298 Cocks : Pine Marten reported in Littondale. 



The other weapon is a conical axe-head (fig. 9), usually made 

 from diorite or other allied igneous rock, which does not occur in 

 situ for many miles. Like the black and pink flints, the material 

 for making these axe heads has undoubtedly been obtained 

 from the transported erratics in the glacial clays and gravels. 

 Unlike the generality of East Yorkshire neolithic axe heads, 

 these Bridlington examples have a point at one end, the broad 

 end being rubbed down to a sharp edge. They are circular, 

 or nearly so, in section. Specimens of this type wliich liave 

 been examined in various museums and collections up and 

 down the country, have invariably proved to have been ob- 

 tained in the Bridlington district. 



PINE MARTEN REPORTED IN LITTONDALE. 



ALFRED H. COCKS. 



Considering what wanderers Martens are, the occurrence of 

 one in Littondale * is not difficult to believe. The spot is not 

 marked in the best map at hand, but presumably it lies in the 

 N.W. quarter of the West Riding, and if so, it would onlv be a 

 matter of a very few days' journey (from a Marten's point of 

 view, even allowing for a circuitous route) from where a few of 

 the species still linger. 



The fact that only the Pine Marten occurs in the British 

 Isles was finally shown by the late E. R. Alston, F.Z.S., as long 

 ago as January 1880, in ' The Fauna of Scotland,' etc. (published 

 by the Nat. Hist. Soc. of Glasgow, p. 12). 



The statement that the breast of the Littondale specimen 

 was noted as yellow, is fair proof that it was not an (escaped) 

 Beech Marten ; for while the breast of the Pine Marten may 

 be of any shade from cream-white to bright gamboge-yellow, 

 that of the Beech Marten (so far as my own limited experience 

 goes) is always white, or at most with a very light buff or yellow- 

 ish tinge, not deep enough to describe as yellow. The colour of 

 the breast, however, can not be taken as affording a specific 

 character ; a much better one (as pointed out loc. cit.) is the 

 colour of the under-fur, which in Mustela foina is greyish-white, 

 and in M. martes reddish-grey. Also the last upper molar of 

 the former is ' notched externally,' and in the latter is ' simply 

 rounded externally.' The two species are not likely to be 

 confounded by anyone who has seen even a single living speci- 



* See ' The Naturalist,' July, p. 277. 



Naturalist, 



