104 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 
a smaller, blacker race—the northern or mountain mink Pu- 
torius V1Ison. 
Putorius vison Abbott, Cook’s Geol. on N. J., 1868, p. 754.— 
Abbott, A Naturalist’s Rambles, 1885, p. 448.—Beesley, Geol. 
Cape May ‘Co., 1857, p. 137. 
Putorius vison lutreocephalus Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. 
Phila., 1897, p. 31.—Rhoads, Mam. Pa. and N. J., 1903, p. 167. 
Putorius noveboracensis (Emmons). 
New York Weasel. 
PLATE 53. 
Length, 16 inches; female, 13 inches. ‘Tail always more than 
a third of the total length. Dark chocolate-brown above, white 
below, terminal third of the tail black. In winter, in the north- 
ern part of their range, Weasels usually turn pure white except 
for the black tip to the tail. 
The weasel is the most blood-thirsty of all his tribe. He is 
strictly carnivorous and hunts his prey continually, often killing 
rabbits, mice and squirrels, just to suck their blood, and, one 
victim disposed of he is off on the trail of another. When he 
visits the poultry house he not infrequently kills all of the in- 
mates that he can reach without stopping to devour any one of 
them. Weasels live in holes in the woods, along old walls and 
fence rows or among piles of rock, and sally forth mainly at night 
on their hunting expeditions. The weasel’s long, slender body 
often humped on the back as he runs, and his vicious little face 
recall somewhat the appearance of a snake, and his wonderfully 
rapid motions increase the resemblance. I have seen one white 
weasel from Central New Jersey, but, as a rule, they do not 
change pelage so far south. This change is really a change of 
pelage, all the brown hair being shed and new white fur assumed. 
The individual hairs do not change color as is sometimes alleged. 
Near Medford, N. J., I once watched a weasel making re- 
peated journeys from its burrow in the woods to an adjoining 
swamp and returning at intervals of five or ten minutes each 
