THE PINE MARTEN. 231 
Martes. By the latter denomination one of the species 
appears to have been known to the ancients; but the 
only instance in which mention of the animal occurs in 
the Roman classics is in an epigram of the poet Martial. 
The first notice of their existence among the moderns is 
found in Albertus Magnus, who speaks of the Beech 
and Pine Martens and the Sable as distinct, but asserts 
that the two former breed together; a fact which, if 
proved, would go far to establish their identity of origin. 
The next author in order of time who treats of them, is 
George Bauer, better known by his assumed name of 
Agricola, who in his Treatise on Subterraneous Animals, 
a remarkably correct and well executed performance 
published at Basil in 1549, refers both the Martens 
and the Sable to the Weasel genus, and distinguishes 
the three species in a very particular manner. The 
first, he says, lives in caves and the fissures of rocks, 
and is covered all over with blackish tawny hairs, 
except on the throat, which is pure white. The second 
rarely quits the shelter of the forest, its colour is more 
obscurely fulvous, and its throat yellow: of this, he 
adds, some think there are two kinds, the one living in 
beech and the other in pme woods. The third is the 
most beautiful and the most noble, and is called by the 
Germans Zobel; it lives in woods, like the Marten, is 
rather smaller than that animal, and wholly of an ob- 
scure tawny, except the throat, which is ash-coloured. 
The skins of the last, he continues, are more precious 
than cloth of gold, imsomuch that forty of the best 
quality, which is the quantity usually packed in one 
bale, have been sold for more than a thousand pieces 
of gold. 
To this accurate account of the animals in question 
little was added during the two succeeding centuries. 
It was adopted almost verbatim by Gesner, Aldrovan- 
