This handsome mustelid is the fisher cat, Martes pennanti. Well, he isn't especially handsome here, stuffed and mounted and going a bit threadbare on top, but who is?

Fisher cats can reach thirty pounds, much larger than a mink or pine marten. No one is quite sure why they are called fisher cats. Perhaps from the French word for polecat, which is fissau. Perhaps because they are known to snack on pussycat, if it ventures into the woods at night.

They are bad tempered and voracious. Their call is like the high-pitched voice of a child, screaming in the woods at night. Which won't half scare the pussycat out of you.