415 



POLECAT. 



Viverra Putorius. 



Mustek Putorius M, corpore flato nigricante, ore auriculisque 



albis. Lin. Syst. Nat. Gmel.p. 96. 

 Blackish-tawny W. with whitish muzzle and ears. 

 Putorius. Gesn.Quadr.j6j. Aldr. dig. 3 29. Jonst. Quadr. 154. 

 Putois. Buff. J. p. 199. pi. 23. 

 Fitchet. Pennant Quadr. 2. p. 37. 

 The Polecat or Fitchet. 



THE Polecat is one of the most remarkable Eu- 

 ropean species of the Weesel tribe. Its colour is 

 an extremely deep blackish-brown, with a tawny 

 cast slightly intermixed : the ears are edged with 

 white, and the space round the muzzle is also 

 whitish. The general length of this animal is 

 seventeen inches, exclusive of the tail, which 

 measures about six inches. The Polecat is found 

 in most parts of Europe, as well as in some of the 

 Asiatic regions, as in Siberia, where it is said to 

 be generally found with the rump of a whitish or 

 yellowish tinge, surrounded with black. 



The Polecat commonly forms itself a subter- 

 raneous retreat, sometimes beneath the roots of 

 large trees, and sometimes under hay-ricks, and 

 in barns. It preys indiscriminately on the smaller 

 animals, and is very destructive to poultry: it is 

 also, like the Ferret, a cruel enemy to rabbets, 

 which it destroys by sucking their blood, instead 

 of tearing them immediately in pieces. It steals 

 into barns, pigeon-houses, &c. where it occasion- 

 ally makes great havock; biting off the heads of 

 fowls and pigeons, and then carrying them away 



