MARTEN. 167 



" It is to be regretted," says Mr Bennet, in his 

 elaborate account of the Pine Marten, " that in 

 subdividing the Linnsean genus, M. Cuvier should 

 have given the name of Putorius to that section 

 which comprehends the Common Weasel, the true 

 Mustela of authors, transferring the latter title to 

 the present group, which might have been more 

 appropriately designated by the Latin name of 

 Martes." On this hint Mr Bell, in his History of 

 British Quadrupeds, restores the generic name of 

 Mustela to the group of Weasels ; but it will be 

 found that this arrangement had already been made 

 by Dr Fleming in his History of British Animals. 



The Marten generally distributed in Europe has 

 by many distinguished authors been considered as 

 eonstituting two distinct species, to which, however, 

 Aey have been unable to assign any more important 

 distinctive character than that derived from the 

 colour of the fore part of the neck, which, in what 

 is called the Pine Marten, is yellow, but in the 

 Common Marten, white. Linnaeus, in the last edi- 

 tion of his Systema Naturae, considers these white- 

 throated and yellow-throated individuals as belong- 

 ing to one and the same species, which he charac- 

 terizes as having the " toes free, the body blackish- 

 brown, the throat pale," and remarks, that " the 

 country people make two varieties of it : varietas 

 duplex rusticis Fagorum gutture albo ; Abietum 

 gutturejlavo? But almost every systematic writer 

 since his time has considered these alleged varieties 

 as species. It were of very little use to enter here 



