172 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



trict. Cary was informed that 30 years before (about 1875) 

 a trapper had taken a great many martens in the mountains of 

 Gunnison County, central Colorado. Farther south the marten 

 is much less common and reaches the southern limits of its 

 range in northern New Mexico. Bailey (1931) adduces a few 

 older records for this region and concludes that "the animals 

 occur, but are by no means common in the Canadian Zone 

 forests of the Sangre de Cristo and San Juan Mountains. It is 

 very doubtful if they occur in any of the ranges farther south." 

 According to this author (Bailey, 1936, p. 296) it is this race 

 of the marten that extends into the extreme northeastern part 

 of Oregon in the Blue Mountains, where, however, they seem 

 to be uncommon and decreasing in numbers. In the Wallowa 

 Mountains a few are still taken, but recent reports indicate 

 that the numbers are small. \ 



In the Coast Ranges of OregoA the resident animal is re- 

 garded as typical M . caurina, grading in the southern districts 

 into the race sierrae of California^/ Bailey (1936) quotes re- 

 turns for the season November 1, 1913, to February 28, 1914, 

 of 518 martens taken in that State by registered trappers, 

 indicating that the species Js still well represented there. 

 These at prices then current were worth in the neighborhood 

 of $13,000. In California two races occur, sierrae of the Sierra 

 Nevada, and humboldtensis of the northern Coast Range. 

 They are confined to the Boreal Zone and are regularly trapped, 

 especially in the northern parts of the State. Grinnell, Dixon, 

 and Linsdale (1937) have published an extended account of the 

 species in California and show that particularly in summer it 

 haunts slide-rock areas among the crannies of which it pursues 

 small rodents, especially mouse-hares and white-footed mice. 

 The southern limit of range seems to be Tulare County, in the 

 southern Sierra Nevada; on the coast, however, the marten 

 extends only to the northwestern part of the State in the higher 

 mountains. The authors quoted say that "at least three- 

 fourths of the martens trapped in California are taken by a few 

 professional trappers who specialize in this animal." One of 

 these men took as many as 96 in a single season. However, 

 reports from the trappers show "a marked decline, amounting 

 to fully 75 per cent, in the number of martens trapped in a 4- 

 year period," from 452 in 1920 to 121 in 1924, a decrease be- 

 lieved to be independent of any cyclic decline. The authors 



