THE BRITISH MARTEN. 455 



no specimen of the Marten has occurred in Norfolk in a truly 

 wild state since the second decade of the present century, and in 

 support of these isolated instances being " escapes," states that, 

 some years ago, he was informed that an Undergraduate at 

 Cambridge had had a number of live Martens sent to him from 

 Ireland, several of which had contrived to escape, and were said to 

 be living at large in his neighbourhood in the south of England. 

 He considers that "the same thing may well have happened in 

 Norfolk without its being suspected " (Trans. Norfolk Nat. Soc. 

 vol. iii. (1884), p. 668). This I venture to doubt. There are so 

 many keen naturalists and observant sportsmen in Norfolk that 

 it would be very difficult for any escaped Martens to be at liberty 

 without the fact becoming speedily known and talked about. 



Suffolk. — Three were killed in this county in 1811 by a 

 gamekeeper named Eichard Sharnton, on an estate, not named, 

 of four thousand acres (Daniel, 'Rural Sports,' Suppl. p. 585). 

 This same keeper acknowledged to have killed in that year 

 22 Foxes, 31 Polecats, and 446 Stoats. This is the account 

 referred to by Mr. Gurney (Trans. Norfolk Nat. Soc. vol. ii. p. 223) 

 and by Mr. Southwell (Zool. 1877, p. 338), neither of whom 

 allude to the fact that it had been printed by Daniel {I. c.) in 1813. 

 They have set down the number of Martens killed at forty-three, 

 instead of three ! but Daniel, writing only two years after the 

 event, was probably right. 



Cambridgeshire. — The skull of a Marten from Burwell Fen 

 has been described by Mr. J. W. Clark (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1873, 

 p. 790). The species has occurred at Madingly, and at Allington 

 Hill ; also at Caxton, but so long ago as 1844 (Rev. Leonard 

 Jenyns, now Blomefield). 



Northamptonshire.— In the summer of 1840, the Rev. L. 

 Jenyns received two young Martens from the neighbourhood of 

 Milton Park, near Peterborough. They were of equal size, 

 measuring 17 in. in length, exclusive of the tail, which was not 

 quite 9 in. (Annals & Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. vii. (1841) p. 263). 

 Lord Lilford writes that between forty and fifty years ago this 

 animal was not rare in Northamptonshire, and he remembers an 

 old gamekeeper, who had served his father and grandfather 

 before him, talking much of the number of Martens that used to 

 be found in the forest of Rockingham, near Brigstock, Corby, 

 and Weldon. His lordship has a dim recollection of a Marten 



