THE STOAT, OR ERMINE. 105 



are the same as those of the ferret, though it is much more 

 hardy and less liable to disease, might be tamed and made as 

 practically useful as the latter animal. At present, however, 

 the stoat is turned to no account except when dead, and then 

 the fur is the only useful part of it. The fur in the white or 

 ermine state is the most prized, and is chiefly employed for the 

 winter dresses of ladies, and the state robes of kings and nobles, 

 and also forms a portion of their crowns and coronets. The 

 few skins which are obtained in Britain, even in the northern 

 districts, are sold at only two or three pounds per hundred j 

 being very inferior, in beauty and value, to those which are 

 imported from Russia, Norway, Siberia, and Lapland. 



Ermine, in heraldry, is represented by black spots on a white 

 ground. Sir George Mackenzie says, that the first who used 

 this fur in arms was Brutus, the son of Silvius, who having by 

 accident killed his father, left the scene of his misfortune, and 

 travelling in Bretaigne in France, fell asleep, and when he 

 awoke, he found one of these animals upon his shield, and from 

 that time wore a shield ermine. 



THE PINE MARTEN, OR SWEET MARTEN. 

 (Maries Abietum, Ray. Mustela martes, Linn.) 



" The martens reside chiefly in trees, and their structure is 

 admirably suited for such haunts. Creeping from branch to 

 branch in silent and stealthy pursuit of birds and other [arboreal] 



