THE POLECAT 163 



leverets, a brace of young partridges, and a pheasant's egg, 

 together with the heads of two leverets in a state of decom- 

 position. This appears to bear out that the animal is fond 

 of putrefied flesh, and that it hoards up food until it is 

 sufficiently 'high.' The back of the neck or the throat is 

 the spot in its prey which the Stoat seizes, and it will cling 

 to its victim, ravenously sucking its blood, even when it is 

 picked up. 



The white coat of the Ermine is the royal fur of England 

 as well as of the sovereigns of Europe. The robes of the 

 Pope and Cardinals of the Church of Rome are also 

 adorned with the fur according to their rank. Edward III. 

 forbade the use of ermine by any persons except those 

 of royal birth. In our country, nowadays, it is officially 

 worn by royalty, the nobility, and judges. The fur is 

 ornamented by the insertion at intervals of the black tails. 

 Royal personages alone wear ermine which is spotted with 

 black in about every square inch, not with tails, but from the 

 paws of the Astrachan lamb. A band of ermine with a 

 single row of spots adorns the royal crown. Rows or bars 

 of the fur in the case of the scarlet robes of peers, and 

 rows of black spots on the ermine capes of peeresses, 

 denote the varying degrees of rank of the wearers. The 

 more common use of ermine is for ladies' muffs, tippets, 

 trimmings, and linings generally. 



POLECAT (Putorius fcetidus). 

 Coloured Plate IX. Fig. 4. 



The Polecat is common in most parts of Europe, but 

 it is now one of the rarest, as it is the largest, of the British 

 Weasels, surviving only in Scotland, Wales, Exmoor and 

 Dartmoor, and a few of the largest woodlands in the 

 Midlands. Even in the remotest of these districts it is 

 so scarce that very few persons have ever seen one at 

 liberty, and even if they did happen to catch sight of the 

 animal, doubtless they would view it as one of the 

 commoner of the Weasel tribe. 



The male is sixteen or seventeen inches long from the 



