306 
VERTEBRATA. 
it soon becomes attached to its master, but is not docile. The flesh is occasionally eaten, but 
not prized, by the Indians. The females are smaller than the males, go with young about six 
weeks, and produce from four to seven at a time, about the end of April. According to Mr. 
Graham, this marten is sometimes troubled with epilepsy. 
The fur of this animal is much esteemed, and the exportation of skins from the territories of the 
Hudson's Bay Company and Canada is very great. 
The Pekan, Fisher, or Pennant's Marten, M. Canadensis^ popularly called Black Fox and 
Black Cat in some parts of the United States, has a head somewhat resembling a cat, eyes small 
and oblique, body long, and formed for agility and strength; general color grayish brown; length 
of the body twenty-four inches. It runs with rapidity, and climbs trees with facility. When at- 
tacked by dogs it fights ferociously. Though nocturnal in its habits, it is frequently seen abroad 
in the day. It prefers low, swampy ground, and being partially web-footed, probably preys oc- 
casionally on fish : it generally feeds on mice, rabbits, grouse, and the like. It is said to have 
received the name of Fisher from a taste for fish used to bait traps. Richardson says it eats 
frogs, and he was informed that it had a fondness for the Canada porcupine, which it kills by 
turning it over and biting it on the belly. It is found from Virginia to the Great Slave Lake. It 
was very abundant in New England in the early periods of its history, but is now comparatively rare. 
The Japanese Sable, M. melancypus, is little known. 
It may be remarked that some uncertainty and confusion exist as to several species of mar- 
tens. The pine marten is generally regarded as the American sable, but, as already remarked, 
Dr. DeKay held a diff'erent opinion. Gervais mentions the Pekan and Pennant's marten as dis- 
tinct species, and several authors speak of the Huron Marten, M. Huro of Cuvier, as a distinct 
species, while it is no doubt a mere variety of the pine marten. 
The Sable, or Zibeline Marten, M. zihellina ; the Sohol of the Poles and Russians. — This is 
by far the most highly esteemed of all the martens; it ranks higher in respect to its fur than even 
the ermine. In form and size it does not differ greatly from the other martens, and there is also 
a slight resemblance in the character of the fur, though that of the martens is very inferior in all 
those qualities which are valued in furs. Though the fact is sometimes stated otherwise, the 
teeth of the sable are of exactly the same character as those of the martens, which indicates the 
same kind of living, and the capacity of partially subsisting upon vegetable matter when animal 
food is not to be had. But there is one character of the sable which points it out as belonging to 
a different locality, and that is, the feet being completely covered with fur down to the claws. 
Thus the sable is a more northerly animal than any of the martens, and much more a creature of 
the wilds. Accordingly, it is never met with in warm places, but only in the extremest wilds of 
Siberia and the vicinity, beyond the positive forests, and on the margins of the polar ice. 
The skin of the sable is exceedingly valuable; and though a very small one, a single skin 
fetches a large price. The animal is accordingly sought after with the greatest assiduity, and it 
may be said, that the desire of procuring sable-skins has conduced more than any thing else to the 
discovery of the extreme north and northeast of Asia. It is during winter that this hunting is 
carried on, and it is described as being more severe than the hunting of the fur animals in Amer- 
ica, because of the vast accumulations of broken ice, covered with snow, which skirt the shores of 
the sea, and contain between them the most dangerous pitfalls, concealed by snow. In America, 
the margin of the Polar Sea is no doubt as wild in itself as it is in Asia; but the American hunt- 
ing-ground does not come up into so high latitudes as the sable ground in Siberia; and thus, 
though the American hunter has long roads and severe cold, he is not beset by so many dangers. 
We need hardly mention that the fur of the sable, in its perfection, is a rich brown, marked Avith 
some white spots on the chin and sides of the head. The part where these spots are is not as 
much valued as the rest, and the furriers w^ork it up separately, and give it the name of "sable 
gill." 
Like the ermine, the sable is subject to an annual change of color. In summer it is black, and 
the change to brown that it undergoes in winter naturally follows the general law of being more 
perfect in proportion as the cold is more severe. The cold of the sable's country, however, is suffi- 
cient every winter for accomplishing any thing that cold can accomplish, whether it reside in the 
