THE IRISH STOAT DISTINCT FROM THE BRITISH. 127 



its zoological characters ; but for a proper knowledge of this and 

 many other points about Putorius hibernicus we must be content to 

 wait until more specimens have become available for examination. 



Another point in which Putorius hibernicus resembles the 

 Weasel rather than the Stoat is in the normal absence of a 

 winter change of colour in similar latitudes. The Stoat turns 

 white in winter, except in the more southern districts of England, 

 whereas in ordinary circumstances the Weasel does not do so. 

 The Assogue agrees in this respect with the latter in that it 

 hardly ever turns white in winter, and the few cases in which 

 it has been known to do so must be regarded as exceptional.* 



At all events Thompson states that he had never seen or 

 heard of a white Stoat in Ireland, although he had examined 

 specimens in the winter garb, even in mild winters, which had 

 been killed in the nearest parts of Scotland — Ayrshire and 

 Wigtownshire.! The result of Mr. A. G. More's experience, after 

 many years of close observation, agrees entirely with that of 

 Thompson, and he informed us that he had never met with even 

 a record, much less a specimen, of a white Irish Stoat. This 

 seems the more remarkable when we find that the Irish (or 

 Alpine) Hare assumes the winter coat (though seldom com- 

 pletely) in many parts of Ireland, and we might expect that, in 

 the same way, the Stoat in Ireland might also occasionally be 

 found in the transition stage, with a pied coat, such as it so 

 commonly assumes in the Midland counties of England. Be 

 that as it may, we have never come across more than two speci- 

 mens of the Irish Stoat showing the winter change of colour. 

 One of these is a mounted specimen in the Museum of Science 

 and Art at Dublin, labelled " Co. Wexford," and lent by Mr. L. 

 Grattan Esmonde : it is entirely white, with the exception of a 



* Mr. G. H. Kinahan, writing in ' Land and Water,' June 11th, 1892, 

 remarks : — " Piebald Stoats are not very uncommon. Years ago my brother 

 had a remarkably large piebald buck Stoat that was killed in a rat-trap in 

 our house in the Co. Dublin. About the same time a smaller one was caught 

 in a trap set in a rabbit-run. I shot a piebald Stoat at Portraine, Co. Dublin, 

 and I saw a very white one chasing a Kabbit in Coole Park, Co. Galway. 

 Others I have seen were in the Burren, Co. Clare, and in the crags of 

 Galway, Mayo, &c." Presumably Mr. Kinahan refers to Stoats which had 

 whitened in winter, and not to complete or partial albinos, though he does 

 not make this quite clear. 



f ' Natural History of Ireland,' vol. iv. p. 7. 



