The Marten. 



463 



AETICLE XLT. — On the Pine Marten. [Mustela martes.) 

 MusTELA Martes. — (Linn.) 



The Marten, also called the Pine Marten, is larger than the 

 mint, and almost always of a lighter colour. The body is slender, 

 the head long and pointed, ears broad and cbtusely pointed, legs 

 stout, eyes small and black, and the toes with long, slender and 

 compressed nails concealed by hair ; tail bushy and cylindrical. 

 Hair of two kinds, the outer long and rigid, the inner soft and 

 somewhat wooly. The length from point of nose to root of tail is 

 about eighteen inches, length of tail seven inches. 



The colour varies a good deal in different individuals, but it is 

 generally yellowish, shaded with more or less black, — the throat 

 is yellow. The Marten is an exceedingly active and destructive 

 little animal, — but as its habits confine it to the depths of the fo- 

 rest, it seldom visits the farm-yard, and consequently is no annoy- 

 ance to man. Its food consists of birds, mice, squirrels, and other 

 small animals, and its activity is such that it climbs trees with 



great facility. The female brings forth six or eight young at a 

 litter, in a burrow under ground, a hollow tree, or in some warm 

 nest constructed in a crevice among the rocks. The species is 

 found in the Northern and Eastern States, throughout Canada, and 

 in all the wooded districts of the Hudsons Bay Company's Terri- 

 tories. It ranges across the continent from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific, and is supposed to be identical with the species of Nor- 

 thern Europe. Sir John Richardson, the celebrated Northern tra- 

 veller, in the North West, says that particular districts produce dif- 

 ferent varieties of this animal, the fur of some of the varieties being 

 of more value than that of others. It is easily caught with traps- 

 " A partridge's head with the feathei"s is the best bait for the log 

 traps in which it is caught. It does not reject carrion, and often 



