Jan., 1905.] 



Our Smallest Carnivore. 



253 



less been taken, but in the formerly confused condition of the 

 nomenclature they may have been considered as immature, or as 

 females of Bonaparte's weasel. But since the publications of 

 Bangs and Rhoads there should be no further difficulty in sep- 

 arating them from all other species. Careful collecting, with 

 measurements made in the flesh, the sex determined, and the 

 skulls cleaned and preserved, are necessary in order that the dis- 

 tribution of this species may be correctly determined. The prin- 

 cipal object of this notice is to suggest the need and the value of 

 much additional work upon the entire group of wearels. 



Fig. 1. Putorius allegheniensis Rhoads. 



It remains to be stated that, as Mr. Rhoads observed when 

 he first described the Pennsylvania specimens, the characters of 

 P. allegheniensis agree essentially with those of P. rixosus of 

 Bangs, a species whose type locality is Osier, Saskatchewan, and 

 whose distribution is "Arctic and boreal America from Alaska 

 south at least to Saskatchewan and Moose Factory."* The jus- 

 tification for the publication of the species allegheniensis must lie 

 wholly in the fact that there is so vast a gap of territory between 

 the Saskatchewan and the Pittsburgh region, crossed by one or 

 two life zones, in which P. rixosus is not known to occur. The 



* Bangs, loc. cit. p. 21 



