164 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



THE FAVOURITE FERRET WITH 

 POACHERS. 



In a confidential chat I had the other day with an old 

 transgressor of the game laws, though no longer such, I 

 am happy to say, he let me into a secret of the fraternity 

 relating to ferrets. It appears that the white variety of 

 these domesticated weasels is that preferred by the 

 poacher, and for the following reasons : When " rabbit- 

 ing " at night the poacher's orthodox time a white 

 ferret is more easily seen, its colour making it con- 

 spicuous in the darkness, and its work, done in silence, 

 with dodging into and out of the holes, can be more 

 readily interpreted as affecting results. Besides, a white 

 ferret is less liable to be lost than one of the dark or 

 fitchet colour. The poacher knows that the latter variety 

 is of a fiercer, gamer nature, .hardier than the former, and 

 better for work in the ordinary legitimate way. But for 

 clandestine nocturnal duty he prefers the pink-eyed 

 albino; the reasons, as above, being good and sub- 

 stantial. 



FERRETS AND THE WILD BIRDS 1 

 PROTECTION ACT. 



I have lately come to know that the destruction of 

 wild birds which accrues from the keeping of ferrets is 

 something considerable. Not that the ferrets themselves 

 are blamable in the matter, but their owners. In 



