644 



THE CARNIVORES 



Habits 



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 neighborhood of the villages ; 

 their favorite resort being the depths of the forest least frequented by the natives. 

 It is considered that the most inaccessible and least known parts of the country are 

 the best hunting grounds. They live on hares, birds of all kinds, and, in short, 

 almost every living thing they can kill, but they are also said to eat berries, and 

 even fish. There are, indeed, but few animals, apparently, which do not live on 

 fish in Kamchatka. They have only one litter during the year, generally in the 

 month of April, and bring forth four or five young at a birth in a nest in the holes 



THE SABI.E. 

 (One-fourth natural size.) 



of trees. The same writer tells us that whereas formerly a large number of sables 

 were caught in traps in Kamchatka, they are now more generally hunted there 

 with dogs ; these dogs being specially trained for the purpose, and either running 

 down their quarry on the deep snow, driving them into trees, or smelling them out 

 when lying asleep in holes. The great object in such hunts is to " tree " the sable, 

 when the tree is surrounded with nets, and the animal either shaken from the 

 boughs or knocked off them by means of poles. If the sable does not fall into the 

 nets, it is again pursued by the expectant dogs, by whom it is either run down, or 

 once more "treed." When the tree is too high to allow of the sable being dislodged 

 by the usual methods, it is either felled, or the animal is shot ; but recourse to guns 

 is if possible avoided, as the shot does damage to the skins. If the distance they 

 have to travel be a long one, the Kamchatkan hunters start on their winter expe- 



