THE BRITISH MARTEN. 135 



bridge, for preservation. It measured 27 inches in length, and 

 weighed a trifle over 4 lbs. The keeper informs me that another 

 was seen, no doubt the female. The one killed was carrying a 

 full-grown young wood pigeon. — Chas. E. Fisher (Sunt, of 

 Police).' 



" The editorial footnote to this communication, expressing 

 regret that this animal, now so rare, should always be destroyed 

 whenever met with, probably represents the feelings of most 

 readers of ' The Zoologist.' Indeed, the only wonder is that 

 every possible effort was not made to protect it. This applies, 

 too, with greater force if the second Marten reported to have 

 been seen was indeed a female ; as, from the secluded and wild 

 character of that part of the country, it seems not unreasonable 

 to suppose that they might have bred there. Though this par- 

 ticular Marten had in all probability escaped from confinement 

 (perhaps in some travelling menagerie),* it would, I think, be 

 difficult to find a district in the eastern part of the county of 

 Suffolk apparently better suited to the habits of this beautiful 

 animal. The parish of Sutton forms part of a wild heathy tract, 

 bounded to the southward by the wide estuary of the Eiver 

 Deben, and abounding with fir-woods, some of them (as, for in- 

 stance, Tangham Forest) of considerable size. At no great 

 distance, too, is that small but magnificent bit of ancient wood- 

 land, Staverton Park, believed by some to be a veritable remnant 

 of the primaeval forest with which so large a proportion of our 

 island was once covered. It would be hard (barring its limited 

 extent) to imagine a more secure retreat for such an animal as 

 the Marten than would be afforded by the many immense hollies 

 and patriarchal ivy-clad oaks of this wood. Nature, indeed, 

 seems here to have had her own way entirely, and for ages trees 

 appear to have sprung up, grown to maturity, and at length died 

 of sheer old age, without man's interference. Among the deep 

 gloomy recesses of this old-world wilderness one might well 

 imagine even the wolf still to lurk. 



" My father remembers having seen, when a boy, an occa- 

 sional Marten nailed up on a barn. This was near Ubbeston, 



■•'- "We do not think this at all likely ; not only because two were seen, hut 

 also because, so far as our experience, the Marten is not an animal usually 

 procured and exhibited by owners of travelling menageries. — Ed. 



