BEARS 59 



the polecat has for slaying fowls; while others again 

 say that '^pole" is a variation of the Anglo-Saxon 

 "fur' (foul). Thus the animal is a foul cat, which 

 corresponds with its name foumart. These names, 

 as also fitchet and fitchet weasel, refer to the 

 animaFs disagreeable smell. Fitchet is derived 



Fig. 17. — The Polecat {Putorius putorius [Linn]). Photo, by 

 H. C. Wood, from a specimen in the British Mnseiim of 

 Natural History.) 



from a low German and Scandinavian word meaning 

 " to make a disagreeable smell.'' 



Another explanation of the name occurs to us: 

 may not the term "polecat" be derived from the habit 

 these animals have of attacking the heads of their 

 victims ? It is a habit common to all the Mustelid 

 family (stoats, weasels, etc.) but is peculiarly notice- 

 able in the polecat, who will pith or paralyse numbers 

 of frogs and toads by biting through the brain and 

 leave them uneaten. 



