THE MARTEN. 55 



historian of Sutherland, which I have prefixed to 

 this chapter, the rnartrix, or marten, Maries 

 folna, is included. From its arboreal habits, as 

 well as its carnivorous propensities, it appears to 

 me that none would have been so likely to have 

 acted as a check on the increase of the squirrel, 

 and although the excessive preservation of game 

 and consequent persecution of predatory animals, 

 of late years, in the moors and forests, have 

 greatly reduced the number of martens, even in 

 their favourite retreats, and actually exterminated 

 them in others where they were once of common 

 occurrence, yet we know that they abounded in 

 the Highlands during the first half of the present 

 century. For example, on the Glengarry pro- 

 perty alone, a friend of mine, when lessee, 

 destroyed no less than 246 martens between 1837 

 and 1840. Now, it is just possible that the ex- 

 cessive prevalence of this species, and the scarcity 

 of the squirrel, may have been contemporaneous 

 a supposition to which the rapid increase of the 

 latter in Invernesshire during the last thirty 

 years would appear to lend some colour. 



The " whittret," or stoat, Mustrla crm'incn, 

 and the weasel, Sfnstela rnlfjar'is, though less 

 numerous than formerly, are still of ordinary 



