156 BRITISH MAMMALS 



were found close to the five young polecats. As it is also very 

 fond of birds' eggs, it is no doubt a source of justifiable anger on 

 the part of the gamekeeper or farmer. A pair of polecats in a 

 rabbit warren will in time efface the rabbits, while pheasants run 

 a very poor chance of co-existence, since their eggs and young 

 and they themselves are devoured by this rapacious little Carni- 

 vore. Nevertheless, it would be a pity if the polecat became 

 wholly extinct, as it is a handsome and interesting creature. 

 Of late years its distribution in England has been considerably 

 reduced, owing to trapping and poisoning. It still lingers in 

 parts of Hampshire, Devonshire, and the Western Midlands, in the 

 Lake District, and in Scotland. Earlier writers include the polecat 

 in the list of Irish Mammals ; but Dr. ScharfF informs the author 

 that this is a mistake that the polecat is absent from Ireland. It 

 does not inhabit the Hebrides or the large islands off the west coast 

 of Scotland. Outside the British Islands its range extends over the 

 greater part of Europe, including the south of Sweden, Russia, 

 and Northern Asia. It is also represented by a closely allied form 

 in North America. At some unknown period it, or an allied 

 species, was domesticated either in North Africa, 1 Spain, or Italy. 

 This domestic type is known to us as the ferret, and is used 

 for rabbit-hunting. For this purpose it was also employed in the 

 Roman world. The Latins called it Viverra^ From Rome the 

 domestic polecat spread through France to England, where it still 

 shows traces of its Mediterranean origin by its intolerance of cold. 

 The English word " ferret " is probably derived from the French 

 furetj which again may have a Celtic origin. It is probably 



1 Roman writers persistently refer to the ferret as having come from North 

 Africa, yet it is curious that up to the present time no species of polecat has 

 been found to exist farther south than Northern Spain and Northern Italy. 

 Further researches may, however, bring to light the existence of this animal in 

 Algeria or Morocco or Southern Spain. If this point, however, must be given 

 up, then it is possible that the polecat may have been domesticated in 

 Northern or Central Spain, and sent thence through the Phoenicians to North 

 Africa in the form of the ferret, on account of the rabbits which existed in 

 Western Mauritania. 



2 A name given by zoologists to the Civet genus. 



