THE STOAT AND WEASEL 



553 



age which was learning to hnsband 

 grain. 



As the name implies, the Carni\'ora are 

 essentially flesh eaters, and it will be soon 

 reahsed by any one who keeps them in 

 captivity, that it is on this flesh-eating 

 habit, which is at once predatory and 

 conxbative, that their ferocity under 

 natural conditions very largely depends. 

 The matter can easily be tested by modify- 

 ing the diet of small Carnivora kept under 

 conditions which allow them scope for 

 unlimited exercise. If allowed to kill 

 their own provender, or fed exclusively 

 on raw meat, they will almost always be 

 morose, uncertain, and snappy ; while if 

 they can be coaxed (I use the word 

 advisedly) to take a mixed diet of cooked 

 meat, milk and vegetables, their ferocity 

 will diminish, and they will often display 

 unexpected and, owing to their intelli- 

 gence, peculiarly winning forms of affection 

 towards their keepers. 



The taste of warm blood seems to have 

 an extraordinarily stimulating effect on 

 the nervous organism of a carnivore, and 

 the phenomenon of " killing for kilHng's 

 sake " (an extremely remarkable one in a 

 wild animal), may be ascribed to this 

 stimulating effect, heightened by irrita- 

 tion at the disturbance of a hard-won 

 meal. 



A Stoat in a hen-house, for example, 

 would probably content himself with a 

 single victim, if it were not for the out- 

 cry of the victim's relatives. 



The Weasel family (we have four 

 species in Great Britain : the Stoat, 

 Weasel, Polecat and Marten) has always 

 attracted considerable attention from 

 humanity, partly on aesthetic, partly on 

 commercial grounds. Most ladies to whom 

 I ha\'e shown a Marten in full winter 

 pelage have betrayed, even if they have 

 not openly expressed, the opinion that 

 his fur might be better displayed ; while 

 the annals of trapping in northern latitudes 

 afford remarkable evidence of the lengths 

 to which human endurance can be driven 

 to gratify the demands of fashion. The 

 word "ermine" has acquired a regal 

 significance ; it is inseparable from a 

 description of State robes ; it becomes 

 " judicial " in token of its connection 

 with the Crown ; yet " ermine " is no more 

 than Stoat's fur. The Stoat is a small 



45 



animal, and it takes many of him to make 

 a cai^acious wrapping. How many, the 

 reader can judge from the fact that each 

 black tag on the white of an ermine robe 

 is, or should be, the tip of a Stoat's tail. 

 Fashion has decreed that, to be valuable, 

 a Stoat's fur must be white, and, since 

 this change to whiteness is a seasonal 

 one, and does not regularly occur in tem- 

 perate latitudes (though even in the 

 south of England white Stoats are less 

 uncommon than might be supposed)^ 

 the value of " ermine," or rather that 

 part of the value which is not fictitious, 

 is due to the hard conditions under which 

 the trappers have to work. 



The seasonal v/hitening which occurs 

 in several northern animals at the ap- 

 proach of winter, is a remarkable phenome- 

 non. To begin with, it should perhaps be 

 stated that most animals which have to 

 compete with marked climatic changes of 

 temperature moult to a greater or less 

 extent during the summer months, and 

 produce a fresh crop to meet the severity 

 of winter. A question which has excited 

 some controversy is whether, in cases 

 where the winter change includes a loss 

 of pigment, there is a gradual whitening 

 of brown hairs or a new growth of white 

 hairs. It is generally conceded that the 

 colour of hair, as a whole, is due to pig- 

 ment contained in the cells of which the 

 tip of each particular hair is composed. 

 Metchnikoff has shown us that the whiten- 

 ing of hair, which is an accompaniment of 

 old age, is due to the consumption of this 

 pigment by phagocytes, who, after accom- 

 phshing their unholy purpose, retire 

 glutted under the skin, or quit the body 

 altogether. This leaves the pigment cells 

 empty, and the reflection of scattered light 

 (as opposed to its previous absorption), 

 partly from the surface of the hairs, and 

 partly from minute bubbles of gas in their 

 interstices, gives the effect of whiteness 

 which is familiar in snow or powdered 

 ice. In the same way the whiteness in 

 the Stoat's winter pelage is due to absence 

 of pigment in the individual hairs. The 

 great difference, however, Ix-tween age 

 whitening and seasonal whitening lies 

 in the fact that, whereas in the former the 

 power of reproducing j)igment is lost, in 

 the latter it is merely suspended. 



In summer pelage the Stoat has little 



