116 MUSTELID &, 
CARNIVORA. MUSTELIDE:- 
Fossil, nat. size. Cave. 
PUTORIUS ERMINEUS. Stoat. 
Fossil Weasel, Buck anp, Reliquie Diluviane, pp. 18, 73. Pl. vi. figs. 28, 
29. Pl. xxiii. figs. 11, 12, 13. 
Belette commune, Cuvier, Oss. Foss. iv. p. 475. 
Putorius vulgaris, | OwEn. Report of Brit. Association, 1842. 
Tue most instructive fossil of the ancient British Ermine 
was discovered by Mr. Bartlett of Plymouth in the Bone- 
cave at Berry Head, and is now in the British Museum. 
It is a remarkably perfect skull, with the lower jaw ce- 
mented by stalactitic matter m its natural position (/ig. 
40); the specimen is absorbent from the loss of animal 
matter, and slightly stained red by the ferrugious deposit 
of the waters which percolated the limestone fissures. The 
zygomatic arches are broken, but the teeth are unusually 
complete, the incisors of the upper jaw, and the long, 
slender, and sharp canines in both jaws being entire. 
The size of this skull, and a slight superiority of breadth 
in proportion to its length, mdicate it to have belonged to 
the larger species of Weasel, called the Stoat or Ermine 
(Putorius ermineus). Fig. 41, shows a small exostosis or 
bony tumour on the right os frontis of the specimen. 
