ii4 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



mainly owing to the employment of steel traps, they have 

 become very scarce. The narrow strip of marshy and heavily- 

 timbered country extending from Bowness is, however, still a 

 stronghold for this much-persecuted creature, and one from 

 which it will with difficulty be completely exterminated. Al- 

 though to southern ears the idea of hunting such an insig- 

 nificant animal with hounds appears absurd, yet Foumart- 

 hunting was at one time a favourite sport of the Westmore- 

 land dalesmen; the hunts generally taking place during the 

 night in midwinter. Much the same story is told with regard 

 to Scotland, in many parts of which it has become well-nigh 

 exterminated. Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley observe 

 that the causes which have operated in the case of the Marten 

 have likewise reduced the numbers of the Polecat. " Rabbit- 

 trapping has proved fatal to it; for whilst the increase of 

 Rabbits has provided abundance of food, it has been the 

 indirect means of causing the decrease of the species by the 

 agency of steel traps. Inland localities, formerly inhabited by 

 Polecats, have been deserted by them, for, drawing down 

 towards the sandy burrows to prey upon the Rabbits, they 

 themselves became an easy prey." In the Hebrides and other 

 islands the Polecat seems to have always been unknown. 



Although Thompson had doubts of its occurrence, there 

 appears good evidence that the Polecat, in his time at least, 

 was an inhabitant of the woods of Kerry, Down, and other 

 parts of Ireland. 



Habits. A dreaded enemy to all game-preservers, the Pole- 

 cat possesses, for its size, a remarkable combination of strength 

 and agility. Dwelling generally in woods and copses, or thicket- 

 clad hills, it selects as a retreat and hiding-place either an 

 empty Rabbit-burrow, a crevice among the rocks, or even the 

 cavities in a heap of stones. In such a spot the female, during 

 May or June, gives birth to from four to six young. Remaining 



