XIII THE IRISH STOAT Way) 
their colour in the winter, there are individuals which seem to 
have lost the power of change, and others which change in an 
apparently capricious manner, not influenced by season or cold. 
Like so many other animals, the Stoat appears at times to 
migrate, which it does in large parties. Such parties are 
said to be dangerous, and will attack a man who crosses 
their path. 
The Weasel, P. vulgaris, has much the same colour as the 
Stoat, but is a smaller animal; it differs also by undergoing 
no seasonal change. It is equally agile and ferocious, and 
ought to be encouraged, as it vents its ferocity largely upon 
Voles and Moles, which it can pursue underground. Like other 
species of Putorius, it seems to kill its prey by biting through 
the brain-case. 
The fourth British species is the recently-described Irish 
Stoat, P. hibernicus. It is somewhat intermediate between the 
last. two. 
Poecilogale is-a genus recently instituted by Mr. Thomas for 
a small South African Weasel, P. albinucha, coloured like the 
Zovilla, i.e. with whitish stripes upon black, but differing in its 
reduced molar formula, which is Pm 3 M 4 or 3. 
Lyncodon* is thought to be more doubtful; it is South 
American (Patagonian), with the same molar formula as the most 
reduced forms of the last genus, ze. Pm 3 M+. The ears are 
short and almost invisible; the claws of the anterior limbs are 
long, those of the hind limbs short. It is not quite certain that 
it is not “an aberrant southern form of Putorius brasiliensis.” 
That its distinction is justifiable appears to be shown by the 
discovery in the same region of a fossil species, LZ. luganensis. 
Matschie places it near (alictis. 
The Ratel, IWellivora, is common to India and West and South 
Africa. It is a black animal with a grey back and grey on the 
top of the head, the contrast of colour suggesting a dorsal 
carapace. It runs with a swift trot. The animal lives much on 
the ground, but can climb trees. It is exclusively nocturnal in 
its habits. It has the reputation in India of feeding upon dead 
bodies, a view which has probably no foundation in fact save 
that it can burrow. The molar formula is Pm 3 M+. There are 
fourteen dorsal vertebrae. The African and Indian species are 
1 See Matschie, SB. Ges. Naturf. Berlin, 1895, p. 171. 
