116 THE FUMART. CHAP. vn. 



weasel, rat, badger, otter, and polecat are seen during 

 the day ; but these may only be regarded as stray indi- 

 viduals, their principal feeding time being at night. 

 The rat may forage in the daytime, and the weasel is 

 sometimes to be seen hunting when the sun is high. 

 But there was one circumstance in connection with the 

 manners and habits of these creatures which surprised 

 Edward not a little, which was, that although he 

 very seldom saw any of them in the evening, or until 

 after it was dark, he never missed seeing them in the 

 morning, and sometimes after it had become daylight. 

 The same remark is, in a measure, applicable to many 

 of the night insects, to land crustaceans, beetles, many 

 of the larger moths, sandhoppers, and slaters. 



One of the most severe encounters that Edward 

 ever had with a nocturnal roamer was with a Pole- 

 cat or Fumart* in the ruined castle of the Boyne. 

 The polecat is of the same family as the weasel, but 

 it is longer, bigger, and stronger. It is called Fu- 

 mart because of the foetid odour which it emits when 

 irritated or attacked. It is an extremely destructive 

 brute, especially in the poultry-yard, where it kills 

 far more than it eats. Its principal luxury seems to 

 be to drink the blood and suck the brains of the 

 animals it kills. It destroys everything that the game- 

 keeper wishes to preserve. Hence the destructive 

 war that is so constantly waged against the polecat. 



The ruined castle of the Boyne, about five miles 

 * fumart, from/wZ merde, old French, 



