BRITISH MAMMALS 



inhabitant of our country. It measures over all a length 



of about seventeen inches, the tail accounting for at 



least six and a half inches. The female is smaller than 



her mate. The coat is warm reddish-brown, with 



yellowish-white under-parts, and the long bushy tail is 



tipped with black. In the North, and occasionally in 



the South, the Summer coat is in Winter replaced with 



white, when the Stoat is then known as the Ermine. 



During infancy the five to eight young are totally blind ; 



but as the female looks after them until Autumn, they are 



well cared for. It is related that " packs " of Stoats are 



sometimes encountered in the fall of the year ; and that 



when this happens, danger threatens anyone who comes 



in contact with them. We have never yet met with this 



phenomenon ourselves, and the reader would do well 



to devote some attention to the life histories of these 



creatures of the wild so as to add to our knowledge 



concerning them. 



Polecat. — Compared with the two foregoing, the 



Polecat (Fig. 19), the last of the three representatives in 



Britain of the genus Mustela, is extremely rare, and there 



are few districts in the southern and midland counties 



where it now occurs. War has been waged so relentlessly, 



and for so long a time, upon these flesh-eating mammals, 



that their numbers have become greatly reduced, in 



some instances almost to vanishing point. The Polecat 



has certainly ceased to exist in districts where we met with 



it when we were boys, and we are not ashamed to confess 



that the last southern specimen we saw was released 

 90 



