The stoat or ermine is a native of Great Britain and Ireland. It is also widespread on the Continent of Europe, in the north of which it regularly adopts a winter coat of white, though it always retains the dark pencil of hairs at the end of its tail. It is then known as the ermine and is the origin of the lovely white fur used to trim State robes and so on. The dark spots on the white fur are tails. The stoat is a great hunter of rabbits, but when rabbits are few it turns its attention to mice, voles, rats, frogs, birds, etc. The picture shows the stoat in its summer coat. |