314 PENNANT'S MARTEN OR FISHER. 



The Fislier is represented as following the line of traps set by the 

 trappers, and in the manner of the wolverene, robbing them of their 

 bait. The season for hunting this species is stated, by Dr. Dekay, to 

 commence in the western part of Ne'vv York, about the 10th of October, 

 and to last till the middle of May ; and he says the ordinary price paid 

 for each skin is a dollar and a half 



This species brings forth once a year, depositing its young in the 

 trunk of a large tree, usually some thirty or forty feet from the ground. 

 Dr. Richardson observes that it produces from two to four young at a 

 litter ; Dekay confines the number to two. We once saw three ex- 

 tracted from the body of a female on the 20th of April, in the northern 

 part of New York. 



geographical distribution. 



This species inhabits a wide extent of country. To the north it 

 exists, according to Richardson, as far as Great Slave Lake, latitude 

 63°. It is found at Labrador, and extends across the continent to the 

 Pacific. It is stated by all our authors that it does not exist further 

 south than Pennsylvania. This is an error, as we saw it on the moun- 

 tains of Virginia. We had an opportunity of examining a specimen 

 obtained by Dr. Gibbes, of Columbia, South Carolina, from the neighbour- 

 hood of Ashville, Buncombe county. North Carolina. We have seen 

 several skins procured in East Tennessee, and we have heard of at 

 least one individual that was captured near Flat-Rock, in that State, 

 latitude 35°. 



We have also seen many skins from the Upper Missouri, and the 

 Fisher is enumerated, by Lewis and Clarke, as one of the species exist- 

 ing on the Pacific Ocean, in the vicinity of the Columbia River. 



general remarks. 



Notwithstanding the fact that on our plate we gave to Linn^us the 

 credit of having first applied a scientific name to this species, we 

 must now transfer it to Schreber, by whom, Linnaeus having been unac- 

 quainted with it, it was described in 1775. It was described two years 

 afterwards by Erxleben, and in 1788, by Gmblin, &c. It is probable 

 that, by some mistake, the habits of the mink have been ascribed to 

 the Fisher ; hence its English name seems to be inappropriate, but 

 as it appears to be entitled to it, by right of long possession, we do not 

 feel disposed to change it. We are, however, not quite sure of its having 

 no claim to the name by its mode of living. Its partially webbed feet seem 



