PINE MARTEN. 
179 
forth her young in a fallen hollow log, a hole under rocks, or in a burrow, 
generally in April or May. These animals are chiefly caught with dead- 
falls baited with meat of any kind, birds, rabbits, squirrels, &c., and 
generally a hunter has many traps set, each of which he visits as often 
as once or twice a week. The Martens are sometimes devoured by 
larger animals after they have been caught. They are only trapped in 
the autumn and winter. 
The fur of this species has been considered valuable, and when in fashion 
the skins were worth good prices. It is often palmed off on purchasers as 
fur of a more costly kind, and for this purpose is dyed any desired colour. 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
This species inhabits the wooded districts of the northern parts of 
America from the Atlantic to the Pacific in great numbers, and Richard- 
son remarks that it is particularly abundant where the trees have been 
killed by fire but are still standing. Hearne observed that it is very rare 
in the district lying north of Churchill river, and east of Great Slave lake. 
Pennant states that on the Asiatic side of Behring’s straits, twenty-five 
degrees of longitude in breadth are equally unfrequented by the Marten, 
and for the same reason — the absence of trees. 
The limit of its northern range in America is, like that of the woods, 
about the 68th degree of latitude. It is found in the hilly and wooded 
parts of the northern Atlantic States. We have seen specimens obtained 
from near Albany and from the Catskill Mountains, and it is also found in 
the northern parts of Pennsylvania. Its southern limit is about lat. 40°. 
We have sought for it in vain on the mountains of Virginia, where not- 
withstanding, we think a straggler will occasionally make its appearance. 
On the eastern continent it inhabits all the north of Europe and Asia. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
Some American naturalists have expressed great doubts whether our 
American Marten is identical with that of the north of Europe, and have 
supposed that it might be designated under a separate specific name. W e 
have not had an opportunity of comparing specimens from the two conti- 
nents with each other, as we could find no museum in which specimens 
from both continents were contained. We have, however, examined and 
taken descriptions of them separately, and have been able to detect so 
little difference that we cannot regard them even as varieties. 
It has been frequently asserted by hunters, that the true Sable exists 
