tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684843.post3044685494887525232..comments2024-03-26T22:16:26.572-04:00Comments on Terrierman's Daily Dose: Rawdon Lee :: The Fox Terrier, 1902PBurnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05781540805883519064noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684843.post-34012248400623644792009-05-05T20:47:00.000-04:002009-05-05T20:47:00.000-04:00I've never heard of that term of "foulmart" for po...I've never heard of that term of "foulmart" for polecat, but I assume that it is derived from the words "foul" and "marten" in reference to its characteristic mustelid glands. The polecat is a ferret-- the wild version. Hybrids between domestic ferrets and polecats have gone wild in New Zealand and are an ecological hazard.<br /><br />Now, the French called the pelt of the polecat a "fichet." From this term, we get the term "fitch" for both polecats and mink, and the large marten of North America is called a fisher. The term fisher doesn't refer to its diet. It's just a corruption of fichet, for the French were selling the big marten's fur as polecat fur.<br /><br />I don't know how polecats got confused with skunks, which aren't even mustelids.<br /><br />Interestingly, the European mink is no longer classified with the American mink and the extinct sea mink. A European mink hybridized with a polecat, something that American mink can't do.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com