Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1884 — A Mother Weasel. [ARTICLE]

A Mother Weasel.

A remarkable incident oocured upon a farm in Scotland. A farmer was plowing in one of his fields, which was nearly completed, and was passing to within a foot or two of the fence wall, when suddenly and to the surprise of the farmer, one of the horses became restive and wild, and refused to proceed in his work. This was an unusual circumstance, and the farmer was puzzled to make out the cause of it. Seizing the reins in his hands, he Walked toward the horse’s head, when, to his astonishment, he found that a large weasel had attacked the horse by springing upon it and fastening its teeth in the frightened animal’s neck. It was a moment of excitement and alarm, but the farmer was equal to the emergency. With a well-directed stroke of the reins the weasel was dislodged and killed. The horse soon recovered from his fright, and in due time plowing was resumed. The cause of the daring attack upon the horse was explained upon the return journey, with the plow a breadth nearer the wall, where at the place of attack the stock turned over a nest of young weasels, the object of anxious solicitude to the parent weasel. It was the well-grounded fear of harm to her young that had inspired the heart of the parent weasel to perform an act of daring that one could almost regret should have been so disastrous to itself and progeny.