MAMMALS. 



173 



reported to Harvie-Brown by Frazer, the keeper at Delnabo, near 

 Tomintoul. 



Mr. J. G. Phillips (formerly Curator of the Elgin Museum) spoke 

 of it in 1886 as 'slowly dying out.' Mr. Phillips has had many 

 opportunities of personal inspection and inquiry, as he made many 

 pleasant excursions amongst the Inverness and Banff hills, about 

 the sources of Glenlivet and Avon.^ 



St. John relates that Martens are fond of fruit, and will climb 

 the bushes after it ; in one instance he trapped one of these 

 creatures that came nightly to steal his raspberries. The same 

 author seems to have early come to the conclusion that there was 

 no difference between the two species of Marten, — as indicated, 

 until lately, on the British list ; — and we are indebted to the late 

 Mr. E. R. Alston for finally settling that question. 



Martens linger longest where there is abundance of native 

 pine woods. Their power of concealing themselves must be 

 very considerable if we look at the curious sporadic occurrences 

 of the species at localities apparently long previously untenanted ; 

 but the true cause of these isolated occurrences, there is every 

 evidence to prove, is the wandering habit of the species. They 

 could scarcely for so long escape the rabbit-traps set in numbers 

 in the Lowlands ; and it is only amongst the rough boulder-strewed 

 hillsides and old pine woods, or amongst the rank growths of 

 heather, where there are comparatively few rabbits, and where 

 they are not systematically trapped, that Martens can long 

 exist in security. Rabbit-trapping in the Lowlands, and game- 

 preserving and baited traps in the Highlands, we believe to be the 

 two principal factors in the exterminating process as regards the 

 Marten. We cannot, owing to this wandering habit, so easily trace 

 a boundary line between the districts inhabited and those unin- 

 habited by the species, but a sufficiently accurate idea can be 

 formed if these notes be studied, map in hand. 



Mustela vulgaris, i^r./i. Weasel. 

 Local Name. — Mouse-Weasel. 



Very abundant; and this may arise from the great amount of 

 shelter afforded it by old dry-stone dykes, and the amount of 



^ Vide his Hi'jhland Wandtriwjs. 



