The skull is much more elongated than either a Bear’s or a Glutton’s; the tympanic bullæ are slightly swollen, and the jugal arches, beneath which the jaw muscles pass, are comparatively narrow and slender. As in the Wolverene, there are thirty-eight teeth, eighteen in the upper, twenty in the lower jaw, and the molars are thoroughly carnivorous in character, being produced into sharp, trenchant, cutting edges.
The Pine Marten occurs over a considerable portion of Europe and Asia, and, amongst other places, in Great Britain, where, however, it is becoming rare. The finest specimens are said to come from Sweden.
This animal is essentially arboreal in its habits, inhabiting chiefly thick coniferous woods, whence its name of Pine Marten is derived. In the branches the female makes a nest of leaves or moss, and sometimes saves herself this trouble by ejecting Squirrels or Woodpeckers, and occupying the vacant dwellings. For its size it is, like all the Mustelidæ, extremely ferocious and strong. It attacks and kills Fawns, notwithstanding their superior size; from these down to mice, nothing comes amiss to it, and nothing is safe from its attacks.
The Beech Marten, or Stone Marten (Mustela foina), differs from the foregoing species in certain characters of the skull and teeth, as well as in the fact that the throat is white instead of yellow. Its habits are, on the whole, similar to those of the Pine Marten, but it is more often found away from woods, on the sides of mountains and rocks, or in the neighbourhood of farms. Its general distribution is the same as that of the Pine Marten, but it is decidedly more common than the latter in Great Britain.
THE PEKAN.[167]
The Pekan, or Pennant’s Marten, is a North American species. It is much larger than either of the preceding, the body attaining a length of thirty inches from snout to root of tail, while the tail itself is about sixteen inches long. The face is more Dog-like than that of the Common Marten; the skin is brown, becoming lighter in the front part of the back, and presenting white patches on the chest and belly.
Like the Pine Marten, it is a good climber, but, unlike it, shows a partiality, not for the driest parts of the wood, but for the neighbourhood of water. Its chief food seems to be Mice, but it is also fond of stealing the fish used to bait traps—whence it is often called the Fisher—and Sir J. Richardson states that its favourite meal is the Canadian Porcupine, which it kills by a bite on its unprotected belly, and eats, notwithstanding the quills. Sometimes it is forced, by want of better food, to eat beech-nuts.
THE SABLE.[168]
This is another species of the same genus, important from the fact that it is the most valuable of the fur-producing animals. Its skin seems to have been even more precious in former times than now. A writer in the sixteenth century states that “forty of the best quality, which is the quantity usually packed in one bale, have been sold for more than a thousand pieces of gold.”
The Sable is found in the northern parts of Asia, being especially abundant between the Lena and Kamstchatka. It differs markedly from the true Martens in the form of its head, which is conical, the apex of the cone being formed by the pointed snout, while from its base project the pointed, and, for a Mustela, large ears. The legs and feet, too, are larger and stronger than in the other species of this genus.