GIBB : POLE CAT. 



189 



when woe betide the helpless inmates. One by one, they fall victims to his 

 thirst for blood, and even before he commences to appease his voracious ap- 

 petite, he will destroy more of animal life than would be sufEcient to feed 

 him sumptuously for a month. No life is spared by him — death is " meted 

 out alike to all," from the tiny chick sheltering under its mother's wings, to 

 the bold chanticleer who heralds in the morn with his matin note. This 

 innate ferocity renders him, and justly so perhaps, obnoxious to the rearer 

 of poultry, and preserver of game ; and the manifest falling off in their 

 numbers amounting to a total banishment in many localities is to a great 

 extent attributable to this fact ; for in such aversion is it held by these 

 individuals, that whenever it is seen it is instantly pursued, and either killed, 

 or driven to some less disturbed region. IsTotwithstanding, however, the 

 continual warfare which tl^e pole cat wages against animals subservient to 

 man's use, he renders him in return — especially the farmer — a palpable service, 

 inasmuch, as by his deadly and implacable enmity to the rat, he will quickly 

 clear a farmstead of these destructive rodents ; indeed in such fear is he held 

 by these grain destroyers that his presence amongst them is the signal for 

 their immediate departure. I think if this were properly estimated by the 

 farmer, and means were adopted by him to make his poultry roost secure 

 against his nocturnal attacks, the service he does him in this way would more 

 than counterbalance the evil and the loss complained of, and he would 

 rather be encourage'd to remain on, than be expelled from, their lands. 



The peculiar odour which exhales from the body of the polecat, is very 

 offensive and almost unbearable. That he has a voluntary and perfect con- 

 trol over this effluvium I think there can be little doubt, for if an individual 

 be instantly killed, without previous provocation or intimation of danger, it 

 will be found to exist to a very limited extent ; but, if on the contrary, it be 

 first aroused, and subsequently dispatched, the fetid odour is always present, 

 and is most pungent and disagreeable. This odour exhales from a thick, oily 

 secretion contained in a small pouch placed near the tail. This strange pro- 

 vision in the economy of most of our mustelidm, is probably accorded them 

 as an additional means of defence, for it is well known to affect in a greater or less 

 degree, the courage of dogs, which, as a rule, are unwilling to attack a weasel, 

 stoat, or pole cat, in which this odour most abounds. The colour of the pole 

 cat varies according to the seasons — not that the hair itself changes colour, 

 but because the coat is composed of inner fur of pale yellow through which 

 springs the long glistening brown hairs, forming the exterior sm^face so well 

 known to limners in the fine arts, in the construction of the Titchet brush. 

 Thus, in the winter season, when the entire covering of the animal is in its 



