152 



BRITISH MAMMALS 



being more permanent attachment between male and female than 

 is the case with the badger or the fox. 



The marten does not hibernate, and appears, like most of the 

 Weasel sub-family, to be more diurnal in its habits than the 

 badgers. 



It is a bloodthirsty animal, though not so universally de- 

 structive as the stoat. It catches a good many birds in trees, 

 devours young rabbits and hares, rats, mice, pheasants, poultry, 

 and even lambs. In the west of Scotland and on the coasts of 

 Ireland it resorts to the seashore and eats shell-fish. It will also 

 eat ripe rowan berries, blackberries, and other fruit. In captivity 

 it will readily accept a ripe pear or a fig. When surprised in the 

 open by dogs, the pine marten will fight desperately with claws 

 and teeth, and if pursued, bounds over the ground with astonish- 

 ing leaps of six or seven feet. It makes, of course, for the 

 nearest tree, up the trunk of which it flies with extraordinary 

 speed, its short sharp claws enabling it to obtain a good hold on 

 the bark. In its attacks on birds, and attempts to reach their 

 nests, it is somewhat reckless, and will venture out on to very 

 slender branches, from which it occasionally falls. One specimen 

 seen by the present writer in the south-west of Ireland apparently 

 met its death in this manner by falling from the extremity of 

 a branch, and breaking its back as it struck a strong lower bough 

 in its descent. 



The range of the pine marten at the present day (its existence 

 in England and Ireland dates from the Pleistocene Epoch ^) 

 includes many parts of England (the Midlands, East Angha, 

 North Devon, Hampshire, North Wales, the Lake District, 

 Northern Yorkshire, and Durham), the Highlands of Scotland, 

 and, until quite recently, the Hebrides (where it became extinct 

 about thirty years ago) ; also the north of Ireland, even to the 

 vicinity of Dublin. The finest specimens of British martens at 

 the present day probably come from the west of Ireland. The 

 author's painting has been done from Irish specimens. The range 



^ Like so many other mammals, the Marten genus seems to have originated 

 in India, its remains in the Siwalik Hills dating back to the Pliocene period. 



