i6 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL, 



falling victims to its rapacity. Bewick relates the case of a 

 polecat being observed to frequent the banks of a river to 

 some purpose, for eleven eels were found in its retreat. And 

 another writer mentions a nest containing five young, close 

 to which were stored no less than forty large frogs and 

 two toads, these being alive, but disabled from moving away, 

 each one being bitten through the brain. But as long as 

 the polecat keeps away from the temptations of the farm- 

 yard, it will naturally, in those districts which are not highly 

 stocked with game, do good by destroying vermin to a degree 

 proportionate to the mischief to which its bloodthirsty dis- 

 position incites it in more luxurious quarters. I have myself 

 seen a polecat hunting along the brookside where the too- 

 numerous rats (I mean rats, not water-voles) were the 

 largest — if not the only — game it would find ; and the rats 

 in the hedgerows after harvest would afford the polecat the 

 best chance of obtaining a dinner in those districts (numerous 

 enough) where hares are scarce, pheasants and rabbits still 

 more so, and partridges far from abundant. The polecat is 

 proverbial for its strong scent, but its fur is worn freely 

 under the name of fitch." Similarly, the fur of the despised 

 stoat in its winter dress is worn as ^'ermine"; and one of our 

 most expensive furs is procured from an animal (the skunk) 

 whose odour is one of the most disgusting, as it is certainly 

 the most pungent animal smell, the whole world produces. 

 Those who know from experience the strength of this per- 

 fume, and the distance at which it is perceptible, must be 

 excused a little exaggeration of imagination if they breathe 

 a sigh of thankfulness that the whole broad Atlantic stretches 

 between England and the home of this odoriferous little 

 beast. 



STOAT OR ERMINE {Mustela errnmed). 



Hitherto I have had to speak of the members of the 

 weasel family, treated of in this chapter as very destructive 



