MARTES 365 



form but never greatly flattened and never very robust, the 

 rostrum always at least as long as broad ; external form slender, 

 the legs usually rather short ; feet digitigrade ; toes partly 

 webbed ; tail varying in length, slender or bushy, never con- 

 spicuously muscular. 



Reinarhx. — As here understood the sub-family Mustelinse 

 contains the three genera, Maries, Miisfcln and VormeJa, all of 

 w Inch occui' in Europe. 



Genus MARTES Pinel. 



1792. Murtes Pinol, Actes Soc. d'Hist. Nat., Paris, i, p. 55 (M. domestica 



Pinel = M. foina Erxleben). 

 1820. Martcs Nilsson, Skand. Fauna, i, p. 38 (M. foina and M. sylvatica = 



martes). 

 1829. Zibellina Kaup, Entw.-Gescli. u. Natiirl. Syst. Europ. Tliierw., i, 



p. 31 (M. zibellina). 

 1857. Mustela Blasius, Siiugethiere Deutsohlands, p. 211. 

 1911. Martes Thomas, Proc. Zool. Soc, London, p. 139, March, 1911. 



Type species. — Mustela martes Linnaius. 



Geographical distrihution. — Isorthern hemisphere from the 

 limits of tree growth south to the Mediterranean, the Malay 

 Archipelago, and the central United States ; in Europe west to 

 Ireland. 



Characters. — Skull narrow, moderately high (depth of brain- 

 ca.se much more than half mastoid breadth), the dorsal profile 

 moderately curved, the zygomatic arches not specially wide- 

 spreading, and postorbital region not unusually narrowed (distance 

 between region of greatest narrowing and zygoma normally less 

 than breadth of postorbital constriction) ; rostrum narrow and 

 somewhat elongate, its width noticeably less than that of inter- 

 orbital region, the distance from anterior rim of orbit to gnathion 

 exceeding width of rostrum Ijetween anteorbital foramina; auditory 

 bulla3 moderately inflated, the meatal tube evident though .short, 

 the longitudinal diameter of bulla greatest ; paroccipital process 

 small, slightly projecting, partly distinct from bulla ; dental 

 formula : / — , c — , pm t*, in -* = 38 ; cutting edges of five small 



;i-;r i-i' -^ 4-4' '2-2 ' o o 



premolars (2 upper and 3 lower) capable of trenchant action ; 

 upper carnassial long and narrow, not triangular in outline and 

 without crushing surface, the small inner lobe standing as an 

 ofl'set to anterointernal extremity of crown, the sectorial portion 

 consisting of a high anterior and low posterior cusp with some- 

 what concave connecting ridge ; upper molar pyriform or pan- 

 durate in outline, its long axis nearly perpendicular to that of 

 tooth-row, its crown mainly fiat, but with a small paracone, still 

 smaller, sometimes obsolete metacone, and crescentic ridge-like 

 protocone ; lower carnassial wider posteriorly than anteriorly, 

 the anterior triangle much distorted, the metaconid reduced to 



