96 THE MARTEN. 



it is supplied apparently with a sense of smelling ad 

 perfect as its other faculties. Its feet are well adapted 

 to its habits, not treading upright on the balls alone, 

 but with the joint bending, the fleshy parts being em- 

 bedded in a very soft and delicate hair, so that the tread 

 of the animal, even upon decayed leaves, is scarcely 

 audible ; by which means it can steal upon its prey 

 without any noise betraying its approach. The fur is 

 fine, and the skin so thin and flexible, as to impede 

 none of its agile movements. Thus every thing com- 

 bines to render the marten a very destructive creature. 

 It seems to have a great dislike to cold, residing in winter 

 in the hollow of some tree, deeply embedded in dry 

 foliage, and when in confinement, covering and hiding 

 itself with all the warm materials it can find. In genial 

 seasons it will sleep by day in the abandoned nest of 

 the crow or buzzard, and its dormitory is often discov- 

 ered by the chattering and mobbing of different birds 

 on the tree. It is certainly not numerous in England, 

 our woods being too small, and too easily penetrated, to 

 afford it adequate quiet and shelter. Its skin is still in 

 some little request, being worth about two shillings and 

 sixpence in the market; but it is used only for inferior 

 purposes, as the furs of colder regions than ours are 

 better, and more easily obtained. 



Notwithstanding all the persecutions from prejudice 

 and wantonness to which the hedgehog* (erinaceus euro- 

 paeus) is exposed, it is yet common with us ; sleeping 

 by day in a bed of leaves and moss, under the cover of 

 a very thick bramble or furze-bush, and at times in some 

 hollow stump of a tree. It creeps out in the summer 

 evenings ; and, running about with more agility than its 

 dull appearance promises, feeds on dew-worms and 

 beetles, which it finds among the herbage, but retires 

 with trepidation at the approach of man. In the au- 

 tumn, crabs, haws, and the common fruits of the hedge, 

 constitute its diet. In the winter, covering itself deeply 

 in moss aYid leaves, it sleeps during the severe weather; 

 and, when drawn out from its bed, scarcely any thing 

 of the creature is to be observed, it exhibiting only a 

 ball of leaves, which it seems to attach to its spines by 



* See note R, appendix. 



