MUSTELA. 161 



very soft white or pale ashy imderfur. This is the variety for 

 which I proposed the name leucolachncea. 



Dimensions. Head and body 18 inches, tail without hair 10, with 

 hair 13. Basal length of skull 2-85, zygomatic breadth 1-8. 



Distribution. Throughout the greater part of Europe, but not in 

 the extreme north, and in Western Asia. This marten occurs in 

 Afghanistan and probably throughout the greater part, of the Hima- 

 laya at considerable elevations ; specimens have been recorded from 

 Gilgit, Ladak, and Kumaon, and I possess one procured by the late 

 Mr. Mandelli from Upper Sikhim or the neighbouring portion of 

 Tibet. The species has not been found further east. 



Habits. Nothing has been recorded of the habits of M. foina in 

 the Himalayas, except that Scully states, in Gilgit, that it keeps to 

 considerable elevations and is but rarely found in the vicinity of 

 villages as low as 5000 feet. In Europe it is more common than 

 the pine-marten, though the latter, as Alston has shown, is the 

 only form occurring in Britain. The beech-marten is bolder than 

 the pine-marten and more often found about human habitations ; it 

 lives in trees or amongst rocks, and feeds chiefly upon birds or 

 small mammals, frequently destroying poultry. It is very blood- 

 thirsty, killing more than it requires for food. When pressed by 

 hunger it will eat lizards, snakes, frogs, or fruit, and is said to be 

 very fond of cherries. The pairing-time is about February, the 

 period of gestation 9 weeks, the number of young usually 4 or 5, 

 and they remain blind for 14 days from their birth. Young indi- 

 viduals are easily tamed, and indeed there is good reason for 

 believing that the animal was domesticated by the Greeks and 

 Eomans and kept for the same uses as cats are now (see Bolleston, 

 Journ. Anat. Phys. 1868, ii, p. 47). 



Maries ? toufoeus of Hodgson (J. A. S. B. xi, p. 281) was founded 

 upon three furrier's skins that had been brought from Tibet, 

 without skull, tail, or feet. These skins are now in the British 

 Museum and have been labelled M. zibellina, the sable, to which 

 they may perhaps belong. The fur is very soft, the underfur 

 brownish, not at all like that of M. foina. They are very different 

 from the specimens identified with M. toufceus by Blyth. 



Mustela martes (Maries abietum of many English writers), the 

 pine-marten, is easily distinguished from M. foina by its narrower 

 skull and differently shaped upper sectorial and true molar (see 

 Alston, P. Z. S. 1879, p. 469). The sable appears to represent 

 the pine -marten in Eastern Asia, and is by some considered only a 

 variety of the latter. 



