MUSTELIDA 585 
AM. amerivanu, the North-American Sable or Marten.—A species 
so closely allied to the European Pine Marten and Asiatic Sable 
that it is very difficult to assign constant distinguishing characters 
between them. The importance of the fur of this animal as an 
article of commerce may be judged of from the fact that 15,000 
skins were sold in one year by the Hudson's Bay Company as long 
ago as 1743, and the more recent annual imports into Great Britain 
have exceeded 100,000. It is ordinarily caught in wooden traps 
of very simple construction, being little enclosures of stakes or 
brush in which the bait is placed upon a trigger, with a short 
upright stick supporting a log of wood, which falls upon its victim 
on the slightest disturbance. A line of such traps, several to a mile, 
often extends many miles. The bait is any kind of meat, a mouse, 
squirrel, piece of fish, or bird’s head. It is principally trapped 
during the colder months, fron: October to April, when the fur is 
in good condition, us it is nearly valueless during the shedding in 
summer. Dr. Coues tells us that, notwithstanding the persistent 
and uninterrupted destruction to which the American Sable is 
subjected, it docs not appear to diminish materially in numbers in 
unsettled parts of the country. It holds its own partly in conse- 
quence of its shyness, which keeps it away from the abodes of men, 
and partly becanse it is so prolific, bringing forth six to eight young 
ata litter, Its home is sometimes a den under ground or beneath 
rocks, but oftencr the hollow of « tree, and it is said frequently to 
take forcible possession of a squirrel’s nest, driving off or devouring 
the rightful proprictor, 
A. pennanti, the Pekan ov Pennant’s Marten, also called Fisher 
Marten, though there appears to be nothing in its habits to justify 
the appellation.—This is the largest species of the group, the head 
and body measuring from 24 to 30 inches, and the tail 14 to 18 
inches, It is also more robust in form than the others, its general 
aspect being more that of a Pox thin a Weasel ; in fact, its usual 
name among the American hunters is “ Black Fox.” Its general 
colour is blackish, lighter by mixture of brown or gray on the head 
and upper fore part of the body, with no light patch on the throat, 
and unlike the other Martens generally darker below than above. 
Tt was generally distributed in wooded districts throughout the 
greater part of North America, as far north as Great Slave Lake, 
G3° N. lat. and Alaska, and extending south to the parallel of 35°; 
Int at the present time it is almost exterminated in the settled parts 
of the United States cast of the Mississippi. 
Fossil remains of «a Marten from the Pliocene Siwaliks of India 
indicate w species which cannot be distinguished from those now 
inhabiting the same region; while remains of JZ. martes occur in 
European cavern-deposits, ind in the fens of Cambridgeshire. 
With the Puforiine group (genus Pulorins) we come to those 
