FAMILY MUSTELID.E. 
33 
tinge of brown. Ears margined with white. Reddish brown behind the ears. The inside 
of the legs, inferior and posterior parts of the feet, and the palms, dark brown. Tail ten 
and a half inches long,, the tip of the hairs extending four inches beyond the vertebra; 
dark brown at the tip, intermixed with a few white hairs; remainder of the body and tail 
yellowish while, becoming deeper on the posterior parts of the body. Throughout pale 
yellow. Claws white. The plate represents this specimen. _ , 
No. 2 is smaller, being only twenty-two inches in length. Head, chin and ears entirely 
white. Feet at the base with an obsolete circle of dusky brown. A dusky indistinct line 
along the dorsal ridge. Tail dusky for two-thirds of its length from the tip. General color 
bright orange, more vivid on the-flanks and abdomen. Palms light-colored. 
No. 3 and 4 resemble each other in the distribution of their colors, but are smaller than the 
preceding. Head greyish white ; brownish behind the'ears. General color fulvous, inter¬ 
mixed on the back and abdomen with brown, giving a dark hue to the animal. Legs, feet 
and tail blackish brown, the latter increasing in intensity towards its tip'. 
The Sable is a very pretty and active little animal, inhabiting the elevated and wooded 
districts in the-northern parts of the State. It lives entirely in trees, and brings forth six to 
eight at a litter. It is a nocturnal animal, and excessively carnivorous; feeding on mice, 
birds’eggs, squirrels, etc. The-females are said to be smaller than the males. It has been 
tamed; but from its petulant character, is never docile. The fur is exceedingly beautiful, 
and highly esteemed. The hunters assure me, that as you proceed north, the fur becomes 
darker and more valuable, but this seems rather a peculiarity in certain districts. Those 
obtained in our State, are more usually of the color noted in the figure, and sell for about 
$1 - 25 apiece. 
The Sable is exceedingly active, and destroys great quantities of squirrels, the red squirrel 
only occasionally escaping by its superior agility. It is so prolific, and finds the means 
of living with so much ease, that it would long since have multiplied to a great extent, were 
it -not hunted so perseveringly for its fur. The hunting season for the sable in this State 
begins about the tenth of October, and ends in the middle of April. The hunters assert, that 
in the beech-nut season, when they are very abundant, the sable will not touch bait of 
any kind, ■ believing that at that time it feeds upon these nuts. It is probable, however, that 
the abundance of nuts attracts great numbers of the smaller quadrupeds, who are thus offered 
an easy prey to the sable. 
A line of traps for these animals, technically called “ a sable line,” sometimes extends 
sixty or seventy miles, containing six to ten traps in a mile, according to the nature of the 
ground. The construction of these traps is exceedingly simple. The hunter cuts off long 
chips from the nearest tree, and drives them into the ground, forming three sides of a square 
about six inches across ; the top is covered with spruce boughs. The bait, which is either a 
bit of venison, mice, red squirrel, or any other small animal, is put on the end of a round 
stick and placed within the trap, resting on a round stick lying on the ground across the open 
end ; on this rests a short upright stick, supporting a heavy log or small tree. Any distur¬ 
bance of the bait causes the log to fall and crush the animal. These traps are visited once a 
Fauna. 
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