144 SIXTH REPORT — 1836, 



American animal, whicli will be more readily acknowledged by 

 naturalists. Baron Cuvier holds the putoriiis visoii to be a di- 

 stinct species from the mustela putorius of Europe, though some 

 zoologists confound them* ; it ranges from Carolina to the arc- 

 tic sea. The pine-martin of America is also most probably a 

 different species from the European one, and in fact the com- 

 parisons of Mr. Yarrell have shown that in the form of its skull 

 it approaches more closely to the martes foma, or beech mar- 

 tin. Most of the American martins noticed by authors we be- 

 lieve to be merely nominal species ; thus the huro of Frederick 

 Cuvier is the common American pine- martin in its pale summer 

 dress, and the same is most probably the case with the lutreo- 

 cephala of Hai'lanf, while the zibellina of American naturalists 

 is the same animal in its prime dark winter fur. The pine- 

 martin ranges northwards to the limits of the woods, and many 

 specimens corresponding with the descriptions of huro and lu- 

 treocephala were observed at Fort Franklin, where the natives 

 considered them, and the darker and often smaller martin sold 

 by the furriers under the name of sable, to form only one spe- 

 ciesj. The m. vulpina of Rafinesque and m. leucopus of Kuhl 

 require further investigation. 



The " fisher", or " wejack" {mustela canadensis), is found up 

 to the 60tli parallel. Its synonymy is embroiled in confusion, 

 which is attempted to be unravelled in the Fauna Boreali- 

 Ainericana ; but on referring to Fischer's synopsis, we discover 

 that it has more recently received other appellations, and among 

 the rest that of mustela Godmanii, apparently from an appre- 

 hension that the animal described in Dr. Godraan's natural 

 history is either a distinct species or a well-marked variety. 

 Now, on referring to this description, we observe that it is sub- 

 stantially the same with that drawn up by Mr. Sabine (in the 

 appendix to Sir John Franklin's first journey) of the common 

 wejack, or woodshuck, vi'ith the single addition of " tail smallest 

 at the end", M'hich is not really the case in the wejac-k. 



The mephitis americana ranges northwards to the 61st paral- 

 lel, but its southern limits cannot be ascertained until the 

 species are more clearly defined. Some authors consider every 



* Fischer, probably misled by Pennant's miserable figure of the animal in 

 the History of Quadrupeds, has named a fictitious species enhydra gracilis. 

 iSynops.) 



f Dr. Godman says that the original specimen described by Dr. Harlan 

 under the appellation of lutreocephala is an overstuffed vison, long kept in 

 Peale's museum. 



\ V'ide Yarrell's Zool. Jour, for 1836. 



J Vide King's Narrative of Capt. Back's .Journey. Bentley, 1836. 



i 



