224 



MARTEN. 



We need hardly mention that the far of the sable is 

 a rich brown, marked with some white spots on the 

 chin and sides of the head. The part where these 

 spots are is not as much valued as the rest ; and 

 the furriers work it up separately, and give it the 

 name of " sable gill." 



Like the ermine among the polecats, which is 

 the most immediate associate in locality with the 

 sable, among that genus of the tribe, the sable is sub- 

 ject to an annual change of colour. In summer it is 

 black, and the change that it undergoes, naturally 

 follows the general law of being more perfect in pro- 

 portion as the cold is more severe. The cold of the 

 sable's country, however, is sufficient every winter 

 for accomplishing anything that cold can accom- 

 plish, whether it reside in the places which we have 

 mentioned close by the polar sea, or on the cold 

 heights of the mountains further south ; and therefore 

 the sable skins obtained during the winter are more 

 uniform in colour than those of animals which inhabit 

 less rigorous places. 



In many places of Siberia the hunting of the sable 

 ie a duty imposed by the Russian government upon 

 the exiles from that country ; and to them, when 

 they first enter upon it, it is the most dreadful to 

 which human beings can be subjected. They are 

 unacquainted with the country ; and instead of know- 

 ing where to discover and how to procure the animals, 

 of which they are compelled to find a specified num- 

 ber, they can hardly make their own way across 

 rocks and chasms, fallen trees, and countless other 

 irregularities, all hidden under the snow ; and thus 

 many of them perish in that dreadful wilderness. 



The sable, as we might expect, partakes of the 

 characters of a tree animal and a ground animal 

 jointly. It can climb ; and it is understood to climb 

 for those wild berries which remain upon the branches 

 in winter, as well as for birds and their eggs and 

 young during the summer. It also hunts prey upon 

 the ground ; and though it is of course not capable 

 of running down a hare in fair chase, it is very capa- 

 ble of despatching one if it come upon it by surprise. 

 It is also sure to follow the more powerful predatory 

 animals, the polar bear, the wolf, and the glutton, in 

 order to obtain a share of their prey. In its disposi- 

 tion it is not a ferocious animal, but can be tamed, 

 and will show some affection in a domestic state. In 

 this state it subsists indiscriminately upon animal and 

 vegetable matter, and is said not to be so prone to 

 make its escape to the wilds as the marten. 



We have now enumerated the principal species 

 and the leading varieties of the polecats and the true 

 martens, as they are found in the eastern continent 

 and in North America. Had we attended to the 

 differences of colour as they are noticed in museum 

 specimens, which are often selected for their curiosity 

 and not for their correctness, we should have had a 

 much larger list ; and there are some small weasel- 

 looking animals of South America which have not 

 been very accurately described, that appear to belong 

 to a different family, though they have sometimes 

 been included in this one. These, according to the 

 best accounts, are plantigrade animals, and therefore 

 they have neither the swift motions nor the energy 

 of the present family. We have already assigned 

 some reasons why the true polecats and martens 

 should be in a great measure confined to the cold and 

 temperate regions of the world, and that, in such a 

 country as South America especially, the smaller pre- 



datory mammalia should be chiefly of an insectivorous 

 disposition ; and this last appears to be the pre- 

 dominating character of those South American aui- 

 mals to which we have alluded as being sometimes 

 included in the present genus. 



MEPHITIS. The mephitic animals, at least those 

 of South America, which are the best known, form a 

 single genus, not very numerous in species, nor 

 greatly so in individuals. The name by which they 

 are known is highly correct and descriptive ; for it is 

 impossible to imagine anything more offensive thau 

 the odour which these animals give out when they 

 are alarmed or irritated. They differ more from the 

 polecats and the martens in the general appearance 

 of their bodies than these animals do from each other. 

 In number their teeth are the same as those of the 

 polecats ; but they have the tuberculous tooth in the 

 upper jaw large, and two tubercles on the inside of 

 the carnivorous tooth in the lower jaw, which re- 

 duce its sanguinary character below even that of the 

 martens, which have less bloodthirsty habits than 

 the polecats. In their forms these mephitic animals 

 bear some resemblance to the badgers, sufficient to 

 lead us to conclude that there would be some similarity 

 in their habits and also in their food. 



The general characters of these animals, besides 

 that of the teeth as given above, are, the body very low, 

 the head long and pointed, the ears small, the legs 

 short, the claws on the fore feet large and strong, 

 and well adapted for burrowing in the ground. They 

 have not that arching and flexibility of the spine 

 which characterises the two genera of which we have 

 spoken ; and their bodies are not adapted for making 

 way through such small apertures in proportion to 

 the relative sizes of the animals. They accordingly 

 inhabit the ground, live in burrows, and when undis 

 turbed, they are, like the badgers, very peaceful ani- 

 mals in their habits. Their markings also bear some 

 resemblance to those of the badgers, consisting chiefly 

 of longitudinal lines of white upon a dark ground. 

 One, at least, is met with in the southern parts of the 

 United States, and described by Catesby in his His- 

 tory of Carolina. It does not appear that this one is 

 at all different from the one which occurs in South 

 America to the eastward of the Andes, further thau 

 having the white lines more produced in some speci- 

 mens than in others. This species is 



The Chinche of Buffbn and other authors ; but it 

 has also other names, and indeed there has been 

 some confusion among all the rank-smelling animals 

 of South America, from the fact of the Spanish indis- 

 criminately giving them the name of zorilla, or little 

 fox. The length of this species is about a foot and it 

 half, exclusive of the tail, which is about half as much 

 more, and very thickly covered with hair. The 

 muzzle is very pointed, the eyes, like those of all 

 digging animals, small, the fore part of the body alto- 

 gether small, and the air of the animal dull and stupid. 

 The colours are generally black and white ; but their 

 distribution and proportion to each other upon the 

 body vary so much that they cannot be depended 

 upon as portions of the descriptive character. It 

 should seem also that these differences of colour are 

 attended with difference of size ; but what the par- 

 ticular circumstances of climate are have not beeo 

 made out. They are, however, the reverse of the 

 martens in their geographical distribution, and there- 

 fore we may conclude that climate has the very op- 

 posite effect upon them, and that in a place where 



