266 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



are pure white, and the claws sharp and not worn as I have seen 

 them in adults. 



This mammal is of great elegance and beauty. When in action 

 its movements are so rapid that motion alone is visible, the form 

 not being distinguishable. It is a swift runner, a good swimmer, 

 and can spring a great distance. An old keeper in Mar forest 

 informed me that he had often seen the Marten swim across the 

 Dee and return with rabbits to its young, but that it crossed the 

 mountain streams at a bound. 



In repose, the great beauty of the species consists in the relation 

 of its bushy tail to the length of the legs. The hind legs are 3| 

 inches longer than the fore, and the tail, including the fur, about 4 

 inches longer than the hind legs. The head is triangular, and the 

 nose protrudes considerably beyond the lips. The head and fore 

 parts would look weak, if not insignificant, but for the colouring of 

 the throat. In the example before us, which does not differ greatly 

 from four others from Aberdeenshire which I have examined in 

 the flesh, the throat is of a rich orange yellow brown, harmoniously 

 blending with the flesh tints of the lips and inner surface of the 

 ears; and this, I am satisfied, is in part effected by a change of 

 colour, and not wholly by a change of fur. The change is here 

 almost complete, but the throat being dotted with greyish brown — 

 the colour in the cub state — it is sufficiently incomplete to shew 

 the transition. The colouring is richest in midwinter, and then 

 in some measure resembles the colouring of the breast of the 

 Merganser. In examples killed in summer I have seen the throat 

 faded to a dry silvery white; while two adults, killed in winter, 

 had the teeth broken and irregular, and the throat colouring silvery 

 brown, thus corresponding with the description of the Buck Marten 

 of British authors. 



I am satisfied that these variations, considerable though they be, 

 depend upon the season, and the age of the individual; also that 

 they are not greater than in the fox, and other mammals that 

 might be named ; and that the Pine and Beech Marten are the 

 same species. This opinion has been confirmed by a litter of cubs 

 I saw in Glentanner, in which the throat was hardly lighter than 

 the general colouring of the body. 



The outer fur, which is of considerable length and of a deep 

 lustrous brown, is lighter on the line of the back and crown of the 

 head, and becomes darker towards the nostrils. The legs, tail, and 



