50 THE MAMMALS, REPTILES, AND FISHES OF ESSEX. 



Mr. H. M. Wallis says (Zool., 1879, p. 264) : " In 1822, one 

 was killed in the Waltham Woods, near Chelmsford, by Mr. 

 Thomas Gopsill, of Broomfield." Mr. Harting, writing in 

 1880, says (Trans. Essex Field Club, vol. i., p. 95), the last 

 killed in Essex, so far as could then be ascertained, was 

 trapped in April, 1853, by Mr. Luffman, head keeper to Mr. 

 Maitland, in one of that gentleman's covers at Loughton. 

 This specimen was examined by Mr. English, who afterwards 

 recorded (Joum. of Proc. Essex Field Club, vol. iv., p. Ixiv) 

 having seen another in the forest near Ambresbury Banks, on 

 July 20, 1883. From all accounts, it would appear that the 

 Marten does still remain in the Forest, other evidence 

 corroborating the accounts of Mr. English. Mr. E. A. Fitch 

 records (Essex Nat., vol. iv., p. 153) the existence of undoubted 

 Martens in Hazeleigh Hall Wood, although he himself failed 

 to capture an individual. The same gentleman reports another 

 instance in Epping Forest, although about this last some 

 mystery appeared to hang (Essex Nat., vol. iv., p. 1 26). They 

 are not found in any great numbers. 



Daniel, in his Rural Sports (1812, vol. i., p. 608), says: 

 " When taken young, the Marten is easily tamed, and is 

 extremely playful and good-humoured. Its attachment, how- 

 ever, is not to be relied on if it gets loose, for it will imme- 

 diately take advantage of its liberty and retire to the woods, 

 its natural haunts. A farmer in the parish of Terling was 

 famous for taming this animal, and' had seldom less than two 

 in his keeping. Some years since [from 1801], one used to 

 run tame about the kitchen of the Bald-Faced Stag inn, in 

 Epping Forest. . . . The most ever met with by the com- 

 piler was in the large woods near Rayleigh." 



There were supposed, at one time, to be two species of 

 British Martens ; but Mr. Alston has since satisfactorily 

 proved (Zool. y 1879, p. 441) that we have in this kingdom a 



