588 CARNIVORA 
Polecat is dark brown above and black beneath, the face being 
variegated with dark brown and white markings. 
The skull is rough, strongly ridged, and of a far more powerful 
type than that of the Stoats, Weasels, or Martens; being in the 
female much smaller and lighter than in the male. The fur, which 
is long, coarse, and of compiwatively small value, changes its colour 
very little, if at all, at the different seasons of the year. 
The distribution and habits of this species have been described 
by Blasins, the following being an abstract of his account. The 
Polecat ranges over the greater part of Europe, reaching northwards 
into Southern Sweden, and in Russia to the region of the White 
Sea. It does not occur in the extreme South, but is common eyery- 
where throughout Central Europe. In the Alps it ranges far above 
the tree-line during the summer, but retreats in winter to lower 
ground. In fine weather it lives cither in the open air, in holes, 
fox-earths, rabbit-warrens, under rocks, ov in wood-stacks, while in 
winter it seeks the protection of deserted buildings. During the 
day it sleeps in its hiding-place, sallying forth at night to plunder 
dovecots and hen-houses. It climbs but little, and shows far less 
activity than the Marten. It feeds ordinarily on small mammals, 
such as rabbits, hamsters, rats, and mice, on such hirds as it can 
catch, especially poultry and pigeons, and also on snakes, lizards, 
frogs, fish, and eggs. Its prey is devoured only in its lair, but, 
even though it can carry away but a single victim, it commonly 
kills everything that comes in its way, often destroying all the 
inhabitants of a hen-house in order to gratify its passion for 
slaughter. The pairing time is towards the end of the winter, and 
the young, from three to eight in number, are born in April or 
May, after a period of gestation of about two months. The young, 
if taken carly, may be easily trained, like Ferrets, for rabbit-catehing. 
The Polecat is very tenacious of life, and will hear many severe 
wounds before succumbing ; it is also said to receive with impunity 
the bite of the adder. Its fetid smell has hecome proverbial. 
Four other species of Polecats are known, viz.—The Siberian 
Polecat (AL erersimennt) of Western and Northern Asia is nearly 
allied to the European species, but the head and back are almost 
white, and the skull is stouter and more constricted behind the 
orbits) The Tibetan Jf larrata is distinguished from the last 
by the presence of a process connecting the pterygoid with the 
auditory bulla, and hy a difference in the shape of the upper 
molar. The American Polecat (MZ. vigripes), inhabiting the central 
plateau of the United States, and extending southwards into ‘Texas, 
is another closely allied species, although some zoolovists have made 
it the type of the genus Cynomyouar, Finally, the Mottled Poleeat 
(AL. surmatica) is a species sparsely distributed in’ Eastern Europe 
and parts of Western Asia, but common in Southern Afghanistan. 
