The Weasels of Eastern North America. 13 



rather young skull) ; No. 2379, coll. of S. N. Rhoads (a fine adult breeding 

 female, with the six mammpe plainly visible in the skin, taken November 

 11, 1895, at Tarpon Springs, Florida, by W. L. Dickinson, with a nearly 

 perfect skull), and No. HH, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., from Yemassee, in 

 the lowlands of South Carolina. 



Putorius noveboracensis Emmons. New York Weasel. 



PL I, figs. 2, 2a; 11, figs. 2, 2a; III, figs. 3, 3a. 



Putorius noveboracensis DeKay, New York Survey, p. 18, 1840 {nomen 

 nudum). Zoology of New York, Mauuualia, p. 36, 1842. 

 Emmons, Rept. Quad. Mass., p. 4"), 1840. 

 Baird, Mammals N. Am., p. 166, 1857. 

 Samuels, Ann. Rept. Agric. ]Mass., p. 156, 1861-1862. 

 Putorius cnnitiea Thompson, Nat. Hist. Vermont, p. 31, 1842. 



And. and Bach., Quad. N. Am., II, p. 56, plate LIX, 1851. 

 Putorius a g His Aud. and l>ach., Quad. N. Am., Ill, jj. 184, plate CXL, 



1854 (the female, not Mustela agilis of Tschudi). 

 Putorius richardsoni Baird, IMamm. N. Am., p. 164, 1857 (probably the 

 female). 

 Samuels, Ann. Rept. Agric. Mass., p. 155, 1861-1862. 

 Mustela erminea Yar. Americana Grav, P. Z. S., p. Ill, 18(55 (part); Cat. 



Carnivora, British :Mus., p. 89, 1869 (part). 

 Mustela richardsoni Gray, P. Z. S., p. 112, 1865 (based on Baird); Cat. 



Carnivora, British Mus., p. 90, 1869 (based on Baird). 

 Putorius ermineus Allen, Bull. Mass. Comp. Zool., 1, p. 167, 1869 (part) ; 



Proc. Post. Soc. Nat. Hist., XIII, p. 183, 1869. 

 Putorius {Gale) erminea Cones, Fur-Bearing Animals, p. 109, 1877 (part), 

 and of most subsequent authors. 



Type locality. ^StAte of Massachusetts. 



Geographic distribution. — Eastern United States from southern Maine, 

 southern New Hampshire, and southern Vermont south to North Caro- 

 lina (Raleigh, N. C. ) and probably farther; west at least to Indiana and 

 Illinois (Denver, Ind., and Warsaw, III.). Inhabits the Carolinian and 

 Transition zones of the east and just touches the lower part of the Cana- 

 dian zone. Apparently very rare at the northern and southern extremes 

 of its range and attaining its greatest abundance in lower Transition and 

 upper Carolinian country. 



Genercd characters. — Size large ; tail long (inoi'e than one-third of the 

 total length), with the black end from one-third to one-half the length of 

 the tail ; feet slender and small ; pelage full and soft. 



Color. — Summer pelage : Upper parts rich, deep reddish brown, varying 

 from Front's brown to Vandyke brown, generally rather darker along the 

 middle of the back; under parts white to pale yellow (usually white in 

 northern examples and yellow in southern) ; line of demarkation between 

 colors of upper and under imrts very irregular and low down, often leav- 

 ing only a narrow band of white along the middle of the belly. This 

 white band frequently encloses spots of brown. The color of the under 

 parts generally extends half way down the inside of the thighs and to 

 the wrists, the whole of the feet and upper sides of arms and hands being 

 brown. The upper lips are usually but not always brown (in some ex- 

 amples they are broadly edged with white, as in richardsoni and cicognani). 



