Guy Roberts, age 11, of Franklin, Wis., for his question:

What kind of animal is the ermine?

The ermine is shaped like a slinky weasel and has the fierce blood thirsty character of the weasels that restlessly hunt through our woods and meadows. In fact, the ermine is a weasel, and for half of the year he wears the brown coat and black tipped tail of the ordinary weasel. For the rest of the year he wears a coat of snowy white, but he keeps the black tip on the end of his little pointed tail.

The weasel is a prowling hunter, and to make a living he must be able to sneak up on his victims. A brown weasel is not noticeable on the brown ground, but in the far north the winter ground is covered with snow and a brown weasel would be very outstanding. So the northern weasel sheds his fur and dons a coat of snowy white to match his winter background. He becomes an ermine and changes back again to a weasel in the spring.