Hetrospective Criticism. 72 i 



of the country. In the intermediate climates between teni^ 

 perate and frigid, such as Scotland and Scandinavia, it regu- 

 larly experiences these vicissitudes of colour." 



But here it must be remarked, that the stoat, the hare, the 

 ptarmigan, or any other beast or bird of varying fur or 

 plumage, cannot be supposed to commence the variation of 

 colour in September or November, and to rechange it in 

 March or April in every year, vy^ithout being under the direct 

 influence of a less or a greater degree of temperature of the 

 atmosphere. The increased coldness of the air, which gener* 

 ally takes place at the approach of winter in the northern 

 latitudes, in the Alps (as in Styria), and in the lower moun- 

 tains of the temperate climates (as in the highlands and moor- 

 lands of Great Britain), is, I conceive, the true cause of the 

 regular variation from brown to white, in those animals ; and, 

 again, as the coldness gradually diminishes, and as the warm- 

 ness of the atmosphere at such situations increases, their sum- 

 mer colours begin to reappear. Pale and light colours, as 

 white, &c., seem to belong naturally to the northern or cold 

 countries, and they are predominant in every part of the cre- 

 ation ; in animals, in plants, in minerals, as silver, &c. : but, 

 on the contrary, dark and bright colours, as black, &c., are 

 peculiar to the southern or warm climates, and are observ- 

 able in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. And, 

 indeed, in those polar tracts where the cold remains equally 

 intense throughout the year, and where " stat glacies iners 

 menses per omnes " [" fast-fixed ice prevails through every 

 month "], these same animals, whose colours are known to 

 vary in more hospitable and less severe climates, never undergo 

 any vicissitude, but continue to vie with the pure whiteness of 

 the snow, with which nature is there perpetually clad. Hence, 

 the transition from the summer to the winter colours of all 

 such animals depends principally upon atmospherical temper- 

 ature ; arising either from a high latitude, or from an alpine 

 or mountainous range, or from the casual severity of the win- 

 ter in a low and temperate region, and not merely from the 

 regular and annual succession of winter to autumn. . ,? 



In conclusion, I will relate two curious facts respecting the 

 habits of the stoat, which, I believe, have not yet been de- 

 scribed in any of our works on British quadrupeds. One, to 

 which I have above alluded (p. 719.), is, that whilst walking 

 along a footpath in a field, one day in the last week of De- 

 cember, 1831, I observed a stoat, or a weasel, coming in the 

 same path towards me. I immediately stood still, and, as he 

 approached, I found that he carried his nose in the same rela- 

 tive bearing to the ground, and was in the act of running the 



Vol. V. — No, 30, 3 a 



