112 THE SABLE. 



many other works, as the truest and most authentic figure of 

 the sable extant. 



" In fact, were it not for the authority of Pallas, the great 

 zoologist, we should scarcely hesitate in discarding the sable from 

 the list of genuine species, and considering it as a mere variety 

 of the pine marten, produced by climate and other concomitant 

 circumstances. But his judgment, founded on a comparison of 

 specimens both living and dead, carries with it too much weight 

 to be shaken by any but the most positive evidence. In the 

 absence of unquestionable proof to the contrary, we must neces- 

 sarily take for granted the correctness of his decision, and 

 regard the Siberian sable as distinguished from the European 

 and Asiatic martens by the characters which he has pointed out j 

 although these characters are not altogether in accordance with 

 the statements of previous zoologists, and do not appear to have 

 fallen under the notice of any subsequent observer. 



" The general description of the sable given by Pallas is 

 accompanied by a comparison of its several parts with those of 

 a pine marten found in the same forest, almost the only one in 

 which the two animals are met with intermixed, and the most 

 western habitat of the true sable. The distinctive marks of the 

 latter are made to consist in its somewhat larger size ; a slight 

 depression of the top of its head ; a trifling elongation of its 

 muzzle 5 the fur of the ears being on the outside exceedingly 

 soft, pale, and silky, and their inside being lined with whitish 

 hairs ; the soles of the feet more woolly 5 the toes ending in a 

 tuft of crisp wool completely enveloping the claws ; the tail 

 shorter than the legs when extended, and consequently much 

 more abbreviated than in the marten,* and becoming perfectly 

 black towards the tip, the blackness of the fur of the body, 

 which in the marten had a yellowish tinge -, and the ashy grey of 

 the head, becoming brown on the muzzle, hoary about the eyes, 



* " M. Desmarest has omitted the most important characters given by Pallas 

 for the sable, and has, on his own authority, furnished it with a tail of two- 

 thirds the length of the body, while that of the pine and beech martens is 

 stated to measure but little more than the half." 



