956 



R. I. POCOCK ON WARNING COLORATION [DeC. 15, 



Sarmatian, mottled or marbled Polecat {Putorius sarinaticits). 

 The whole of the upper side of the body is brown variegated with 

 yellowish-white spots and patches, which on the sides of the neck, 

 belly and thighs tend to lam into longitudinal stripes, offering 

 a sharp contrast with the jet-black hue of the throat, legs, and 

 the rest of the under side. The tail is long, bushy, and largely 

 white. The head is mostly black, but the lips and chin are 

 white ; a broad white band crosses from beneath the ears over the 

 forehead, and the distal half of the ears is white. Blanford 

 remarks of this species, which is found in Eastern Europe and 

 Western Asia, that it has " the same disagreeable fcetid odour that 



Text-fi^. 198. 



Englisli Badger (Meles meles). 



is characteristic of the common [European] Polecat, .... which 

 is particularly distinguished amongst the weasel tribe for the evil 

 odour generated by the secretion of its anal glands, whence its 

 name of foumart or foul martin." * He also says that it feeds 

 on birds, rats, mice, lizards, beetles, and snails. The coloration 

 of this animal is so different from that of the ordinary weasels, 

 and conforms in a general way so closely with that of some other 

 fetid members of that tribe, the pattern of the head being 

 especially like that of the Libyan Zorilla {Ictonyx lihycus)^ that I 

 cannot help thinking it has a warning significance. Veiy little, 

 however, seems to be known of this species in its native haunts, 



* Fauna of Brit. India, Mammalia, pp. 163 & 165, 1888. 



