POLECAT. 73 



Hampshire for " a little reddish beast not much bigger than a 

 field-mouse, but much longer," of his fifteenth letter to Pennant. 

 The more general name Weasel is the Anglo-Saxon Wesle. 



When Scotland suffered severely from a " plague " of Field 

 Voles in 1892, the Board of Agriculture appointed a Committee 

 of Enquiry, and the examination of witnesses farmers, keepers, 

 shepherds clearly established the fact that the chief natural 

 enemy of the Field Vole is the Weasel, and that the gravest 

 mistake had been made in destroying and in exporting large 

 numbers to our Dominions in order that they might there 

 reduce the " plague " of Rabbits. It was even suggested that 

 we should make good this error by importing Weasels from the 

 Continent and turning them loose. Other evidence showed 

 that the Weasel is frequently blamed by game-preservers for 

 what is undoubtedly the work of the Stoat, the Weasel preferring 

 the lower-lying farmsteads, where Mice and Voles are abundant, 

 to the elevated ranges frequented by Grouse and Rabbits. 

 Apart from its preference for the smaller Rodents, the Weasel 

 appears to differ from the Stoat in being of a less hardy con- 

 stitution, and in winter at least requires the shelter afforded by 

 granaries and rickyards, where it co-operates with the Owls in 

 an unceasing warfare on the Rats and Mice. Its extra-British 

 distribution agrees with that of the Stoat. 



Albino-Weasels, with pure white fur and pink eyes, have been 

 recorded several times, but they appear to be very rare. 



Polecat (Mustela piitorius^ Linn.). 



In contradistinction to the Sweet-mart already described, our 

 forefathers called the Polecat or Fitchew the Foumart or Foul 

 Marten, because the secretion from the glands under the tail is 

 intolerably acrid and mephitic ; on this account the fur is con- 

 sidered useless, the odour attaching to it permanently. Like 

 the Marten, the Polecat, thanks mainly to the unremitting 



