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An Armenian. [Obs.] Chaucer.

A valuable fur-bearing animal of the genus Mustela (M. erminea), allied to the weasel; the stoat. It is found in the northern parts of Asia, Europe, and America. In summer it is brown, but in winter it becomes white, except the tip of the tail, which is always black.

Clothed or adorned with the fur of the ermine. Pope.

See Note under Ermine, n., 4.

ch as that worn by certain judges in England. [Writting also quoif.] From point and saucy ermine down To the plain coif and russet gown. H. Brocke. The judges, . . . althout they are not of the first magnitude, nor need be of the degree of the coif, yet are they considerable. Bacon.

See Ermine. Shenstone.

The ermine in its summer pelage, when it is reddish brown, but with a black tip to the tail. The name is sometimes applied also to other brown weasels.

A certain quantity of fur skins, as of martens, ermines, sables, etc., packed between boards; being in some cases forty skins, in others one hundred and twenty; -- called also timmer. [Written also timbre.]

ith gold or silver. With truncheon tipped with iron head. Hudibras. Tipped with jet, Fair ermines spotless as the snows they press. Thomson.

small shields placed close together, and alternately white and blue. Fairholt. No vair or ermine decked his garment. Sir W. Scott. Counter vair (Her.), a fur resembling vair, except in the arrangement of the patches or figures.

Any one of various species of small carnivores belonging to the genus Putorius, as the ermine and ferret. They have a slender, elongated body, and are noted for the quickness of their movements and for their bloodthirsty habit in destroying poultry, rats, etc. The ermine and some other species are brown in summer, and…

th (Spilosoma Virginica) which is pure white with a few small black spots; -- called also ermine moth, and virgin moth. See Woolly bear, under Woolly. -- White money, silver money. -- White mouse (Zoöl.), the albino variety of the common mouse. -- White mullet (Zoöl.), a silvery mullet (Mugil curema) ranging from th…

(see Illust., under Isabella Moth), and the yellow woolly bear, or larva of the American ermine moth (Spilosoma Virginica). -- Woolly butt (Bot.), an Australian tree (Eucalyptus longifolia), so named because of its fibrous bark. -- Woolly louse (Zoöl.), a plant louse (Schizoneura, or Erisoma, lanigera) which is ofte…