260 FIELD COLUMBIAN MUSEUM ZOOLOGY, VOL. III. 



FAM. MUSTELID.E. 



GULO. 

 Gulo *luteus. Sp. nov. 



Type locality: Mount Whitney. 



Geogr. distr.: Mount Whitney to Yukatat Bay(?), Alaska. 



Genl. char. : General color of hind part of head, sides, and base 

 of tail, buff color. 



Color: Nose, lips, cheeks back to and including eyes, jet black; 

 top of head and back of eyes pale gray; nape and space between 

 shoulders chestnut; lower part of back and rump seal brown in the 

 center, grading to chestnut on the edges ; band across middle of back 

 encircling the dark patch, and sides buff color; under parts blackish 

 chestnut with small white spots on throat; legs and feet black; tail, 

 basal half buff, remainder black ; ears chestnut, with broad buff edging. 



Measurements: Immature. Total length, 850; tail vertebrae, 205; 

 hind foot, 165; ear, 53. 



This is a pale species of wolverine, strikingly different from the 

 well-known animal that up to this time has represented the genus 

 Gulo. The type specimen is an immature male, but the trappers and 

 ranchmen told Mr. Heller that although the creature was rare, yet 

 occasionally one was killed, and the old ones were exactly like the 

 present specimen. This statement is probably correct, for the young 

 of Gulo luscus resemble their parents in coloration. When I was last 

 in Alaska with the Harriman expedition I obtained at Yukatat Bay a 

 skin of a pale-colored adult wolverine, which I was inclined to regard 

 as a freak specimen. 



The exact locality of its capture was not known, and the trader 

 from whom it was bought could not say whether the specimen was 

 taken in the vicinity of Yukatat bay or brought from a distance. I 

 brought it back and put it in the collection with other wolverine skins. 

 On comparing the Mount Whitney specimen with this one from Alaska, 

 it was at once seen they were exactly alike in their coloring, and in the 

 distribution of the hues ; the buff base of the tail and the sides and the jet 

 black muzzle and fore part of head being especially conspicuous. The 

 Yukatat' example is fully adult and about the size of an ordinary Gulo 

 luscus, and the exact resemblance of these two specimens to each 

 other would seem to confirm the statement made by the residents near 

 Mount Whitney that the old and young wolverines in their locality do 

 not differ in appearance. A second specimen of wolverine is inter- 



* Luteus buff. 



