MR. FRANCIS NICHOLSON ON THE PINE MARTEN lxi 



Marts alive within a few days of one another in Newlands, one 

 of which I sent up to the Zoological Gardens. A relative 

 caught one a year or two ago in the woods above Little 

 Crosthwaite, near Bassenthwaite Lake, on one of the hills of the 

 Skiddaw range. The Marten, though very fond of Babbits, is 

 much more varied in its food than the Polecat, for if you pull 

 the " corks " or dried excrement to pieces, you will find remains 

 of mice and birds quite as often as rabbit fur. The country 

 Martens' follow is more away from the game-preserving country 

 than the haunts of the Polecat, and that perhaps is why they 

 have held their own better than the Polecat, which frequents the 

 neighbourhood of Rabbits and of hen roosts/ The remainder 

 of Mr. Nicholson's remarks are included in the following article, 

 which he communicated independently to the Manchester Guardian 

 of March 20, 1884:— 



'It is evident that the Pine Marten is imagined to be of 

 greater rarity than is actually the case, for, although nowhere 

 numerous as a species, it is found in small numbers in suitable 

 localities over most of the north of England, but more par- 

 ticularly in the Lake District. The Sweet Mart, as it is called in 

 contradistinction to the Foumart (foulmart) or Polecat, is a great 

 wanderer, often turning up in localities where it was supposed 

 to be extinct, and found again after a long interval frequenting 

 the same spot as in former times. Severe winters may no doubt 

 have some influence on their movements in causing them to 

 wander and extend the area of their hunting-grounds, and also 

 the abundance or scarcity of food. It occurs occasionally in the 

 mountainous parts of Northumberland, Durham, Westmoreland, 

 and the Furness district of North Lancashire ; but in Cumber- 

 land, where it is most numerous, it is hunted with fox-hounds, 

 and a few are killed every winter. They make a capital hunt, 

 and hounds are very keen when on their scent. They usually 

 make at once for the rocks and crevices, going at a great pace at 

 first, but are soon run into unless they succeed in reaching some 

 hole in a crag where hounds and huntsmen cannot follow. They 

 fight desperately with both claws and teeth. When before 

 hounds on level and snow-clad ground they proceed with a 

 succession of astonishing long leaps, often six or seven feet 



