338 Wild Life in Wales 



Either the persecution it has so long undergone has effected 

 a marvellous change in the habits of the Marten, forcing it 

 to be more circumspect in its ways, or else the old accounts 

 of its destructiveness to game, and poultry, have been ex- 

 aggerated. Personally, I think the latter more likely to be 

 the case, and that, in the days when less close attention was 

 paid to the habits of wild animals, the Marten may some- 

 times have been blamed for depredations committed by its 

 cousin, the Polecat, or other vermin. Bell, for example, 

 says the Marten is "very destructive to game of every 

 kind, and to all sorts of domestic poultry, from the pigeon 

 to the turkey," which is certainly not an accurate descrip- 

 tion of those at present to be found in Wales, where I could 

 never hear of any loss which could reasonably be set down 

 to Martens, and where, to my knowledge, the animals 

 frequently passed farm-steads, when poultry were sitting 

 about within easy reach, without the owners even suspecting 

 their presence in the country. One morning after a fresh 

 fall of snow, I picked up a Marten's track, actually in the 

 middle of the village of Llanuwchllyn, and followed it over 

 the top of Aran, noticing as usual the places of call, which 

 included a close inspection of the hovels at the back of the 

 old mill, where a rat had been killed, and almost entirely 

 devoured on the spot. 



On other occasions, it has been noted how mole-hills 

 have been visited, spring heads, heaps of stones, places 

 where there was a roughness of herbage, or any other likely 

 spot for birds to be roosting in, or where voles might 

 be found. All such spots are carefully approached ; and 

 occasionally a spring, or a scramble on the snow, or a 

 scratching through it in order to reach some hole beneath, 

 indicate the efforts of the hunter, while a little blood may 

 point to a success; but, save for that, no remains of small quad- 

 rupeds are commonly left to tell of their capture, and a few 

 feathers are all that indicate the fate of a pipit or a thrush. 

 In this way a few hours spent in tracking is often an 

 interesting study of the habits of the animal, that may shed 

 more light on its doings than whole pages of the most 

 carefully written book. Thus, too, we learn the possible 



