718 Retrospective Criticism, 



'ijThe Stoat, the Changes in the Colour of its Fur, and those 

 Changes rather refer^ahle to Atmospheric Temperature thaH tb 

 periodical Change of Season ; and the Stoat and its Congener^ 

 trace their Prey by the Facidty of Scent. — Sir, I send you some 

 remarks on the JVfustela ermineaof Gmelin, called in Britain, 

 in its summer fur, stoat, black-tailed weasel, and large weasel ; 

 in its winter fur, ermine, and white weasel. J. M. states, at 

 -p, 77., that " the stoat does not change its colour here, as iu 

 the northern parts of the world, by which its fur becomes ^^b" 

 valuable an article of commerce, though it has been observed^ 

 that its breast and throat are whiter in winter than in the 

 summer months." -' - - o^^-'^ ,,i ^fifUii im.^v ^.ii 



I will, in the first place, 6bkeW^ftftW?pJ^.^#.'fi'aa'tedBff 

 into our best work on British ^Joo/cgT/, by that classical anc^ 

 learned naturalist Pennant, he would have read that not only 

 the stoat, but also the common weasel (M. vulgaris GmeL), 

 sometimes becomes v^'hite in Great Britain. " In the most 

 northern parts of Europe," says he {Bfitish Zoology, vol. i. 

 p. 115. edit. 1812), " these animals (stoats) regularly change 

 their colour in winter, and become totally white, except the 

 end of the tail, which continues invariably black, and in that 

 state are called ermines. I am informed that the same is 

 observed in the highlands of Scotland. It is sometimes found 

 white in Great Britain, but not frequently, and then it is called 

 a white weasel. That animal is also found white, but may be 

 easily distinguished from the other in the ermine state, by 

 the tail, which, in the weasel, is of a light tawny brown." I 

 may here remark, incidentally, that, from the common weasel's 

 occurring of a white colour, Linnaeus named it, in his Fauna 

 Suecica (p. 7.)? -Mustela nivalis. I will now endeavour to show, 

 fi'om my own observations, that the white dress of the stoat 

 in England depends on the temperature of the atmosphere, 

 either according to situation, or according to the severity of 

 the winter; and not on the periodical change of the seasons, 

 as Pennant seems to imply in the following words (p. 116.): — 

 " With us it is observed to begin to change its colour from 

 brown to white in November, and to begin to resume the brown 

 itl the beginning of March." Within the last nine years I have 

 had the good fortune to meet with two ermines alive, and in 

 two of the most different winters that have occurred f6r a great 

 many years : the one was in the extremely severe winter of 

 January to March, 1823, and the other was in the almost as 

 extremely mild January last of this present year (1832). 

 The first ermine which I saw (in the month of February, I 

 believe) in the year 1823, was running in and out of a hedge 

 by the side of a turnpike road. The ground at the time being 



