. Familiar life in field and forest; the animals, birds, frogs, and salamanders . ed in obedience to a law of Nature, an instinctivepropensity to kill. . We have observed an ermine,after having captured a hare, . . first behead it andthen drag the body some twenty yards over the freshfallen snow, beneath which it was concealed and thesnow lightly pressed down over it. Now let us hear what Elliott Coues has to say: Swift and surefooted, he makes open chase and runsdown his prey; ... he assails it not only upon theground, but under it, and on trees and in the of scent, he tracks it an
. Familiar life in field and forest; the animals, birds, frogs, and salamanders . ed in obedience to a law of Nature, an instinctivepropensity to kill. . We have observed an ermine,after having captured a hare, . . first behead it andthen drag the body some twenty yards over the freshfallen snow, beneath which it was concealed and thesnow lightly pressed down over it. Now let us hear what Elliott Coues has to say: Swift and surefooted, he makes open chase and runsdown his prey; ... he assails it not only upon theground, but under it, and on trees and in the of scent, he tracks it and makes the fatal springupon it unawares ; lithe, and of extraordinary slen-derness of body, he follows the smaller creaturesthrough the intricacies of their hidden abodes, andkills them in their homes ; and if he does not kill forthe simple love of taking life, in gratification of super-lative bloodthirstiness, he at any rate kills instinctive-ly more than he can possibly require for his know not where to find a parallel among the larger FUR-CLAD FIGHTERS. 139. carnivora. ... A glance at the physiognomy of theweasels would suffice to betray their character. Theteeth are almost of the highest known raptorial?[preying] character; the jaws are worked by enor-mous masses of muscles covering all the side of theskull. The foreheadis low, and the noseis sharp ; the eyesare small, penetrating,cunning, and glitterwith an angry greenli^ht. There is some-thing peculiar, more-over, in the way thatthis fierce face surmounts a body extraordinarily wiry,lithe, and muscular. It ends a remarkably long andslender neck in such a way that it may be held atright angles with the axis of the latter. AYTien thecreature is glancing around, with the neck stretchedup and flat, triangular head bent forward, swayingfrom one side to the other, we catch the likeness ina moment—it is the image of a serpent! * It seems as if this uncompromising, unqualifiedexposure of bad character was sufficientl
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Keywords: ., bookauthorma, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology
