420 Mme. J. Power on the Habits of the common Marten. 



friend's entrance ; then they ran to let me know, by their usual 

 demonstrations, and afterwards went into the antechamber ; if 

 the servant was not there, they ran to seek him, just as an intel- 

 ligent dog might have done. 



If, in jumping about, they happened to break a glass or a 

 cup, they appeared to be quite conscious of their fault ; for they 

 made their escape and hid themselves, dreading correction. 



My maid having left a ball of knitting cotton upon a chair, 

 one of the Martens took the end of the thread, and mounted 

 upon the tree ; in less than two hours it succeeded in construct- 

 ing, at the top of the tree, a sort of net, most artistically inter- 

 woven, so as only to leave very small spaces between the threads. 

 I could not imagine for what purpose this pretty piece of work 

 was intended. At last I understood, and calling in some boys, 

 I promised them a reward if they were clever enough to catch 

 me some living birds ; I gave them my nets, a cage, and some 

 corn, and in eight hours they brought me eleven birds. The next 

 morning I opened the cage underneath the net; several of the 

 birds flew into the tree, others upon the windows and doors. 

 The Martens, on seeing the birds, climbed up the tree, the win- 

 dows, and the doors, killing those which they could catch : the 

 chase was for some time very amusing, not for the poor birds, 

 but for me, and two of my friends who were present. When all 

 the birds were killed, the Martens devoured several of them, 

 only leaving the feathers, the beak, the feet and the intestines; 

 afterwards they hid the other birds under a piece of furniture, 

 going from time to time to make sure that they were still there. 

 When they were hungry, they went to take the birds and eat 

 them. 



When they saw me busy writing, they mounted upon my 

 shoulders, and watched for a favourable moment to steal a book 

 or some papers, which they carried off to their tree with incre- 

 dible velocity, or hid under some furniture. 



One day, my servant, on going into the kitchen to clean the 

 plate, could not find it, and then perceived that many kitchen 

 utensils and all the dusters were wanting, as well as some linen 

 which was being washed; he came to me, pale and frightened, 

 to tell me that I had been robbed. I went into the kitchen, 

 where I thought it strange that the Martens had not followed 

 me ; I called them, and they came with a timid air, trembled, 

 and kept at a distance from me, and I observed that they looked 

 towards a cavity under a staircase. I took the cane with which 

 I corrected them, and showed it to them, scolding them at the 

 same time with a severe air, and making them understand that 

 they had committed a crime. They fled into a corner, and took 

 a supplicating posture, on seeing them in which I could not 



