1879.] 



MR. E. 



R. ALSTON ON THE BRITISH MARTENS. 



471 



that the most striking and trustworthy of the characters enumerated 

 above are, externally the colour of the under fur, and, internally 



mo e iar ' mPar ° f ** SkU " End the sh *P e of the "PP« 



Having thus cleared the ground as to the synonymy and distin- 

 guishing marks of the two European Martens, we come to the 

 question whether both of them inhabit our own islands. Every 



Fig. 2. 



Skull of M. sylvatica. 



ZL^w rt Hs , hed ° n the BHtish fauna has either ^ated or 

 as,umed that both forms are natives; and almost every one has 



represented the white-breasted Maries foina (the Common Marten 



ot the Continent) as being also the prevailing species in Britain. 



Several, however, of our best zoologists have expressed grave doubts 



as to the specific distinction of the two forms, or have even denied 



tnat they could be separated as constant varieties. This will be 



sao'ect a glanC6 at thC PagCS ° f the P rinci P al writers on Ae 



1 It should be observed that Dr. Severtzoff has stated that our Euronean 



Mm sMuT wh?o t h % dlffe r tiated " iQ Easte ™ T « rk - ta "> and hasde erS 

 some skins which he saw there as a new species, Mustela intermedia (Turke- 

 tanshe Jevotnie p. 80; Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 4th ser. xviii. p 46)- buYt 

 he obtained no skulls, much weight cannot be laid on his observations 



