452 the zoologist. 



Koebuck state that about the commencement of the present cen- 

 tury the Marten was common in many districts of Yorkshire, and 

 that during the past thirty years its occurrence has been quite 

 exceptional and unlooked for (Handbook Yorks. Vertebrata, p. 6). 



Lancashire. — A dozen years ago the Marten was reported to 

 be still hunted in the neighbourhood of Barrow-in-Furness, where 

 it was estimated that from twelve to twenty of these animals were 

 killed annually (Durnford, Zool. 1877, p. 291). 



Cheshire. — Early in the " forties," a Marten was killed by a 

 gamekeeper, named Kobinson, in the service of the Marquis of 

 Westminster, at Whitley, not far from the old Forest of Dela- 

 mere ; and about the same time, another which had been trapped 

 at Hooton, in Wirral, was sent by Sir Thomas Stanley for pre- 

 servation to Mr. Mather, of Liverpool (Byerley, ' Fauna of 

 Liverpool,' p. 7). Mr. T. A. Coward, of Bowdon, has sent me 

 an extract from a letter which appeared some years ago in the 

 1 Manchester City News,' written by Mr. James F. Eobinson, 

 who says : — " With all my enquiries, I can only hear of two 

 Martens having been seen in Cheshire during the past fifty 



years My first observation of this animal was in seeing 



a captive specimen which had been caught in the Boyalties, a 

 wooded district behind the hills at Frodsham. It was kept in 

 the house by old John Hulse (well known in Manchester), along 

 with owls, thrushes, larks, linnets, and other birds. My next 

 record was a memorable one. I was out one Saturday, together 

 with several school companions, after the foxhounds on foot in 

 the neighbourhood of Eddisbury Hill, in the Forest of Delamere, 

 when all at once the hounds were at fault. This was accounted 

 for by some animal having passed recently over the ground. We 

 had not long to wait before it was started from beneath a clump 

 of gorse-bushes, and ran speedily out of sight up the trees. From 

 its light fawn colour it could not be a Polecat, and the huntsman 



and others declared it was a Pine Marten " Mr. Coward 



adds: — "I obtained a very fine head of the Pine Marten about 

 five years ago from a huntsman who had been exercising the 

 foxhounds by Buttermere, in Cumberland; but as the Lake 

 District seems the last stronghold of this beautiful animal, you 

 have probably plenty of notes of occurrence in that district." 



Shropshire. — In 1838, two Martens were reported to have 

 been killed at Stapleton, near Shrewsbury ; and the late T. C. 



