295 Ground Vermin. 



successfully, an exact knowledge of their haunts and 

 habits is necessary, and although, taken generally, there 

 are points of resemblance between the several species, 

 still in detail they differ considerably. 



The polecat, the largest and least plentiful of the 

 weasel tribe, is, without doubt, where it still exists, one 

 of the most rapacious of all vermin. Not only will it 

 kill the animals which are its ordinary prey, but will 

 sometimes attack and destroy all kinds of poultry. A 

 polecat will often in one single night kill more than it 

 could consume in a month. Birds, chiefly game, it catches 

 by stealing upon them at night, and silently inflicting a 

 sharp and quick bite into the brain, which kills them 

 instantly. In this manner, should it come suddenly on 

 a covey of birds, it may fatally wound a large number of 

 them before they are sufficiently aware of their danger to 

 make efforts to escape. Hares it will destroy in much the 

 same manner, and steal upon them during the day when 

 they are complacently dozing under shade from the sun, 

 or at night-time when they are busily occupied in feeding. 

 Rabbits fall victims to the polecat in the same manner that 

 they do to stoats, by the vermin tracking them to holt, 

 and, when there, using their superior cunning as a complete 

 set-off against the knowledge the rabbit has of the many 

 intricacies of its burrow. Rats, too, both those frequent- 

 ing the water-side and those in corn-stacks, are attacked by 

 the polecat occasionally, the latter more than the former. 



In localities where many of these pests remain there is 

 no species of vermin caught, killed, or shot with more 

 satisfaction to either the poultry -keeper or the game-pre- 

 server, who may have suffered from their depredations, 

 than the polecat. 



Most kinds of vermin possess a foetid natural smell, but 

 the polecat has a most objectionable peculiarity, namely, 



