The Weasels of Eastern North America. 13 



rather young skull) ; No. 2379, coll. of S. N. Rhoads (a fine adult breeding 

 female, with the six mammae plainly visible in the skin, taken November 

 11, 1895, at Tarpon Springs, Florida, by W. L. Dickinson, with a nearly 

 perfect skull), and No. |ft, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., from Yemassee, in 

 the lowlands of South Carolina. 



Putorius noveboracensis Emmons. New York Weasel. 

 PL I, figs. 2, 2a; II, figs. 2, 2a; III, figs. 3, 3a. 



Putorius noveboracensis DeKay, New York Survey, p. 18, 1840 (nomen 

 nudum). Zoology of New York, Mammalia, p. 36, 1842. 

 Emmons, Kept. Quad. Mass., p. 45, 1840. 

 Baird, Mammals N. Am., p. 166, 1857. 

 Samuels, Ann. Kept. Agric. Mass., p. 156, 1861-1862. 

 Putorius erminea Thompson, Nat. Hist. Vermont, p. 31, 1842. 



Aud. and Bach., Quad. N. Am., II, p. 56, plate LIX, 1851. 

 Putorius agilis Aud. and Bach., Quad. N. Am., Ill, p. 184, plate CXL, 



1854 (the female, not Mustela agilis of Tschudi). 



Putorius richardsoni Baird, Mamm. N. Am., p. 164, 1857 (probably the 

 female). 



Samuels, Ann. Kept. Agric. Mass., p. 155, 1861-1862. 

 Mustela erminea Var. Americana Gray, P. Z. S., p. Ill, 1865 (part) ; Cat. 



Carnivora, British Mus., p. 89, 1869 (part). 

 Mustela richardsoni Gray, P. Z. S., p. 112, 1865 (based on Baird); Cat. 



Carnivora, British Mus., p. 90, 1869 (based on Baird). 

 Putorius ermineus Allen, Bull. Mass. Comp. Zool., 1, p. 167, 1869 (part) ; 



Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., XIII, p. 183, 1869. 



Putorius (Gale) erminea Cones, Fur-Bearing Animals, p. 109, 1877 (part), 

 and of most subsequent authors. 



Type locality. State of Massachusetts. 



Geographic distribution. Eastern United States from southern Maine, 

 southern New Hampshire, and southern Vermont south to North Caro 

 lina (Raleigh, N. C.) and probably farther; west at least to Indiana and 

 Illinois (Denver, Ind., and Warsaw, 111.). Inhabits the Carolinian and 

 Transition zones of the east and just touches the lower part of the Cana 

 dian zone. Apparently very rare at the northern and southern extremes 

 of its range and attaining its greatest abundance in lower Transition and 

 upper Carolinian country. 



General characters. Size large ; tail long (more than one- third of the 

 total length), with the black end from one-third to one-half the length of 

 the tail ; feet slender and small ; pelage full and soft. 



Color. Summer pelage : Upper parts rich, deep reddish brown, varying 

 from Prout's brown to Vandyke brown, generally rather darker along the 

 middle of the back; under parts white to pale yellow (usually white in 

 northern examples and yellow in southern) ; line of demarkation between 

 colors of upper and under parts very irregular and low down, often leav 

 ing only a narrow band of white along the middle of the belly. This 

 white band frequently encloses spots of brown. The color of the under 

 parts generally extends half way down the inside of the thighs and to 

 the wrists, the whole of the feet and upper sides of arms and hands being 

 brown. The upper lips are usually but not always brown (in some ex 

 amples they are broadly edged with white, as in richardsoni and cicognani). 



