Polecat

“ Polecat uses except himself. I suppose he must like it or he wouldn't be so free with it. But other people go away when he uses it—mostly in the direction the wind's blowing from—and in a hurry, as if they were afraid they'd miss a train. Even Mr. Dog doesn't stop to argue with Mr. Polecat. Nobody does, and all the other deep woods people do their best to make him happy and [Pg 110] to keep him in a good humor whenever he comes about, and give him their nicest things to eat and a lot to carry home with him, so he'll start just as soon as possible. ”

“ At Philadelphia I once saw a great number of people on a market day throwing at a dog that was so unfortunate as to have been engaged with a polecat just before, and to carry about him the tokens of its displeasure. Persons when travelling through a forest are often troubled with the stink which this creature makes; and sometimes the air is so much infected that it is necessary to hold ones nose. If the wind blows from the place where the polecat has been, or if it be quite calm, as at night, the smell is more strong and disagreeable. ”

“ One thing may be said in the polecat’s favour, which is, that it is a very determined enemy of the rat, although the latter’s fierceness often prevents the former from bringing to a successful conclusion any crusade it may have opened against it. But the polecat is all the same a most courageous little animal; and its fierceness when attacked, the pluck with which it will fight against superior odds, and the wonderful amount of activity it can bring to bear, prove it to be no mean enemy for a terrier of two or three times its size. ”

“ Unfortunately for himself, the fox had made a slight miscalculation. With a scream of rage and pain, the polecat—for such the creature proved to be—turned on the aggressor, and instantly fastened its formidable teeth, like a steel trap, on his muzzle. Vulp had been taught that his fangs, also, were a trap from which there should be no escape, and so he held on firmly, trying meanwhile to shake the life from his victim. He pressed the polecat to the ground, and frantically endeavoured to disengage its hold by thrusting his fore-paws beneath its muzzle ”

“ The weasel insinuates its long body into the nest without disturbing a leaf. The eager polecat, athirst for the warm life-blood, is so rapid, that in a moment it bleeds both parents and progeny, and slaughters a whole family. ”

“ A Polecat, that had long committed depredations on the farm-yard, having a mind to make a meal of the blood of the Cock, seized him one morning by surprize, and asked him what he could say for himself why slaughter should not pass upon him? The Cock replied, that he was serviceable to mankind by crowing in the morning, and calling them up to their daily labour. That is true, says the Polecat, and is the very objection that I have against you, for you make such a shrill impertinent noise, that people cannot sleep for you. ”

“ The Polecat is not afraid of mankind, but approaches our dwellings with confidence, mounts to their roofs, and often lives in barns, hay-lofts, or other places that are much frequented. From thence he prowls about under the shadow of night, to attack the poultry. ”

“ The vixen preferred to hide in the brambles to leeward of a burrow till an unsuspecting rabbit crept out into the open. Vulp, since his adventure with the polecat, bristled with rage whenever he crossed the track of a weasel, but never dreamed of following; polecat and weasel were the same animal for aught he knew to the contrary. The vixen, however, was not daunted by the unpleasant memory of any such adventure; having chanced to see a weasel in the act of killing a vole, she had recognised a rival and acted accordingly. ”

“ The Polecat pairs about February, and from three to eight (mostly five or six) young to a litter are born in April or May. The nest is made of dry grass. There is probably a second litter a few months later.
The dentition of the Polecat, the Weasel, and the Stoat, is the same as that of the Marten, except that there are only three premolar teeth on each side of the jaws. In setting traps for Polecats the bait is found to be rendered far more seductive by scenting it with musk. ”

“ When they hit upon the scent, the terriers give tongue; and as soon as the polecat finds himself pursued, he makes directly for his hole, which, if stopped, he cannot of course enter, and is compelled to seek some other retreat, during which he is perhaps killed; if run to ground, he is very unceremoniously dug out and worried on the spot, it being a general opinion amongst the vulgar (in Leicestershire for instance) , that whenever or wherever a polecat is run to ground, they have a right to dig him out. ”

“ Dog! Dance, Mr. Dog; dance!" [Pg 109]
MR. RABBIT'S UNWELCOME COMPANY MR. POLECAT MAKES A MORNING CALL AND MR. DOG DROPS IN
"I think I shall have to tell you about Mr. Polecat," said the Story Teller, "and about his visit to Mr. Rabbit."
"Who's Mr. Polecat?" said the Little Lady. "You never told me about him before."
"Well, no, because you see Mr. Polecat is so queer in some of his ways that people even don't talk about him a great deal. He is really quite a nice gentleman, though, when he doesn't get excited. But when he does he loses friends. ”

“ Attempts to account for the first syllable of the word polecat rest entirely on conjecture.
The Siberian polecat (Putorius eversmanni) is very like the European in size, colour and proportions, but with head and back both nearly or quite white, and skull more heavily built and sharply constricted behind the orbits, at least in fully adult individuals. It inhabits the greater part of south-western Siberia, extending from Tibet into the steppes of south-eastern European Russia. ”

“ Polecat, run! and go the back way!' But Mr. Polecat never runs from anybody—he doesn't have to—he just opens up that perfume of his and the other people do the running. So Mr. Rabbit gave one more jump, and this time he jumped straight up the chimney, and didn't stop till he got to the roof, where he found a loose board and put it over the chimney quick and sat down on it. Then he called to Mr. Dog, who was coming lickety-split through the woods:—
"'Why, how are you, Mr. Dog? Glad to see you! Walk right in. There's company down stairs ”

“ Here the polecat also finds a congenial haunt, away from the abodes of man, and in a situation where provender, in the shape of rabbits and hares and winged game, is likely to be plentiful and easily obtained. When nothing else will grow on the steep and barren hillside, large areas of oak are often planted, not to grow into large spreading trees, but only into oak-coppice, which may afford oak-bark for the tanner, and firewood for the dwellers in the country. Amongst this copse the polecat has many inducements to form its lair, and there it will find many animals and birds upon which to prey. ”

“ One of the most severe encounters that Edward ever had with a nocturnal roamer was with a Polecat or Fumart [26] in the ruined castle of the Boyne. The polecat is of the same family as the weasel, but it is longer, bigger, and stronger. It is called Fumart because of the fœtid odour which it emits when irritated or attacked. It is an extremely destructive brute, especially in the poultry-yard, where it kills far more than it eats. Its principal luxury seems to be to drink the blood and suck the brains of the animals it kills. It destroys everything that the gamekeeper wishes to preserve. ”

“ Of the several interesting animals which constitute the weasel tribe in the British Isles, not the least noteworthy is the polecat. It is at once the largest and most predaceous of the three most common mustelidæ, and one of the greatest natural enemies of game with which preservers have to contend, and at the same time a most persevering and successful poultry-yard thief. ”

“ The polecat is seldom seen during the day, unless compelled by hunger to quit its retreat; but, as soon as night sets in, it leaves its hole in quest of prey, when it may be pursued and killed by terriers. In the midland counties hunting the polecat by moonlight forms a diversion for schoolboys and the younger branches. ”

“ The bait for a polecat should be a rat, a mouse, a bird, entrails, or indeed almost any animal substance will answer the purpose.—And what I have stated respecting the polecat is equally applicable to the stoat, and to all the weasel tribe. ”

“ Not only is the genus common to both Old and New Worlds, but in a few cases the species (e.g. P. erminea) range from Asia to America. The molar formula is Pm 3/3 M 1/2. The form of the body is an exaggerated one, the length of the trunk to the limbs being very great. The feet are more or less hairy beneath, and the animals are digitigrade. The nose is grooved. The dorsal vertebrae vary from thirteen to sixteen.
Fig. 221.—Polecat. Mustela putorius. × 1⁄6.
There are four British representatives of this genus:—
The Polecat, P. foetidus, is a dark brown-coloured animal. ”

“ Upon the little nut-brown partridge or the more sober-looking grouse it will steal in the early dawn or at ‘even’s stilly hour;’ and sometimes, before the former is aware of the polecat’s presence, it will have, by a sharp irresistible bite into its brains, transferred it and perhaps several others beyond the reach of the sportsman’s gun. ”

“ The polecat evinces an insatiate thirst for blood, and is very destructive to all kinds of young game; and if it is not openly so to that which is full grown, it is because it is not so easily caught: it will surprise hares on their seats, will seize partridges or pheasants on the nest; and is incredibly destructive in a rabbit warren: it will, like all the other animals of the weasel tribe, kill much more than it can devour ”

“ To rats the weasel is a deadly enemy; no united number of them will attack it, and the largest singly has no chance against it. Like the polecat the weasel hunts by scent. It climbs trees easily and takes birds by stealth. The keeper has seen a brooding partridge taken in this manner, and on winter evenings the sparrows roosting in holes in a hay-rick. Weasels also kill toads and frogs; and their mode of killing these, as well as of despatching birds, is by piercing the skull.
The polecat, or fitchet, keeps much to the woods, and feeds mostly on rabbits and game. ”

“ No one who has any actual knowledge of the habits of the polecat can come to any other conclusion than that it is a most destructive animal, and one whose presence is not to be tolerated, much less desired, either in the game preserve or in the neighbourhood of the poultry-yard ”

“ Under domestication it breeds more frequently and is more prolific than in its wild state. It is somewhat smaller than the polecat, but readily breeds with that animal, and produces young intermediate in character between the parent species. It is owing to this fact that we have now two well-defined varieties—one of a brown colour, and known as the polecat ferret, the other the more common white variety. The first is said to be the more hardy and vicious; and it is to secure these qualities that keepers on large warrens cross their ferrets with the wild polecat. ”

“ He is very active, and runs fast. While running, his belly seems to touch the ground; but in preparing to jump, he arches his back very much, by means of which the force of his spring is greatly increased. The Polecat, during summer, lives in woods, or about rabbit-warrens. Here, if he cannot find a hole ready made that suits him, he 89forms a retreat for himself, in the ground, about two yards in length, which he contrives, if he can, to end among the roots of some large tree. ”

“ The polecat is yearly becoming rarer and rarer in the more cultivated districts of the country; while its numbers are also slowly but seemingly very surely diminishing in those parts which the hand of man has permitted to remain in a state congenial to its tastes and habits. ”

“ This commissary was a man of very repulsive mien, with a pointed nose, with yellow and salient cheek bones, with eyes small but keen and penetrating, and an expression of countenance resembling at once the polecat and the fox. His head, supported by a long and flexible neck, issued from his large black robe, balancing itself with a motion very much like that of the tortoise thrusting his head out of his shell. ”

“ Those likewise who have got any of this urine upon their face and hands, rub them with loose earth; and some even hold their hands in the ground for an hour; as washing will not help them [276] so soon. A certain man of rank who had by accident been wetted by the polecat, stunk so ill, that on going into a house, the people either ran away, or on his opening the door, rudely denied him entrance. Dogs that have hunted a polecat are so offensive for some days afterwards, that they cannot be borne in the house. ”

“ Polecats are not by any means night-hunters, although, no doubt, they filch a good deal of their prey under cover of the darkness. Their favourite time for hunting seems to be the early morning; and as soon as they leave the shelter of their domain they, as a rule, set off for some rabbit-burrow—whether tenanted or not is immaterial—and indulge in a run through its winding tunnels. ”

“ Its prey is devoured only in its lair, but, even though it can carry away but a single victim, it commonly kills everything that comes in its way, often destroying all the inhabitants of a hen-house in order to gratify its passion for slaughter. The pairing time is towards the end of the winter, and the young, from three to eight in number, are born in April or May, after a period of gestation of about two months. The young, if taken early, may be easily trained, like ferrets, for rabbit-catching. The polecat is very tenacious of life and will bear many severe wounds before succumbing ”