Building Polyfills

Colophon

The animal on the cover of Building Polyfills is a beech marten (Martes foina), a small mammal native to Europe and central Asia. It is also known as a stone marten or white-breasted marten. It is very adaptable: it lives in both open and forested habitats, and is omnivorous. While plants, nuts, and fruit make up a high percentage of their diet, beech martens also eat eggs, mice, rats, and small birds. Occasionally, they will hunt domestic chickens and rabbits.

Beech martens have coarse brown fur and a white patch on their throat and chest. Not including their long bushy tails (which average around 10 inches long), they are usually 16-19 inches long and weigh 3-5 pounds. They are about the size of a house cat, albeit with a more slender body.

The homes of beech martens can be found in rock crevices, abandoned burrows, tree holes, and even nooks within human buildings—they do not dig their own dens. Beech martens are nocturnal, most active between 6 p.m. to midnight. They are typically solitary animals, except during the summer mating season. Male territories often overlap with those of females, allowing them access to multiple potential mates. Kits aren’t born until the following spring: implantation is delayed until roughly 230 days after mating, and gestation takes another month.

In the fur trade, beech marten pelts aren’t viewed as of high a quality as related species like the pine marten or sable. Nevertheless, they are still hunted in areas where more valuable furred ...