508 DOMESTIC CATS. 



being addicted to stealing, and also being so common an animal 

 as to be, like our cat, a convenient scapegoat for the blame 

 due to the thefts of other and not quadrupedal animals, and 

 finally, as being like in its colour and its pelage (except that 

 this latter is a little less thick) and its general appearance and 

 its moral characteristics to the animal called in antithesis to it 

 yakrj ayp(a, but ordinarily lktl^, which is a little larger, which 

 loves honey, which kills birds^ and is very susceptible of being 

 tamed. It is impossible to think that any great mistake can attach 

 to the interpretation of statements so consentient, so numerous, and 

 relating so eminently to matters of every-day life and constantly 

 observable occurrence. We have two sets of resemblances and 

 diflPerences detailed to us as existing between two animals, the yaXrj 

 and the yaXfj aypia or urt?; these two sets of resemblances and 

 differences are just those which exist between our white-breasted 

 marten and our yellow-breasted marten, and as I believe it is im- 

 possible to find a second pair of animals to which this comparison 

 will apply, I apprehend that the point is proved. Both the 

 British martens are, as I know from my own observations, and 

 information gathered from persons in the habit of hunting them, 

 great destroyers of mice, birds, and snakes ; they are both stated in 

 the ordinary works of natural history to be fond of honey, which 

 the ferret ^ and the weasel will not touch ; the fur of both is 

 valuable, but that of the larger species is the more valuable. 



The colouration of the polecat, Mustela putoriiis, puts it out of the 

 field into which it has so often been wrongfully introduced, as does 

 also the not altogether ^ unimportant fact that it is not certain that 

 it is found in the extreme south of Europe. If any one who has 

 not had, or perhaps does not care to have, proof that the common 

 north-country name for the marten, viz, ' Sweet Mart ' as opposed to 

 * Foumart ' or ' Foul Mart,' an alias which the polecat has earned, 

 may not after all be so distinctive as to make us think that we 

 cannot have in the white-breasted marten the same creature as that 

 alluded to in the first two passages I have quoted from Aristo- 

 phanes, wishes to have this scruple removed at easy cost, he may 

 consult Gesner (' Hist. Anim.' p. 866), who quotes something, in 

 loco, to the purpose from Alexander Aphrodisiensis. The stoat, 



* BufFon, vii. 213; Wagner, * Saugethiere,' i. 500. 

 ' Blasius, 'Saugethiere Deutschlands,* p. 224. 



