186 THE POLECAT. 



the body-colouring varies from quite black to a pale 

 ochre. The general impression of the summer coat 

 is usually a blackish-brown, and in old specimens 

 the hair is sometimes found to be matted, like that 

 of the fisher. Its call-notes and its menaces are 

 identical with those of the ferret. 



CHARACTER, 



In character the polecat is no more lovable than are 

 its congeners, the stoat and the weasel, and, being a 

 larger and stronger animal, it is far more destructive 

 to man's interests. It feeds on anything and every- 

 thing it can catch and kill. It never engineers a 

 home of its own ; and though probably less nomadic 

 than the stoat, it will live for weeks within a limited 

 home-range, sleeping where and when conveni- 

 ence dictates. In habits it is both nocturnal and 

 diurnal ; that is, it hunts when hungry and sleeps 

 when fed a state of things which applies to most 

 of the blood-loving ' killers.' If it feeds in a warren, 

 then in the warren it sleeps ; if it kills its prey in the 

 open, it speedily drags the victim into a cranny, and 

 there, having fed, it rests till such time as it is 

 hungry again. I do not think the polecat adheres 

 to any particular denning-up place except while its 

 young are small. 



In common with all the true weasels, the polecat 

 destroys for destruction's sake. On coming upon 

 a brood of pheasant-chicks, it will kill every chick 

 in the brood, finally carrying one of them away to 

 feast at leisure. If it visits a poultry-yard, the same 

 process is followed. It will kill turkeys and geese 

 too large to be dragged away. A brace of polecats, 

 hunting together, have been known to attach them- 

 selves to an extensive rabbit-warren, and in a 

 comparatively short space of time so to deplete the 



