204 MUSTELAD^E. 



Rabbits, Hares, or Partridges, and commits great ravages 

 in the hen-house or poultry-yard, where it destroys great 

 numbers, not only of chickens and ducklings, but of full- 

 grown poultry ; and even ventures to attack geese and 

 turkeys ; no less than sixteen of the latter large and 

 powerful birds having been known to be killed by a 

 single Polecat in the course of one night : for, like the 

 other species of the genus, it takes advantage of oppor- 

 tunity, and destroys many more than it can eat at once ; 

 and after making an epicurean repast on the brains, and 

 quenching its thirst with the blood of its victims, in 

 which peculiarities it probably exceeds most of the other 

 Weasels, it carries off the carcases to its haunts, where 

 portions of them are often found in a state of putridity. 

 Their usual place of retirement is in woods or coppices 

 situated at no great distance from farms ; from whence 

 they issue about the dusk of evening, or later, to prey 

 upon any living thing, of manageable size, which may 

 come within their reach. Nevill Wood, Esq., of Foston 

 Hall, in Derbyshire, has informed us that " some years 

 ago he had ten fine young ducks, which were shut up 

 every night in a small outhouse, destroyed in one night 

 by a Polecat ; and on entering the place in the morning, 

 he found every one of them lying dead, each with a hole 

 in the neck ; and in a few moments the perpetrator of 

 the bloody deed marched out towards him, licking his yet 

 bloody jaws, and without exhibiting the slightest alarm. 

 Indeed," says Mr. Wood, " it is a curious fact, that this 

 animal generally kills all the poultry in the apartment it 

 plunders, be they never so many." 



But if the Polecat be so formidable an enemy to the 

 farmyard, it is not less so to the game-preserve and the 

 warren. The destruction which it occasions amongst the 

 eggs and young of Pheasants and Partridges, young 



