MAMMALIA 33 



Male Foumarts are ferocious at close quarters, and if driven 

 to ground will fight every inch of their fortress, backing and 

 giving battle to hound or terrier at every turn. If desperate, a 

 male Foumart will fly straight at the nose of a dog, and hold on 

 tenaciously, unless shaken off, or nipped by its assailant behind 

 the forelegs, where pressure upon the heart causes death. An 

 old Foumart-hunter once walked into Carlisle exhibiting a live 

 Foumart which he had taken out of its hole uninjured. Mr. 

 Coward knew a native of the Coniston district who made a 

 practice of capturing Foumarts alive. After a capture he sum- 

 moned those who wished to test their terriers, and the animal 

 being released in an old tree stump or other retreat, the dogs 

 did their best to show sport. Mr. Coward tells me that a 

 Foumart's home is generally furnished with several entrances, 

 one of them often close to the water, so that the animal may 

 leave no scent as it returns home. The nest includes several 

 chambers, a privy — for these animals are cleanly in their habits, 

 — a larder, and a sleeping compartment. It is in the last that 

 the bitch Foumart produces her young in May and June, the 

 number dropped varying from five to seven. Mr. Isaac Stordy 

 once reared a young bitch, which became well known in the 

 Thurstonfield district as a great pet, but which never crossed 

 with a ferret during her captivity. 



Foumarts are destructive to poultry, and will kill full-grown 

 rabbits, but with us they feed largely on birds of the Thrush 

 tribe, such as redwings and fieldfares. Old Lalor, who was a 

 keen Foumart-hunter as a young man, assured me that he once 

 found a dead sparrow-hawk in a Polecat's larder. But frogs 

 and eels constitute a large proportion of their dietary. Mr. 

 Coward thinks that the well-known propensity of this animal 

 for storing food is due to its lying up in the hole to a consider- 

 able extent in winter ; but the Foumart often sallies forth in 

 search of prey, either when snow is lying on the ground or at a 

 break up of frost. On one occasion Mr. Coward came across 

 the track of a Foumart which had carried an eel from a loch 

 to its lair. Those present tracked the animal over the snow, 

 and on opening the nest discovered that the larder contained 

 five fine eels, three of them still alive. The fishes were taken to 



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