FRIENDS OR FOES f 195 



time uncultivated, where the whole tribe we allude 

 to — the marten alone excepted — had free range, and 

 no harm was done by them there. Since these tracts 

 have been cultivated the animals have been cleared 

 out, the order of things has changed, and the nat- 

 ural police of that once wild country have passed 

 away. 



The -polecat, fitchet, or foumart is next to the 

 marten as regards size and strength ; but there is this 

 great difference between them — whilst the marten is 

 all life and activity, the polecat is, comparatively 

 speaking, slow, although he manages to make sure 

 work of it when he is in pursuit of any creature he is 

 capable of killing. In all cultivated spots — that is, 

 where woods, copse growth, fields, and moorlands 

 are under the supervision of foresters or keepers — 

 he has become extinct ; but he was common enough 

 when I was a boy, and a great enemy of the small 

 farmers about our marshlands of North Kent. He 

 kills game and poultry of all kinds and ages; not 

 even geese and turkeys are safe from him. Soon 

 after sunset he sets forth on his deadly errands; 

 where a fox will kill one animal, the polecat will 

 kill ten, carrying off the bodies of his victims to his 



