THE POLECAT 



PLATE XXXVII. THE PflLECAT. 



THE Polecat is larger than the weasel, the ermine, or 

 the ferret, being one foot five inches long ; whereas the 

 weasel is but six inches, the ermine nine, and the ferret 

 eleven inches. It so much resembles the ferret in form, 

 that some have been of opinion they were one and the 

 same animal ; nevertheless, there are a sufficient number 

 of distinctions between them : it is, in the first place, larger 

 than the ferret ; it is not quite so slender, and has a blunter 

 nose; it differs also internally, having but fourteen ribs, 

 whereas the ferret has fifteen ; and wants one of the breast 

 bones, which is found in the ferret: however, warreners 

 assert, that the Polecat will mix with the ferret ; and they 

 are sometimes obliged to procure an intercourse between 

 these two 'animals, to improve the breed of the latter, 

 which, by long confinement, is sometimes seen to abate of 

 its rapacious disposition. Mr. Buffon denies that the fer- 

 ret will admit the Polecat ; yet gives a variety under the 

 name of both animals, which may very probably be a spu- 

 rious race between the two. 



However this may be, the Polecat seems by much, the 

 more pleasing animal of the two; for although the long 

 slender shape of all these vermin tribes gives them a very 

 disagreeable appearance, yet the softness and color of the 

 hair in some of them atones for the defect, and renders 

 them, if-not pretty, at least not frightful. The Polecat, for 

 the most part, is of a deep chocolate color ; it is white 

 about the mouth ; the ears are short, rounded, and tipped 

 with white ; a little beyond the corners of the mouth a 

 stripe begins, which runs backward, partly white and 

 partly yellow : its hair, like that of all this class, is of two 



