GENERAL ACCOUNT OF P. BRASILIENSIS FRENATUS. 143 

 General account of the species. 



lu respects of size aod form, tbis species scarcely differs from 

 P. erminea. The pelage appears to be coarser, tbinner, and 

 more glossy than it usually is in the P. erminea^ evidently as a 

 consequence of the more southern habitat of the animal. The 

 palms, soles, and ears are rather more scantily haired. There 

 are no indications that the animal turns white in winter. 



The pattern of coloration is as usual in this genus, with the 

 addition of the peculiar head-markings, to be presently de- 

 scribed. The upper parts are of a mahogany-brown, as in the 

 summer coat of other Stoats, but differ in the shade much as 

 polished mahogany differs from that wood in the rough, being 

 darker and richer in tint. This color deepens insensibly into 

 blackish on the head. The darkest examples before us, from 

 Guatemala, are almost chocolate-brown, and quite black on 

 the head. This intensity of coloration is quite coincident with 

 decrease of latitude j and the northernmost examples, from 

 California, are much paler — of a lighter and more yellowish- 

 brown than the average of P. erminea. There is a similar paral- 

 lelism in the color of the under parts. Aside from the chin 

 and throat, which usually remain quite purely white, the under 

 parts range from a tawny-yellow to a rich orange-brown. In 

 running through the series from California to Guatemala, I have 

 seen nothing quite like this in any of the northern Stoats, in 

 which any yellowish of the under parts which may exist is sul- 

 phury; the only approach to it being a salmon shade on P. 

 longicauda. In the orange-bellied Guatemalan skins, moreover, 

 the line of demarcation from the white of the throat is quite 

 abrupt ; in others, the transition is by insensible degrees. The 

 light color of the under parts runs down both fore and hind 

 limbs to the feet; but the tops of the feet are indifferently col- 

 ored like the belly or like the back ; at any rate, I find specimens 

 varying in this respect, without finding any clue to a rule which 

 might determine this condition. The tail is like the back all 

 around ; it blackens insensibly at the tip, for a shorter distance 

 than is usual in northern Stoats; the defined black only occu- 

 pying, on an average, about an inch of the end in addition to 

 the terminal pencil of hairs, which is about another inch 

 longer. 



