124 FAMILIAK LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST. 



deep, and with a great number of large black hairs 

 interspersed. 



The pine marten is an agreeable little creature 

 when tamed, and is almost entirely without the un- 

 pleasant odor which is characteristic of the family to 

 which he belongs. But he has a pugnacious disposi- 

 tion, and quarrels with any part of the animal world 

 lie rubs against. He tights and kills the weaker ro- 

 dents, and is a terror to the woodland birds. He is a 

 sworn enemy of the red squirrel, as we may see by 

 the following account of Mr. Gr. S. Miller, Jr. : " At 

 Nipigon " [Ontario] " a trapper told me that the mar- 

 tens, wherever they occur in sufficient numbers, so 

 terrorize the red squirrels by constant persecutions 

 that the noisy rodents, learning that silence is their 

 best protection, stop chattering. Hence an abundance 

 of silent squirrels is, according to my informant at 

 least, a certain indication that marten fur is plenti- 

 ful." 



The little animal is somewhat shy, and retreats to 

 the seclusion of the deep woods upon the advancing 

 settlement of the country. I recollect that as early 

 as the year 1867 the marten was plentiful in the Adi- 

 rondack woods. The early French settlers, in fact, 

 named one of the rivers having its rise in these 

 northern woods for him — the Ausable River. He is 

 still common in the evergreen woods of that region. 



