122 Wild Life in Wales 



he follows it like a Red Indian till he has found the 

 Foumart's home, after which a trap or two easily completes 

 the work of destruction, and " Sandy " returns one morning, 

 triumphant, with a fine skin for a new sporran. Yet in 

 spite of this constant vigilance, the Polecat is not so 

 altogether extinct in Merionethshire as most of the inhabi- 

 tants believe. I met with it more than once round Arenig, 

 and in the vicinity of Trawsfynydd and Dolgelly, and in 

 the springs of 1906 and 1907, followed its unmistakable 

 tracks upon the snow in several places round about Llanu- 

 wchllyn. Two were seen together at Tin-y-Nant, in March 

 1907, and a week or two previously a very large male was 

 trapped by the keeper at Nant Glas. The latter weighed 

 2 Ibs. 10 oz., and measured t ft. 10 inches in extreme 

 length, of which the head accounted for about 2 inches and 

 the tail 6. Early in the following June, a female was 

 found in the same trap. 



At Plas-in-Cwm-Cynllwyd one was caught in a gin, 

 amongst the hay, in the loft over a cow-byre standing in the 

 fields, but on being attacked by a sheep dog, it managed to 

 free itself and escaped. I did not hear of a single case in 

 which a hen-roost had been raided, or other depredation 

 committed upon the farmer, during my visit to Merioneth- 

 shire, though the memory of many an old tale still survives, 

 so that the few remaining Polecats would seem either to 

 have developed greater circumspection in their movements, 

 or else former stories have been much exaggerated. 

 Assuredly it cannot be from any undue precautions taken 

 by the farmer, that his losses in poultry, from foxes or other 

 "vermin," are not greater than they are, for it is quite 

 common to see whole rows of hens at roost upon a low rail, 

 or even on top of a turf dyke, anywhere in the neighbour- 

 hood of their houses ; and the only marvel is that, in a 

 mountainous country like this, any of them survive at all. 

 Perhaps the custom, now so often abused, qf turning all the 

 dogs out of doors at night, may have partly owed its origin 

 to the idea of "keeping the fox from the fowls" ; but be 

 that as it may, the only serious poultry thief nowadays 

 generally walks upon only two legs. A familiar old nursery 



