This is so little different from the marten that some have thought it only a northern variety. That is not the case, as both are found in the same area, and no one who knows anything of form and colour could mistake the true sable's fur. This fur is so fine and even that each single hair tapers gradually to a point: that is why sable brushes for painting are so valuable; they always form a point when wet. The price of these brushes, which are of genuine sable fur, though made up from fragments of the worst-coloured or damaged skins, varies yearly with the price of sable in the market.
The Mink.
Ladies are very familiar with the fur of the Mink, which is one of the best of the less expensive varieties; it is not glossy as marten or sable, and of a lighter and more uniform brown. The mink is a water-haunting polecat, found in Siberia, North America, and Japan. Its main home is in North America, where the immense system of lakes and rivers gives scope for its aquatic habits. The under-fur is particularly warm and thick, to keep out the cold of the water, in which the animal spends more time than on land. It is not stated to catch fish, as does the otter, in the water; but it lives on frogs, crayfish, mussels, and dead or stranded fish. Minks have been kept in confinement and regularly bred in "minkeries," as is the blue fox, and in Manchuria the chow dog, for the sake of its fur.
By permission of Percy Leigh Pemberton, Esq.
PINE-MARTEN.
Pine-martens have most beautiful fur, and for that reason are much hunted in America.
The Polecat.
This is now probably the rarest of the British weasels. It is almost identically the same as the polecat-ferret, a cross-breed between it and the domesticated variety. It survives in a few of the great woodlands of the Midlands and of Oxfordshire, in Scotland, and Wales. It is found in Cumberland, near Bowness, and on Exmoor and Dartmoor where rabbits abound. It is an expert swimmer. Its habits are the same as those of the stoat, but it is slower in its movements. It catches fish, and can pick up food from the bottom of the water. Wild ones can be trained to work like ferrets. "They do not delay in the hole, but follow the rat out and catch it in a couple of bounds" (Trevor-Battye). The Ferret is a domesticated breed of polecat. It is identical in shape and habits, but unable to stand the cold of our climate in the open.
