This animal, (_fig. 66._) greatly resembles the marten in temperament,
disposition, habits, and form of its body. Like him he approaches our
dwellings, mounts to their roofs, and settles himself in hay-lofts,
barns, and unfrequented places; from whence he steals by night into
farm-yards, aviaries, and pigeon-houses, where, without making so
much noise as the marten, he does more mischief; he twists off all
their heads, and then carries them away, one by one, to his hole or
dwelling. If, as it often happens, he cannot convey them away entire,
from the smallness of the entrance, he eats the brains on the spot, and
then retires with their heads. He is particularly fond of honey, will
attack the hives in winter, and force the bees to abandon them. They
are scarcely ever found at any great distance from inhabited places.
They copulate in spring, when the males will fiercely contend on the
roofs and sheds for the female. They then leave her, and go into the
fields or woods for the summer, but she remains in her dwelling, and
does not take her young ones out till towards the end of the summer;
she produces from three to five, does not suckle them long, but soon
accustoms them to suck blood, and the eggs of birds.
In towns they chiefly subsist on prey, and in the fields or woods
on what the chace affords them; when in the latter they fix their
residence in the burrows of rabbits, clefts of rocks, or trunks of
hollow trees, from whence they issue at night in quest of the nests
of partridges, larks, and quails; they climb trees to get at those of
other birds; are constantly on the watch for rats, field-mice, and
moles, and are at continual war with the rabbit, who cannot escape,
as they enter their burrows with ease. A single family of polecats is
sufficient to destroy a whole warren; and indeed this would be a simple
method of diminishing their number where they are found too numerous.
The polecat is rather less than the marten; it has a shorter tail, a
sharper snout, and its hair is more black and bushy. It has some white
hair on its forehead, and about the nose and mouth. They differ very
much in voice, that of the marten being sharp and loud, and that of the
polecat deep and hollow, but both of them, as well as the squirrel,
have a harsh, angry growl, which they often repeat when irritated; the
odour they send forth is also very different, that of the former being
rather agreeable, but the latter to the last degree fetid. When heated
or enraged it sends forth an intolerable stench to a considerable
distance. The dogs will not eat its flesh, and its skin, though good in
itself, is of little value, because it can never be entirely divested
of its natural odour; which odour proceeds from two little vesicles,
situated near the anus, which contain and exclude an unctuous matter
highly disagreeable, not only in the polecat but in the ferret,
weasel, badger, &c. but which constitutes a perfume in the civet-cat,
pine-weasel and several other animals.
The polecat seems to belong to the temperate climates. Few of them are
found in the northern regions, and they are more scarce than the marten
in the southern. The Stinkard of America is a different animal; nor
does the species of polecat appear to extend further than from the
confines of Italy to Poland; it is certain they fear the cold, and they
resort to houses in the winter, and their footsteps are never seen in
the snow either in the woods or fields distant from human dwellings,
and we may fairly conclude they are averse from extreme heat as they
are never found in the southern regions.