176 



MAMMALS. 



Stoats are excellent swimmers ; two were seen crossing Loch 

 Garry in successive days, and one was shot by Captain Ellice. The 

 loch is at least half a mile in width. 



Mustela putorius, L. Polecat. 



Local Names. — 'Foumart'; 'Fozzle' of Moray {auct. E. Thomson of 

 Ferness). 



Almost, if not quite, extinct in the north of our area, but the 

 same remarks which we have already made under 'Marten' 

 may well apply here. In 1881 a keeper trapped eleven in Glen 

 Loth. The last we have notice of was trapped at Glencassley in 

 1885. 



We have no records of the Polecat from East Ross, and it is 

 more than probable the beast is extinct, at least in the lower-lying 

 ground. It was at one time very abundant in Strath Conon, but 

 is now rare there ; it is still common in Strath Bran, and is found 

 in the adjoining deer-forests, as we are informed by A. J. Balfour, 

 Esq., M.P. {in lit. 17/v/80). 



"Writing to us in 1880, the late Mr. Maclellan — long time 

 well-known forester on Fannich — says that the last he trapped 

 in the forest of Strathvaich, near the northern confines of 

 our present area in North-west Ross-shire, was about nineteen 

 years previously — say 1861. He believed, however, that at 

 the time he wrote there were still a few in some parts of Ross- 

 shire. 



Polecats were very abundant formerly in parts of our northern 

 area. Thus, in the Highland Note-Book of Carruthers it is stated 

 that no fewer than one hundred and nine Polecats were killed 

 during a war of extermination waged against vermin on the Glen- 

 garry shootings during the three years between Whitsuntide 1837 

 and 1840. They existed there as late as 1879, and they are 

 probably there yet — 1888, — but are not particularly hunted. 

 Hepburn, in his paper before referred to under Marten, says 

 that Polecats were common north of the Caledonian Canal, par- 

 ticularly in the wooded wilds of the upper parts of Strath Glass 

 (1847). The species was not extinct in Glen Urquhart and 

 Glenmoriston in 1880, as we were assured by the factor, Mr. 

 Burgess. 



