156 THE PINE-MARTEN. 



ful the martens kill a fair number in the trees 

 and in the drifts. I don't reckon they suffer 

 hunger anyway.' 



STORAGE. 



Martens, like weasels and stoats, store food 

 during times of superabundance, but the storage 

 habit is not so strongly developed in them as 

 in the common weasel. The marten leaves what 

 it does not want, and may return for it later if 

 there is no more killing to be done. The creature 

 will leave a partly devoured bird resting in the 

 fork of a tree, and there it may remain for some 

 days, conspicuous as it moves in the breeze, till 

 eventually the destroyer happens to pass that 

 way again. 



INQUISITIVENESS. 



The marten's hankering to learn and to know 

 is a characteristic by which hunters are often 

 able to profit. The unaccustomed sound of an 

 axe is calculated to bring any marten hearing 

 it to the ' spot, to peer through the leaves in 

 eager inquiry, then to dart off to the uttermost 

 corner of the forest on having satisfied its curiosity. 

 Any unwonted sound has the same effect, and a 

 trick sometimes practised by keepers is to remain 

 perfectly still, making at intervals the grouse-call 

 by sucking between closed lips through the stem 

 of a pipe. The marten will then come quite near, 

 moving from point to point in search of a better 

 view, and a quick shot probably puts an end to 

 the little creature's craving to see and to know. 

 In the same way it is sure to be attracted by 

 anything moving which it does not immediately 

 recognise, and a common method of trapping it is 



