THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
of attracting the sexes; and trappers save it to put upon their 
bait as an additional allurement. 
The polecat, or “foumart,” of Europe is about two feet long, 
of which the bushy tail occupies 5-7 inches, and its fur is long, 
loose, dark brown, and known as ‘‘fitch.”” The Sibe- 
rian and Tibetan polecats are similar species, and 
a smaller mottled kind is common from the Danube to the 
Indus. All are more dreaded by gamekeepers and farmers 
who wish to raise game and poultry than are any other ani- 
mals; and the wild polecat has become nearly extinct in west- 
ern Europe, but survives, and its bloodthirsty zeal is utilized, 
in our ferrets, which are 
probably only an albinistic 
variety that have acquired 
sufficient docility to be set 
at the pursuit of rabbits 
and vermin for the bene- 
fit of their masters. 
They are rarely tame 
enough even to be handled 
in safety, although the 
breed has becn semidomesticated for centuries, and this, no 
doubt, is about the extent to which the ancient Romans and 
Greeks “trained” the stone martens they used as ratters. 
Our plains are the home of a relative, buffy or whitish 
in general hue, with a dark, saddlelike patch on the back, 
the face crossed by a broad band of sooty black, and the feet 
and outer end of the thin tail black. This is the black-footed 
ferret, which, described and figured first by Audubon, eluded 
further observation for many years; and even now is not well 
known, though it is plain that it preys chiefly on prairie dogs. 
In the older books, even down to and including Coues’s 
“Fur-bearing Animals,’ the North American weasels were 
considered to be of only four species; namely, the common 
168 
Polecat. 
BLACK-FOOTED FERRET. 
