Retrospective Criticism* 719 



covered with deep snow, I should scarcely liavenotketl it, bad 

 it not been for the blackness on the extreme half of the tail. As 

 1 was on horseback, it allowed me to approach near to it, 

 when, standing for some minutes on the bank of the hedge, 

 and looking boldly at me, I found it a fine large animal. The 

 upper part of its body was of a beautiful clear white ; but its 

 belly, legs, and tail were of a yellowish tint, which was more 

 distinguishable, by being contrasted with the purer white of 

 the snow. The second I met with on the 2ad of January 

 last. While riding along a road, my attention was suddenly 

 attracted to a white animal bounding extremely quickly across 

 the road from one hedge to the other ; and on going to the 

 spot where it had entered the hedge, I soon caught sight of 

 it again, a little way off, when I was delighted to find it provi^ 

 an ermine of the most beautiful white, having the bushy black 

 tip on the tail. I watched it some time running up a large 

 pasture, keeping near a thick hedge, in which it at last disr 

 appeared. The day was unusually mild for the season ; the 

 sun shone bright ; no snow was on the ground. The ermine 

 seemed as if out of its element, and even at a considerable 

 distance looked conspicuously white, and, I may add, for its 

 own safety, dangerously so. v • ; j; ^j,.];^ 



Providence, ever kind and protective of all the' >seyeir?(ls 

 animals of her creation, has so clothed most beasts and birds 

 of the forest and of the field, of the mountains and of the 

 plains, the reptiles also, and insects, with such furs, an.d. 

 feathers, and skins, of such colours, and of such shades, as- 

 shall be most conducive to their safety, and in harmony with 

 the colours of the places of their habitation. For if it were 

 not so (as in the present case), a pure white ermine, a white 

 hare, a white pheasant, or the like, living on the dark-coloured 

 ground, would immediately be seen by -theirj ,^JieRlfes>.i^sind. 

 would quickly be destroyed by them. 5,^]. oj tjnd>ioro/iedji9 



In consequence of the months of December, 1831, ^a^dl 

 January, 1832, last, having been so unseasonably fine, withoijfe 

 any snow, but with occasional slight frosts, I was greatlj^ 

 surprised to find this stoat clothed in his winter fur; and thj^ 

 more so, because I had seen, about three weeks or a month 

 before, a stoat in its summer coat, or brown fur ; concerning 

 which I will hereafter add a remarkable fact. I was, there- 

 fore, naturally led to consider whether the respective situations, 

 which the brown and white stoats seen by me this warm 

 winter inhabited, could alone account for the difference of 

 the colours of their fur, in any clear and satisfactory manner. 

 The situation, then, where the brown stoat was seen, is in 

 N. lat. 54<° 32' nearly, and W. long. ,^l,°|5^|^'Tiieft«lys,(^pp|i^«k 



