MR. ALSTON ON THE BRITISH MARTENS. 447 
only one species of Marten in Britain, and that some of them 
drew the natural though erroneous deduction that Martes sylvatica 
and M. foina were specifically identical. The fact'is, as I believe, 
that M, foina is not, and never was, a member of the British 
fauna. During the last ten years I have missed no opportunity 
of examining native Martens, and have endeavoured to trace out 
every supposed ‘Beech Marten’ that I could hear of. I have 
thus seen a very large number of specimens from various parts of 
England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland; and every one has proved 
to be the Pine) Marten. The late Mr. Blyth, who paid some 
attention to this question, assured me, shortly before his death, 
that’ his investigations had led him to the same result; and I have 
beem unable to find any competent observer acquainted with the 
true characters of the species, who has ever seen’ an’ authentic 
British-killed specimen of M. foina. Macgillivray and Thompson 
were certainly correct in saying that the pale-chested individuals 
which have usuilly received that name in this country are merely 
aged examples of the Pine Marten, or specimens which have faded- 
in museums. Nor does there appear to be the slightest evidence 
in favour of Mr. Vyner’s suggestion that M. foina has been recently 
exterminated in this country. Such a fate has not overtaken the 
species on the Continent, where it holds its own fully ‘as’ well 
as,its ally; and a subfossil skull found in Burwell Fen, Cam- 
bridgeshire, and exhibited to the Zoological Society in 1878, by 
Mr. J. W. Clark,* is certainly referable to \M! sylvatica.’ The true 
Beech Marten is undoubtedly a more southern species than its 
congener, finding its northern limits in Denmark and the Baltic 
Provinces; for Professor Lilljeborg has proved that it is not, as’ 
had been stated, a native of Sweden.+) Until an authentic British 
specimen has been produced, it must also, I think, be struck out 
of the lists of the British fauna. 
» L.will conclude with a few remarks on the present’ distribution 
of the Pine Marten in Britain, much of the information ‘being’ 
gleaned from the pages of ‘The Zoologist.’ Although ‘greatly 
reduced in numbers by persecution, it still maintains its ground 
in the wilder districts of Scotland, the North of England, Wales, 
and Ireland, and occasionally specimens are killed in counties 
where the species was thought to have been long extinct, In 
* «Proceedings Zool. Soc., 1873, p. 790. 
+ ‘Sverg. og. Norg. Ryggradsdjur,’ p. 535. 
