234 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
In his History of Quadrupeds Pennant follows Buffon 
in making the three species distinct. Of the Pine Marten 
he says that it “ never lodges near houses, as the other 
species is said to do;” but adds in a note, “ All foreign 
authors agree in this; but those [Beech Martens] which 
inhabit my neighbourhood always keep in the woods, 
except in their nocturnal excursions.” His history of 
the Sable is fuller than that of previous naturalists, 
being partly taken from an account of the animal given 
by John George Gmelin in 1760 in the Memoirs of the 
Petersburgh Academy, and partly from a Collection of 
Russian Histories, published in German by Miller, and 
containing many commercial particulars concerning it. 
Little more is said by our author in his British Zoolog 
respecting the distinction between the two kinds of 
Marten. He adds, however, that in the Beech Marten 
“the palms, or under sides of the feet, are covered 
with a thick down like that on the body;” and “ the 
claws are well adapted for climbing trees, which in this 
country are its constant residence.” 
Of all the authors hitherto quoted it will have been 
observed that none have spoken of the Sable as an 
animal which they knew otherwise than by report. It 
is said by most of them to inhabit not only Northern 
Asia and Russia, but Poland also, Scandinavia, and 
even Lapland. These latter habitats may, however, 
probably be considered as indicating nothing more than 
the countries through the medium of which the skins 
called Sables were procured. The only two naturalists 
who have described these animals from personal obser- 
vation are J. G. Gmelin and Pallas, both of whom 
became acquainted with them while travelling in Siberia, 
to which country their range is expressly limited by the 
latter. The first of these writers had an opportunity of 
examining two specimens in the palace of the Governor 
of Siberia at Tobolsk, where they were kept alive for 
