Y I V 
V I V 
U L M 
are of a colour between the ferret and the 
polecat, or of a dingy yellowish-brown. 
The polecat is a strong and active creature, 
and will spring with great vigour and celerity 
when preparing to attack its prey, or to es- 
cape from pursuit, at which time it arches 
its back considerably, in order to assist its 
elfort. It is of a smell proverbially fetid, 
being furnished, like several others of the 
wersel tribe, with certain receptacles which 
secrete a thickish lluicl of a peculiarly strong 
and offensive odour. The fur, however, is 
beautifm, and the skin, when properly dress- 
ed, is numbered among the commercial furs, 
and used for tippets and other articles of 
dress. It is added by Aldrovandus, that the 
furriers endeavour to obtain skins taken from 
such animals as have been killed during the 
winter, as being far less fetid than those killed 
in the spring and summer. 
15. Viverra fero. Ferret. Of similar man- 
ners to the polecat is the ferret, the natural 
history of which has been so well detailed by 
the count de Button, that it is scarcely pos- 
sible to add any thing material to that elegant 
author’s description. The ferret in general 
form resembles the polecat, but is a smaller 
animal ; its usual length being about fourteen 
inches, exclusive of the tail, which is about 
five. Linnaeus, in the twelfth edition ot 
the Sy sterna Naturae, seems to entertain a 
doubt whether it is truly distinct from the 
polecat ; it is, however, a native of Africa, 
and not of Europe, and supports with clitii- 
culty tiie cold of an European winter; 
whereas the polecat is found ,iot only in the 
temperate, but also in the colder parts of the 
European regions ; to which may be added j 
that, exclusive of its smaller size, it is of a 
more slender shape, and the snout is sharper 
in proportion than in the former animal. 
The ferret is used for rabbit-hunting in pre- 
ference to the polecat, because it is more 
easily tamed ; but it is necessary to keep it 
in a warm box, with wool, or some other sub- 
stance, m which it may imbed itself. It sleeps 
almost continually, and when awake, imme- 
diately begins to search about for food : it is 
usually led with, bread and milk ; but its 
favourite food is the blood of the smaller 
animals. It is by nature an enemy to the 
rabbit ; and it is affirmed by Button, that 
whenever a dead rabbit is presented for the 
first time to a yot-mg ferret, he flies upon it 
in an instant, and bites it with great fury ; 
but if it is alive, he seizes it by the throat, 
and sucks its blood. When let into the bur- 
rows of rabbits, the ferret is always muzzled, 
that it may not kill tire rabbits in their holes, 
but only drive them out, in order to be 
caught in the nets. If the ferret is put in 
without a muzzle, or happens to disengage 
himself from it, he is often lost ; for after 
sucking the blood of the rabbit, he falls 
asleep, and cannot be regained, except some- 
times by smoking the hole, in order to oblige 
him to come out ; but as this is a practice 
which does not always succeed, it continues 
to lead a rapacious and solitary life in the 
warren, as long as the summer continues, 
and perishes by the cold of the winter. 
We are told by Strabo that the ferret was 
brought into Spain from Africa; and it is 
supposed that this was done in order to free 
that country from the vast number of rabbits 
with which it was over-run ; and from Spain 
it was gradually introduced into other Euro- 
pean countries. The ferret is an animal of 
an irascible nature, and, when irritated, his 
odour, which is at all times disagreeable, 
becomes far more so than usual. The ge- 
neral colour of the ferret is a very pale Yel- 
lowish-brown, or cream-colour ; and the eyes 
are of a bright and lively red. 
]6. Viverra vulgaris. The common weesel, 
is one of the smallest species in this numerous 
tribe of quadrupeds. Its general length is 
about seven inches, exclusive of the tail, 
which measures near two inches and a half. 
Its colour is a pale reddish, or yellowish- 
brown, and beneath it is entirely white; but 
below the corners of the mouth, on each 
side, is a brown spot : the ears are small and 
rounded, and the eyes are black. This little 
animal is possessed of a considerable degree 
of elegance in its aspect, and its motions are 
light and easy; but it has the same unplea- 
sant smell with the stoat, and some other 
species. It is an inhabitant of the cavities 
under the roots of trees, as well as of banks 
near rivulets, &c. from which it occasionally 
sallies out in quest 01 birds, field-mice, & c. 
It even attacks young rabbits, .and other' 
animals of far superior size to itself; but its 
chief prey, at least in this country, seems to 
be the field-mouse, of which it destroys great 
multitudes. From the extreme flexibility of 
its body, and its wonderful activity, it readily 
ascends the sides of walls, and by this means 
pursues its prey into the most distant retire- 
ments ; and is a frequent inhabitant of barns 
and granaries. The weesel produces four 
or five young at a time; preparing for them 
a bed of moss, grass, & c. An instance is 
given by the count de Buffon of a weesel’s 
nest being found in the carcase of a wolf, 
which had been hung up near a wood ; the 
nest was made in the cavity of the thorax, 
Hie count de Buffon, in his first description 
of the weesel, affirmed that it was a perfectly 
untameable animal ; but he afterwards re- 
ceived very authentic accounts of weesels 
which had been so completely tamed as to 
exhibit every mark of attachment to their be- 
nefactors, and to be as familiar as a cat or lap- 
dog. An account of this kind is given by 
one of his correspondents in the seventh sup- 
plemental volume of his Natural History, 
which amply confirms the truth of this; and 
among other curious particulars, it is observ- 
ed, that when asleep, the muscles of this little 
animal are in a state of extreme flaccidity, so 
that it may be taken up by the head, and 
swung backwards and forwards, in the man- 
ner of a pendulum, several times, before it 
wakes. 
17. Viverra erminea. Stoat. This animal 
much resembles the weesel in its general ap- 
pearance, as well as in colour, but is consi- 
derably larger; the body, exclusive of the 
tail, measuring ten inches, and the tail five 
and a half; the tip of the tail is also con- 
stantly black, whatever may be the grada- 
tion or cast of colour on the body; for the 
stoat, in the northern regions, becomes milk- 
white during the winter, in which state it is 
commonly called the ermine. It is some- 
times found of this colour in our own coun- 
try ; and instances are not very uncommon in 
which it appeal's parti-coloured, or white in 
some parts and brown in others, the change 
of colour having not been completed. Its 
smell is strong and unpleasant. The stoat is 
similar in its manners to the weesel, living in 
S6l 
' hollows under the roots of trees, in baks 
near rivulets, &c. and preying on all maner 
of smaller animals, as weii as on rabbits, sc. 
It does not, however, like the weesel, isit 
houses, but confines itself to the fields. . is 
an inhabitant both of the northern part of 
Europe and of Asia. It occurs in Kaits- 
chatka and the Kurile isles. It is also lid 
to be found in several parts of North Aie- 
rica. 
In Norway and in Siberia the skins ai a 
great article of commerce; most of theer- 
mines or white stoat-skins being broght 
thence. In Siberia the stoat is said to 
be found in the birch forests, but no-in 
the pine forests; and the skins are sole on 
the spot, according to Mr. Pennant, at Bin 
two to three pounds sterling per humbd. 
The animals are either taken in traps or lot 
with blunt arrows. 
18. Viverra maculata. Spotted wecel. 
This, which is described in governor hil- 
lips’s Voyage to Botany Bay, is said to b of 
the size of a large polecat, measuring 18 
inches from nose to tail, and the tail nearl as 
much ; and the visage is of a pointed shoe. 
The colour is said to be black, markedall 
over, the tail not excepted, with irreglar 
blotches of white ; the tail is represente as 
thin, and gradually tapering to the end ; he 
whiskers very long, and the general appar- 
ance of the animal such as to resemble he 
viverrine opossum in most particulars, ex- pt 
in the appearance of the tail. 
VIVIPAROUS, 'in natural history, an pi- 
thet applied to such animals as bring frth 
their young alive and perfect, in coiltrdis- 
tinction to those that lay eggs, which are (fil- 
ed oviparous animals. 
ULCER. See Surgery. 
ULLAGE, in gauging, is so much f a 
cask, or other vessel, as it wants of being ill. 
See Gauging. 
ULMUS, a genus of plants of the <ass 
pentandria, and order digynia, and in he 
natural system arranged under the 53cor- 
der, scabridae. The calyx is quinqued ; 
there is no corolla. The fruit is a dry, cm- 
pressed, membranaceous berry. Thereue 
six species, two of which are natives of ri- 
tain, viz. the campestris, common elm, nd 
the montana, or wych elm. All the sort of 
elm may be either propagated by layer or 
suckers taken from the roots of the old tres, 
the latter of which is generally practisecby 
the nursery-gardeners ; but as these are otn 
cut up with indifferent roots, they often lis- 
carry, and render the success doubtil ; 
whereas those which are propagated by laers 
are in no hazard, and always make beer 
roots, and come on faster, than the other, nd 
do not send out suckers from their root in 
such plenty, for which reason this nietbd 
should be more universally practised, ’he 
elm delights in a stiff, strong soil. It is ob- 
servable, however, that here it grows cm- 
paratively slow. In light land, especiall if 
it is rich, its growth is very rapid; bruits- 
wood is light, porous, and of little value, cm- 
pared with that which grows upon strng 
land, which is of a closer, stronger textre, 
and at the heart will have the colour, amid- 
most the heaviness and the hardness, of ion. 
On such soils the elm becomes profitale, 
and is one of the trees which ought, in re- 
ference to all others, to engage the plamr’s 
attention. 
