SABLE, Marks zibellina, a species of marten (q.v.), so nearly allied to the common marIen and pine marten'that it is difficult to state satisfactory specific distinctions. The feet are covered with fur, even on the soles, and the tail is perhaps more bushy than in the British martens. The length, exclusive of the tail, is about inches. Tile fur is brown, grayish-yellow on the throat, and small grayish-yellow spots are scattered on the sides of the neck. The whole fur is extremely lustrous, and hence of the very highest value, an ordinary sable skin being worth £0 or £7, and one of the finest quality £15. The fur attains its highest perfection in the bee of winter, and the pursuit) of the sable at that season is one of the most difficult and adventurous of enterprises. The sable is a native of Siberia, widely distributed over that country, and found in its coldest regions, at least wherever forests extend. The progress of geographical discovery in the eastern parts of Siberia has been much indebted to the expeditions of the hardy and daring sable hunters, exploring new regions at the worst seasons of the year, and spend ing dreary months at a great distance from all human abodes. The sable is taken by
traps, which are a kind of pitfall, it being necessary to avoid injury to the fur, or by tracking it through the snow to its hole, and placing a net over the mouth of the hole. It is a very wary animal, and not easily captured. It makes its nest in a hollow tree, or sometimes, it is said, by burrowing in the ground, and lines it with moss, leaves, and grass. From this it issues to prey on hares and smaller animals of almost any kind, its agility enabling it even to catch birds among the branches of trees. It is ready, when food is scarce, to eat the remains of an animal on which a larger beast of prey has feasted, and is said even to satisfy its hunger with berries in winter, When animal food is not to be had.