Temple.
Mousehunt (Vol. viii., pp. 516. 606.; Vol. ix., p. 65.).—This animal is well known by this name in Norfolk, where the marten is very rare, if not entirely unknown. The Norfolk mousehunt, or mousehunter, is the Mustela vulgaris. (Vide Forby's Vocab. of East Anglia, vol. ii. p. 222., who errs, however, in calling it the stoat, but says that it is the "smallest animal of the weasel tribe, and pursues the smallest prey.") It would be of much use, both to naturalists and others, if our zoological works would give the popular provincial names of animals and birds; collectors might then more easily procure specimens from labourers, &c. I have formed a list of Norfolk names for birds,
which shall appear in "N. & Q." if desired. The Norfolk Mustelidæ in order of size are the "pollcat," or weasel; the stoat, or cane; the mousehunt, mousehunter, or lobster. A popular notion of gamekeepers is, that pollcats add a new lobe to their livers every year of their lives; but the disgusting smell of the animal prevents examining this point by dissection.
E. G. R.
If Fennell's Natural History of Quadrupeds be correctly quoted, as it is stated to be "a very excellent and learned work," Mr. Fennell must have been a better naturalist than geographer, for he says of the beech marten:
"In Selkirkshire it has been observed to descend to the shore at night time to feed upon mollusks, particularly upon the large basket mussel (Mytilus modiolus)."
Selkirkshire, as you well know, is an inland county, nowhere approaching the sea by many miles: I would fain hope, for Mr. Fennell's sake, that Selkirkshire is either a misprint or a misquotation.
J. Ss.
Begging the Question (Vol. viii., p. 640.).—This is a common logical fallacy, petitio principii; and the first known use of the phrase is to be found in Aristotle, τὸ ἐν ἀρχῆ ἀιτεῖσθαι (Topics, b. VIII. ch. xiii., Bohn's edition), where the five ways of "begging the question," as also the contraries thereof, are set forth. In the Prior Analytics (b. II. ch. xvi.) he gives one instance from mathematicians—
"who fancy that they describe parallel lines, for they deceive themselves by assuming such things as they cannot demonstrate unless they are parallel. Hence it occurs to those who thus syllogise to say that each thing is, if it is; and thus everything will be known through itself, which is impossible."