a hare and rabbit falls victim to its sharp little fangs. Strange to say, when one of these creatures is being followed by a stoat it seems almost paralyzed with fear, and instead of making its escape by dashing away at its utmost speed, drags itself slowly and painfully over the ground, uttering shrill cries of terror, although it has not been injured at all.

In poultry-yards the stoat is sometimes terribly mischievous. One stoat has been known to destroy as many as forty fowls in a single night. So both the gamekeeper and the farmer have very good reason for disliking it. But in some ways it is really very useful. It kills large numbers of mice and rats and voles, which often do such damage in the fields. And if we could set the good which it does against the evil, we should find that the former more than makes up for the latter.

THE POLECAT

This animal was formerly very common in Great Britain. But owing to its mischievous habits it has been greatly persecuted, and now it is very seldom met with. It is a good deal larger than the stoat, being nearly two feet in length from the nose to the tip of the tail, and you would think, on looking at it, that its fur was brown, yet it scarcely has a brown hair on the whole of its body. The fact is that the long outer hairs are so dark as to be almost black, while the soft under-fur next the skin is pale yellow; and as the inner coat shows through the outer one, the effect is very much the same as if the whole of the fur were brown.

The polecat is sometimes called the foumart. This name is formed from the two words foul marten, and has been given to the animal because it looks like a marten, and has a most foul and disagreeable smell. In its habits it is very much like the stoat. It comes out chiefly by night, and preys upon any birds or small animals which it may meet with, following rabbits down their burrows, tracking hares to their "forms," and sometimes killing nearly all the poultry, geese, and turkeys in a farmyard. Early in April it makes a kind of nest in a deserted rabbit-hole, or in a crevice among the rocks, and there brings up its family of from three to eight little ones.

The animal called polecat in North America is the skunk, of which we shall speak soon; the name is particularly applied to the common skunk of the Northeastern States and Canada.

THE FERRET

You know that the ferret is much used in hunting rabbits and rats. It appears to be really a variety of the polecat, and is usually of a yellowish white color with pink eyes. But there is also a brown form, which is generally called the polecat-ferret. It is known only in a domesticated form.

In some of the Western United States--Kansas, Colorado, etc.--is found the black-footed ferret, "often called prairie-dog hunter because its specialty is the killing of prairie-dogs." It has not become very well known to animal students, for it dwells in burrows and hunts at night.

MARTENS

Old World martens may be described as large weasels that live in the trees. One of them, the pine-marten, is still found in the wilder parts of Great Britain, although it is even scarcer, perhaps, than the polecat.

This animal is about as big as a cat. But it does not look as large as it really is, because of the shortness of its legs. In color it is rich brown above and yellowish white below, while the tail is very long, and is almost as bushy as that of a squirrel.

Martens are only found in the thickest parts of the forests, and spend almost the whole of their lives in the trees, running up and down the trunks, and leaping from bough to bough with the most wonderful activity. They even make nests among the branches, in which to bring up their little ones, weaving a quantity of leaves and moss together in such a way as to make a most cosy little nursery. But it is to be feared that they are sometimes lazy animals, for just to save themselves trouble they will turn squirrels or woodpeckers out of their nests, and take possession of them for themselves.

Martens feed on any small animals which they can find, and have more than once been known to kill lambs, and even fawns. When they happen to live near the sea, it is said that they will visit the shore by night in order to hunt for mussels.

The American sable or pine-marten is about the size of a common domestic cat, and looks much like a young red fox. It is now rare south of Northern Canada.

The sable found in the mountainous forests of Northern Asia seems to be nothing more than a variety of the pine-marten with very long fur. This fur is so much in request that the animal is greatly persecuted, more than two thousand skins being sometimes taken in a single season.

THE GLUTTON, OR WOLVERENE

You would say that this animal hardly looks like a weasel at all, for it is very heavily and clumsily built, and, including the tail, is often as much as four feet long. If you did not know what it was, you might almost take it for a bear cub with a tail. It is blackish brown in color, with a lighter band which runs from the shoulders along the sides and across the flanks, as far as the root of the tail.

"Glutton" is rather an odd name for this creature, isn't it? But certainly the animal deserves it, for it will go on eating and eating, long after you would think that it could not possibly swallow a morsel more. Indeed, a glutton has been known to devour, at a single meal, a great joint of meat, which would have been more than sufficient for a lion or a tiger for a whole day! It lives in North America, and also in Northern Europe and Northern Asia, and the hunters find it a terrible nuisance, for night after night it will search along a line of traps and devour all the animals caught in them. Then, too, if they bury a quantity of provisions in the ground, meaning to come back and fetch them later on, a glutton is very likely to discover them and dig them up, while the animal is also fond of visiting their huts while they are absent, and stealing everything it can carry away.

Blankets, knives, axes, and even saucepans and frying-pans have been stolen in this way by gluttons, and once one of these animals actually succeeded in dragging away and hiding a gun! It is even a worse robber, in fact, than the arctic fox. And it can hardly ever be trapped, because it is so crafty that it almost always discovers the traps, and either passes them by or pulls them to pieces, while it is so wary, and so swift of foot, that the hunter very seldom has a chance of shooting it.

It was formerly supposed that this animal was even more crafty still, and that it would collect a quantity of the moss of which deer are so fond, lay it upon the ground as a bait, and hide in the foliage of an overhanging bough, so as to spring down upon the animals when they stopped to feed. But this story seems to be quite untrue.

THE RATEL

More curious still is the ratel, which belongs to the family of badgers. You cannot possibly mistake it if you see it, for all the upper part of its body is grayish white, and all the lower part is black. So that it looks rather like a lady wearing a white mantle and a black skirt.

But if the ratel is odd in appearance, it is odder still in habits. If you go to look at them in a zoo you are sure to find them trotting leisurely round and round their cage in a perfect circle, one behind the other. And when they come to a certain spot they always stop, turn head over heels, pick themselves up, and then run on again. Why they do so nobody knows, but for hours every day they keep up this singular performance.

The ratel is very fond of honey, so fond that it is often called the honey-ratel, or honey-weasel, and it spends a good deal of time in prowling about in search of the nests of wild bees. You would think that it would get badly stung by the bees, wouldn't you, when it tore their nests open and robbed them of their sweet stores? But its coat is so thick that the insects can scarcely force their stings through it, while even if they do so there is a thick loose skin under it, and a layer of fat under that. So it seems quite certain that a ratel never gets stung, no matter how many nests he may rob.

The animal does not live entirely on honey, however, but also feeds upon rats, mice, small birds, lizards, and even insects.

Two kinds of ratels are known, one of which lives in Africa and the other in India.

THE BADGER

The European badger was formerly very common in Great Britain. It was generally known as the brock, and when we hear of a place called by such a name as Brockley, or Brockenhurst, we may be quite sure that it was once inhabited by a great many badgers. Nowadays, however, these animals are more scarce in Great Britain and only to be found as a general thing, in the wildest parts of the country; and as they only come out of their burrows by night, very few people even see them in a state of freedom. But all over temperate Northern Europe and Asia the European badger is found.

Their burrows are generally made either in the very thickest part of a dense forest, or else on the side of a steep cliff which is well covered with trees. They run for some distance into the ground, and generally open out into several chambers, while at the end there is always a large hollow which the animals use as a bedroom. They like to be comfortable, so they always line this hollow with a good thick layer of dried fern and dead leaves. You would be quite astonished to find how much of this bedding is often packed away in the burrow of a single badger.

These animals are most cleanly in their habits, and are very careful not to take any dirt into their burrows with them. They have been known, for example, to use a low branch near the entrance as a scraper, and always to rub their feet upon it before going in. And every now and then they have a grand house-cleaning, turning out all their bedding, and taking in a fresh supply.

When the badger is digging, it uses its nose as well as its paws, shoveling the earth aside with it from time to time. And every now and then it walks backward to the entrance of the burrow pushing out the loosened earth in a heap behind it.

The teeth of the European badger are made in a very curious way, for they interlock with one another just like those of a steel trap. The jaws, too, are exceedingly strong, so that the animal is able to inflict a very severe bite. But it is a most peaceable creature, and never attempts to attack unless it is driven to bay.

As regards food, it will eat almost anything. It seems equally fond of mice, frogs, lizards, birds' eggs, snails, worms, fruit, beechnuts, and roots. If it finds a wasps' or a bumblebees' nest, it will dig it up and devour all the grubs and the food which has been stored up for them, caring nothing for the stings of the angry insects. And very often it gathers a quantity of provisions together in a small chamber opening out of its burrow, which it uses as a larder.

The head of the badger is white, with a broad black streak on either side, which encloses both the eye and the ear. The body is reddish gray above, whitish gray on the sides, and blackish brown below, and the flanks and tail are nearly white. In length it is very nearly three feet from the muzzle to the tip of the tail.

The American badger, living in the western parts of North America, resembles its European cousin in nearly all respects, differing from it chiefly in the form of the teeth, in the habit of eating more flesh, and in liking open flat country better than the dense forests preferred by its Old World relation. Another difference is noted by Mr. Hornaday, who tells us that the American badger "has a savage and sullen disposition, and as a pet is one of the worst imaginable."

THE SKUNK

Many of the animals of the weasel tribe have a most disagreeable odor; but there is none whose scent is so horribly disgusting as that of the skunk.

This is a North American animal of about the size of a cat, with a long, narrow head, a stoutly built body, and a big bushy tail. In color it is black, with a white streak on the forehead, a white patch on the neck, and a broad stripe of the same color running along either side of the back.

The offensive odor of the skunk is due to a liquid which is stored up in certain glands near the root of the tail. This liquid can be squirted out at will to a distance of twelve or fifteen feet, and if the animal is attacked, or thinks itself in danger, it does not attempt to use its teeth, but just turns round, raises its tail, and sends a perfect shower of the vile fluid over its enemy. And it is almost impossible to wash the smell away. A drop or two once fell on the coat of a dog. The animal was washed over and over again, most thoroughly, with various kinds of soap. Yet a week later, when he happened to rub himself against one of the legs of a table, no one could bear to sit by it afterward.

The skunk seems to know perfectly well how offensive its odor is, and never runs away if it meets a man, or even a large dog. It just stands perfectly quiet, like a cat expecting to be stroked, ready to make use of its evil-smelling fluid if necessary.

This singular animal lives in holes in the ground, making a warm little nest at the end in which to bring up its young. It feeds upon small animals, small birds and their eggs, frogs, lizards, and, most of all, upon insects.

OTTERS

Last among the members of the weasel tribe come the otters. These animals are specially formed for living in the water. The paws, for example, are very large and broad, and the toes are fastened together by means of a kind of web, like that on the foot of a swan or a duck, so that they form very useful paddles. Then the body is long, lithe, and almost snake-like, and the tail is so broad and flat that it serves as a capital rudder, and enables the animal to direct its course. The fur, too, consists of two coats of hair instead of only one; the outer, which is composed of long, stiff bristles, lying upon the inner like a very close thatch, and quite preventing water from passing through. So although an otter is dripping from head to foot when it comes out of the water, it never gets really wet.

The animal is wonderfully active in the water, and can easily overtake and capture the swiftest of fishes. Sometimes it is very destructive, for when fishes are plentiful it becomes so dainty that it never eats its victims, but just takes a bite or two from the best part of the flesh at the back of the neck, and then leaves the rest of the body lying upon the ground. So fishermen are not at all fond of it, and kill it whenever they can. But sometimes, when the rivers are very low, or when the surface of the water is thickly covered with ice, the otters find it very difficult to obtain a sufficient supply of food. So they leave the streams and wander far inland, sometimes making their way into the farmyards, and feasting upon poultry, or even upon young pigs and lambs. But they only do this when they are in real danger of starvation, and always return to the river-banks as soon as they can.

The home of the otter is generally situated beneath the spreading roots of a large tree on the bank of a stream. The animal does not dig a burrow if it can help it, but prefers to take advantage of some natural cleft in the ground, at the end of which it makes a nest of flags and rushes. In this nest from three to five little ones are brought up, and if you were to lie very quietly on the bank for some little time early on a warm spring morning, you would very likely see the mother otter playing with her little ones, or teaching them how to swim and to catch fish.

The bite of the otter is very severe, and it is almost impossible to force the animal to loose its hold.

In India there is a kind of otter which is often trained to catch fish for its master. It is taught, first of all, to pursue an imitation fish as it is drawn through the water by a string, and to bring it ashore and lay it down upon the ground. Then a dead fish is substituted for the false one, and when the otter has learned to bring this to its owner, and to give it up at the word of command, it is sent in pursuit of a live fish fastened to a line. And before very long it learns its duties so thoroughly that it will catch fish after fish, and bring them back without attempting to eat them, just as a well-trained retriever dog will bring back the birds or the rabbits which its master has shot.

The otter of North America is still found, but not numerously, in the Carolinas and Florida, in some Rocky Mountain districts, in British Columbia and Alaska, and in the Canadian provinces.

There is also a kind of otter which lives in the sea, and is called the sea-otter. It is also known as the kalan. It is found on the coasts of the Northern Pacific, and is much larger than the common otter, often weighing as much as seventy or eighty pounds, and being nearly four feet in total length. Its fur is the most costly known, a fine pelt being worth $600 or $800 before dressing. This high price is due partly to the beauty of the fur, but mainly to its rarity.