68 NORTH AMERICAN MUSTELID.E. 



ment that the Pekan kills the Porcupine ; but its accuracy is 

 attested by Mr. Gilpiu iu the article above quoted, who states 

 that Porcupine quills have been found in its stomach. 



A moditied derivation of the name Fisher is given by De 

 Kay: — " We are informed by a person who resided many years 

 near Lake Oneida, where the Fisher was then common, that 

 the name was derived from its singular fondness for the fish 

 used to bait traps. The hunters were in the practice of soak- 

 ing their fish over night, and it was frequently carried off by 

 the fisher, whose well known tracks were seen in the vicinity. 

 In Hamilton County it is still [1842] numerous and trouble- 

 some. The hunters there have assured me that they have 

 known a fisher to destroy twelve out of thirteen traps in a line 

 not more than fourteen miles long.'' The same author contin- 

 ues: — ''The hunting season for the fisher, in the northern part 

 of the State, commences about the tenth of October, and lasts 

 to the middle of May, when the furs are not so valuable. The 

 ordinary price is $1.50 per skin; but it is not so fine, nor so 

 highly valued as that of the sable." According to all ac- 

 counts, the animals were formerly very abundant in the State 

 of New York, where, however, they have latterly become re- 

 stricted to northern mountainous and thinly settled portions. 



The bone caves of Pennsylvania, according to Baird, have 

 furnished numerous remains of Pennant's Marten, among them 

 one skull larger than some recent ones examined (but compare 

 p. 65). The animal may be still found occasionally in the 

 mountains north of Carlisle, in Perry County, where the liv- 

 ing animal figured by Audubon was procured. 



The distribution of the Pekan is general in wooded districts 

 throughout the greater part of Xorth America. As indicating 

 approximately the southern limit of its distribution (for, like 

 the Marten and Ermine, it is essentially a northern animal), we 

 may refer to its occurrences in ^S'orth Carolina and Tennessee, 

 as attested by Audubon and Bachman. The parallel of 30° 

 may be near its limit. Mr. Allen recently ascertained its pres- 

 ence in Colorado. West of the Eocky Mountains it was long 

 ago noted by Lewis and Clarke, whose accounts of the "Black 

 Fox*' are checked by numerous later observers, as Newberry, 

 Cooper, and Suckley. who found it in Washington and Oregon 

 Territories. From California, however, I have no advices, 

 though the animal probably inhabits at least a part of that 

 State. Dr. Newberry says it is rare in Oregcn, but less so in 



