PUTORIUS ERMINEUS. lig 
Should the entire skeleton or the whole series of caudal 
vertebre of the same individual ever be found in a. fossil 
state, they would yield more decisive evidence in respect of 
the two existing British species, since the Stoat has seven- 
teen vertebre in the tail, and the common Weasel but 
fifteen. 
A less entire skull (jig. 42), which, by its size, must also 
be referred to the larger Weasel, (Putorius ermineus,) dis- 
covered by Mr. Mac Enery in Kent’s Hole, and having all 
the fossilized characters of the extinct mammals of that 
rich natural mausoleum, is now also in the British Museum. 
In this skull the thin cranial bones are broken away: the 
lower Jaw is lost, but the upper molar teeth are preserved 
in situ. 
The specimen is cited by M. de Blainville, from a figure 
of it communicated to him by Mr. Mac Enery, as apper- 
taining without any doubt to the common Weasel* (Belette). 
As there is no appreciable difference in the dentition of the 
Ermine and common Weasel, the question cannot be satis- 
factorily determined ; but, if the present specimen belong to 
the Putorius vulgaris, it indicates an individual of unusually 
large size. 
Dr. Buckland first made known the fact that the 
Weasel had been associated with the extinct Hyena, a few 
jaws and teeth of this small vermineous carnivore having 
been found fossil in the celebrated cave at Kirkdale. Two 
of these teeth, the sectorial premolar and the tuberculate 
true molar of the upper jaw, are figured by the author of 
the “ Reliquizee Diluviane,” and they are pronounced by 
Cuvier to be exactly like those teeth in the common exist- 
ing species: they, however, equally resemble those of the 
Ermine. The lower jaw from the Kirkdale cavern, figured 
* ocx cits p. 59: 
