[Three Hundred Animals Contents]
HAS so strong and disagreeable a smell that it is become proverbial; his skin is stiff, hard, and rugged, and when well prepared, lasts long in garments. His tail is not above two hands long. The breast, tail and legs, are of a blackish colour, but the belly and sides yellowish. He keeps in secret corners at tops of houses, and is a disastrous pest to the poultry yard. Some of them frequent the woods and destroy a great quantity of birds; and some others, forsaking the haunts of man, retire to the rocks and crevices of the cliffs on the sea shore, prefering a meagre and scanty diet with security, to the daintiness of chicken flesh and eggs, attended with trouble and fear. The Pole-Cat is the same with the Fitch, the hair of which is made into fine brushes and pencils for the use of painters.