Keeper's Enemies 141 



fall of the white hair ; like causes thus contributing to the 

 animal's advantage as much in spring, when the hair is cast, 

 as in winter when it changes colour. The change from 

 brown to white seems always to take place in the most 

 irrregular and haphazard fashion, scarcely any two animals 

 being found exactly alike. Most usually, white seems first 

 to appear on the tail, and spread gradually over the dorsal 

 area, the neck and head being the last parts to become 

 affected, often never changing at all, or only to a slight 

 extent. In many cases, however, an almost exact reversal of 

 affected areas is observable, and the white seems to creep up- 

 wards from the limbs, leaving the last vestiges of brown in a 

 narrow dorsal line. If, as might be concluded, the object 

 of the change is to protect the animal from foes who look 

 down upon it from above, the retention of the brown fur 

 on the back would appear to be about the likeliest possible 

 way of defeating the end in view, and constitutes just one 

 of those puzzles which Nature seems to be so fond of 

 setting us ! l 



By the better informed inhabitants, it is, of course, well 

 understood that the Stoat is liable to change colour in 

 winter, but the average person one meets with in the glens 

 of Merionethshire considers that the white animal is distinct 

 from the brown one. In common parlance, the brown 

 Stoat is the Wend fawr, or " big weasel " ; when white, it 

 becomes a Carlwm y and there is a favourite expression, 

 Gwyn fel y carlwm, "as white as a stoat." An Ermine is 

 very rarely recognised as being the same animal as a Stoat, 

 and is known as Cath bale. 



Next to the Fox (which in a hilly country like this, 

 undrawn by hounds, deservedly heads the list of the 

 keeper's enemies), the Stoat, and the Crow, share between 

 them the unenviable distinction of being the worst friends 



1 Some interesting information regarding the causes of the change in 

 colour in hair will be found in a communication by Mr E. Metchnikoffto the 

 Proceedings of the Royal Society for 1902, in which it is stated that the loss 

 of colour is brought about by some all-devouring cells known as Phagocytes, 

 which, developed in the central part of the hair, make their way outwards, 

 and there absorb, and thus destroy, the pigment-granules, leaving the erst- 

 while dark hair colourless. 



