239 
THE MARTEN IN LAKELAND. 
EDWARD T. BALDWIN. 
Wuen in Borrowdale again this spring I tried, somewhat 
unsuccessfully, to obtain records as to the ‘ Mart’ (Martes 
sylvestris), subsequent in date to those sent this time last year 
(Vide ‘Naturalist’ for 1906, pp. 221-222). 
However, I found that one ‘a very fine one, I believe) was 
got, in November or December, 1906, by a man called Gillbanks 
between the well-known Lodore Falls and the Bowder Stone. 
With this exception, I could not hear of any recent captures. 
I had an interesting chat with Thomas Jackson, of Rosthwaite, 
who, in his time, was a noted ‘ Mart’ hunter, but who now no 
longer ‘follows it,’ as the local saying is. It appears that the 
two young ‘ Marts’ I mentioned as having been got last spring 
close to the Bowder stone were obtained by his nephew, and 
were not trapped (as I said), but worried by his terriers. 
Jackson says that the most he ever got in any one year was 
sixteen, but that he had twice got eight. He thinks that there 
is no doubt that they are plentiful still, and especially mentioned 
Eel Crags as a favourite locality. Eel Crags are a range 
of almost sheer precipice facing Dale Head (2473 feet) and 
Hindscarth (2285 feet). There, a good deal of foil is to be 
seen, and in winter the tracts are plainly visible in the snow. 
The track of the ‘ Mart,’ by the way, is something like that of 
the hare. Another ‘strong bield’ is close to Eagle Crag, and 
here lately, amongst a quantity of mart foil, were found two 
small metal bands with numbers, such as are usually attached 
to the legs of carrier pigeons. Eagle Crag is the huge hump 
of rock which guards the entrance to the beautiful but wild 
and desolate Langstrath Valley, at the head of which towers 
the massive Bowfell (2960 feet). Jackson told me of a pair of 
peregrine falcons, which were successful this year in nesting 
and bringing off their brood. The locality I think it as well 
not to disclose. He considers the foumart, or polecat (Mustela 
_ putoria) virtually extinct in that district. 
Wandering over these great grassy Cumberland fells, the 
absence of bird life strikes one very forcibly. Very little but a 
few meadow pipits and stone chats, with an occasional raven, 
carrion crow, or buzzard is, as a rule, to be seen. But at the 
time when the bracken clock hatches out (generally at this time 
of the year), numbers of the lesser black-headed gull (Larus 
1907 July 1 
