MARTS AND MART HUNTING 



squirrel in the timber. Where it inhabits wood- 

 lands it is the squirrel's deadliest foe, and thus 

 does good in keeping down those animals which 

 are so destructive in young plantations. 



The marten is of course a flesh eater, but it 

 also has a fondness for fruit of various kinds, as 

 well as eggs. It disposes of an egg by neatly 

 biting the end off and then lapping up the con- 

 tents with its tongue, holding the egg meanwhile 

 in its paws. The marten captured in the Lakes 

 in 1 915 greedily ate small trout which were 

 offered to it. No doubt when the hill streams 

 are dead low at mid-summer, it succeeds in 

 catching trout in the rockbound pools. 



We have seen it stated that the marten's 

 greatest enemy is man with his guns and traps, 

 but of this we are doubtful. Years ago martens 

 were extremely plentiful, while foxes — ^the real, 

 old-fashioned hill sort — were comparatively scarce. 

 As the foxes increased, the martens grew less ; 

 and many of the old-time dalesmen have expressed 

 the opinion that the foxes were responsible for 

 their disappearance. The late Tommy Dobson, 

 the famous Master of the Eskdale and Ennerdale 

 Fox-hounds, always said that the foxes killed 

 the m art ens ; and he had a long an wide experience 

 of both animals. 



Only the other day we were discussing the same 

 subject with Anthony Chapman, ex-huntsman of 

 the Windermere Harriers, who, in his earlier 

 years hunted a pack of mart hounds owned by 

 the late Mr. John Fleming Green of Grasmere. 

 He quoted an instance which came to his know- 

 ledge which rather points to the truth of the 

 statement. On one occasion he hunted a mart 

 which eventually beat hounds and had to be left 

 in an impregnable position. A day or two after, 



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