It is in general the custom, particularly with colts and fillies bred for the turf, to wean the latter end of September, or during the month of October; the reason of which is, that as the dam is then again in a state of gestation, it is by no means proper, nor can it be consistent, that a subsistence for the colt should be extracted from the dam, which nature requires to be absorbed for the nutritious support of the fœtus in embryo. At whatever time weaning may be determined on, the transition from one food to another so exceedingly opposite, should not be too suddenly made; the salutary interposition of mashes, made from ground malt and bran, equal parts, and thin in consistence, from which the fluid may be sucked, will prove a pleasing and consolatory assistance for the loss the foal has sustained. WEASEL.—The weasel, though little seen in the environs of towns, 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 a kind of energetic phrensy; and whenever the hare unsuspectingly squats, if this inveterate enemy happens to get up, it immediately makes a spring, seizes the hare near the poll, and never quits its hold till the animal (though running in a state of distraction, and with the most piteous cries) is deprived of existence. The weasel may justly rank in the list of _venomous_ animals, for its bite is almost universally fatal: a hare, rabbit, or any other object, bit by the weasel, is never known to recover, but continues in a lingering state till death.