Another image from the CFZ photo archives that may be of interest - a rather motheaten stuffed pine marten from the store rooms of Truro Museum. It is the only bona fide wild pine marten specimen from the county which still survives... as far as we know.
According to Langley and Yalden, the Pine Marten was extinct in the country by 1879, although we have records going on into the 1930s. This poor beastie was shot near Truro in the last few years of the 19th Century, and as far as we can ascertain, there are no other bona fide Cornish specimens around.
The only bona fide Devon specimen is in Combe Martin museum and is pictured in my book The Smaller Mystery Carnivores of the Westcountry.
All the other pine martens in Westcountry museums were donated by the late H.G.Hurrell or his family. Hurrell was a brilliant naturalist who was ever so slightly obsessed with pine martens, and his children and grandchildren are a major dynastical force in Devonshire natural history to this day.
For those of you interested, my book about martens and polecats in the westcountry is available at the link below:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smaller-Mystery-Carnivores-Westcountry/dp/1905723059/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239924307&sr=1-1
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