198 MUSTELAD^E. 



brown fur. I was therefore naturally led to consider 

 whether the respective situations, which the brown and 

 white Stoats seen by me this warm winter inhabited, 

 could alone account for the difference of the colours of 

 their fur in any clear and satisfactory manner. The 

 situation, then, where the brown Stoat was seen, is in 

 N, lat. 54° 32' nearly, and W. long. 1° 19' nearly, upon 

 a plain elevated a very few feet above the level of the 

 river Tees, in the county of Durham. Again, the place 

 where I met with the Ermine, or white Stoat, on the 

 23rd of January, 1832, is in the North Riding of York- 

 shire, in N. lat. 54° 12' nearly, and W. long. 1° 13' 

 nearly : it is situated at a very considerable elevation, 

 and in the immediate neighbourhood of the lofty moor- 

 lands called the Hambledon Hills. These constitute 

 the south-western range of the Cleveland Hills, which 

 rise in height from 1,100 feet to 1,200 feet above the sea. 

 At the time, the Ermine was making its way towards the 

 hills, where, no doubt, he lived, or frequently haunted ; 

 and, consequently, the great coldness of the atmosphere, 

 even in so mild a winter, upon so elevated and bleak a 

 spot as that moorland, would satisfactorily account for 

 the appearance of the animal in its white fur ; although 

 the place is, in a direct line, more than twenty-three miles 

 distant to the south of the fields near the Tees inhabited 

 by the brown Stoat." 



We have repeatedly seen the Stoat in Warwickshire 

 more or less marked with white ; and having examined a 

 considerable number of specimens, can from our own ex- 

 perience make a pretty accurate statement of the com- 

 mencement and progress of the change in the colour of 

 the fur, which occasions this piebald and peculiar appear- 

 ance. The first indications of alteration in colour are 

 such as might readily escape observation. It is on the 



