into the very innermost
recesses of its burrow. The English species of weasels are also common
to other countries of Europe and Asia.

In the high northern latitudes of the Old World, we find a very
celebrated species--celebrated for a long time on account of its
valuable fur--the Sable. The sable is a true marten: a tree-climber,
and one of the most sanguinary of weasels. An account of its habits,
and of the mode of hunting it, forms one of the most interesting
chapters in natural history.

An allied species inhabits the Hudson's Bay territory, known as the
American sable, and another, belonging to the Japanese islands, is
called the Japan sable.

The Ermine is a species equally famous; and for a like reason--the value
of its beautiful white fur, so long an article of commerce. The ermine
is neither more nor less than a stoat in winter dress; but there are
several varieties of it--some that turn to brown in summer, while
another kind retains its snow-white covering throughout all the year.
The ermine is common to Europe, Asia, and North America.

The Pekan is a larger species, belonging to North America, and
semi-aquatic in its habits; while the Vison, or Mink, is a large black
weasel that inhabits the borders of rivers in Canada and the United
States, where it preys upon fish and aquatic reptiles.

In North America there is also a very large Pine marten, so called from
its habit of dwelling in the pine forests--where it climbs the trees in
pursuit of birds and squirrels. This is among the largest of the weasel
tribe. In California, a new species has been described under the name
of the Yellow-cheeked weasel, and in Mexico another, the Black--faced;
so that North America has its full complement of these sanguinary
quadrupeds. Nor is the southern division of that continent without its
weasels, as there is one species or more in New Granada, one in Guiana,
and two or three in Chili and Peru.

In India, there is the White-cheeked weasel, Hodgson's and Horsefield's
weasels; and in Nepaul, the Nepaul weasel, and the Cathia. Further
north in Asia, there is, in Siberia, the Vomela, the Chorok, and the
Altai weasel of the Altai Mountains; and no doubt need exist that
animals of the weasel tribe are to be found everywhere. Indeed, if we
regard as weasels the various carnivorous quadrupeds of the glutton and
badger family, which have been described elsewhere in these sketches--
including the strange Teledu or St