THE POLECAT. 187 



burrows as to spoil their own hunting, thus forcing 

 themselves to find fresh quarters. 



On game - reserves the polecat is undoubtedly 

 the most destructive of all the weasels infinitely 

 more so than the marten ; and while the latter 

 has beauty to recommend it, the polecat is perhaps 

 most remarkable for its offensive stink. Its rarity 

 alone warrants such protection as may be forth- 

 coming. 



Living at Upton, near Northampton, the writer, 

 when a boy, one day put up a polecat in a root- 

 field quite near to the house. It bounded off after 

 the manner of a ferret, and was sufficiently swift to 

 gain a strip of coppice about a hundred yards away 

 ere two spaniels could overtake it. Doubtless it 

 was attracted to the vicinity of the house by the 

 cage of tame ferrets kept in some outbuildings. 



Subsequently the same dogs pursued the crea- 

 ture several times, but never succeeded in out- 

 manoeuvring it, and in due course it disappeared 

 from the locality. 



Some weeks later my brother and I were walk- 

 ing up a fallow field about three miles from the 

 house, when the polecat suddenly appeared, bound- 

 ing along a furrow at some considerable distance 

 from us. My brother gave it the ' choke ' at long 

 range, whereupon it arched its back and bounded 

 along sideways, uttering the familiar clucking chal- 

 lenge of an excited ferret. It was, however, very 

 slightly wounded, and made good its escape. 



Up to the last fifteen years polecats were com- 

 paratively common on the wild stretch of moor- 

 land that lies between the upper basin of the 

 Wharfe and the Nidd valley, and keepers and 

 shepherds used regularly to trap and shoot them. 

 I remember, in boyhood, seeing as many as four 



