106 THE PINE MARTEN. 



animals, their sharp and long claws afford them a firm and 

 secure hold of the bark, while the long and somewhat bushy 

 tail must considerably aid them in maintaining their balance 

 on the boughs ; the ears, too, are large and open, a circum- 

 stance which is of great advantage to them in discovering and 

 pursuing their prey, amid the dense foliage wherein they love 

 to conceal themselves j and upon the whole the typical structure 

 of the martens is evidently intended to fit them for living in 

 trees,* though it is true that they often descend to the ground 

 to destroy small mammals." * The walk of the martens is of 

 that kind which is technically termed digitigrade, meaning that 

 they walk on their toes. 



Most works on zoology contain separate histories of the 

 Pine Marten, the Beech Marten^ and the Sable; as though the 

 animals so named had been ascertained to be distinct species. 

 But the remarks which Mr. E. T. Bennett published on the 

 propriety of this nominal distinction, ten years ago, are still 

 applicable : 



" The justice of the separation of the pine marten from the 

 beech marten, and of both from the sable, still remains open to 

 investigation, with little chance of being speedily or permanently 



* Bell's History of British Quadrupeds (1837), p. 168. 



f The Beech Marten is the Maries foina of modern zoologists, the M. 

 Fagorum of Ray, the M. Saxorum of Klein, the Mustela Maries of Linnaeus, 

 and the Mustelafoina of Gmelin. Its English synonymes are not less numerous, 

 for, besides beech marten, it is called stone marten, martern, marteron, martlett, 

 and mouse-hunt. The last name I insert on the authority of Henley, the dra- 

 matic commentator, who says that it is the animal to which " charming Willie 

 Shakespeare" thus alludes in Romeo and Juliet : 



Capulet. I have watch'd ere now 



All night 



Lady Capulet. Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time. 



(Act iv. scene 4.) 



In Knight's Pictorial Edition of Romeo and Juliet (1839), this and many other 

 terms equally requiring explanation are left quite unelucidated ; though one 

 picture of the said mouse-hunt would doubtless have been more assistant to 

 the professed object of the work than the two unnecessary pictures it contains 

 of certain winged monstrosities called Cupids. J. H. F. 



