Field and Covert Poachers. 239 



of the polecat, loose and light at the base but 

 almost black at the extremity ; and there are 

 many skins of weasels, reddish brown above with 

 the sides and under parts white. For each of 

 these creatures he has quaint provincial names 

 of his own. The pine-martin he calls the 

 " sweet-mart," in contradistinction to the pole- 

 cat, which is the "foumart," or " foulmart " 

 a name bestowed on the creature because it 

 emits a secretion which has an abominable stench. 

 Also, we have the stoat or ermine, which even 

 with us is white in winter, brown in summer; 

 but the tip of the tail is always black. 



The beautiful martins take up their abode in 

 the rockiest parts of the wood where the 

 pines grows thickly. They are strictly arboreal 

 in their habits ; and, seen among the shaggy 

 pine foliage, the rich yellow of their throats is 

 sharply set off by the deep brown of the thick 

 glossy fur. With us they do not make their 

 nests and produce their young in the pine-trees, 

 but among the loose craggy rocks. Martins 

 rarely show themselves till evening. They prey 

 upon rabbits, hares, partridges, pheasants, and 

 small birds ; and when we say that, like the rest 

 of the mustelidae, they kill for the love of killing, 

 it is not hard to understand why the keeper's 

 hand is against them. Sometimes they do great 

 harm in the coverts ; and the old man shoots 

 them, traps them, and does them to death with 



