E. LÖNNBERG, MAMMALOGY OF ECUADOR. 15 



N:o 1 is a young specimen from Pichincha above Quito, 

 10,500 feet altitude, ^^1- 1916, its cranial dimensions are not 

 recorded as of less value. 



Although the skins are in very good condition the size 

 of the animals cannot be exactly judged from them. It is 

 also difficult to give the exact measurements of the tails, 

 but they appear to vary between 14 and 17 cm without 

 hairs in the males. 



The hind feet have been well softened and then measured 

 without claws, by which proceeding the following measure- 

 ments have been obtained: 



n:o 2 cT n:o 3 ef I n:o 4 ef ! n:o 5 ef i n:o 7 cTi n:o 8 cf|n:o 9 ef n:o 10 9 



47,5 mm 45 mm | 47 mm ! 47 mm 1 4/,5 mmi 40,o mm| ^u mm 38 mm 



If the claws had been included the measurements would 

 have been as a rule 1,5 mm, or sometimes 2 mm larger. 



The variation with regard to the dimensions as well of 

 the feet as of she skulls is evidently not larger than the 

 corresponding one commonly met with among other Weasels, 

 f. i. the common European Stoat, Mustela erminea, and there 

 is thus no indication that more than one race is represented 

 in the material. Nor is there any connection between the 

 colour and the size of the animals. The largest specimen is 

 about intermediate between the colour extremes. It is also 

 very little probable, that two different races of Weasels so 

 nearly alike in size etc. should inhabit quite the same region 

 of Ecuador. From San Antonio is f. i. as well a dark as a 

 påle specimen in the collection. 



If thus these specimens all represent the same species 

 the next question is to decide what name they ought to 

 have. Before so much material was available the present 

 author (1. c.) has used the names Mustela afjinis Gray and 

 with hesitation also M. macnira Taczanowski for Weasels 

 from Ecuador. J. A. Allén has in his rewiew of »the Neo- 

 tropical Weasels ^ used the names 31. affinis costaricensis 

 Goldman and M. macrura Taczanowski. He regards the 

 former to extend from Costa Rica to northwestern Ecuador 

 and (with a question mark) Peru; the latter he considers to 

 be at home in Ecuador and Peru. 



1 Bull. American Museum Nat. Hist. Vol. XXXV, art. XII New York 

 1916. 



