88 MAMMALIA. 



on their inferior carnivorous tooth, two characters which somewhat diminish 

 the cruelty of their nature. 



There are two species in Europe closely allied to each other, the 



M. martes, L. ; Buff. VII. xviii. (The Pine Marten). Brown ; 

 a yellow spot under the throat. Inhabits the woods. 



M. foina, L. ; BuiF. VII. xviii. (The Common Marten). Brown; 

 the whole under part of the throat and neck white. Inhabits houses. 

 Both species are very destructive. Siberia produces the 



M. zibellina, Pall. Spic. Zool. XIV. iii. 2; Schreb. CXXXVI. 

 (The Sable). So celebrated for its rich fur; brown, spotted with 

 grey about the head, and distinguished from the preceding ones by 

 the extension of the hair to the under surface of the toes. It inha- 

 bits the coldest mountains, and the hunting to obtain it, in the midst 

 of winter and tremendous snows, is the most painful with which we 

 are acquainted. It is to the pursuit of this animal that we owe the 

 discovery of the eastern countries of Siberia(a). 



North America also possesses several Martens indicated by na- 

 turalists and travellers, under the indefinite names of Pekan, Vison, 

 Mink, &c. 



One of them, the White Vison of the furriers, Mus. leutreoce- 

 phala, Harl., has as hairy feet and almost as soft a fur as the Sable, 

 but is of a light fawn colour, and almost white about the head. 



That which we call the Pekan; Must, canadensis, Gm., and which 

 comes from Canada and the United States, is of a brownish colour, 

 mixed with white on the head, neck, shoulders and top of the back; 

 nose, crupper, tail and limbs blackish*. 



Mephitis, Cuv. 



The Skunk, like the Polecat, has two false molars above and three be- 

 low, but the superior tuberculous one is very large, and as long as it is 

 broad, and the inferior carnivorous has two tubercles on its internal side ; 

 circumstances which ally it to the Badger just as the Polecat appioximates 

 to the Grison and Glutton. Independently of this, the anterior nails of 

 the Skunk, like those of the Badger, are long and fitted for digging; 

 they are moreover semi-plantigrade, and the resemblance extends even to 

 the distribution of their colours. Amongst this family so remarkable for 

 its stench, the Skunks are distinguished by a sort of stench far exceeding 

 that of the remaining species. 



* It is the Pekan of Daubenton, but it has not always the white under the throat. 

 There are several other species of Polecats or of Martens indicated by MM. Molina, 

 Humboldt, and Harlan; but they require re-examination (6). 



^" (a) The "painful" task here alluded to was imposed exclusively, during the 

 more barbarous periods of Russian tyranny, on the unhappy exiles who were trans- 

 ported on the most unjust pretences to the wilds of Siberia. These persons were 

 under an obligation to furnish, within a given time, a defined number of sable furs. 

 — Eng. Ed. 



^' (b) A specimen of the Pekan or Fisher Marten may be seen in the Zoological 

 Gardens, Regent's Park. Its name of Fisher is not appropriate, as it does not cat 

 fish, but pursues the same prey as the Pine Marten. — Eng. Ed. 



