MUSTELA PENNANTI 5 I 



are '' giants among men," and " giant wolves," so are there giants 

 among Fishers. They are always males. About twenty years ago 

 E. L. Sheppard caught one on Seventh Lake (Fulton Chain) that 

 was estimated to weigh about forty pounds and whose skin was 

 larger than that of a good-sized Otter! In my Osteological Cabinet 

 reposes the skull of a Fisher that measures five inches in length. It 

 was presented to me by Mr. John Constable, who killed it between 

 Stony Lake and " The Hollow," near Independence River, dur- 

 ino- the early part of the winter of 1840. Mr. Constable tells me 

 that it ascended a gigantic dead pine, the tip of which had broken 

 off. The " stub" of this tree was more than six feet through at the 

 base, and upwards of an hundred and fifty feet in height. The Fisher 

 climbed to the very top and lodged in a depression where the tip 

 had broken off. He was shot but was so lodged that he did not fall, 

 and the tree had to be felled before he was secured. The pine was 

 an unusually fine one — a straight pillar, tapering uniformly to the top, 

 and so perpendicular and well balanced that when the side choppings 

 met it did not fall, and was with great difficulty overthrown. When 

 it did finally tumble, and the cloud of snow that filled the air as it 

 came crashing and thundering to the ground had cleared away, the 

 Fisher was found to be dead. It proved to be in keeping with the 

 tree it had climbed, for it was as large as an Otter and by far the 

 biggest Fisher that Mr. Constable, or the old hunter with him, had 

 ever seen. 



Though chiefly nocturnal they sometimes hunt by day. They are 

 expert climbers and have been known to leap from one tree to an- 

 other when in pursuit of their prey, and also when badly frightened. 



Their nest is made in the hollow of some standing tree, generally 

 thirty or forty feet from the ground, and from two to four young are 

 commonly brought forth about the first of May. 



