7 JANUARY 1938, Page 20

More Polecats

A sad fatality, in which a baby was bitten by a polecat, has made public the revival of this animal, which at one time was thought to have gone the way of the pine-marten. It reappeared suddenly in large numbers in the West country, especially, so far as my own experience goes, in Merioneth in the hinterland of Aberdovey. The common polecat and the red variant were both caught ; and the numbers were large enough to be a threat. They have dwindled since but it

seems that the range has increased. One of the very few inadequacies or omissions in a very admirable book by Mr. Boulanger on World Natural History (Batsford) is connected with the polecat and the ferret that it very closely resembles. The common poacher, or for that matter the keeper usually calls his brown ferrets (as opposed to the albinos) polecats ; but it is seldom that the ferret of commerce reaches the dimen- sions or power of the true polecat.