38 NORTH AMERICAN MUSTELID.E. 



ia much more of a frontal concavity, and the plane of the nasal 

 orifice is extremely oblique. These features of the profile rather 

 suggest a Feline than a Musteline skull, although, of course, the 

 resemblance is still far from complete. There is a strong char- 

 acter in the zyejoma: in ^[mfeJa a simple arch; here a nearly 

 horizontal beam borne posteriorly upon an upright base, with 

 a strongly convex backwardly projecting elbow. The same 

 straightness requires a prominent process for definition of this 

 part of the orbit. The zygoma is laminar and quite deep, much 

 more so than in Mu stela. Viewed from above, the zygomata 

 ' are widely divergent from before backward. The anteorbital 

 foramen is comparatively small, and appears over the fore bor- 

 der of the sectorial tooth. Prominent characters are observed 

 in the paroccipital and mastoid, which form great processes of 

 I abutment against the bulhie, the same being only moderate in 

 \ Mustela^ and merely indicated in the smaller Weasels. The pal- 

 ate is very broad for its length, with straight (not a little con- 

 cave) sides ; measured across its broadest point, it forms very 

 nearly an equilateral triangle with the sides. The posterior 

 iemargination is moderate, broadly U-shaped. The bullae audi- 

 itoriae are only inflated on less than the interior half, the rest 

 'being greatly contracted and drawn out into a long tubular 

 ■; meatus (one extreme, of which the other is seen in the slender- 

 bodied species of GaJe — compare descriptions). The basi- 

 occipital space is somewhat wedge-shaped, owing to the diverg- 

 ence posteriorly of the bullrc. The pterygoids are very stout 

 at base, but soon become laminar, and terminate in long, slen- 

 der, hamular processes. Even in young skulls, the lambdoidal 

 crests are as strong and flaring as in the oldest of 2histeJ a, and 

 terminate in the very prominent mastoids. The occipital sur- 

 face is considerably excavated beneath these crests; the median 

 superior protuberance is great. The condition of the sagittal 

 crest varies, as usual, with age. In the youngest specimens, it 

 is single and median for but a little way, then gradually divar- 

 * icates on either hand to the supraorbital process ; in the old- 

 est, the divarication only begins more than half-way forward, 

 a high, thin crest occupying the rest of the median line. The 

 general shape of the brain-box, viewed from above, is, in con- 

 sequence of the breadth and depression of the skull behind, 

 neither the ovate nor the somewhat cylindrical, as obtains in 

 Mustela and Putorius^ but rather trapezoidal, somewhat as in 

 Taxidea. The body of the under jaw is shaped exactly as in. 



