The Living Animals of the World, Volume I: Mammals

The ratels are strictly nocturnal, and make their lair by day in hollow trees, though they

The Smaller Carnivora

are said not to climb. The skin is protected by thick, close hair, so that bees cannot sting through the fur. The skin is also very loose. If a dog bites it, the ratel can generally twist round and bite back. The African ratel is omnivorous. It eats snakes and birds. The body of a cobra has been found in the stomach of one.

THE WEASEL TRIBE.

No animals are more bloodthirsty and carnivorous than most of the Weasel Tribe. They are also well equipped both in actual weapons and in activity of body, and have powers quite out of proportion to their size. They are also gifted with magnificent coats, and constitute the most valuable source of choice furs. Sable, Marten, Mink, Wolverine, Ermine, Otters, and several others are among the most highly prized. Their claws are sharp, but not retractile. It is indeed fortunate that these creatures are so small in size, otherwise they would be among the greatest enemies of animal life. As things are, they are useful in keeping down the numbers of creatures which, like field-mice, moles, rabbits, and rats, might, and occasionally do, become a pest.

THE MARTENS.

There are two species of marten in Europe the BEECH- and the PINE-MARTEN. The latter has a yellow throat, the former a white one. The fur is almost as fine as sable. All so-called Canadian sables are really martens. These animals are found throughout Northern Europe and Northern Asia, in Japan, and all over Northern America. In Scotland the pine-marten survives in the pine forests; also in Ireland, where it is occasionally killed on the Wicklow Mountains, near Dublin, and on the Mourne Mountains. It is believed to remain in Cumberland, Devonshire, and possibly in parts of Wales. It is a tree-loving animal, and feeds mainly on squirrels, which it pursues through the branches. It is also fond of fruit..Mr. Charles St. John discovered this in a curious way. He noticed that his rasp-berries were being stolen, so set a trap among the canes. Next day all he could see was a heap of newly gathered raspberry leaves where the trap was. Stooping down to move them, a marten sprang up and tried to defend itself. The poor beast had come to gather more rasp-berries, and had been caught. Unable to escape, it gathered the leaves near and concealed itself.

THE SABLE.

This is so little different from the marten that some have thought it only a northern variety. That is not the case, as both are found in the same area, and no one who knows anything of form and colour could mistake the true sable's fur. This fur is so fine and even that each single hair tapers gradually to a point: that is why sable brushes for painting are so valuable; they always form a point when wet. The price of these brushes, which are of genuine sable fur, though made up from fragments of the worst- coloured or damaged Plcoto ly A. S. Rudtand it Sons. RATEL. varies with theskins, yearly Ratels are curiously restless little animals, with a peculiar trot-like walk. sable of in the market.price

of the World132 The Living Animals

THE MINK.

Ladies are very familiar with the fur of the MINK, which is one of the best of the less expensive varieties; it is not glossy as marten or sable, and of a lighter and more uniform brown. The mink is a water-haunting polecat, found in Siberia, North America, and Japan. Its main home is in North America, where the immense system of lakes and rivers gives is particularly warm and thick, to keep out thescope for its aquatic habits. The under-fur is not stated tocold of the water, in which the animal spends more time than on land. It catch fish, as does the otter, in the water; but it lives on frogs, crayfish, mussels, and dead or stranded fish. Minks have been kept in confinement and regularly bred in " minkeries," as is the blue fox, and in Manchuria the chow dog, for the sake of its fur.

THE POLECAT.

This is now probably the rarest of the British weasels. It is almost identically the same as the polecat-ferret, a cross-breed between it and the domesticated variety. It survives in a few of the great woodlands of the Midlands and of Oxfordshire, in Scotland, and Wales. It is found in Cumberland, near Bowness, and on Exmoor and Dartmoor where rabbits abound. It is an expert swimmer. Its habits are the same as those of the stoat, but it is slower in its movements. It catches fish, and can pick up food from the bottom of the water. Wild ones rat outcan be trained to work like ferrets. " They do not delay in the hole, but follow the is a domesticated breedand catch it in a couple of bounds" (Trevor-Battye). The FERRET of polecat. It is identical in shape and habits, but unable to stand the cold of our climate in the open.

By permission of Percy Leigh Peinbcrton, /. PINE-MARTEN. Pine-martens have most beautiful fur, and for that reason are much hunted in America.

The Smaller Carnivora 133

THE WEASEL.

The smallest, fiercest, and commonest of its race, the little WEASEL is by no means the least formidable to other animals of the carnivora of England. It is cinnamon-coloured, with a white throat and belly, and climbs as neatly as a cat, running up vertical boughs with almost greater facility. A weasel in a high hedge will run the whole length of the fence, from twig to twig, without descending; it threads the galleries of the field-mice,

By permission of Percy LwjU Pemberton; Esq. sucks the eggs of small birds POLECAT; in their nests, and attacks In England this animal is becoming very scarce. rats, mice, rabbits, and even such large birds as grouse without fear or hesitation. During a great plague of field-voles in the Lowlands of Scotland in the years 1890 and 1891 the weasels increased enormously. A shepherd took the trouble to follow a weasel down a hollow drain in the Vole-infested hillside; he found the bodies of no less than thirteen field-mice, which the weasel had amused itself by killing. In winter weasels hunt the corn-stacks for mice, and often make a home among the sheaves. One was seen chasing a vole by Mr. Trevor-Battye, who picked up the vole, which the weasel was just about it into the hedge. There the weasel pounced on it andto jump up for, when he threw carried it off! The main food of the weasel is the field-mouse and small voles. Weasels are very devoted if theto their young; they will pick them up and carry them off as a cat does a kitten, nest is in danger. Their hunting shows great marks of cunning. One was seen in a field in which a number of corn-buntings were flying about, alighting on thistles. The weasel went and hid under one of the tallest thistles, on which a bunting soon alighted; an instant after it sprang up and caught and killed the bird.

THE STOAT, OR ERMINE.

This is the commonest and most widely distributed of all the Weasel Tribe. In winter the fur turns to pure white in the northern countries, and occasionally in Southern England. It is then known as the ERMINE, and yields the ermine fur. In every country where it is found it is the Photo iy A. HIMALAYA* WEASEL. deadlyJ foe of all small animals, from "Weasels are still common in England. They are fierce, and absolutely fearless the hare to the smallest field-mice. when in pursuit of game.

Photos by A. S. Rudland & Sons.

COMMON STOAT.

Iii summer coat. In winter coat.

These photographs show the stoat (or ermine, as it is often called) in its summer and winter coats. This animal gives us the well-known ermino fur.

It has the same passion for killing for killing's sake shared by the ferret. If a stoat finds a rabbit's nest, for instance, it always murders all the young ones. These creatures sometimes contrive to hunt in packs, or to migrate in society. They are very fond of their young, which they lay up in old crows' nests, holes in banks, or straw-stacks. They have often been seen is lOf inches,to carry them out of danger in their mouths. The length of the head and body five to eight in number, and are bornand of the tail 6| inches. The young are usually from till it is cut.in April or May. They soon move into the long standing-grass, and remain there After that they move to the woods and covers, and great numbers are trapped. If not, they attack the young pheasants, and do great damage. They can climb well, and are known, as is the polecat, to ascend trees and kill birds on their nests. They also suck eggs. Forty-two pheasants' eggs were taken by Mr. de Winton from one stoat's hole.

THE GLUTTON, OR WOLVERINE.

This largest and most destructive of all the Weasel Tribe is found all round the northern edge of the Arctic Circle, from Norway to Hudson Bay. It is a large heavy animal, with a short head, sharp claws, long thick fur, and a clumsy gait. Its tusks are very long and sharp; and its appetite, if not so insatiable as the old travellers were told, is sharp enough to keep it always hunting. It follows the fur-trappers in the woods, and, being very cunning, breaks in at the back of their fall-traps, and robs the baits or the prey caught. When Lord Milton and Dr. Cheadle made the North-west Passage by land, they lost nearly all their furs in this way. Once, having trapped a valuable silver fox, the only one caught by them, they found nothing but shreds of fur left by the glutton. As the marten-hunters' line of traps is perhaps fifty or sixty miles long, the loss and damage caused by the glutton is most mortifying. This Photo ly A. s. Rudiand & sons animal can only be caught in GLUTTON. steel traps, and that with greatA cunning, destructive animal, which follows the trappers and robs them of the animals taken in the traps. difficulty.

By permission of the New York Zoological Society.

CALIFORXIAX SEA-LIONS, OR EARED SEALS.

Seal-herds form " rookeries " when on land at the breeding-season, during which time they undergo a complete fast. 135