THE MARTEN IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 7 
for? In my opinion the answer to this question is to be found 
in the Marten’s innate love of roving. This trait would not be 
noticeable as long as the animal was common, because any 
examples met with would be regarded as denizens of the districts 
where they occurred. It would only become obvious when a 
Marten turned up in a district where it had been long regarded 
as extinct. 
Independently of such incidents, however, several writers 
have noted the Marten’s propensity for roaming. Thus Mr. 
George Bolam, of Berwick-on-Tweed, writes (Zool. 1893, p. 182) : 
“The travelling capabilities of the Marten are too well known 
to require further comment.” Again, Mr. Dumville Lees, 
reporting the Abermule specimen in the ‘ Field,’ Nov. 23rd, 1895, 
remarks :—‘‘I know that Martens travel long distances at all 
times, but particularly in the early spring.”’ (Parenthetically, 
I may state that the isolated occurrences of the Marten recorded 
above were mostly in the early part of May.) In a later issue 
Mr. E. O. Partridge, of Farchynys, near Dolgelley (who had a 
more intimate acquaintance with the Welsh Marten than anyone 
else in recent times), adds :—‘‘I quite endorse the opinion of 
Mr. Lees that Martens travel long distances, but I think that, 
as a rule, after their night’s ramble, they return and remain 
pretty much in any favourite locality where they have taken up 
their quarters. It has more than once happened to us, when 
the snow has been lying deep on the Grouse-moor, to hit on the 
track of a Marten, and, after following it for miles, to find, 
just as evening was coming on, that the ring of many miles had 
brought us round pretty nearly to the point of starting.” It 
has been found, by tracking in the snow, that frequently the 
Marten will cover a circuit of fifteen miles in a day, and that not 
when it was flying from pursuit but merely seeking food. 
To an animal that will travel such distances of its own accord 
the journey from (say) Dolgelley to Abermule would be a trifle, 
so it is conceivable that, if the quest for food had brought a 
Marten over the intervening high land, it might take up its 
quarters in this new district. 
It is to such circumstances as these, I believe, that the recent 
occurrences in Shropshire, and those recorded at Katon, Hope, 
and Connah’s Quay are due. 
