THE PINE MARTEN. 
237 
existence of a true Sable, as a distinct species from the 
Martens, although unknown to later zoologists. 
The history of these animals from the time of Pallas 
to the present day may be very briefly dismissed. The 
three species have been almost universally enumerated 
by authors ; but little or nothing has been added to 
that which was previously known concerning them. 
Each has copied with more or less correctness that 
which had been before copied by his predecessors ; and 
the white patch on the throat of the Beech Marten, the 
yellow on that of the Pine Marten, and the irregularity 
of these markings in the Sable, together with its woolly 
toes and shorter tail, have been given by all the best 
authors as the discriminating marks of the species. 
Of the more careless compilers some, however, have 
strangely blundered. Thus, M. Desmarest has omitted 
the most important characters given by Pallas for the 
Sable, and has, on his own authority, furnished it with 
a tail of two-thirds the length of its body, while that of 
the Pine and Beech Martens is stated to measure but 
little more than the half. We know of but one instance 
since Linnaeus in which the two latter animals have 
been even apparently conjoined, and this occurs in a 
little Essay on the Scottish Mammalia by the late 
Dr. Walker. He does not, it is true, mention the 
former, and possibly may not have regarded it as a 
native of Scotland : he characterizes the species, how- 
ever, in the words of Linnaeus, and observes that, as the 
animal advances in age, its throat becomes yellower. 
Our own observations shall be compressed into as 
small a space as possible. The individuals figured in 
our cut were sent from Russia to the late Marchioness 
of Londonderry as specimens of the true Sable. From 
this animal, as described by Pallas, they were at once 
distinguished by the well defined yellow patch spreading 
