COMMON MARTEN. 213 



accustomed retired haunts, rarely, if ever, intruding into 

 the immediate purlieus of human habitations. 



The present species is also found to inhabit the 

 sides of mountains or rocks, from whence its names of 

 Stone Marten, Stein Harder, Maries Saxorum, where it 

 chooses its retreat in any commodious fissures or excava- 

 tions. It has now and then been known to take up its 

 abode in the neighbourhood of farms, and to commit con- 

 tinual depredations on the poultry-yard. It is difficult 

 to imagine upon what ground this animal could have 

 been considered as the Pine Marten in a domesticated 

 condition ; yet we find Buffon gravely proving the con- 

 trary by a comparison of the two with the wild and 

 domestic Cat. The present species is in truth as wild as 

 its congener; and in this respect differs from it only by 

 venturing, with somewhat greater boldness, to the neigh- 

 bourhood of the habitations of man. 



The female makes her nest generally in a hollow tree, 

 but not unfrequently in holes in rocks, sometimes in 

 ruined buildings, or even in granaries and barns : it is 

 formed of straw or grass. She has at least two litters in 

 a year ; some assert four : and the number of young 

 ones at each birth varies from two to seven ; the usual 

 number being four or five. 



The aspect and attitudes of the Marten are perhaps 

 more elegant than those of any other of our native 

 quadrupeds, unless we except the Otter in pursuit of its 

 prey in the water. Endowed with great liveliness and 

 activity, its movements are at once rapid and gracile. 

 Its limbs are elastic, its body lithe and flexible, and it 

 bounds and springs over the ground with equal speed 

 and grace. It is, however, wild and untameable to a 

 great degree, if captured when full-grown, or after a 

 very early age. A specimen formerly in the Zoological 



