THE PINE MARTEN. 
239 
soles are less hairy ; and the top of the head is of the 
same dirty white colour with the chest and throat. 
There are also two British specimens of what appears 
to be the Pine Marten. Neither of them seems to be 
in its full winter dress ; but both are approaching to- 
wards it, and in diiferent degrees. They are both darker 
than the darkest of the former; and there is conse- 
quently less difference between the colour of the body 
and that of the legs and tail. The latter, however, 
become insensibly deeper and at length nearly black 
towards their extremities. The upper part and sides 
of the head are nearly of the same colour with the 
body ; the ears are pale yellow, especially round their 
margins ; the throat and chest marked with a broad 
well defined patch of yellow with somewhat of an orange 
tinge ; the under part of the toes moderately hairy ; but 
the claws nevertheless distinctly visible. In the fifth 
specimen, which was brought from the northern parts 
of America, the general colour is nearly the same with 
that of the individuals last mentioned ; but its tail is 
considerably shorter, a circumstance which we can 
scarcely regard as otherwise than accidental in the pre- 
sent instance. The sides of the head are somewhat 
paler ; and the throat, instead of a broad patch of white 
or yellow, exhibits only a kind of mottled appearance, 
formed by the intermixture of lighter and darker coloured 
spots of irregular shape and unequal size.' This latter 
has generally been regarded as a true Sable, and it 
must be owned that in some of its characters it ap- 
proaches to Pallas' description ; but if it be in reality 
any thing more than a variety of the Pine Marten, we 
should rather feel disposed to refer it to the race of 
Sables mentioned by that author as peculiar to America, 
and distinguished from those of Asia by their chestnut 
colour and the inferior quality of their fur. The Pine 
