THE FITCH. 85 



all the animals mentioned felt themselves to be so equally 

 matched, that neither had courage to commence an attack. 



Painting brushes, called fitch brushes, are made of the hairs. 

 The entire fur, when properly dressed, and especially if obtained 

 in the winter, is both excellent and beautiful ; but the process 

 required to rid it of its fetid odour is a difficult one.' Numbers 

 of the skins are annually imported into this country, from the 

 North of Europe. As the animal is commercially known by 

 the name of Fitch, I have preferred calling it so throughout 

 the present article; and it is under this name only that Lovell 

 speaks of it in his curious Panzoologicomineralogia (1661). The 

 name of pole-cat, which is certainly an objectionable name as 

 it implies relationship to the feline tribe, has puzzled the etymo- 

 logists j and a late writer conjectures that it is merely a con- 

 traction for Polish cat : but as I find that in the History of 

 Brutes, by W. Franzius, translated by N. W. (1670), pages C 217 

 and 218, the animal is called poltcat every time it is mentioned, I 

 suspect that the latter was its original name, and was meant to 

 express its attachment to the poults, or young poultry. 



