in 



CASSELL'S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



great diUbrciico, according to the time, the year, the age, and state of the animal when killed the 

 darker the colour the more is the fur esteemed. The skin of the throat, called in the furriers' shopx 

 "gills," and that of the tail, are also sold separately. The sable fur may bo distinguished by the hairs 

 lyiug any way in which they may be placed. 



The sable is so much like the pine marten, that it is doubtful whether they are not of the same 

 species. The former is a native of Siberia, inhabiting the forests and mountains of that inhospitable 

 region, where its chase is one of the most painful and arduous of labours which can fall to the lot of a 

 \\ivu-hed exile or a desperate hunter. The pursuit takes place in the winter, when the fur is finest; 

 and the hunters in small troops, carrying witli them their store of provisions, which too often fail, press 

 onwards over frozen plains, when many a tempest sweeps into the bosom of mighty woods, and where 

 no vestige of human beings, save themselves, are there to cheer the bleak and savage scene. Some sal tics 



'V-r"'S-:S?'j[l 



ERMINES IN SUMMER CLOTHING. 



are shot with single ball, some caught in traps, some pursued to their retreats, nets being placed over 

 the entrance, while the hunter, suffering from cold, below zero, and enduring the greatest privations, 

 has to watch, perhaps for days, before he can obtain his booty. 



THE POLECAT, OR FOUMART.* 



THIS animal, in the neighbourhood of a farm-yard, is as mischievous as a fox, and even more so ; whole 

 broods of chickens are often destroyed during a single night, and the bodies left on the spot. The 

 shortness of the muzzle, the arrangement of the teeth, and the solidity of the skull, afford a good index 

 of the natural habits of the Polecats. The skull is long and flattened in its contour, and a broad space 

 of seven lines intervenes between the orbits. The dentition is as follows : Upper jaw, incisors six : 

 canines on each side, one ; false molars on each side, two, followed by a tricuspid lauiary molar, to 

 which succeeds a bi-lobed tubercular molar. 



In accords v, iih the contour of the skull, the head presents a triangular-flattened shape, and 



terminates in a long, flexible neck. The eyes are sharp and piercing ; the ears small, and the senses 



* Mustela putorius. 



