THE PINE MARTEN. 
233 
in the same track in 1756, but with the advantage of 
a better knowledge of his subject, distinguishes the 
Beech and Pine Martens, from his own observation, 
simply by the colour of their throats, and describes the 
Sable, which he acknowledges never to have seen, after 
Ray and the older writers. 
In the mean time the great work of Buffon and 
Daubenton was steadily proceeding in the accumula- 
tion of facts, and in their arrangement under a popular 
and attractive form. Daubenton, who furnished most 
of the descriptive and all the anatomical details, ap- 
pears to have been in great doubt whether to regard 
the Beech and Pine Marten as distinct species, or as 
mere varieties ; and to have been at last determined 
to consider them in the previous light, by the circum- 
stance that he had never met with a mixed or interme- 
diate breed. " They resemble one another so closely,' ' 
he says, " in external form and internal structure, 
that the sole distinction between them consists in the 
colours of the fur." — " The Pine Marten," he con- 
tinues, " has the throat yellow, while that of the Beech 
Marten is white ; and the tints of colour are altogether 
more beautiful, and their lustre more brilliant in the 
former than in the latter." — " Both," he says, " are 
found in all kinds of woods, and even in those which 
have neither firs nor beeches — the Beech Marten is also 
improperly considered a domestic animal, for although 
it seeks its prey in inhabited places, it is but little less 
wild than the Pine Marten." Buffon, on the contrary, 
finds in their supposed difference of disposition a theme 
for the exercise of his eloquence, and exaggerates 
beyond the bounds of probability the fancied contrast 
between the two animals. Neither Buffon nor Dau- 
benton speak of the Sable as an animal of which they 
had any personal knowledge ; nor is it figured in their 
work. 
