MARTEN. 



that of the marten tribe to the extreme north of the 

 continents. Owing to geographical causes which it 

 would be foreign to our purpose to explain, the sum- 

 mer there is, taking the whole twenty-four hours, and 

 referring to places where it rains but seldom at that 

 season, warmer than any spot under the equator ; 

 while in the winter the cold is so intense that mercury 

 remains solid for weeks or even for months. 



The high average temperature of the summer in 

 those polar latitudes arises from the perpetual pre- 

 sence of the sun, which, after a time, brings the dry 

 surface of the earth to a degree of heat unknown in 

 the temperate or even in the tropical latitudes. In 

 the latter, the direct action of the sun is no doubt 

 greater, but it lasts on the average only twelve hours 

 out of the twenty-four ; and during the remaining 

 twelve, the earth is greatly cooled by the radiation of 

 heat from it through a cloudless sky, and the evapo- 

 ration of the heavy dew which is constantly forming 

 on the surface, and as constantly dissolving or eva- 

 porating by the heat which radiates from beneath. 

 The tropical animal has therefore a refreshing pause 

 of nearly half the four-and-twenty hours from the 

 ardour of the climate ; and beasts of prey, which are 

 from the nature of their food the most laborious of all 

 animals in a state of nature, are adapted to this state 

 of things. They retire to their dens before the heat 

 of the day comes on, remain there till the evening, 

 and begin to stir themselves only after the shades of 

 night have gathered around. They are, almost with- 

 out exception, very noisy animals, and nature has so 

 adapted them and their prey to each other that their 

 voices strike terror, and cause the prey to discover 

 itself by its efforts to escape. The martens and other 

 predatory animals of the cold countries need no such 

 repose, and require no such noise. They beat about ; 

 and though they too, in seasons when there is night, 

 prey more by night than by day, yet they do not 

 loiter a part of their time like the others, but are 

 always on the alert, and always ready for action ; and 

 one knows not which most to admire, the excellence 

 of their defence against the great variations of sea- 

 son to which they are exposed, or the economy of 

 animal action which is produced by this species of 

 defence. 



But though these animals, fitted for making their 

 way through very small openings, and treading very 

 softly from the lightness of their bodies and the pecu- 

 liarities of their motions, can come upon their prey 

 silently and without the sound and fury which accom- 

 pany the spring of a lion or a tiger, are yet furnished 

 with means by which their coming is known ; and 

 thus where the animals on which they prey have free 

 scope for making their escape, the number which 

 they can capture at a time is limited to one. When 

 a polecat for instance invades the farm-yard or the 

 hen-roost, where the birds are confined, it kills one 

 after another ; but in free nature, if it succeeds in 

 seizing one, all the rest are gone, the offensive odour 

 of the animal giving them sufficient intimation of its 

 presence. All the rest have not the same offensive 

 smell ; but few of them have an agreeable one ; and 

 in some it is so superlatively disgusting that no living 

 creature can remain and breathe within a consider- 

 able distance of them. This odour is secreted by 

 small glands on the posterior part of the body ; and 

 there is no doubt that it serves the double purpose of 

 protecting from them the animals on which they prey, 

 and protecting them from more powerful animals. 



The odour of our common polecat is offensive enough, 

 but it is nothing to that of the South American ani- 

 mals of the family, which smell so intolerably that 

 one dares not approach them. It cannot be supposed 

 that this, which, though it wounds not, may truly be 

 called an "offensive" weapon, has been given to 

 these animals for the mere purpose of warning of 

 their danger the weaker ones upon which they feed. 

 In South America, when the chinche is in quest of 

 its prey, the jaguar and the puma are also prowling 

 about, and if it smelled even tolerably they would 

 have no objection to make a meal of it. The odour 

 which it gives out is, however, a sufficient defence 

 against any animal whatever ; and thus it is left to 

 pursue its own prey undisturbed by its more powerful 

 neighbours. It is evident indeed that the chief use 

 of the offensive odour of these animals, in their eco- 

 nomy, is protection against those carnivora which 

 are more powerful than themselves ; and in propor- 

 tion as their habits lead them to come more in con- 

 tact with these, we always find them the more abun- 

 dantly furnished with this means of repelling. The 

 polecat, for instance, which comes on the cultivated 

 grounds, and is exposed to danger from domestic 

 dogs, is far more offensive in its odour than the mar- 

 ten which keeps in the loneliness of the forest, where 

 there are few mammalia more powerful than itself. 



It is upon the rodentia chiefly, and upon birds, 

 that the animals of this group levy their contributions ; 

 and accordingly we find that where the one are found 

 in greatest numbers the others are found in greatest 

 numbers also. In such a country as Britain, where 

 squirrels and other rodentia inhabiting trees are rare, 

 and not natives, but are introduced animals in the few 

 places where they do occur, the staple food of the 

 marten tribe consists of those members of the rat 

 family which abound in the woods, though to these 

 they often add birds. The polecats and weasels, 

 which frequent the champaign countries rather than 

 the forests, do occasionally capture a hare, and still 

 more frequently a rabbit ; but still the smaller rodentia 

 are their principal food, and we have evidence of this 

 in one weasel being more serviceable in a farmyard 

 for mousing than half a dozen cats. But though 

 the members of the family or section which are found 

 native in such countries as Britain are very interest- 

 ing animals, and in their way highly useful to man, 

 they form but a slight feature in the natural history 

 of the country. It seems almost a contradiction, and 

 even an absurdity in language, but notwithstanding 

 it is true, that the natural history of Britain, or of any 

 country so much cultivated as Britain, can hardly be 

 called a natural history. It is an artificial history, 

 although the subjects of it may be growth and life ; 

 and man, by extending his dominion completely over 

 the greater part of the surface, has come instead of 

 those predatory mammalia, and predatory animals of 

 other classes, which but for man would have been 

 the regulators of life. The bones of the hyaena are 

 buried deep in the soil ; the wolf has been extinct 

 even in the wildest parts of the country for nearly a 

 century and a half; the wild cat is confined within 

 far narrower limits than it once occupied ; sportsmen 

 are in many parts of the country obliged to preserve 

 foxes in order that they may hunt them ; and martens 

 are rare, and confined to very peculiar localities. 



We can therefore draw no inference as to the state 

 of wild nature, or the use of any kind of animal, 

 from what we see around us at home ; further than 



