THE POLECAT. 285 



reported this animal as "by no means common in Norfolk" 

 (Trans. Norf. Nat. Soc. vol. i., 1870, p. 76), and referred to the 

 observations made by the late Rev. H. T. Frere in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Diss. Subsequently Mr. Frere himself communicated 

 some notes on the subject to ' The Zoologist' (1888, p. 221), 

 stating that in his boyhood (1849) the animal was far more 

 common, and that at that time not a year passed without several 

 being killed, especially in the autumn, when they made their way 

 up from the fen to the dry land. " Matters are much altered 

 now," he writes; " they are not extinct, but decidedly rare. From 

 Rydon and Bressingham, where I knew them formerly, I hear 

 that one is never seen now" (1888). 



In Lincolnshire, Canon Fowler, in reporting the capture of 

 a Polecat near Grantham (Zool. 1882, p. 230), expressed the 

 opinion that the animal was becoming very rare in that district ; 

 but Mr. Cordeaux reports that it is still fairly common in those 

 parts of the county where game is not preserved. 



Messrs. Clarke and Roebuck, in Yorkshire, characterise it 

 as "irregularly distributed, extremely rare, and fast becoming 

 extinct; although half a century ago it was generally abundant." 

 When Messrs. Mennell and Perkins, in 1864, printed their 

 Catalogue of the Mammalia of Northumberland and Durham, 

 in vol. vi. of the Trans. Tyneside Nat. Field Club, they were 

 able to write of the Polecat, " still plentiful in both counties," 

 but a quarter of a century has since elapsed, and it may be far 

 otherwise now. It would seem from all accounts, however, that 

 at the present day in England the stronghold of the Polecat is 

 in the north. From the Churchwardens' Accounts for the parish 

 of Corbridge-on-Tyne, it appears that Polecats were at one 

 time extremely abundant there ; for there are frequent entries in 

 the books of payments in reward for " fulmarts heads." The 

 price paid for one was fourpence, and between the years 1677 

 and 1724 no less than 653 of these animals were destroyed in 

 that parish alone.* 



In Cumberland, f Westmoreland, and N.E. Lancashire, 

 hunting the Polecat with hounds was at one time a very favourite 

 sport, and is still practised to a limited extent. But it is a sport 



* See < The Zoologist,' 1881, p. 172. 



f As to East Cumberland, see ' Zoologist,' 1881, p. 162. 



