THE STOAT. 



367 



well-attested examples which are on record, I am enabled to give my own personal 

 testimony to the truth of this singular phenomenon, as I have frequently seen a person 

 whose hair was changed in a single night from dark to gray by sudden grief and terror, 

 and the whole system fatally deranged at the same time. 



In this country, where the lowest temperature is considerably above that of the 

 ordinary wintry degrees, the Stoat is very uncertain in its change of fur, and seems to 

 yield to or to resist the effects of the cold weather according to the individuality of the 

 particular animal. 



In the autumn when the Stoat is beginning to assume its wintry dress, and in the 

 spring, when it is beginning to lose the snowy mantle of the wintry months, the fur is 

 generally found to be marked with irregular patches of dark and white spots, the sides of 

 the face appearing to be especially variable in this respect. Sometimes the animal 

 resists the coldest winters, and retains its dark fur throughout the severest weather, and 

 it sometimes happens that a Stoat will change its fur even though the winter should be 

 particularly mild. Mr. Thompson records, in his work on the Natural History of 

 Ireland, that he saw a Stoat which was captured on the 2jth of January, 1846, which 

 was wholly white, with the exception of a brown patch on each side of its face. Yet 



STOAT, OR ERMINE (Summer Coat). Mustela Erminea, 



the winter had been remarkably mild, without any frost or snow, although there had 

 been abundance of rain and storms. Two white Stoats were killed in Ayrshire, in 

 1839, which were almost entirely white, though the frosts had been extremely mild, 

 and the snow had altogether been absent. 



As, in the former of these examples, the weather is said to have been extremely wet, 

 it may be presumed that the moisture of the atmosphere and ground may have some 

 connection with the whitening of the hair. On account of the better radiating powers 

 of -dark substances, the dew and general moisture is always found to be deposited in 

 greater quantity on dark or dull, than on white or polished substances. Any one may 

 easily prove this fact, by watching the effects of the dew on a white and a red rose 

 growing in close proximity to each other. 



The Stoat is considerably larger than the weasel, measuring rather more than four- 

 teen inches in total length, of which the tail occupies rather more than four inches. 

 There is, however, considerable difference in the size of various individuals. 



It is a most determined hunter, pursuing its game with such pertinacious skill that 

 it very seldom permits its intended prey to escape. 



Although tolerably swift of foot, it is entirely unable to cope with the great speed of 



