90 MTJSTFLIDJE. 



tebraj, including 4 sacral and 22 caudal ; while P. ermineus has, ac- 

 cording to him, only 19 caudal and 3 sacral, which are the tyincal 

 numbers in the genus. As this has only been observed in one 

 skeleton, it may be only an accidental variation. 



2. Mustela Richardsonii. (Eichardson's Stoat.) 



Dark chestnut-brown ; upper lips and legs entirely brown ; chin 

 and under surface white ; tail with a long black tip, depressed ; 

 distichous. In winter entirely white ; taU-end black. 



Mustela Richardsonii, Bonaji. 3fa(/. N. Hist. ii. p. 38 ; Gray, P. Z. 8. 



1865, p. 112. 

 Mustela erminea. var., Pichard. Faun. Bor.-Amer. p. 146. 

 Putorius Richardsonii, Richard, in Zool. Beecheifs Voy. p. 10 ; Baird, 



Mamm. N. A. p. 164. 

 Mustela ermiuea, Thompson, Hist. Verm. p. 31, 1842. 

 Putorius agilis, And. §• Bachm. N. A. Quad. pp. Ill, 184, 1. 140, 1833. 



Hob. North America : Fort Traveller (Richardson) ; from Halifax 

 to Vancouver's Island (Baird). 



I have not seen this species ; but Dr. Spencer Baird describes it 

 very particularly. The quantity of white on the upper lip seems to 

 vary. There is in the British Museum an adult female Stoat from 

 Cambridgeshire, which has only a very thin margin of white to the 

 upper hp. In most specimens of the Eui'Oiaean and American 

 Ermines the white on the lips is very distinct and well marked. 



The specimen formerly named M. Richardsonii, in the British 

 Museum, has the hinder part of the upper lip white, but the hair 

 is bent back and lost off the front part. 



3. Mustela agilis. 



Reddish grey ; hairs grey, with a broad yellow ring and reddish 

 tip ; tail shorter than the body, reddish grey, darker at the tip, 

 beneath greyish white ; head black, brown above, with a white 

 border to upper lip. 



Length 10 inches, tail 4, head 1|. 



Mustela agilis, Tschudi, Fauna Perxiviana, p. 110 (not Bachm.) ; 

 Baird, Mamm. A^. A. p. 165; Gray, P. Z. S. 1865, p. 113. 



Ilab. Peru, Cordilleras. 



tt Back and tail uniformly coloured. Gale. 



4. Mustela vulgaris. (Weasel.) B.M. 



Brown ; lower lip and beneath white ; upper lip and tail brown ; 

 tail less than half the length of the body. Winter-fur pure white ; 

 tip of tail sometimes darker. 



Mustela vulgaris, Briss. R. A. p. 241 ; Erxl. M. p. 471 ; Gray, P. Z. S. 

 1865, p. 113; Blainv. Oste'oyr. Mustela, t. 7 (skull), t. 13 (teeth). 

 Mustela gale, Pallas, Zoogr. p. 194 (albino in ■winter). 



