I04 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



a smaller, blacker race — the northern or mountain mink Pu- 

 torius vison. 



Putorius vison Abbott, Cook's Ceol. 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. 



Pi-ate 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 expeditionsv 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 



