54 CARNIVORES. 



In general the fur of this species is less valued than that of the pine-marten ; 

 but some skins from Afghanistan and Turkestan have beautiful fur, with long, 

 glossy, nearly black piles, and very soft white or pale ashy under-fur. These 

 Turkestan martens were at one time regarded as belonging to a distinct species. 

 The inferiority of the fur of the ordinary beech-marten, as compared with that of 

 the sable, is due not only to its colour and actual length, but likewise to the relative 

 length of the long piles as compared with that of the under-fur, which is scarcely 

 concealed by them. The more northern skins are always superior to those from 

 Southern Europe : and a large number are imported into this country and sold as 

 an inferior kind of sable. As already mentioned, it was considered by the late 

 Professor Rolleston that the domesticated animal emploj'ed by the ancient Greeks 

 for the purposes for which we now use the cat, and called by them the Ailouros, 

 was this marten, which is often spoken of as the white-breasted marten. Fossil 

 remains of martens occur in the cavern deposits of the Continent; but only those 

 of the pine-marten have as yet been found in England. 



The sable (M. zibellina) is so nearly allied to the pine-marten 

 that some writers have considered that it should be regarded merely 

 as a variety distinguished by the greater length and fineness of the fur. Brehm 

 states, however, that it has a much more distinctly cone-shaped head, larger ears, 

 longer and stouter limits, and proportionately larger feet. In the most highly- 

 esteemed specimens the fur should be thick, soft, and nearly uniformly coloured. 

 Such skins are blackish above, having a mixture of black and grey on the snout, 

 grey on the cheeks, chestnut-brown on the neck and flanks, and orange-yellow, or 

 sometimes reddish orange on the throat. The margins of the ears are either 

 greyish white or light brown in colour. In a number of cases there is a larger 

 or smaller admixture of white hairs among the dark fur of the back, while the 

 muzzle, cheeks, breast, and under-parts are white. In other specimens the fur on 

 the back is yellowish brown, while that of the under-parts is nearly white, and 

 only the legs black. Good skins should exhibit a kind of " watering," owing to 

 the reddish tint of the woolly under-fur showing through the long outer hairs. 

 An average sable will measure about 20 inches from the snout to the root of the 

 tail ; the length of the tail being 7 inches. The skins are valued only when they 

 have their winter fur, the summer coat being much shorter. In spring, although 

 the winter fur may still be retained, the skins are quite useless, as the hair will 

 drop off even after the skins have been dressed. 



. . The range of the sable originally extended from the Ural 



Distribution. ,,.>,,. 



Mountains to Behring Sea, and from the mountains on the southern 



borders of Siberia to the (iSth parallel of north latitude. It is, however, now much 



curtailed, owing to the incessant persecution to which the animal has been so long 



subject ; and the chief haunts are now the mountain forests of North Asia, more 



especially Eastern Siberia and Kamschatka. 



According to reports furnished to Dr. Guillemard by a native 



hunter, it appears that sables are for the most part of nocturnal 



habits, and, though they occasionally feed by day, generally spend that period of 



the twenty-four hours in holes at the roots or in the trunks of trees. They dislike 



the presence of man, and are rarely to be found in the neighbourhood of the 



