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MUSTELID^E. 



MUSTELID.E. 



1010 



even geese or turkeys safe. We remember an instance of a hen and 

 a whole brood of chickens being killed by one of these destroyers in a 

 single night ; and upon another occasion, seven or eight nearly full- 

 grown turkeys. The brain and the blood seem to be the choicest 

 portions. The bodies of the dead are carried off to its haunts, which 

 are generally in some copse or wood near a farm or in the heart of a 

 preserve, whence it issues on its deadly errand in the evening, generally 

 soon after sunset, or when it grows dusk. 



No ' vermin ' is placed with more satisfaction upon ' the Keeper's 

 Tree,' for none commits more havoc, if so much, among the game. 

 Beginning with the egg, it persecutes all the game-birds through every 

 period of life, and is a far more determined enemy than the Stoat 

 itself to the hare and rabbit-warren. The fox, as is well known, will 

 do much to keep down the pheasants, and especially the rabbits and 

 hares ; but even this wily and powerful invader is not so mischievous as 

 the species of which we are treating. Where a fox will kill one, a pole- 

 cat will immolate ten, to say nothing of eggs ; no vertebrated animal 

 seems to come amiss to its murderous nature. Bewick relates that 

 during a severe storm a Foumart was traced in the snow from the side 

 of a rivulet to its hole at some distance from it. As it was observed 

 to have made frequent trips, and as other marks were to be seen in 

 the snow which could not easily be accounted for, it was thought a 

 matter worthy of great attention. Its hole was accordingly examined, 

 and five fine eels were discovered to be the fruit of its nocturnal 

 excursions. The marks in the snow were made by the motion of the 

 eels in tb quadruped's mouth. In London's 'Magazine' (vol. vi.) ia 

 an account of a female polecat that was hunted to her nest, which 

 held five young ones in a comfortable bed of withered grass. From a 

 side hole the narrator picked out forty large frogs and two toads alive, 

 but capable of sprawling only, for the old polecat had stricken them 

 all with palsy by a bite through the brain of each. 



The nest of this species is generally made in some rabbit-burrow, in 

 the crevice of a rock, or where the tangled herbage and brushwood 

 overgrow loose heaps of stones, and there the female drops from four 

 to six young in May or early in June. 



The courage of the Polecat is great, and none of the tribe denomi- 

 nated by gamekeepers 'vermin' so severely tries the 'pluck' of a 

 terrier ; for its flexibility, unless seized in the right place and shaken 

 to death at once, enables it to turn and fasten upon the nose of the 

 dog, so as to make the latter not unfrequently desist from the attack. 



There is good evidence that the Fitchet or Polecat will breed with 

 the Ferret. 



Inferior to the fur of the Sable or Marten, that of the Polecat is 

 nevertheless esteemed, and a considerable importation of the skins 

 annually comes to this country from the north of Europe, under the 

 name of Fitch. 



Jfarta (Ray). Grinding teeth, -Z_; body much elongated; feet 



6 tf 



short, with separate toes ; tongue smooth. 



Before we enter upon the European species of Martins, or Martens, 

 as they are perhaps more properly termed, it will be necessary to 

 consider the difference of opinion among zoologists, as to the point 

 whether the Common or Beech Marten, the Pine Marten, and the 

 Sable are three different species, or merely varieties of one. 



The Ma/rtes seems to have been known to the ancients, though it 

 does not appear which of the Martens was thus designated ; indeed 

 it may have been a common name for them all. Martial writes 

 ('Ep.'x.37): 



" Venator capta marte superbus adest." 



Some indeed read 'mele' for 'marte,' and so make a badger of the 

 capture. The annotator in the Delphin edition has crowded as much 

 confusion as he could in his illustration of that reading, for he writes, 

 "Legunt alii capta mele, Gallice blaireau, chat sauvage, fouine," 

 badger, wild cat, marten, for which last 'fouine' is the French term. 



George Bauer, who wrote under the name of Agricola, in his book 

 'De Animantibus Subterraneis,' notices the three kinds of Marten 

 first above alluded to. After writing a clear account of the Polecat, 

 he says : " A third kind of sylvan weasel lies in the crevices of stones 

 and caverns, which is called Maries by Martial and Marturus by the 

 Germans." He then gives Martial's line above quoted, and proceeds to 

 describe the animal and its habits with much accuracy. This is the 

 Common or Stone Marten. He then describes a fourth, the Pine 

 Marten ; and afterwards a fifth, " called by the Germans Zobel," the 

 Sable. The skins of the last are, he remarks, more precious than 

 cloth of gold, and he adds that forty of the best, the usual number in 

 one bundle, have been sold for more than a thousand pieces of gold. 

 (' De Anim. Subt.,' folio, Basil, 1561.) 



Gesner, Aldrovandus, and Jonston, did little more than copy Agricola. 

 " They seem however," says Mr. Bennett, who has well traced up the 

 opinions of authors upon this subject, "to have abandoned Agricola's 

 subdivision of the second species, and to have described his first, the 

 Stone Marten, aa it was emphatically denominated by the Germans, 

 an the Beech Marten, imputing to it a more familiar and sociable 

 disposition, and a fondness for the neighbourhood of inhabited places." 

 The same distinctions are adopted by Ray in his ' Synopsis Quadru- 

 pedum,' 1693 ; but to his description of the Sable he adds that " Dr. 

 Tancred Robinson had seen the animal itself in the possession of 



JtAT. HIST. I)IV. VOL. III. 



Dr. Charlton. Its size was that of a Cat of Cyprus, its colour a dark 

 tawny ; the fore part of its head and its ears of a whitish ash-colour ; 

 and the bristles on its eyebrows, nose, and face, very long." 



Mr. Bennett remarks in continuation that so slightly did Linnaeus 

 estimate the value of the distinctions indicated between the Pine and 

 Beech Martens, that he uniformly treats of them as one and the same 

 animal in all his zoological writings, from the first edition of his 

 'Fauna Suecica' to the twelfth of his 'Systema Naturae." It is only, 

 he observes, in the last, that Linnaeus for the first time intimates the 

 existence of any difference between them. There he speaks of two 

 varieties as known to the rustics the Beech Marten with a white 

 throat, and the Pine Marten with a yellow throat. The Linmeau 

 character of the Sable is principally, Mr. Bennett adds, founded on 

 that of Ray, and is accompanied by the sign used by Liimieus to denote 

 that he had not seen the animal to which it is appended. 



M. Lesson enumerates all three as species, under the names of 

 1, Marte Commun, Mustela Maries, Linn. ; La Marte, Buff. 2, Marte 

 Fouine, Mustela foina, Linn. (Gmel. ?), La Fouine, Buff. 3, Marte 

 Zibeline, Mustela Zibellina, Linn. ; the Sobol of the Poles and Russians ; 

 the Sabbel of the Swedes. 



Mr. Bennett states that since the time of Pallas the three species 

 have been almost universally enumerated by authors, each copying his 

 predecessors with more or less correctness. Desmarest, he remarks, 

 has omitted the most important characters given by Pallas for the 

 Sable, and has, on his own authority, furnished it with a tail of two- 

 thirds the length of its body, while that of the Pine and Beech Martens 

 is stated to measure but little more than the half; and he says that he 

 knows of but one instance, since Linnaeus, in which the two latter 

 animals have been even apparently conjoined. This occurs in Dr. 

 Walker's ' Essay on the Scottish Mammalia.' 



Mr. Bennett, in the ' Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological 

 Society,' gives an account of the specimens of Martens in the collection 

 of the Zoological Society. " Such," he says, " are the specimens of 

 Martens contained in the Society's Museum. Other individuals, exhibit- 

 ing similar variations in their colouring and markings, have been 

 observed by us in various collections ; but it would be useless to 

 multiply descriptions leading to no conclusive result. If the Beech 

 and Pine Martens of our own country be distinct, it is probable that 

 the last-described animal may also belong to a different species from 

 either. We do not however hesitate to declare our opinion that the 

 true Sable of Pallas is still a stranger to our collections ; and we have 

 good reason, in the silence of authors respecting it, for believing that 

 it is equally unknown to the zoologists of the continent. It is cer- 

 tainly not a little singular that an animal so highly valued and so 

 anxiously sought after should still be a desideratum to the scientific 

 world ; but it is perhaps no less so that the opinion which has been 

 so lightly adopted with such well-known animals as the indigenous 

 martens, should never yet have been put to the test of direct 

 experiment." 



Mr. Bell, after speaking in terms of deserved praise of Mr. Bennett's 

 statement, say that a deliberate consideration of these and other 

 authorities, and a comparison of many specimens of both kinds, had 

 hitherto failed to lead him to a conclusion at all satisfactory to his 

 own mind ; and it is only with a protest against being considered as 

 decidedly supporting the opinion that they are essentially different, 

 that he ventures to give them a distinctive character in his ' British 

 Quadrupeds.' " I am not," says Mr. Bell, "the more disposed towardf 

 this opinion by the observation of two living specimens in the Surrey 

 Zoological Gardens, in which the throat, though decidedly yellow, is 

 less bright and deep in its hue than in some other specimens, and of 

 a single one in the menagerie of the Zoological Society, also living, 

 the throat of which, though it would be termed whitish, yet has a 

 slight yellow tinge. The dark colour of the former and the lighter 

 and grayer hue of the latter, with the different colour of the throat, 

 joined to a slight difference in the form of the head, the former being 

 proportionally a little longer, would certainly lead us to consider the 

 former as the Yellow-Throated or Pine Marten, and the latter as the 

 White-Throated or Beech Marten, supposing them to be distinct; 

 but the differences are scarcely decisive, and the yellowish tinge on 

 the throat of the latter specimen shows an approach to the Pine 

 Marten even in this supposed distinguishing character, which is far 

 from offering any help towards a satisfactory solution of the difficulty." 



Mr. Macgillivray notices these observations of Mr. Bell in the 

 'Naturalist's Library' (British Quadrupeds); and then states that 

 the examination of individuals in different stages, and obtained in 

 various parts of Scotland, had disclosed to him a gradation of colour- 

 ing combined with a sameness of form that had satisfied him as to the 

 indivisibility of the species. " In fact," says Mr. Macgillivray, " the 

 Beech Marten and the Pine Marten differ less from each other as to 

 size than individuals of the polecat, ermine, or weasel, and the differ- 

 ences of colour observed are not greater than in the common fox." 



M. Maries, var. with the White Throat (Linn.), the Beech Marten ; 

 M. foina, Gmel.; Maries Fagornm, Ray; M. Saxornm, Klein. Mr. 

 Bell describes the head of this marten as somewhat triangular ; the 

 muzzle pointed ; the nose extending a little beyond the lips ; the eyes 

 large, prominent, and remarkably lively ; the ears large, open, and 

 rounded ; the body much elongated and very flexible ; the tail long, 

 thick, and somewhat bushy ; the feet rather short ; the toes generally 



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