Ermine

er'min, or Stoat, a slender, short-legged weasel, found in the northern parts of Europe, Siberia, and British America. Its fur is of a reddish brown in summer, changing to pure white in winter, with a black tip to the tail. The pelt of the ermine commands a high price. In England it is used especially to line the official robes of judges; hence the ermine has come to signify the judicial dignity. To soil the ermine, and to keep the ermine unspotted, are expressions referring to the conduct of a judge in office. Even in this country, where the judge dresses like other professional men, we hear such expressions as that a judge ought not to drag the ermine through the mire of politics. As a fur, ermine is spotless white, a quality to which Lowell refers in his First Snow Fall.

See Weasel