4/4 MR. E. R. ALSTON ON THE BRITISH MARTENS. [June 3, 



its own fully as well as its ally ; and a subfossil skull found in Burwell 

 Fen, Cambridgeshire, and exhibited to this Society in 18/3, by 

 Mr. J. W. Clark l , 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 2 . Until an authentic British speci- 

 men has been produced, it must also, I think, be struck out of the 

 lists of the British fauna. 



I 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 Scotland it is still found, 

 though comparatively rarely, in the Lews and in most of the 

 Highland mainland counties, being perhaps most abundant in 

 Sutherland and Ross-shire, especially in the deer-forests. In the Low- 

 lands a Marten is now a very great rarity ; but a fine example was 

 killed in Ayrshire in the winter of 1875-/6. In the north of 

 England, Mr. W. A. Durnford says 3 , the species is " still plentiful;" 

 in the wilder parts of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire, 

 and in Lincolnshire, several have been recorded, the latest, killed in 

 1865, by Mr. Cordeaux 4 . In Norfolk one was shot last year * ; and 

 I have myself examined a fine example, which was shot in Hertford- 

 shire, within twenty miles of London, in December 1872. In Dor- 

 setshire the last is said to have been killed in 1804 e ; but a specimen 

 occurred in Hampshire about forty years ago 7 , and another in 

 Surrey in 1847. A Marten is said, by the Rev. C. A. Bury, to have 

 been "seen" in the Isle of Wight 8 ; and one was recorded from 

 Cornwall, by Mr. E. Hearle Rod 9 ; but this proves on investigation 

 to be an error, the specimen having been brought from North Wales, 

 where Martens appear to be still not very rare. In Ireland the fol- 

 lowing counties were enumerated by Thompson as habitats of this 

 species — Donegal, Londonderry, Antrim, Down, Armagh, Fer- 

 managh, Longford, Galway, Tipperary, Cork, and Kerry 1U . The 

 Cat-crann is probably now a rarer animal in Ireland than it was 

 when Thompson wrote ; but it still exists in various districts, espe- 

 cially in co. Kerry, whence the Society has received several living 

 examples ; and Professor A. Leith Adams states that it has been 

 seen of late years even in co. Dublin u . 



i P. Z. S. 1873, p. 790. 2 Sverg. og Norg. Eyggradsdjur, p. 535. 



3 Zoologist, 1877, p. 291. 4 Zoologist, 1866, p. 242. 



6 F. Norgate, ' Zoologist,' 1879, p. 172 ; J. H. Gumey, torn. cit. p. 210. 



c J. C. Mansel-Pleydell, torn, cit., p. 171. 



1 P. L. Sclater, 'Zoologist,' 1845, p. 1018. 



8 Zoologist, 1844, p. 783. 9 Zoologist, 1878, p. 127. 



10 Nat. Hist. Irel. iv. p. 9. u Proc. E. Soc. Dubl. 1878. 



