116 FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST. 



price among the furriers, the finest skins being valued 

 at four dollars and the coarser ones at two dollars. 

 It is said that the Indians and Esquimaux use the 

 fur for fringing their garments, as they do that of 

 the woM, the skin being cut into strips for this pur- 

 pose. 



Another member of the Mustelince tribe, and one 

 which approaches the long-bodied, short-legged form 

 of the tribe more nearly than the wolverene, is the 

 fisher, or Pennant's marten {Mustela* pennanti), 

 often called the pecan, and rarely the black cat or 

 black fox. There are two American species of mar- 

 ten which are distinguished apart by the following 

 characteristics, according to Elliott Coues : 



Mustela pennanti: Length, two feet or more; 

 tail, a foot or more ; ears low, wide and semicircular ; 

 color blackish, lighter on fore upper parts and head ; 

 darkest below ; no light throat patch. 



Mustela americuna : Length, less than two feet; 

 tail, less than a foot long and uniformly bushy ; ears 

 high, subtriangular ; color brown, etc., not darker 

 below than above ; usually a large yellowish or tawny 

 throat patch. 



* The name mustela means a kind of weasel. " Its adjective 

 derivative, musfelinus, refers primarily to general weasellike qual- 

 ities, and secondarily to the peculiar tawny color of most species 

 of weasels in summer. For example, the tawny thrush of Wilson 

 is called Turdus tnustelinus." — Elliott Coues. 



