224 



THE BADGER AND WEASEL FAMILY. 



The sable is easily distinguished from our 

 martens, not only by the characters derived 

 from the fur, but also by its larger rounded 

 ears, its shorter tail, and by having the soles 

 of its feet covered as it were with a brush of 

 stiff hairs, which facilitates the progress of the 

 animal on the snow. With respect to the skull 

 and the dentition the sable approaches most 

 nearly to the beech-marten, while its mode of 

 life most resembles that of the pine-marten. 



The sable is found in all the cold and 

 mountainous regions of Siberia from the Ural 

 to Kamchatka. The numerous squirrels of 

 these regions form its principal food. For- 

 merly very abundant it has been driven by 

 man more and more into the wildest districts 

 of his extensive domain. It is hunted only 

 during the cold season. Even at the present 

 day some districts still pay their taxes in 

 sable- skins. The dearest are obtained by 





Fig. 117. The Polecat (Puloriusfatidus). 



the trade from the neighbourhood of Yakutsk 

 and Okhotsk, and from Kamchatka. The 

 sable is caught in traps and snares, or is 

 hunted on the snow, the hunters wearing 

 snow-skates, and being accompanied by dogs, 

 with the aid of which they endeavour to 

 chase it to some isolated tree, whence they 

 shoot it down with blunted arrows so as not 

 to spoil its fur. The total annual yield of 

 furs in Siberia is estimated at 100,000, but 

 this number is decreasing every year. 



North America possesses two species of 

 martens, the skins of which are reckoned as 

 of about equal value to those of the pine- 

 marten. One of these species, the American 

 Marten or Huron (Mustela amcricana), is, 

 perhaps, only a variety of our form; the 



other, the Pekan or Canadian Marten, attains 

 the size of a fox, which it also resembles very 

 closely in form. 



As already mentioned, the Polecats 

 (Putorius) are distinguished from the martens 

 by their reduced dentition, the whole number 

 of teeth in them being 34. The polecats 

 have, in fact, one premolar less in each jaw. 

 The sharper carnassials and the narrow upper 

 tubercled tooth indicate a still more blood- 

 thirsty character if possible than that of the 

 martens, from which the polecats are further 

 distinguished by their longer body, shorter 

 legs, and the tolerably large size of the anal 

 glands. The polecats, in fact, make use of 

 their stink- pouch as their last means of 

 defence. 



