THEPOLECAT.
This animal is distinguished by various appellations in different parts of the kingdom, being in most places called a Polecat, in some a Formet, and in others a Fitchet, and by one or other of the above three names he is known all over England.
He is a very subtle and pernicious creature, being a mortal enemy to fowls of all kinds, and doing prodigious mischief in warrens, by destroying the young rabbits, for when once they take to a borough, consisting of a large number of holes or angles, they either kill or drive the rabbits away,who, by instinct, shun so dangerous a foe; in the hen-houses they are equally destructive, and when they have killed a fowl, they drag it away, if they can get it through the hole they enter in at, but they have one good property, that is, that if they can get what they have killed away, whether fowl or rabbit, they will eat of it as long as it remains sweet, before they return back to kill any more; in this circumstance differing from the weasel and stoat, who, after they have destroyed their prey, only suck the blood out, and very seldom take it away, but leave the flesh behind untouched; if therefore you miss any of your fowls, or find any of them in part devoured, it will be an almost infallible criterion for you to distinguish that the mischief has been done by these vermin.
In order the better to destroy them, I would recommend this method; at night, after your fowls are gone to roost, mind to sift some sand before every little hole yoususpect he may come in at, and look at them again in the morning early, before the fowls are moving, and you will soon discern the prints of their feet by their trampling about, then set a common hutch trap, such as are used in warrens, [pl. II. fig. 1.] and bait it with a piece of fowl or small bird of any kind; hang the bait on the nail, over the bridge, as has been observed before, and if you should catch one of them, remember to make the print of his feet in the sand, which will enable you the better to know it another time, which has been my own constant practice, to discover what kind of vermin have been there in any shrape, whether made by sprinkling mould or sand; and if you should not have a hutch trap in your possession, then put at the place where you have tracked him, a small steel trap, and place a brick on each side, so that he cannot avoid coming over the trap, which must be covered nicely with fine mould; do this in the afternoon, then cover it with a thin board, that the fowls may not spring it ingoing to roost, then take the board or shelter away, and go in the morning before the fowls move, and if you should not catch him the first night, observe the same methods for a few nights more, and you will be sure of him.