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Show 474 MR. E. R. ALSTON ON THE BRITISH MARTENS. [J its own fully as well as its ally ; and a subfossil skull found in Burwell Fen, Cambridgeshire, and exhibited to this Society in 1873, by Mr. J. W . Clark \ is certainly referable to M. sylvatica. The true Beech Marten is undoubtedly a more southern species than its congener, finding its northern limits in Denmark and the Baltic Provinces; for Professor Lilljeborg has proved that it is not, as had been stated, a native of Sweden2. Until an authentic British specimen has been produced, it must also, I think, be struck out of the lists of the British fauna. I will conclude with a few remarks on the present distribution of the Pine Marten in Britain, much of the information being gleaned from the pages of the * Zoologist.' Although 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 comparatively rarely, in the Lews and in most of the Highland mainland counties, being perhaps most abundant in Sutherland and Ross-shire, especially in the deer-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 says3, 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 1865, by Mr. Cordeaux 4. In Norfolk one was shot last year *; and I have myself examined a fine example, which was shot in Hertfordshire, within twenty miles of London, in December 1872. In Dorsetshire the last is said to have been killed in 18046; but a specimen occurred in Hampshire about forty years ago7, and another in Surrey in 1847. A Marten is said, by the Rev. C. A. Bury, to have been "seen" in the Isle of Wight8; and one was recorded from Cornwall, by Mr. E. Hearle Rod 9; but this proves on investigation to be an error, the specimen having been brought from North Wales, where Martens appear to be still not very rare. In Ireland the following counties were enumerated by Thompson as habitats of this species-Donegal, Londonderry, Antrim, Down, Armagh, Fermanagh, Longford, Galway, Tipperary, Cork, and Kerry 10. The Cat-crann is probably now a rarer animal in Ireland than it was when Thompson wrote; but it still exists iu various districts, especially in co. Kerry, whence the Society has received several living examples; and Professor A. Leith Adams states that it has been seen of late years even in co. Dublin n. 1 P. Z. S. 1873, p. 790. 2 Sverg. og Norg. Ryggradsdjur, p. 535. 3 Zoologist, 1877, p. 291. * Zoologist, 1866, p. 242. 9 F. Norgate, ' Zoologist,' 1879, p. 172; J. H. Gurney, torn. cit. p. 210. 6 J. 0. Mansel-Pleydell, torn, cit., p. 171. 7 P. L. Sclater, ' Zoologist,' 1845, p. 1018. 8 Zoologist, 1844, p. 783. » Zoologist, 1878, p. 127. 10 Nat. Hist. Irel. iv. p. 9. " Proc. R. Soc. Dubl. 1878. |