474 Vermin of the Farm. 
a pure white one which had been shot near Usk, Monmouth- 
shire, on August 3. 
In Ireland, where the weasel is stated to be unknown, though 
it has been reported to have been seen in Mayo by a reliable 
observer (Zoologist, 1877, p. 291), the stoat is comparatively 
common, and is universally known as the weasel. It is system- 
atically hunted under this name in the county of Cork, where 
the dogs used are called “ Weasel-hounds.”* Just in the same 
Fig. 8.— The Polecat Mustela putorius. 
way is its larger relative, the polecat, hunted with hounds in 
Cumberland, Westmoreland, and parts of Lancashire.^ 
The polecat, Mustela putorius (fig. 8), is as superior in point of 
size to the stoat as the latter is to the weasel. It has longer and 
much darker fur, and, in proportion to its size, a comparatively 
shorter and more bushy, though tapering, tail. It is in fact so 
like the brown variety of the ferret that it might easily be mis- 
taken for it. That the ferret is a domesticated variety of the 
polecat there can be no doubt, although these are frequently 
described in natural history books as if they were distinct 
' Sec tlie T?ish Sportsman of l\Iay 7, May 21, and June 4, 1892. 
^ For^a description of this mode of hunting, see the Zoologist, 1891, pp. 
280-289. 
