*HE POLECAT. 291 



Polecats ; but it does not seem to have occurred to him that they 

 might have been escaped Ferrets. The Polecat is not included 

 in the late Prof. Leith Adams's " List of Recent and Extinct 

 Irish Mammals" (Proc. Roy. Dubl. Soc. 1878, p. 41). 



There can no longer be any doubt that the Polecat is the wild 

 ancestor of the Ferret, notwithstanding that so many writers have 

 concurred in describing the two as distinct species. There are 

 positively no cranial, dental, or other structural characters by 

 which they can be distinguished,* and the brown variety of the 

 Ferret is so like a Polecat that it might well be mistaken for one. 

 See the remarks of Mr. A. H. Cocks on this subject, ' Zoologist,' 

 1880, p. 396. 



In regard to the early use of Ferrets, it may be remarked that 

 they were employed by Genghis Khan in his imperial hunting 

 circle at Termed in 1221, t and are mentioned by the Emperor 

 Frederick II. of Germany as animals used for hunting in 12454 

 They were doubtless introduced into England by the Romans, to 

 whom we are also indebted for the Pheasant and the Fallow-deer. 



In Richard the Second's time, 1390, a statute was passed 

 prohibiting any one from keeping or using greyhounds and fyrets 

 who had not lands or tenements of the annual value of 40s. (See 

 1 Zoologist,' 1888, p. 20.) Both the Jychew and the fyret are 

 mentioned in * Thystorye of Reynard the Foxe,' as printed by 

 Caxton in 1481 (ed. Percy Society, p. 109). 



The use of Ferrets and nets for taking rabbits in Cumberland 

 in 1621 is clearly indicated by entries in the 'Household Book ' 

 of Lord William Howard, of Naworth. Thus : — 



" Tho. Warriner Feb. 4. A wallet for the ferrets viij d. 

 Corde viij d. An yron for his staffe xiiij d. A hanck of yarn for 

 mending his net vj d." 



Again, under date 1624, July 16 : — 



11 For ferrets bought at Broham by the Warriner iij s. viij d."; 

 and 1633, March 18 :— 



" For seven firetts bought of Tho. the Warriner, x s." 



With regard to the homing instinct in Ferrets, see * The Field,' 

 1873, Jan. 25, Feb. 1, and Feb. 8 ; and 1886, Jan. 23 and 30. 



* See ' The Field,' 3rd Feb. 1872. 



f Banking, • Historical Researches on the Sports of the Mongols and 

 Romans,' 1826, p. 33. 



I ' De Arte Venandi,' ed. Schneider, 1788, i. p. 3. 



