ERMINE. 
365 
may at that time more properly be called the stoat. 
There are few so unacquainted with quadrupeds as 
not to perceive this change of colour in the hair, 
which in some degree obtains in them all. The 
horse, the cow, and the goat, alfmanifestly change 
colour in the beginning of summer, the old long 
hair falling off, and a shorter coat of hair appear- 
ing in its room, generally of a darker colour, and 
yet more glossy. What obtains in our temperate 
climate, is seen to prevail still more strongly in 
those regions where the winters are long and severe, 
and the summers short, and yet generally hot in an 
extreme degree. The animal has strength enough 
during that season to throw off a warm coat of 
Fur, which would hut incommode it, and continues 
for two or three months in a state somewhat re- 
sembling the ordinary quadrupeds of the milder 
climates. At the approach of winter, however, 
the cold increasing, the coat of hair seems to 
thicken in proportion ; from being coarse and 
short, it lengthens and grows finer, while multi- 
tudes of smaller hairs grow up between the longer, 
thicken the coat, and give it all that warmth and 
softness which are so much valued in the furs of 
the Northern animals. 
The ermine is remarkable for the softness, the 
closeness, and the warmth of its fur. It is brown 
in summer, like the weasel, and changes colour 
before the winter is begun, becoming a beautiful 
cream colour, all except the tip of the tail, which 
still continues black. Mr. Daubenton had one of 
these brough him with its white winter fur, which 
he put into a cage and kept, in order to observe 
jhe manner of moulting its hair. He received it 
in the beginning of March : in a very short time 
it began to shed its coat, and a mixture of brown 
was seen to prevail among the white, so that at 
ninth of the same month its head was nearly 
