108 THE PINE MARTEN. 



and the tints of colour are altogether more beautiful, and their 

 lustre more brilliant in the pine marten than in the other. Both 

 are found in all kinds of woods, and even in those which have 

 neither firs nor beeches : the beech martin is also improperly 

 called a [semi-] domestic animal, for although it seeks its prey 

 in inhabited places, it is but little less wild than the pine 

 marten."* 



Pennant, in his History of Quadrupeds (1793), treats of the pine 

 marten and beech marten as distinct, and observes that "all 

 foreign authors agree that the pine marten never lodges near 

 houses, as the other species is said to do jf but even those beech 

 martens which inhabit my neighbourhood always keep in the 

 woods, except in their nocturnal excursions." In his British 

 Zoology (1768), he remarks that "the claws of the beech marten 

 are well adapted for climbing trees, which in this country," he adds, 

 " are its constant residence." 



So lightly did Linnaeus value the distinctions indicated between 

 the pine marten and the beech marten, that it was not until he 

 published the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturce that he inti- 

 mated the existence of any difference between them. " The 

 country people," he says, " reckon two varieties ; the beech 

 marten, with a white throat, and the pine marten, with a yellow" 

 But it is evident from the manner in which he has introduced 

 this reference to the popular notion, that he gave little credence 

 to it. 



To institute other comparisons between them it may be men- 

 tioned, that the legs of the pine marten appear to be longer and 

 the head smaller than in the beech marten, and the fur is much 

 more profuse, with a finer and softer texture, and a much brighter 

 colour 5 hence it is more valuable than that of the beech marten, 

 though very inferior to that of the sable. 



* Histoire Naturelle, Generate et Particuliere, avec les continuations par 

 Daulenton, Montbeillard, et Lacepede, 45 vols. 4to (1749 1804). 



f The zoologists who have imputed to the beech marten a familiar and 

 sociable disposition, and a partiality for the neighbourhood of inhabited places, 

 are Gesner, Aldrovand, Jonston, Franzius, and Ray; the latter in his Synopsis 

 Quadrupedem (1693). 



