456 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



having been found and "treed" by the Fitzwilliam Hounds in 

 Barnwell Wold many years ago, and adds that the last he heard 

 of as being killed in the county was found within the last twenty 

 years in Yardley Chace. In Edward the Third's time (1369), 

 Thomas Engaine held lands at Pightesle (now called Pitchley), 

 in the county of Northampton, by the service of finding at his 

 own proper cost certain dogs for the destruction of Wolves, 

 Martens, Wild-cats, and other vermin within the counties of 

 Northampton, Eutland, Oxford, Essex, and Buckingham (Bot. 

 fin. 42 Edw. III. m. 13). He was doubtless a descendant of Sir 

 John d'Engaine (d'Engayne or d'Engagne), who in Edward the 

 First's time held land of the king at Pitchley of the annual value 

 of £20, with appurtenances, by the service of hunting the Wolf 

 for his pleasure in that county — "per servitium fugandi ad lupum 

 pro voluntate sua in comitatu isto" (Plac. Coron. 3 Ed. I. rot. 20). 



Oxfordshire. — Mr. 0. V. Aplin writes word that, many years 

 ago, a Marten was shot in Bruern Wood, near Chipping Norton, 

 and was thought to have strayed from Wychwood Forest. Another 

 was reported to have occurred in the woods at Wroxton Abbey, 

 but no direct evidence on the point has been received. 



Buckinghamshire. — Formerly found in the extensive beech- 

 woods (Lubbock, * Fauna,' p. 5). 



Berkshire. — In the ' Keport of the Wellington College Nat. 

 Hist. Society for 1878,' mention is made of a Marten taken at 

 Lord Downshire's, but no date or other particulars are given. 



Hertfordshire. — A Marten, killed in Oxey Wood, Dec. 26th, 

 1872, is preserved at Bushey. 



Essex. — Daniel, in his 'Kural Sports' (vol. i. p. 503), states 

 that a farmer in the parish of Terling, in Essex, was famous for 

 taming this animal, and had seldom less than two. He adds 

 that some years since (1801) one used to run tame about the 

 kitchen of the ' Baldfaced Stag,' on Epping Forest. About 1822 

 one was shot out of a Crow's nest in the W T altham Woods, near 

 Chelmsford, by Mr. Thomas Gopsill, of Bromfield, near Chelms- 

 ford (H.M. Wallis, Zool. 1879, p. 264). On Feb. 11th, 1881, being 

 at Colchester, Ambrose, the birdstuffer there, informed me that 

 the last Marten he had seen in Essex was killed in the autumn of 

 1845 at Walton, near Colchester, by a keeper who sold it to him 

 for half-a-crown. He skinned and preserved it, and disposed of 

 it to Mr. Maberley, of Colchester, for ten shillings. On Nov. 27th, 



