Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/605

Rh M A R M A R 577 of which zoologists have any cognizance. Enormous numbers of animals are annually caught, chiefly in traps, to supply the demand of the fur trade, Siberia and North America being the principal localities from which they are obtained. With the exception of the Fekan (J/. pcnnanti) all the Martens are so much alike in size, general colouring, and cranial and dental characters that the discrimination of the species, and assign ment of the proper geographical distribution to each, has been a subject which has sorely perplexed the ingenuity and patience of zoologists. The following description by Dr Elliott Coues of the external characters of the American Pine Marten (M. amcricana) will apply almost equally well to most of the others. &quot; It is almost impossible to describe the colour of the Pine Marten, except in general terms, without going into the details of the endless diversities occasioned by age, sex, season, or other incidents. The animal is brown, of a shade from orange or tawny to quite blackish ; the tail and feet are ordinarily the darkest, the head lightest, often quite whitish ; the ears are usually rimmed with whitish ; on the throat there is usually a large tawny-yellowish or orange-brown patch, from the chin to the fore legs, sometimes entire, sometimes broken into a number of smaller, irregular blotches, sometimes wanting, sometimes prolonged on the whole under surface, when the animal is bicolor like a Stoat in summer. The general brown has a greyish cast, as far as the under fur is concerned, and is overlaid with rich lustrous blackish-brown in places where the long bristly hairs prevail. The claws are whitish ; the naked nose pad and whiskers are black. The tail occasionally shows interspersed white hairs, or a white tip.&quot; The species generally recognized as distinct are the following, the first five belonging to the Old and the last two to the New World. 1. Mustclafoina, Erxleben ; the Beech Marten, Stone Marten, or White-breasted Marten. Distinguished from the following by the greater breadth of the skull, and some minute but constant dental characters, by the dull greyish-brown colour of the fur of the upper parts, and the pure white of the throat and breast. It inhabits the greater part of the Continent of Europe, but is more southern than the next in its distribution, not being found in Sweden or Norway, nor, according to the recent investigations of Mr Alston, in the British Isles, although included in their fauna by all earlier writers. 2. M. martcs, Linn ; Martcs syhatica, Nilsson ; M. abietum, Fleming; the Pine Marten (see figure). Outer fur rich dark brown ; under fur reddish-grey, with clear yellow tips ; breast spot usually yellow, varying from bright orange to pale cream-colour or yellowish-white. Length of head and body 16 to 18 inches ; of tail (including the hair) 9 to 12 inches. This species is extensively distributed throughout northern Europe and Asia, and was formerly European Pine Marten (Mustela martes). From life. common in most parts of Great Britain and Ireland. Though commonly called &quot; Pine Marten,&quot; it does not appear to have any special preference for coniferous trees, except that, inasmuch as they constitute the greater proportion of the forests of the countries which it inhabits, it is more often met with in them than in any other. With regard to its recent occurrence in the British Isles, Mr Alston writes in Proc. of Zool. Society of London, 1879 : &quot; AthouRh greatly reduced in numbers by persecution, it still maintains its (ground in the wilder districts of Scotland, the north of England, Wales, and Ireland ; and occasionally specimens are killed in counties where the species was thought to have been long extinct. In Scotland it is still found, though com paratively rarely, in the Lews and in most of the Highland mainland counties being perhaps most abundant in Sutherland and Koss-shire, especially in the decr forests. In the Lowlands a Marten is now a very great rarity ; but a fine example was killed in Ayrshire in the winter of 1875-76. In the north of England Mr W. A. Durnford says the species is still plentiful in the wilder parts of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire, and in Lincolnshire several have been recorded, the latest killed in 18G5, by Mr Cordeaux. 1 In Norfolk one was shot last year ; and I have myself examined a fine example which was shot in Hertfordshire, within 20 miles of London, in December 187:. In Dorsetshire the last is said to have been killed in 1804 ; but a specimen occurred in Hampshire about forty years ago, and another in Surrey in 1847. In Ireland the following counties were enumerated by Thompson as habitats of this species : Donegal, Londonderry, Antrim, Down, Armagh, Fermanagh, Longford, Gulway, Tipperaiy, Cork, and Kerry. The Cat-crann is probably now a rarer animal in Ireland than it was when Thompson wrote ; but it still exists in various districts, especially in County Kerry, whence the society has received several living examples; and Professor A. Lcith Adams states that it has been seen of latft years even in county Dublin.&quot; 3. M. zibcllina, Linnseus ; the Sable (German, Zobcl and Zcbd ; Swedish, sabcl; Russian, sold, a word probably of Turanian origin). Closely resembling the last, if indeed differing from it except in the quality of the fur, which is the most highly valued of that of all the group. Found chiefly in eastern Siberia. 4. M. flavigula, Boddaert ; the Indian Marten. Inhabits the southern slopes of the Himalayas, the Nilgiri Hills, the interior of Ceylon, the Malay Peninsula, and Java. 5. M. mclampus, Wagner. Japan. 6. M. amcricana, Turton ; the North-American Sable or Marten. A species so closely allied to the European Pine. Marten and Asiatic Sable that it is very difficult to assign constant dis tinguishing characters between them. The importance of the fur of this animal as an article of commerce may be judged of from the fact that 15,000 skins were sold in one year by the Hudson s Bay Company as long ago as 1743, and the more recent annual imports into Great Britain have exceeded 100,000. It is ordinarily caught in wooden traps of very simple construction, being little enclosures of stakes or brush in which the bait is placed upon a trigger, with a short upright stick supporting a log of wood, which falls upon its victim on the slightest disturbance. A line of such traps, several to a mile, often extends many miles. The bait is any kind of meat, a mouse, squirrel, piece of fish, or bird s head. It is principally trapped during the colder months, from October to April, when the fur is in good condition, as it is nearly valueless during the shed ding in summer. Dr Coues tells us that, notwithstanding the persistent and uninterrupted destruction to which the American Sable is subjected, it does not appear to diminish materially in numbers in unsettled parts of the country. It holds its own partly in consequence of its shyness, which keeps it away fiom the abodes of men, and partly because it is so prolific, bringing forth six to eight young at a litter. Its home is sometimes a den under ground or beneath rocks, but oftener the hollow of a tree, and it is said frequently to take forcible possession of a squirrel s nest, driving oil or devouring the rightful proprietor. 7. M. pcnnanti, Erxleben ; the Pekan or Pennant s Marterr, also called Fisher Marten, though there appears to be nothing in its habits to justify the appellation. This is the largest species of the group, the head and body measuring from 24 to 30 inches, and the tail 14 to 18 inches. It is also more robust in form than thfr others, its general aspect being more that of a Fox than a Weasel ; in fact its usual name among the American hunters is &quot; Black Fox.&quot; Its general colour is blackish, lighter by mixture of brown or grey on the head and upper fore part of the body, with no light patch on the throat, and unlike the other Martens generally darker below than above. It was generally distributed in wooded districts throughout the greater part of North America, as far north as Great Slave Lake, lat. 63 N., and Alaska, and extending south to the parallel of 35 ; but at the present time it is almost exterminated in the settled parts of the United States east of the Mississippi. See Elliott Coues, Fur-scaring Animals, a Monograph of North America* Hfustelidiv, 1877; E. R. Alston, &quot;On the British Martens,&quot; Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1879, p. 468. (W. H. F.) MARTIAL (M. VALERIUS MARTIALIS) is a writer to whose merits it is difficult to do justice in the present day. His faults are of the most glaring kind ; they are exhibited: without the least concealment ; and they are of the sort of which modern feeling is most intolerant. Living as he- did under perhaps the worst of the many bad emperors who ruled the world in the 1st century, he addresses him and his favourites with the most servile flattery in his lifetime, reviles him immediately after his death (xii. 6), and offers equally fulsome incense at the shrine of his successor. No writer of equal genius has ever shown such an absence of dignity and independence of character in his relation to his richer friends and patrons. He is not ashamed 1 The Zoologist for June 1882 records the recent capture of a Marten in a trap near Bardney in Lincolnshire. XV. - 73