ERMINE WEASEL. 201 



itself the immediate cause of such change in its condi- 

 tion as shall at once negative its injurious influence. 



This winter change of the fur, and the permanency of 

 the black colour of the tail, render the fur of the Ermine 

 one of the most beautiful and valuable. When made up, 

 the tails are inserted, one to each skin, at regular dis- 

 tances, and in the quincunx order ; and the pure white 

 of the skin is thus relieved and set off by the rich black 

 of the tail. It is not only much used for the winter 

 garments of ladies, but it forms the distinctive doubling 

 of the robes of state of kings and nobles, as well as of 

 their crowns and coronets. The early employment of 

 this fur for such uses occasioned its introduction amongst 

 the tinctures of heraldry, in which it is frequently 

 adopted, either as the ground of the shield, or the colour 

 of the bearings. 



The few specimens of the fur which could be obtained 

 in this country, even in the northern parts of the island, 

 are very inferior, in beauty and value, to those which 

 are imported from those far northern climates in which 

 they abound, as Russia, Norway, Siberia, and Lapland ; 

 where they must be exceedingly numerous, as our own im- 

 portation alone in 1833 amounted to 105,139. The great 

 superiority of these northern skins consists in the fur 

 being longer, thicker, and of a purer and brighter colour. 



Besides being generally distributed in Europe, the Stoat 

 has been met with by the Russian naturalist, Dr. Von 

 Schrenck, in the vicinity of the Amoor River, in China. 



The derivation of the word Stoat is very probably, as 

 Skinner has it, from the Belgic " Stout," bold; and the 

 name is so pronounced in Cambridgeshire and in some 

 other parts of England to the present time. Gwillim, 

 in his " Display of Heraldrie," gives the following etymo- 

 logy of Ermine : " This is a little beast, lesse than a 



D I) 



