CHAPTER VI 



polecats, stoats, and weasels 



Polecat. 



I HAVE never seen a polecat in this district, except gibbeted 

 in some cover. Nor are they common. But they are occa- 

 sionally trapped and shot. The last I heard of was caught 

 in a rabbit-trap, and I was told " he was bigger than the 

 biggest buck ferret, with a sharp nose. He was savage, bit 

 at the traps, and was the colour of the polecat ferret." I 

 heard of another being " muddled up " beneath a low bridge 

 over a water-dike and killed. 



The Stoat, 



Or " minifa " (minerva), or lobster, on the other hand, is 

 common in the marshlands and in the covers. 'Tis just the 

 country for him, for he loves the water almost as well as 

 the land. 



You may see his brown and yellow fur gleaming on the 

 rush marshes in early spring; and should you start and 

 run after him, you will see him bound across the land, and 

 suddenly disappear into the ground, and when you come 

 up, you will find he has taken to a mole-run. If 3'^ou be 

 patient, and job about with your stick in the old mole-heaps 

 near, you may find the fur of a marsh-mouse in a dry and 

 cosy old mole's nest, for no sanctuary is dearer to him. 

 He turns the moles out of their home, and makes his quar- 

 ers there, feeding upon marsh-mice, eggs, young birds, 



