THE PINE-MARTEN. 



THIS beautiful and graceful creature is now so 

 rare that to most people it exists only as a 

 name on the list of our British Fauna. It can 

 still be said to inhabit north Devon, Yorkshire, 

 Cumberland, and Durham, but in all these Eng- 

 lish counties its occurrence is such a rarity that 

 when one falls foul of the gunner, the event is 

 considered worthy of wide comment in the press. 

 In the north and west of Ireland, the Highlands 

 of Scotland, and the wilder parts of Wales it is a 

 little more plentiful ; but it is to be feared that the 

 depredations of this active little weasel must ere 

 long lead to its final extermination. Indeed, if 

 the marten is to keep its place among the wild-folk 

 of our woods, its protection should be made as 

 thorough in this country as is that of the osprey ; 

 for, considering its rarity, the era is long since past 

 when the pine-marten could justly be persecuted 

 on account of its destructiveness. The obstacle in 

 the way of its preservation is, of course, the diffi- 

 culty of inducing any game-preserver to realise, when 

 his preserves are subjected to the ravages of such 

 a visitor, that he is under an obligation patiently 

 to endure such things solely with the end in view 

 of establishing an undesirable strain. Many game- 

 preservers can think no further than the creatures 

 they are out to preserve, and this being so, it is of 

 little use appealing to their sympathies for the 

 protection of those ' undesirables ' that are border- 

 ing upon extinction. Their extermination is just 

 what the average game-preserver or, perhaps more 

 justly, the average gamekeeper wishes to see, 



