456 PROCEEDIXGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [^laj, 



mit of Cascade Range. Geographic connection with M. c. origenes 

 problematic. 



Deficription of Species. — The Cascade mountain marten, as illus- 

 trated by a very large series of skulls in my collection fi'om Lake 

 Kichelos, Kittitas county, Washington, taken at elevations of 

 8,000 to 10,000 feel, shows cranial characters so different from 

 any of the other American martens as to suggest a distinct species. 

 It is significant, also, to note that their departure from the Mustela 

 amerlcana type is in the direction of the Old World species, as 

 originally observed by Brandt and INIerriam and confirmed by the 

 exceptional series in my hands. 



As compared with skulls of 31. a. actuosa from Mackenzie, B. 

 A., and M. americana from noi'th of Lake Superior (with the 

 latter of which they correspond almost exactly in length), the 

 following differences are prominently noticeable: The skull of 

 caurina viewed from above is greatly broadened and flattened; the 

 zygomatic breadth in an old male from Lake Kichelos is to the 

 basilar length as 52 to 74; in a male skull of similar age and 

 sagittal development from Lake Superior these proportions are as 

 47 to 74, the skulls in each case being the same length. In the 

 largest skull from the Mackenzie river the zygomatic breadth only 

 exceeds that of the largest Washington specimen by 1 millimeter, 

 but its basilar length exceeds the latter by 6 mm. In conformity 

 to this relative shortening and widening, caurina has a markedly 

 wide brain-case and iuterorbital region, the postorbital processes 

 being widely and bluntly developed and the frontals abruptly con- 

 stricted behind them, so that while this constriction is as narrow as 

 in actuosa, the greatest supraorbital width is 1 mm. greater than in 

 the largest actuosa skull. The lowness or flatness of the cranium is 

 also marked. In the skulls already alluded to, caurina has a maxi- 

 mum height from the audital bullae to crest of occiput of 29 mm., 

 while actuosa is 32 mm. high. Viewed from below, the audital 

 bullae of caurina are instantly seen to be very small as compared 

 with americana of same sized skull. They are also of a different 

 shape, being flat, shortened and squared anteriorly, forming a sort 

 of retangular outline, whereas americana and actuosa are more 

 triangular, tumid and elongate. The last upper molar presents 

 differences from all americana forms quite as radical and strangely 

 similar to those claimed by authors as warranting the specific sep- 



