MARTENS, POLECATS, AND WEASELS. I17 



Characters. — Size considerably smaller than the last; fur 

 short ; tail shorter than the body ; colour reddish-brown 

 above, with the chin and under-parts, as well as the inner 

 surfaces of the limbs and the feet, yellowish-white ; tip of tail 

 black. In winter, in high latitudes and altitudes, the colour 

 is yellowish-white, with a black tip to the tail. Length of 

 head and body of male about lo^ inches; of tail, 6^ inches; 

 female considerably smaller. 



Although by non-zoological persons the Stoat or Ermine is 

 often confounded with the Polecat, it is, in addition to its 

 smaller size, such a very different-looking animal that there 

 ought not to be the slightest difficulty in distinguishing between 

 the two. Macgillivray, in the original edition of the " Na- 

 turalist's Library," describes it as having the body " much 

 elongated, and of nearly equal thickness in its whole length ; 

 its neck rather long and nearly as thick as the body; its head 

 oblong, flattened above, with a rather obtuse muzzle ; the tail 

 of moderate length, and the fur short. On the fore-foot the 

 first toe is very small, the second longer than the fifth, the 

 third longest, the fourth a Httle shorter ; under the last joint 

 of each is a bare tubercle. On the hind-feet are also five bare 

 tubercles, and the toes have nearly the same proportions as 

 those of the fore-feet ; the soles covered with hair. The ears 

 are rather large, broad, and rounded, with a slit in the pos- 

 terior margin, forming a lobe there. The pile is shortish and 

 soft ; the hairs acuminate, a little flattened, and slightly 

 curved or undulated ; the under-fur very soft and woolly ; the 

 moustache-bristles long ; the coarse hairs on the terminal half 

 of the tail very long." 



The most remarkable peculiarity about the Stoat, and one 

 whereby it differs widely from all its congeners, is the assump- 

 tion, in the colder portions of its habitat, of the yellowish-white 



