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are short and he runs very close to the ground, his 

 body is long and light — very different in form from 

 the heavy, lumpy body of the badger. His coat is 

 reddish-brown above, with the under parts of the 

 body, chin and limbs yellowish-white. The tail is 

 reddish-brown with a black tip. In cold climates 

 and high altitudes the stoat turns white in winter 

 with the exception of the tip of the tail, which 



Fig. 15. — The Common Stoat {Putorius ermineus [Linn]). 

 (Photo., H. C. Wood. From a specimen in the British 

 Museum of Natural History.) 



remains black. He is then known as the ermine 

 and his fur is much prized, but the change of colour 

 is not always coincident with winter, stoats having 

 been killed with a varying amount of white in the 

 autumn even in the south of England. 



The stoat, weasel, polecat and marten are all cruel 

 animals, slaying wholesale many more victims than 

 they need for food, and they kill in the same way, 

 by biting at the back of the brain case just behind 



