110 



THE SABLE. 



f Mustela 

 Martes 



-=S} 



It has already been intimated in the preceding article, that it is 

 questionable whether the sable be a distinct species from the 

 beech and pine martens. 



George Bauer, who, under the assumed name of Agricola, 

 wrote a Treatise on Subterraneous Animals, published at Basil in 

 1549, speaks of a fulvous or tawny -coloured marten, which has a 

 yellow throat, and rarely quits the shelter of the forest, and he 

 adds that some think there are two kinds, the one living in beech, 

 and the other in pine forests. The one that lives in pine forests, 

 he says, is called zobel by the Germans, is rather smaller than 

 the white throated blackish marten, and is wholly of an obscure 

 tawny, except the throat which is ash-colour. It is, he continues, 

 the most beautiful of all, and its skin is more precious than cloth 

 of gold, insomuch that forty skins of the best quality have been 

 sold for more than a thousand pieces of gold. From this ac- 

 count of the great price paid for its skin, we should judge that 

 the Germans regarded the marten of the pine forests as identical 

 with the sable. 



Linnaeus's character of the sable is principally derived from 

 that of Ray, who says, " Dr. Tancred Robinson had seen the 



