TJie Home of the Wolveroie and Beaver. 1 5 1 



fur is the pine-marten {JMiistela Martes), which is 

 found in all the forests of North America, but, 

 unlike the fisher, it frequents the driest parts. In 

 form the marten resembles an English ferret. Its 

 fur is about an inch and a quarter long, of a pale, 

 dull, greyish-brown from the roots upwards, dull, 

 brownish-yellow near the summit, and tipped with 

 dark brown or black ; the lustre of the surface of 

 the fur is considerable, and it is often palmed off on 

 purchasers as a more costly kind, for which purpose 

 it is dyed any desired colour. The marten is from 

 eighteen to twenty-two inches in length, exclusive 

 of the tail, and its weight about six pounds. 



Audubon says, " Let us take a share of the 

 cunning and sneaking character of the fox, as much 

 of the wide-awake and cautious habits of the weasel, 

 a similar proportion of the voracity (and a little of 

 the fetid odour) of the mink, and add thereto some 

 of the climbing propensities of the racoon, and we 

 have a tolerable idea of the attributes of the pine- 

 marten." As may easily be imagined from the 

 above this little beast is shy, cruel, cunning and 

 active ; but differs from the animals to which it has 

 been likened in never approaching the residence of 

 man, but rather keeping to the dense forests, where 

 it can prey upon birds, their eggs and young, 

 squirrels, mice, shrews, wood-rats, &c., together with 



