CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 6. CARNIYORA. 
305 
hair. The fur is of two sorts — the inner extremely soft, short, copious, and of a light yellowish- 
gray color; the outer very long, shining, ash-colored at the roots, brown at the extremity, but of 
different degrees of intensity at different parts of the body ; the middle of the back, the tail, the 
outer parts of the legs and the feet, being darker than the other parts; the belly lighter and more 
gray ; the throat white. Length of head and body one foot six inches ; of the tail, nine inches 
six lines. 
This marten is found more remote from Avoods, though it is often met with in them, and more 
frequently in mountainous and stony places, and nearer the habitations of man than the pine mar- 
ten. It prefers the vicinity of farm-yards and homesteads, and is a ruinous visitor to them and 
the game-preserve. It is an expert climber, and is lively, active, and graceful in its movements. 
The nest of the female is constructed of herbage, straw, or grass, sometimes in the hollow of a 
tree, sometimes in the crevices of rocks, not unfrequently in a ruin, and occasionally in granaries 
or barns. The fur is considered very far inferior to that of the pine marten, and is known in the 
trade as the skin of the Stone Marten. Many are imported from the north of Europe, and dyed 
to represent sable. The comparatively poor quality of the fur, however, is immediately percept- 
ible to the experienced eye, although, as is the case with most of the animals which are used for 
their fur, the northern skins are fuller, richer in color, and more lustrous than those from more 
temperate climates. 
The Pine Marten, Martes abietiim, the Mustela martes of Linnaeus. — Of this .species the general 
color is brown, though as in the case of the preceding, subject to variation in the depth of the tint ; 
throat yellow ; toes naked beneath ; legs longer and head smaller than in the beech marten. Tliis 
is the Marie of the French ; Marta^ Martura, Martora^ and Martorello of the Italians ; Marta of 
the Spanish; Feld-Marder £md Wild-Ma7'der of the Germans ; Jfarier of the Dutch ; Wawpeestan 
of the Cree Indians ; Watoheechins of the Algonquins ; Sable of the American Fur-Dealers, 
though Dr. DeKay thinks the American sable a distinct species ; and Marten of the Hudson's 
Bay Company's Lists. It is found in Europe and North America. In its habits it resembles 
the beech marten in many respects, but it shuns the neighborhood of man— living in Europe in 
deep forests, and preying on birds and the smaller animals. The female deposits six to eight 
young ones, in a nest of moss and leaves, formed in some hollow tree, when she does not take 
possession of that of the squirrel or the woodpecker. 
In America it inhabits the woody districts in the northern parts, from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, in great numbers, and has been observed to be particularly abundant where the trees 
have been killed by fire, but are still standing. It lives in the trees, is nocturnal in its habits, 
and destroys great numbers of the smaller squirrels. " It is very rare," says Richardson, " as 
Hearne has remarked, in the district lying north of Churchill River and east of Great Slave 
Lake, known by the name of Chepewyan or Barren Lands. A similar district, on the Asiatic 
side of Behring's Straits, twenty-five degrees of longitude in breadth, and inhabited by the 
Tchutsld, is described by Pennant as equally unfrequented by the marten, and for the same rea- 
son, the want of trees. The limit of its northern range in America is like that of the woods, 
about the sixty-eighth degree of latitude, and it is said to be found as far south as New England. 
Particular races of martens, distinguished by the fineness and dark colors of their fur, appear to 
inhabit certain rocky districts. The rocky and mountainous but woody district of the ISTipigon, 
on the north side of Lake Superior, has long been known for its black and valuable marten- 
skins." It might have been added that this animal is found as far south as Pennsylvania. 
The same author gives the length of the head and body at from eighteen to twenty inches, and 
notices a remark of the natives that the fur loses all its luster, and consequently much of its 
value, upon the falling of the first shower of rain for the season. He further states that this 
animal preys on mice, hares, and partridges, and in summer on small birds' eggs, &c. A par- 
tridge's head, with the feathers, is, he says, the best bait for the long-traps in which it is taken. 
It does not reject carrion, and often destroys the hoards of meat and fish laid up by the natives, 
when they have accidentally left a crevice by which it can enter. When its retreat is cut off, it 
shows its teeth, sets up its hair, arches its back, and hisses hke a cat. It will seize a dog by the 
nose and bite so hard, that, unless the latter is well used to the combat, it escapes. Easily tamed, 
Vol. I.— 39 
