DESCRIPTION OF AN APPARENTLY NEW SUBSPECIES OF 

 MARTEN FROM THE KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA. 



BY D. G. ELLIOT, F. R. S. E., ETC. 



Mustela americana kenaiensis, subsp. nov. 



Type locality. Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. 



Gen. character. Size smaller than M. a. acltiosa, with longer 

 tail, shorter feet, and general color darker: audital bulls large 

 ridged, rectangular, longitudinally produced. Molars heavy; 

 sagittal crest prominent; no gular nor abdominal patches. 



Color. Upper parts tawny buff mixed with black, darkest on 

 dorsal region, which part in one specimen is almost wholly black; 

 top of head dark gray; forehead, top of nose and sides of head 

 brownish white; sides of nose dark brown; chin and throat uni- 

 form dark ochre without spots, under parts darker than back, 

 uniform dark chocolate brown, unguinal region paler, inclining 

 to a pale buff, no spots on abdomen; upper part of fore legs on 

 top chocolate brown, feet and under part black with a grayish 

 white patch at base of toes beneath; hind legs and feet blackish 

 above and below, with a chocolate patch at base of toes on top: 

 tail black inclining to chocolate at base: ears brownish black 

 externally, white internally and on edges: nails white. 



Measurements. Total length, 790; tail vertebra?, 293; hind 

 foot, 90. (Dried skin.) Skull: occipito-nasal length, 79.5: Hen- 

 sel, 75: zygomatic breadth, 50; least interorbital breadth, 18; 

 mastoid breadth, 36.5: median length of nasals, 8: from posterior 

 margin of palate to aveoli of incisors, 39.5: from anterior 

 margin of foramen magnum to posterior margin of palate, 3.4.5: 

 length of upper tooth row, 25; pterygoid fossa from hamular 

 process to palatal arch, 12: length of audital bulla j , 17: width 

 between audital bullae posteriorly, 10; length of lower jaw. 55; 

 height at condyle, 26; length of lower tooth row, 30. 



Six specimens of the present race of marten were received from 

 the Kenai Peninsula, and at once attracted attention by their 

 dark color and absence of gular and abdominal markings on the- 

 majority, so characteristic of all known forms of this genus. Of 



