192 THE ZOOLOGIS'. 
We are at a loss to know how Mr. Colquhoun came to form the 
opinion that the Marten is not indigenous to the British Islands. 
At page 165 he says, “this beautiful creature is, as I have stated 
in a previous chapter (p. 79), an importation from the forests of 
America” ! 
This is evidently a misapprehension. Not only would it not be 
difficult to find evidence of the existence of Martens in the British 
Islands long before the discovery of America (according to Sir 
Robert Gordon * they were found in Scotland prior to 1630), but the 
American Martens, of which there are two species, 1. americana 
and Pennantii, are regarded by the best authorities as specifically 
distinct from ours:+ and even were it otherwise, there would be 
no need to go to America for the origin of our British race, since 
both the Pine and the Beech Marten are generally distributed 
throughout Western Europe, occurring in France and _ Italy, 
inhabiting the temperate parts of Russia, and occurring also in the 
Crimea and Caucasus.{ We believe the two forms to which the 
above names are applied are now generally regarded by zoologists 
as specifically distinct. Mr. Colquhoun considers them to be 
merely the sexes of one species. 
Space does not permit us to examine the arguments which 
have been adduced in support of these different views, and we 
must therefore refer our readers to what has been stated thereon 
in the second edition of Bell’s ‘ British Quadrupeds, where the 
question of the specific identity or otherwise of the two forms 
is fully discussed, and the conclusion arrived at is that they are 
distinct. 
In concluding our notice of Mr. Colquhoun’s book, we may 
remark that the pleasant way in which he has mingled his 
observations on the habits of game and wild animals in Scotland 
with an account of his successful pursuit of them render it 
attractive alike to the sportsman and the naturalist. 
* «History of the Harldom of Sutherland.’ 
+ Dr. Elliott Cones, in his ‘Monograph of the Fur-bearing Animals of North 
America,’ observes (p. 74) :—‘‘ The material before me indicates, with little hazard 
of error, that the American form is specifically distinct from both the Beech Marten 
and the Pine Marten ot Europe.” 
+ See Lord Clermont’s ‘ Guide to the Quadrupeds and Reptiles of Europe,’ p. 58. 
