16 Bangs The Weasels of Eastern North America. 



go into them when they came back that way, as they were sure 

 to do. The morning of June 9 I had them both. They were 

 males, and although still retaining their milk teeth, each was 

 very much larger than his mother. 



Putorius richardsoni (Bonaparte). The American Ermine. 

 PI. I, figs. 3, 3a; II, figs. 3, 3a; III, figs. 6, 6a. 



Mustela richardsoni Bonaparte, Charlesw., Mag. Nat. Hist., II, p. 38, 

 Jan. 1838 (based on specimen from Fort Franklin. Great Bear lake. 

 Rich., F. B. A., p. 47, 1829). 

 Rich., Zool. Beechey's Voy., p. 10,* 1839 (not Putorius richardsoni 



Baird). 



Putorius (Gale) erminea* Coues, Fur-bearing Animals, p. 109, 1877 (in 

 part). 



Type locality. Fort Franklin, Great Bear lake. The supposed type, a 

 specimen in winter pelage, is still in the British Museum. 



Geographic distribution. Arctic America east at least to Fort Albany, on 

 the west coast of James bay, and thence northwest to Alaska, where it 

 reaches the Pacific coast. Whether richardsoni reaches the Atlantic coast 

 or not is still a matter of doubt, but if it does it must be in the extreme 



* The name of the European ermine or stoat has appeared a good deal 

 in our literature, but wholly without warrant. In 1869, in his Catalogue 

 of the Mammals of Massachusetts, Dr. J. A. Allen attempted to prove that 

 all our weasels, excepting the bridled weasel and what he called P. md- 

 garis (probably a mixture of cicognani and rixosus) belonged to the Eu 

 ropean species, P. erminea. Doctor Allen never mentioned the crania of 

 any of the weasels of which he treated and appears never to have con 

 sulted them, but went blindly ahead in an attempt to prove a precon 

 ceived theory that all the carnivora of Europe, Asia, and North America 

 were the same. One land bear, one wolf, one red fox, one mink, one 

 ermine, and one weasel is what he allowed to the whole northern hemi 

 sphere. He was substantially followed by Dr. Coues, in his Fur-bearing 

 Animals, in 1877, with the exception that Coues recognized P. longicauda 

 as distinct. Since then the name P. erminea has been frequently used for 

 American weasels of very different species. 



There is really no need for confusing the European ermine and various 

 closely related species or subspecies with any of our weasels. The only 

 North American species that resemble it are richardsoni and cicognani, but 

 from either of these it can be recognized at once by much larger size and 

 by the greater extent of black on the tail and the immensely long pencil. 

 The skull can be told from any North American member of the subgenus 

 Gale at a glance. The brain case is shallow behind, with narrow supra- 

 occipital. The audital bullse are shallow and flat and the basioccipital 

 broad. The skull can be distinguished by these peculiarities and its much 

 greater size from any of our species with inflated squamosals. These are 

 the only ones it need be compared with. 



