138 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



them all home, put the kittens in a corn-bin, and chained the old 

 one up. She brought them up to full-grown. From handling 

 them (separated from the old one, which I could never tame), I 

 got the kittens as quiet and docile as the cats in our house. One 

 I kept for years, the others I gave away." 



Gloucestershire. — In the anonymously written * Journal of 

 a Naturalist,' by Mr. Knapp, of Thornbury, Gloucestershire, 

 published in 1830, the following observation is made with regard 

 to the Marten (p. 139):— " The Marten lingers with us still, 

 and every winter's snow becomes instrumental in its capture, 

 betraying its footsteps to those who are acquainted with the 

 peculiar traces it leaves." 



In the 'Annals of my Village' (Sheepscombe), by Mary 

 Eoberts (1829), the Marten, Polecat, and Weasel are mentioned 

 (p. 84) as " occasionally seen in our woods "; and at p. 87 of the 

 same work the following statement occurs : — " In looking over 

 some memorandums (sic) for this month (April) I find that a 

 brood of six young Martens were found in a hollow tree among 

 the Ebworth Woods, near Painswick." 



Mr. C. A. Witchell, of Stroud, writes that he was informed by 

 Mr. J. Scott Haywood, of Frocester, that in a large aviary some 

 years ago he kept a Marten which had been caught by a keeper 

 at Berkeley. He adds that Mr. Burgh, of Cheltenham, when 

 fishing near Frog Mill in that neighbourhood some years since, 

 saw a Marten run along the side of the brook, and noticed that 

 it was " a very ragged specimen." 



Mr. W. B. Strugnell, of Stroud, saw one which had been shot 

 ten years since (1881) in the Forest of Dean, and had been set 

 up by the late Mr. White, taxidermist, of Cheltenham. He also, 

 with Mr. Burgh, saw, at Mr. White's, another specimen, 

 which was well known to have been shot at Chickley Hill, near 

 Cheltenham." 



(To be continued.) 



