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Ground Vermin. 



Besides the name of polecat, various others are allotted 

 to this particular animal in different districts, most of them 

 having reference to some attribute. " Fitchet " and 

 ' ' fitch ' ' are names having reference to its hair, and are 

 mostly used in the Western and Southern counties. " Fuli- 

 mart " and "foumart," both evidently corruptions of 

 " foul marten," are chiefly employed in the North. 



The favourite haunts of the fitch are not necessarily in 

 the neighbourhood where it makes its breeding-place, 

 preferably they are at some distance off. The stoat 

 and weasel are accustomed, to some extent, to live in 

 batches of five or six, but the polecat prefers a more 

 solitary existence, and rarely more than two or three live 

 together, and at a fairly wide distance from others of their 

 kind. Small dark fir- woods, with a rough but dry sur- 

 face of ground, are the most favoured spots, then rough 

 and broken ground, well diversified with large boulders, 

 interspersed with clumps of thick, low, bristling covert, 

 overgrown with brambles and briars, situated for prefer- 

 ence along the side of a stream or river, form the places 

 of habitation most agreeable to the polecat. Again, large 

 expanses of oak copse situate on a rough stony hill-side 

 prove acceptable. In fact, any ground well and closely 

 wooded or covered with brake are the places where the 

 polecat makes its haunts. This vermin always destroys 

 the life of its victims by a sharp bite right into the 

 brain, causing, as before noted, either immediate death, 

 or instantaneous stupor resulting in death in a few 

 seconds. None of the other weasels employ this sum- 

 mary mode of killing, and therefore any bird or other 

 animal found killed in this manner may certainly have 

 its death laid to the credit of a fitch. Unfortunately, 

 the fitch generally endeavours to carry away as much 

 of its prey as possible, thus leaving very little evidence 



