Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon

Genus Martes — The Martens

A more or less arboreal group of larger size, and possibly less sanguinary habits than the weasels, although in this respect I do not think there is much difference. The tail is longer, though not so long as the head and body, and it is bushy; the fur is fine and in general highly prized; the dentition differs from the typical Mustela in having four more teeth and an additional false molar on either side in each jaw; and the inner side of the carnassial or flesh tooth has a tubercle which is not present in the weasels; head elongate; feet very hairy; space between the pads hairy, often covering them from sight, except in the case of Martes flavigula, of which the soles are nude.

No. 177. MARTES FLAVIGULA.
The White-cheeked Marten (Jerdon’s No. 96).

Native Names.—Mal-sampra, Nepalese; Tuturala in Kumaon; Kusiah in Sirmoor; Huniah or Aniar, Bhotia; Sakku, Lepcha.

Habitat.—Nepal, Thibet, Kumaon, Gurhwal, Sirmoor, Assam, Burmah, Ceylon.

Description.—Glossy blackish brown, with the throat and breast yellow; the chin and lower parts white, from which I have preferred to call it after Pennant “the White-cheeked Marten” instead of the “yellow-throated,” this characteristic belonging also to some other species. The fur seems to vary a good deal. Jerdon says of it: “The body is at times dirty brownish or chestnut brown, or brown mixed with grey, and the middle of the back is sometimes paler than the rest, or the same tint as the sides of the body. In some the top of the head is pale brown, but it is edged by a dark peripheral line, and in some there are one or more irregular dark spots between the fore-limbs.”

Blyth writes of the Burmese specimens that they are “similar to the Himalayan, but differing from the Malayan race—found also in Formosa—by having much longer fur, and a wholly black cap instead of a brown cap with a black periphery.” The soles are nude.

Size.—Head and body about 20 inches; tail, including fur, 12 inches.

This Indian Marten, according to Jerdon, is also found in Ceylon; it was, however, apparently unknown to Kellaart, nor does Sir Emerson Tennent allude to it. It is to be had in the Neilgherries, the Khasia hills, and the ranges in Arakan, as well as in the valleys of the great Himalayan chain up to 7000 or 8000 feet of elevation. It is found in pairs or in small families of five or six. If hunted it takes to trees at once, being a good climber. According to Captain the Hon. C. Shore, who observed its habits in Kumaon and Gurhwal, “its food is chiefly birds, rats, mice, hares and even young fawns of the kakur or barking-deer.” He adds: “The specimen sent to the Zoological Society was brought to me in September 1828, when it was about four months old. It had been caught when not many days old, and was so tame that it was always kept loose about a well, sporting about the windlasses, posts, &c., and playing tricks with the people who came to draw water.” This is the one alluded to by Jerdon as having been described by Mr. Bennett in the ‘Gardens and Menageries of the Zoological Society.’ Martes Gwatkinsi of Horsfield’s Catalogue (page 99), is evidently, as Jerdon says, the same as M. flavigula, although the colouring is different, and is supposed to be the same animal in its summer fur, some specimens being darker than others. It is just one hundred years since this little animal was first described, the earliest record of it being in Pennant’s ‘History of Quadrupeds’ (first edition), published in 1781. It must, however, have been known before that, for Pennant first observed it in Brooks’s Menagerie in 1774, and named it the “White-cheeked Weasel,” which Boddart afterwards in 1785 introduced into his ‘Elenchus Animalium’ under the name of Mustela flavigula (Horsfield).