124 Wild Life in Wales 



cleared, in a manner that could hardly have been expected. 

 The fact is, however, that the body of a Polecat may be 

 said to be almost a ball of muscle, and the limbs and feet 

 are proportionately strong. I doubt whether any other 

 animal can show a similar all-round development, and it is 

 when handling a wild Polecat, or even a recently killed one, 

 that one comes to recognise what an ugly customer he must 

 be to meet with in the confined space of a burrow, and to 

 appreciate how it is that either fox, otter, or cat, or indeed 

 any animal, is so ready to bolt before his domesticated, and 

 vastly deteriorated, descendant, the ferret. In a trap, a 

 Foumart is fury personified ; there is no adjective that 

 adequately expresses the idea of rage, and ferocity, that its 

 actions then convey ; and from its thick, long hair, all 

 " standing on end," it appears to be about twice as large and 

 formidable than it really is. 



It was the introduction of the common steel trap which 

 first sealed the fate of all such creatures as the Polecat, and 

 has led to their disappearance over so large a portion of the 

 British Isles ; and the large influx of Scotch gamekeepers to 

 Wales, during recent years, is fast bringing about their ex- 

 tirpation, in many of their last remaining strongholds. The 

 instincts of the Welsh keeper, in the matter of " vermin," 

 are much more sportsmanlike, and less uncompromising, 

 than those of his northern brother. He will hunt down his 

 enemy with a zest, with dog and gun, where a certain 

 element of fair-play comes in, but he is either not so skilled 

 a trapper, or else is above taking such base advantage of a 

 foe, and will seldom pursue the game to the point of ex- 

 termination. The Highlander, on the other hand, is as 

 vindictive as the grave, and knows nothing of either reason, 

 or mercy, so far as " vermin " are concerned. He will go 

 miles out of his way to encompass the death of his victims, 

 and the rarer the particular animal may chance to be, the 

 prouder he is to nail up its poor body to his " rail." Hardly 

 will his master's express orders to the contrary suffice to stay 

 his hand, should either winged, or four-footed, vermin cross 

 his path ; and almost no amount of outside argument is 

 sufficient to convince him that hawk or buzzard, polecat 



