138 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



neighbourhood. The last I have seen (now twenty-five years 

 since) were at my brother's place, one and a half miles from 

 here. There was a large pine-grove, and about 150 yards from 

 it, in the centre of a field, was a clump of large beech-trees. 

 One was decayed near the stem, with a hole and a long burrow. 

 In this place two Martens made their residence, but they were so 

 wary that, although I watched them night and day, I could not get 

 near them. After some time, finding they were watched, they 

 moved away, and I never saw them afterwards, nor have I seen one 

 since, nor even heard of one. The common people call the Weasel 

 [i. e. Stoat] a Marten. Mr. C. B. Moffat wrote from Ballyhyland 

 (Oct. 16th, 1888) : — "A few years ago my father lost a number of 

 lambs in a manner that strongly suggested the work of an animal 

 of the weasel kind, the throats being cut, the blood sucked, and the 

 carcases left. Traps were set, and, after a considerable number 

 of lambs had been slaughtered, an animal was caught which the 

 men took for a young fox and released. The destruction of 

 lambs then ceased." The animal could hardly have been anything 

 but a young Marten, as the events recorded occurred too early 

 in the spring for young foxes to be about. On May 1st, 1892, 

 a Marten was trapped at Coolbawn Cottage, near Ballyhyland, as 

 recorded in ' The Zoologist' for March, p. 104. Col. H. Alcock, 

 of Wilton Castle, in a letter to Mr. C. F. Deane Drake, stated 

 (Oct. 15th, 1888), that "The last Marten-cat was trapped here 

 about fifty years ago." Miss S. Fothergill told me, in 1887, that 

 about ten years previously a Marten was killed at Berkeley, near 

 New Boss; it had its home in a hole in a bank. Major James 

 Glascott told me (in 1887) that a Marten was killed at Alderton, 

 about six miles from New Boss, about ten years ago. He 

 remembers Martens in the county, and says that they used to kill 

 the lambs. " G. H. K." writes to the ' Irish Sportsman ' (June 

 18th, 1892), "I have the skin of one that was killed somewhere 

 New Boss way." Most of the County Wexford is copse, highly 

 cultivated, and quite unsuitable for Martens. 



MUNSTEE. 

 Co. Clare. — G. H. K., writing in the 'Irish Sportsman' 

 (June 18th, 1893), confirms the statement that Martens occurred 

 on the estate of Baheen, Tangraney, and adds that, owing to the 

 protection afforded to them by the proprietor, " they overran the 

 counties of Clare and Galway. One gentleman, near Mount 



