The Sporting Dictionary and Rural Repository, Volume 2 (of 2) / Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the Field

by William Taplin

POLE-CAT

.—The pole-cat is a species of vermin, partaking, in some degree, of the figure and propensities of the MARTIN and the FERRET; or rather between both. It is smaller than the one, and considerably larger than the other; is an inhabitant of the bushy coverts in the neighbourhood of lonely farm-houses; to the POULTRY, EGGS, and DOVE-HOUSES, of which they are constant and destructive enemies. The effluvia, or rather stench, arising from their bodies is so truly offensive, that it has long since laid the foundation of the well-known proverbial expression of "stinking like a POLE-CAT."