. Brehm's Life of animals : a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammals; Animal behavior. THE MARTEN FAMILY—MARTEN GROUP. 153 ous, the Marten gave it a bite that broke off the tail, which it ate. Then it carried the Snake into its nest, from which the reptile escaped and hid in the hay, but was drawn from this retreat by its adver- sary. The Marten then bit off another piece of the tail, but did not dare take the Snake by the neck and kill it until about two hours later, when it carried the dead reptile to the nest and ate it with evident pleasur
. Brehm's Life of animals : a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammals; Animal behavior. THE MARTEN FAMILY—MARTEN GROUP. 153 ous, the Marten gave it a bite that broke off the tail, which it ate. Then it carried the Snake into its nest, from which the reptile escaped and hid in the hay, but was drawn from this retreat by its adver- sary. The Marten then bit off another piece of the tail, but did not dare take the Snake by the neck and kill it until about two hours later, when it carried the dead reptile to the nest and ate it with evident pleasure, but not with avidity. It had not finished this meal when I threw another Snake, twenty-four inches long, toward the Marten, which tried to ap- proach it, but drew back frightened, as the Snake resented its advance and hissed. Then I brought a large Snake of another kind, freshly killed. After it had become convinced that this one was dead, the Marten carried it back and forth and an hour later ate it, head, venom- ous fangs and all. Then I gave it a Lizard, which was greeted with a sniff; the little animal hissed hoarsely, nearly like a Snake, opened its mouth and jumped at the Mar- ten about ten times. The Marten evaded its bites, but soon became bolder, as it saw that the Lizard could not harm it, and after an hour killed and devoured the reptile. " This goes to prove that by nature the Mar- ten has no inclination to kill Snakes and similar animals, yet in the light of this experience it is not improbable, that in winter, when it finds them in a defenseless state, it kills and eats them, for it probably suffers severely from the pangs of hunger at this time of year, as it is ex- tremely voracious. "I wish to call atten- tion to an erroneous opinion that prevails generally. It is com- monly believed that the Martens, in killing any animal, always find the carotid arteries and sev- er them with their strong teeth. This is not correct. They do seize larger animals
Size: 1332px × 1877px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectmammals, bookyear1895
