MARTENS, POLECATS, WEASELS, STOATS 195 



a businesslike manner. He pokes his vicious-look- 

 ing head out to find a larger one than his own 

 anxious to play a game of ' chinchopper ' with him. 



Bob makes a snap and misses ; the polecat maKes 

 a snap in return, but he too misses. Bob gets some- 

 thing, however ; he snaps at a mouthful of litter that 

 is near the hole, and this does not at all improve the 

 old boy's temper. All at once Bob leaves the hole 

 and rushes, with a roaring bark of rage, to the other 

 end of the shed, for the polecat, perfumed up to his 

 eyebrows, has slipped out at another hole, and is 

 clawing his way up the rough boards of the side. 

 The farmer has seen it as quickly as Bob ; rushing 

 up, he swings his stake round his head and comes 

 down ' bang ! ' across the beast's back, making it drop 

 right into Bob's capacious mouth. Bob gives it one 

 worry and then drops it for his master to carry home 

 by the tail to the barn, where he will nail it up. 



I have seen much of these sagacious dogs in my 

 wanderings over the marshes. Their thick woolly 

 coats, grey in colour, are a most complete protection 

 to them in the bitter winter time. The long hair 

 reaches down the legs as far as the toes. In the 

 summer their masters shear them as they do the 

 sheep, and then they stand forth in all their naked 

 truth long, stout-limbed, bob-tailed lurchers. The 



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