254 Practical Game Preserving. 



game, it would, were it more numerous, work considerable 

 mischief. Its most important source of food seems to be 

 the smaller birds, preferably the eggs to the birds them- 

 selves. Of course, the nests of game birds are liable to be 

 despoiled, but they generally lie outside the haunts of this 

 marten and suffer but little. The nests of magpies, jays, 

 and wood pigeons are acceptable sources ; and mice of 

 all sorts, besides an occasional water rat, are food for the 

 pine marten. The latter animals are, however, rarely 

 systematically pursued with a view to capture, but are 

 caught only when the chance may occur. 



Contrary to the general nature of weasels, the pine 

 marten produces but one litter of young in the year, 

 about May or June, and drops but two or three young 

 ones. The nest is generally situated in some hollow 

 tree, and, a favourite selection, is the deserted nest of a 

 woodpecker or squirrel. In the first-named case the 

 female forms a bed of dry moss and leaves, of no very 

 regular description, but owing to the situation, quite 

 sufficient. When the woodpecker's excavation is adopted, 

 first a little soft moss, &c., is deposited at the bottom, 

 while the* squirrel's nest is already a home of considerable 

 comfort. The pine marten is in size a fairly large animal, 

 but rarely exceeds about twenty-five to thirty inches 

 from nose to tail ; indeed, they average under this length. 

 The colour is brown, very slightly tinged with the 

 colour of the fitch, but is rather variable, while the 

 throat, as before noted, is of a similar yellow-white to that 

 of the stoat. The white of the pine marten's throat is, 

 however, very irregular in outline, while that of the 



