Asmall animal of the weasel kind, the mustela zibelina, found in the northern latitudes of America and Asia. It resembles the martin, but has a longer head and ears. Its hair is cinereous, but black at the tips. This animal burrows in the earth or under trees; in winter and summer subsisting on small animals, and in autumn on berries. The fur is very valuable.

The fur of the sable.

Black; dark; used chiefly in poetry or in heraldry; as night with her sable mantle; the sable throne of night.