STOAT OR ERMINE. 159 



the hind neck, and the middle of the back, as far 

 as the tail, a broad band of brown, intermixed with 

 white hairs ; and the brown hairs are all much 

 shorter than the white. A female, killed on the 

 same day, in company with the male, has the upper 

 parts all brownish-red, but paler than usual, with a 

 very few small tufts of white hairs interspersed, but 

 its fur is not shorter than that of an individual killed 

 in December. In the former case, the summer 

 change has commenced, and brown hairs have 

 grown in place of the white hairs of winter ; but in 

 xhe latter, the winter coat had not assumed a white 

 colour, and still remains. A female, shot at Loan* 

 head, near Edinburgh, in the end of February 1832, 

 was brown above, with a few white hairs, especially 

 on the tail. There had been an uncommonly mild 

 winter, and the animal had not assumed its white 

 vinter fur, for the red hairs did not seem to be 

 new. On the whole, it appears to me that in spring, 

 and the beginning of summer, when the animal had 

 assumed its white colour in winter, all the red hairs 

 that appear are new. Towards December, earlier 

 if the weather be very cold, later if less so, the hairs 

 of the upper parts become white. In an individual 

 obtained in December 1834, the colour was a mix- 

 ture of white and brownish-red. The hairs of the 

 latter colour were not in the least degree faded, and 

 those of the former were much shorter, and evi- 

 dently just shooting ; so that the change from 

 brown to white would seem to take place by the 

 substitution of new white hairs for those of the 



