112 Polecat, Ferret, and Polecat -Ferret Hyhrids 



trying to eat rabbit meat. The 25th day found two able to see a little, 

 and all making vigorous efforts to eat. By the 36th day they were quite 

 dark in colour, with white tips to their ears, white muzzles, but the 

 light patches on the sides of the face as yet shadowy and indistinct. At 

 seven weeks old they were perfect little polecats as far as outward 

 appearance went, and it was not until they had gained their winter 

 pelage that some slight trace of the ferret side of their pedigree could 

 be discerned. 



{d) A Second Litter of Hybrids. In 1916 the male polecat No. 5 

 was mated with another white female ferret (No. 34). She had by 

 him a fariiily of eight, all dark, but being a bad mother only reared 

 three. These were in all respects exactly like the first hybrids, being 

 quite as polecatlike in appearance, and even more nervous, for they did 

 not get so much handling and petting. 



(e) Reciprocal Cross. The reciprocal cross could not be made, as the 

 female polecat which I had obtained after so much trouble never bred ; 

 but as albinism is invariably recessive to full pigmentation, we may be 

 fairly confident that the result would have been the same. 



(/) F2 Generation. Owing to one mishap and another no F2, litter 

 was reared to maturity. The F^ females that I kept to breed from caught 

 distemper and died, but a male and female that I had given to Mr Riley 

 Fortune did well until just before their young were born. The female 

 then escaped from her cage, found a hole under the greenhouse floor, 

 and there made a nest, in which her family was born. Mr Fortune kindly 

 sent me full particulars of the progress of the litter, but misfortune was 

 again in store, and the mother getting away was lost before her young 

 ones could see. When deserted they were a whitish colour. As the 

 young of all ferrets, whatever their ultimate colour is to be, have a white 

 baby coat, this is no indication as to what they would have been like 

 when adult. But one thing was proved, namely that the hybrids are 

 perfectly fertile inter se. 



(g) Fi Generation x the Ferret. A mating between a F^ male and a 

 white ferret (Nos. 9 and 10) gave four albinos to two dark young ones. 

 These latter were not so dark as their sire, and approached the ordinary 

 fitchet ferret type. Another mating of an F^ male with an albino female 

 (Nos. 38 and 39) gave four whites to three darks. The total for the two 

 litters was eight to five, whereas expectation was equality, but the 

 numbers are too small for one to be able to arrive at any conclusions. 

 When an Fj female, No. 44, was mated with a male bred firom the 



