THE POLECAT. 283 



"dined out" every evening. At any rate, it was not the remains 

 of their prey lying about which betrayed their whereabouts. 



In the woodlands of Surrey and Sussex, in years gone by, 

 I have occasionally come across traces of the Polecat, and seen 

 recently-killed specimens strung up by the keepers, or brought 

 home to be stuifed by the local taxidermist. But of late years 

 this animal has become very much scarcer, and bids fair to be 

 known only by the stuffed specimens in the keepers' cottages. 



Some keepers, wiser in their generation, instead of destroying 

 them, are glad now and then to get one alive, to cross with their 

 Ferrets. And they are no doubt right; for the hybrids thus 

 produced are very good rat-killers, especially in stacks, where 

 great activity is necessary. 



Mr. J. H. Cowley, of Callipers, Kickmansworth, has some 

 Polecats which were caught at Wadesden and at Stoke Mande- 

 ville, in Buckinghamshire, in 1888 and 1889, which are tame 

 enough to handle. He has crossed one with a Ferret, and reared 

 a number of young ones which have turned out very good 

 workers. 



In the West of England it would seem that the Polecat is 

 very nearly if not quite extinct. Of Devonshire, in 1883, 

 Mr. D'Urban wrote : — " I very much fear that this animal has 

 become extinct, if not in Devon, at any rate in the Exeter 

 district. I have not seen one alive since 1852. The game- 

 keepers to whom I have spoken about it all say they have not 

 met with one for a long time, and I have not seen any recently- 

 killed ones hung up in the places where such trophies are usually 

 suspended." Subsequently to the publication of this note (Zool. 

 1883, p. 25), Mr. D'Urban communicated some interesting 

 statistics illustrating the gradual extinction of the Polecat in 

 his county (Zool. 1884, p. 189). From these he concluded, " it 

 seems only too probable that in North and East, perhaps also 

 in South Devon, the Polecat is now extinct, but that a very few 

 still linger in the extreme western portion of the county." 



The last Polecat heard of in Cornwall, where it is believed 

 to be nearly exterminated, was one taken in March, 1890, in 

 Upton Wood, Lewanick, in the eastern part of the county, 

 as reported by Mr. F. B. Bodd (Zool. 1890, p. 134). In 1885, 

 the late Mr. Thomas Cornish, of Penzance, wrote (Zool. 1885, 

 p. 107) that. one had been captured near Madron, about two 



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