Ermine
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Ermine. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
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. Every pine, and fir, and hemlock Wore ermine, too dear for an earl. See Weasel
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
or Ermyn Street, a Roman road leading northward from London, through Lincoln, to York, then to Hadrian's Wall. It left London by what became known as Bishopsgate.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in zoölogy, the ermine weasel, a small mammal. The body in summer is reddish-brown above and white beneath, and in winter is wholly white, except the extremity of the tail, which all the year round is black. It is found in the arctic and temperate parts of Europe, becoming more abundant as one travels N. It occurs also in the corresponding parts of North America, ranging as far S. as the middle of the United States. It frequents stony places and thickets, and active, fierce and blood-thirsty. It is called also the stoat. It is obtained from Russia in Europe, Norway, Siberia, Lapland, and also, though to a less extent than formerly, in North America. The word is used figuratively to designate the office, position, or dignity of a judge (from his state robe being ornamented or bordered with ermine). In heraldry it designates one of the furs, represented by black spots of a particular shape on a white ground.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both accounts describe one animal ranging across northern Eurasia and North America; genetic work published in 2021 split that single species three ways, into the Eurasian stoat (Mustela erminea), the American ermine (M. richardsonii) and the Haida ermine (M. haidarum) of a few islands off British Columbia. The trade Aiton's and Collier's took for granted has largely collapsed: ermine trimming on judicial and coronation robes is now often synthetic or reused, and King Charles III's 2023 coronation robes were recycled rather than newly furred. Two things the entries could not have anticipated: stoats released in New Zealand in the 1880s to control rabbits became one of the country's worst predators of native birds, and biologists now watch the seasonal change to "pure white in winter" as a liability, since shorter snow seasons leave white animals conspicuous. The animal itself is common and listed as Least Concern.
Written for this edition, 2026.