134 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Few of even the oldest keepers can remember ever to have seen 

 one alive, and those who do generally wind up with some such 

 remark as ' forty or fifty years ago I killed one, but with the 

 steel traps we have long since cleared off all such vermin as that.' 



" Some bones of the Marten were identified amongst those of 

 the Eed-deer, the Badger, the Great Auk, and many others, 

 which were taken from the caves at Whitburn Lizards, in 1879, 

 and sent to the Newcastle Museum by Mr. John Daglish 

 (' Natural History Transactions of Northumberland and Durham/ 

 vol. vii. p. 363) ; but this, though very near the boundary of 

 Northumberland, is upon the Durham side of the Tyne. While, 

 though rather foreign to the subject of this note, it may not be 

 out of place to mention that two very good specimens in my 

 possession were killed near Cark-in-Cartmel, Lancashire, in 1884 

 and 1885. 



" Before concluding, I would point out that, owing probably 

 to a lapsus calami, the Marten referred to by Mr. Harting as 

 having been 'killed' on the North Tyne, in July, 1871, will be 

 found, on turning up the reference given ('Naturalist,' 1886, 

 p. 278), to have been only ' seen ' by a gentleman while fishing, 

 but fortunately allowed to escape." We have since received con- 

 firmation of this from a relative of the gentleman referred to. 

 The animal was seen to come down to the river and swim freely 

 across of its own accord, that is, without being chased ; showing 

 that the Marten, like the Squirrel, although so arboreal in its 

 habits, is by no means averse to water. 



Lincolnshire. — Mr. A. E. Staniland, of 31, South Eaton 

 Place, S.W., writes : — " In your list of Martens killed in Lincoln- 

 shire, I see there is not recorded one that was killed in Witheall 

 Brackens, near Louth, some time in the seventies (I forget the 

 exact date). It is now in the Oxford Museum. With regard to 

 the Polecat, although it has become much rarer within the last 

 few years in the east of the county, two have come to my know- 

 ledge as being trapped within the last month or two." 



Suffolk. — Mr. G. T. Rope, of Leiston, calls attention to the 

 omission from the last article of the following note which 

 appeared in 'The Field' during the year 1889: — " 'A male speci- 

 men of the Pine Marten was shot on May 29th (1889) in a Scotch 

 fir plantation at Sutton, near Woodbridge, by the head keeper to 

 Mr. Burness, and is now in the hands of Mr. Aston, of Wood- 



