584 CARNIVORA 



common in most parts of Great Britain and Ireland. Though 

 commonly called " Pine Marten," it does not appear to have any 

 special preference for coniferous trees, except that, inasmuch as 

 they constitute the greater proportion of the forests of the countries 

 which it inhabits, it is more often met with in them than in any 

 other. With regard to its recent occurrence in the British Isles, 

 Mr. Alston writes in the Proc. Zool. Soc. 1879 : 



"Although greatly reduced in numbers by persecution, it still 

 maintains its ground in the wilder districts of Scotland, the north 

 of England, Wales, and Ireland; and occasionally specimens are 

 killed in counties where the species was thought to have been long 

 extinct. In Scotland it is still found, though comparatively rarely, 

 in the Lews and in most of the Highland mainland counties, being 

 perhaps most abundant in Sutherland and Ross-shire, especially in 

 the deer forests. In the Lowlands a Marten is now a very great 

 rarity ; but a fine example was killed in Ayrshire in the winter of 

 1875-76. In the north of England Mr. W. A. Durnford says the 

 species is still plentiful in the wilder parts of Cumberland, West- 

 moreland, and Lancashire, and in Lincolnshire several have been 

 recorded, the latest killed in 1865, by Mr. Cordeaux. In Norfolk 

 one was shot last year; and I have myself examined a fine 

 example which was shot in Hertfordshire, within 20 miles of 

 London, in December 1872. In Dorsetshire the last is said to 

 have been killed in 1804; but a specimen occurred in Hampshire 

 about forty years ago, and another in Surrey in 1847. In Ireland 

 the following counties were enumerated by Thompson as habitats 

 of this species : Donegal, Londonderry, Antrim, Down, Armagh, 

 Fermanagh, Longford, Galway, Tipperary, Cork, and Kerry. The 

 Cat-crann is probably now a rarer animal in Ireland than it was 

 when Thompson wrote ; but it still exists in various districts, 

 especially in County Kerry, whence the society has received several 

 living examples ; and Professor A. Leith Adams states that it has 

 been seen of late years even in county Dublin." 

 &> M. zibellina, the Sable (German, Zobel and Zebel ; Swedish, 

 sabel ; Russian, sobel, a word probably of Turanian origin). Closely 

 resembling the last, if indeed differing from it except in the quality 

 of the fur, which is the most highly valued of that of all the group. 

 Found chiefly in Eastern Siberia. 



M. flamgula, the Indian Marten. Inhabits the southern slopes 

 of the Himalaya, the Nilgiri Hills, the interior of Ceylon, the 

 Malay Peninsula, and Java. The coloration of this species is very 

 striking, the upper parts being blackish -brown, and the throat 

 and breast yellow or orange, in the bright coloured variety. It 

 differs from the other species in having the soles of the feet more 

 or less naked. 



M. mdampus. Japan. 



