MAMMALS 11 



Up to 1863 this money was paid from the Treth Eglwys 

 (Church Rate), but since then from tolls taken at the Market 

 Hall. In 1866 it was resolved that no payment should be 

 made for killing a Fox without the evidence of some respectable 

 person that the beast had been Icilled in the Parish of Ffestiniog. 

 Mr. W. R. Rogers informs me that a remarkably fine old dog- 

 fox killed near St. Asaph in 1906 and weighed by a local butcher 

 scaled 22 1 lbs. 



"QXH^Xlf. Canis liqnis. Limi. 



Extinct; probably since the beginning of the 17th century. 



Giraldus Cambrensis in his Itinerary writes of Wolves as 

 preying on the dead bodies of the slain in the neighbourhood 

 of Coleshill, near Holywell, when Henry II. made one of 

 his expeditions into North Wales in 1165. Pennant quotes 

 this in his Tour, as also does Bingle3^ An amusing 

 instance of survival of tradition is afforded by a paper in the 

 Nationalut of September, 1908. The writer mentions a cave 

 on the side of Cader Idris towards Arthog " where the last 

 Wolf in Wales was killed when George III. was king." 



!BJ£H1R. Ursus arctos Linn. 

 Extinct ; probably quite a thousand years ago. 



15.— PINE MARTEN. Martes martes {Unn). 



Still found in the wilder parts of Carnarvon and Merioneth ; occurs else- 

 where as a wanderer. 



With regard to the colour of the young, Mr. A. Heneage Cocks 

 has found by observation of examples bred in confinement 

 that they are white at first. 



An excellent descriptive account of hunting the Marten 

 in Wales by " Geoffrey Mortimer " appeared in the Field 

 7th December, 1901. Unlike the Stoat or Weasel which 

 attack the throat or neck, the Marten kills its prey by a bite 

 just over the heart (cf , Zoologist, 1908, 2). 



I am indebted to Mr. Rhys P. Ailaway for the following 

 observations on the habits of this animal. The tenant of a 

 farm close to Cwm Bychan had a domestic cat with four kittens 

 in an outhouse : the kittens disappeared one after the other 

 till only one remained : he then set a trap to catch the thief, 

 and to his surprise next morning found it occupied by a Marten. 

 An old local keeper told him that Avhen the Marten either 



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