POLECAT, or FITCIIET, Musick putorius, or Putorius feetidus, a quadruped of the weasel family (mustelida), and commonly referred to the same genus with the weasel, stoat, or ermine, etc. It is the largest British species of that genus, the length of the head and body being about a foot and a half, the length of the tail more than fire inches, the form stouter than that of the weasel or of the ermine. Its color is a deep blackish brown; the head, tail, and feet almost black, the under parts yellowish, the cars edged with white, and a whitish space round the muzzle. The hair is of two kinds—a short woolly fur, which is pale yellow, cr somewhat tawny; and long shining hairs of a rich black or brownish-black color, which are most numerous on the darkest parts. The nose is sharp, the cars short and round, the tail pretty equally covered with longish hair. There is a pouch or follicle under the tail, which exudes a yellowish, creamy substance of a very fetid odor; and this odor is particularly strong when the animal is irritated or alarmed. Hence, apparently, its name foumart (foul marten), which, with various pro vincial modifications, as futimart, thoumart, etc., is prevalent in most parts of Britain_ The origin of the names polecat and fitehet is much more uncertain.
The polecat was much more common in Britain in former times than now, and is almost extirpated from some districts, through the constant war waged against it by game keepers and others. It cats everything that the gamekeeper wishes to preserve. It is
extremely destructive in the poultry-yard, the abundance present there inviting it to drink blood and cat brains, which seem to be its favorite luxuries. The rabbit. is fol lowed by the polecat into its burrow, and its ravages among poultry are partly compen sated by its destruction of rats.—The taming of the polecat does not seem to have been attempted. The smell prevents it.—The skin is imported from the n. of Europe under the name of fitch, and is used as a kind of fur, similar but inferior to that of the marten (q.v.), It i3 imported to some extent from the n. of Erope. To artists, the hair of the fetch or fitellet is well known as that of which their best brushes are made; the hairs used for this purpose being the iong hairsalready noticed, which grow through the lighter colored fur of the animal—The ferret (q.v.) is supposed by some to be a mete variety of the polccat.—A dark-colored kind of ferret is commonly regarded as a cross between the polecat and the ferret, and is sometimes called the poleca'tferret. The polecat breeds in May or June, making its nest in an old rabbit burrow or similar hole, and producing four, tive, or six young.—In North America the skunk (q.v.) is culled polecat.