THE POLECAT. 189 



the amphibian is carried off to the nest, where it 

 is stored to await the pleasure of the family of 

 budding cut-throats. One observer claims to have 

 found a regular horde of live, paralysed frogs 

 stored up within reach of the young polecats. 



Be this as it may, stoats and weasels feed very 

 largely on frogs and even toads. A ferret, too, 

 appreciates such fare. I have known a lost ferret 

 to live for several weeks along the bank of a 

 stream where there was little food for it other than 

 frogs and toads, on which it fared so well as to be 

 in perfect condition when ultimately found. 



NESTING. 



The polecat is most at home in loose, rocky 

 country, broken by strips of forest, with the 

 sandy earth liberally tunnelled by rabbits. The 

 nest is commonly situated in a rabbit-burrow, 

 though any suitable cranny will serve the purpose. 

 I knew one pair to breed in the foot of a high 

 boundary wall between the pine -forests and the 

 heather of the moors. This ancient structure 

 was about twelve feet in height, and was built of 

 massive boulders at its base, gradually decreasing 

 in size towards the coping. The polecats did a 

 good deal of their hunting along the base of the 

 wall. Hares, from the lowlands, had their creeps 

 through it leading up to the heights, and the 

 rabbits from the heights had to pass through it on 

 their way to and from the lowland pastures. A 

 large number of rabbits lived permanently in the 

 thick base of the wall, and repeatedly the polecats 

 were seen by shepherds working their way along 

 the structure. This was in Upper Wharfedale. 



The polecat is particularly partial to deserted 

 and partially ruined buildings, amidst the tumbled 



