OCR Text |
Show 2 MR. A. H. COCKS ON HYBRID STOATS AND FERRETS. [Jan. 17, largest being about 19 inches in length. The ovaries of the females did not appear to be nearly ripe, and, according to native reports, these fishes did not spawn until the wet season. Only two of the whole number possessed external gills. Altogether, examples of about twelve species had been procured, amongst which wrere two of Mormyrus, a Malapterurus, several Siluroids, and a Sword-fish, 8 feet 6 inches in length. Mud-fish (Protopterus) were stated by the natives to be abundant in the adjoining swamp, but Mr. Budgett had not yet succeeded in obtaining specimens. Mr. Budgett was also collecting Birds and Insects (principally Orthoptera and Hemiptera). Mr. A. H. Cocks, F.Z.S., exhibited some living specimens of supposed hybrids between the Stoat (Mustela erminea) and the Ferret (M. furo), and remarked that it was only on seeing the first of his specimens that his scepticism as to the possibility of such hybridity had been removed. Early in 1898 he had seen an advertisement respecting some half-bred Stoats and Ferrets, and had purchased three of them; and was so satisfied as to their genuineness, that he subsequently purchased the remainder of the breeder's stock, making six specimens in all. One female died from foot-rot; the second became pregnant to a Polecat, but miscarried almost at the last moment; the third (exhibited) was at the date of purchase said to be a week gone in young to a male hybrid purchased at the same time, and in due course produced a fine litter of 4 males and 1 female (one of the males was also exhibited). The breeder (a railway signalman) had made most positive and straightforward statements as to the animals being the undoubted offspring of a male Stoat and female Ferret (both white and da,rk), and Mr. Cocks had taken an opportunity to interview him personally ; he stated that he had bred altogether some six litters between Stoats and Ferrets, and considered such cross, if anything, easier to breed than pure Ferrets. At the time of Mr. Cocks's visit, a young Weasel was sharing a hutch with a pair of Ferrets. The specimens, including the second generation, were exactly alike, except the father of the second generation, which was somewhat paler but with identical markings, and was probably born from a white Ferret. Ferrets of course varied very greatly in the body-colour, but Mr. Cocks had never seen any Ferrets with exactly the body-colour or texture of pelage as these, and this improvement on the ordinary quality of a Ferret's pelt was seen in Polecat and Ferret crosses. The following points also showed a resemblance to Stoats:-bright yellow throats ; a small spot of yellow on the (true) knee; the distal portions of the feet were wdiite, the colour terminating abruptly ; the ears were broader than a Ferret's, and much more so than a Polecat's; the moustachial bristles were finer and more numerous than in a Polecat, but |