Weasel

(See Viverra.) This animal, though little seen in the environs of t6wns, is an animal very well known in most parts of the country: it varies in no great degree from the stoat, either in shape, make, or propensity. Its favourite alimentary enjoyment seems the destruction of eggs by suction; although it pursues and destroys poultry and game with equal avidity. By some instinctive impulse-of scent or sagacity, the weasel is enabled to follow a hare, which it pursues with great enthusiasm; and whenever the hare unsuspectingly squats, if this inveterate enemy happen to get up, it immediately makes a spring, seizes the hare near the poll, and never quits its hold till the animal (running in a state of distraction, and with the most piteous shrieks) at leigth dies. The weasel may justly rank in the list of venomous animals, for its bite is, among quadrupeds, almost universally fatal: a hare or rabbit bitten by the weasel is seldom known to recover. In its pursuits, it has several points much in its favour: its activity, and the peculiar formation of its claws, enable it to scale walls with so much ease, that no spot is secure from its depredations. For its luxurious repasts, howéver, upon eges and young poultry, it makes some amends to the farmer by its inveteracy to rats and mice; having something of the ferret in its nature, it is to these an implacable énemy, and pursues them with mortal hatred. Of young -pigeons it is likewise a destructive depredator; and when it has young is more bold and indefatigable in its researches. the dusk of the evening, and by moonlight, it may: frequently be seen stealing from its lurking place under faggot-piles or corn-ricks, near the farm-house, taking the barns, stables, pigsties, and poultry-house in search of prey; - which, when it has killed, if not too large, it drags to its place of retreat. In the summer it will venture farther from its haunts, and may be often traced by the side of rivulets-and near mills, in both places in quest of rats. _WEA/’THER. s. (peden, Saxon.) 1. State of the air, respecting either cold or heat, wet or dryne (Z’Estrange). 2. The change of the state of the air (Bacon). 3. ‘Tempest; Storm’ (Dryden). anid