9l'-2 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



farm. They said that they captured two dozen during the 

 winter, but all were males, so in the spring they killed what 

 they had and marketed the fur. They believed that the females 

 were lying up and the males were feeding them. 



Miles Spencer says' that according to the Indians near 

 Fort George, H. B., the Marten there mate about the first of 

 March. I learn from the guides in Algoma, 600 miles farther 

 south, the Marten pair from the 15th to the 20th of February. 

 Captain R. Craine, of Wayagamug, Mich., tells me that in the 

 winter of 1894 he captured a female Marten on the upper 

 Fraser in British Columbia and kept her three months before 

 she escaped. Of this individual he made many interesting 

 observations. She came in heat early in March. At this time 

 the anal parts were inflamed and swollen; she had a curious 

 way of rubbing them on the floor. Sometimes she would back 

 slowly up the wall of the cage, tail first, until she touched the 

 top, and from time to time during the night she would utter a 

 prolonged screeching, keeping it up until some one shouted at 

 her. 



This is all the direct testimony I can find on their mating 

 habits. 



But the collateral evidence of the British Marten bred in 

 captivity by A. H. Cocks (of Henley-on-Thames, England) is 

 next best thing. "Litters of this species," he says, "have 

 been bred in my collection. * * * All attempts at breeding 

 were extremely hazardous: the allowing of a pair to run to- 

 gether was apt to result in the death of the female, in conse- 

 quence of one or more of the long canines of the male penetra- 

 ting her brain, the damage being inflicted so instantaneously 

 that there was no possibility of a timely separation. "' The 

 union he believes takes place at night. I give a condensation 

 of his account. 



"At last (first week in January), this year we noticed little 

 mouthfuls of short straw deposited here and there in the cage 

 of the female Marten, a sign of her being in season. * * * 



' Low, Expl. James Bay, Can. Gcol. Sun., 1888, Pt. J, -Xpii. Ill, p. 77 J- 

 ' Proc. Zool. Soc, December 4, igoo. 



