The Keeper's Tree. 221 



and as there is no fox-hunting in a country like this, I am always 

 glad to hear when one is killed. 



But in England the case is very different 5 and as every British 

 pack of foxhounds must be regarded (by every one who has his 

 country's interest at heart) as a national benefit in more ways than 

 one, any little damage a fox may do in the preserves or the hen- 

 roost is willingly overlooked, and in our " old country," at least, I 

 should have as soon expected to see a child as a fox suspended from 

 the branches of the " keeper's tree." 



There is a great question whether the badger can be ranked 

 among the list of vermin. That they will occasionally destroy 

 young birds is pretty certain, but the habits of this animal are such 

 as to render him a very innocuous enemy to the keeper. 



In such districts as they frequent the marten (or, as it is usually 

 called, the marten-cat), is most destructive, not only to game, but to 

 every small bird and animal that comes within its reach. To the 

 cruel bloodthirsty nature of the wolf, the marten adds the stealthy 

 cunning of the cat, and it can creep from branch to branch with a 

 noiseless step, neither the old birds at roost, the young ones in the 

 nest, or even the nimble squirrel, are secure from its attack. In 

 Sweden the forests are full of martens, and the skin is highly valued. 

 I fancy their principal food with us is the squirrel j at least, I know, 

 as soon as the martens come into the forest in the winter, if they 

 are at all numerous, the squirrels disappear. I do not fancy that 

 the marten is at all common in any part of England, but of the two 

 species, the stone or beech marten is certainly the most so. This is 

 not the case in Sweden, for we very rarely hear of a stone-marten 

 being killed with us j whereas a winter never passes but I get four 

 or five fine martens in the woods close to home. 



Some naturalists consider that we have but one species of marten, 

 and that the pine-marten is only a variety of the common stone- 

 marten j but this I will not agree to. The principal difference is 

 that the breast of the pine-marten is yellow, that of the stone- 

 marten white. This might be the result of age ; but I can prove 

 from young specimens that the breast of the pine-marten is yellow 



