THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
Siberian, the marten is North European, and its American 
brother is the pine marten, or ‘“‘sable,” of the Canadian forests. 
The three are scarcely distinguishable, each averag- 
ing about eighteen inches in length, plus seven or 
eight inches of tail, and are brown, somewhat lighter below 
(throat and breast-spot orange in the Canadian sable), and 
variable according to age, sex, and season. The winter fur 
is thick, soft, an inch and a half deep, of richest hue, and has 
scattered through it coarse black hairs which the furrier pulls 
out; the tail is somewhat bushy. The body is elongated and 
supple, the legs short, and the toes separate, with sharp, long 
claws, as behooves so expert a tree climber. The martens 
exhibit great agility and grace in their movements, and live 
usually in trees, furnishing with a bed of leaves a lofty hollow 
in a decaying trunk or sometimes a rocky crevice. Here the 
young are brought forth in litters of six to eight early each 
spring. 
Europe has also a “beech,” “stone,” or ‘sweet’? marten 
of duller hue and with a white breast; and in India the local 
marten is blackish brown above and the breast orange-yellow; 
while North America contains the giant of the tribe in Pen- 
nant’s marten, named by the early French Canadians pekan, 
and by modern trappers “‘fisher,”’ “black cat,” or ‘black fox,” 
—it being none of the three! In general manner of life all 
these fur bearers are alike, yet with many a specific or individ- 
ual peculiarity, as one may learn who will talk with hunters 
or read the books of Pennant,’ Hearne,'*! Richardson,!™ 
De Kay,” Audubon and Bachman,*® and the narratives of 
the fur country. The most pertinent parts of these accounts 
have been brought together by Dr. Elliott Coues, whose ‘‘ Fur- 
bearing Animals” *” is the foremost authority on the group. 
For two hundred and fifty years the Canadian marten has 
supplied, as had the sable for perhaps as many centuries, the 
most valuable furs sent to market, excepting a few rarities 
164 
Sable. 
