330 THE MARTEN, 



these pilferers had nearly made a clear sweep of my 

 father's poultry : it kept peering over the perch with the 

 greatest impudence, and could scarcely be driven thence 

 by the dairymaid: no sooner was she out of sight than it 

 would return. The farm-overseer at last procured a trap, 

 and having set it without art or covering, the loud screams 

 of the robber presently made known his capture. 



The marten generally selects a magpie's nest in the 

 thickest pine-tree, and there rears its young ; hence it has 

 obtained the name of pine-weasel. One, however, in the 

 Black Mount, had the impudence to select royal quarters for 

 its progeny, and to take possession of the eagle's castle. 

 The forester having reason to think that the bird was sitting 

 hard, peeped over the cliff into the eyrie. To his amaze- 

 ment, a marten was suckling her kittens in comfortable occu- 

 pancy. As he had a fair look down, he watched them for 

 some time, intending to return in a few days with his gun. 

 When he did so, the martens, old and young, had left the nest, 

 and no trace of them was to be found. Another was brought 

 me that had its litter in the thatch of an old barn ; it was 

 detected by a dog, driven out, and shot. The young were 

 rather smaller than kittens, and quite as sweet and clean. 



If seized by the breast, the marten, like the cat, is 

 easily killed by a good dog; but the skull is so hard 

 that I have seen one, when released from a trap with all 

 its legs broken, roll away upon the ground, after receiving 

 half-a-dozen hard blows on the head from the keeper's 

 cudgel. This animal, being easily trapped or run down, 

 is not nearly so numerous now as it was some years ago. 



