140 Wild Life in Wales 



rapidity. From whatever cause the blanching of the hair 

 may arise, 1 believe the autumnal change is always in the 

 colour of the fur itself, and not due to any " moult." New 

 fur is regularly assumed in autumn, but at first it is 

 generally (if not always) brown in colour, and no further 

 shedding of the hair takes place until spring. That the hair 

 may turn white in some cases, however, without the inter- 

 vention of frost, and that similar climatic conditions do not 

 influence all Stoats in the same degree, is abundantly proved 

 every winter. One of the most beautifully white examples I 

 ever saw was a female, killed in low country, in October, 

 before there had been more than slight touches of frost, 

 and before any snow had fallen. It was not an albino ; and 

 many similar cases could be cited, without trouble, were it 

 necessary. A full brown Stoat, upon the other hand, may 

 be rare, but it is not unknown in Alpine districts when snow 

 is lying deep, and when most of its companions are in 

 white apparel. Why some should change colour while 

 others do not, we cannot tell ; but robust health, or the 

 reverse, or food-supply, may to some extent be influencing 

 agents. 



The return from white to brown, in spring, is, in my 

 experience, always brought about by the casting of the 

 white hair ; and in many piebald Stoats which I have 

 examined, the hair on the white patches was being lost 

 much more rapidly than the surrounding brown fur, and 

 being replaced with dark hair. In one or two cases 

 I have seen brown Stoats, killed in spring, whose coat 

 presented a very ragged appearance, from the new fur being 

 short, and close, on some irregular patches, long, and not 

 yet started to be shed, on the rest of the body. Such 

 animals, I conclude, have made haste to cast the white spots 

 they carried, in order to get rid of undesirable attractiveness, 

 while the fur on the rest of the body would not be renewed 

 till some time later in the season. It can hardly be supposed 

 that the animal is able to exercise any direct personal control 

 over the change in colour of its coat, but it seems probable 

 that the same failure of nourishment (or whatever it is) that 

 induces it to turn white may also hasten the " death," and 



