On the Beech-Martens of the Palcearctio Region. 441 



LXVII. — N'otes on the Beech-Martens of the Paliearctic 

 Region. By G. E, H. Barkett-Hamilton. 



Through the kindness of Mr. Abel Chapman I have been 

 permitted to examine the skin and cranium of a marten from 

 Andalucia. This specimen, though it agrees in general size 

 and in cranial characters with Martes foina^ is very distinct 

 both from that animal and from AI. martes in coloration, but 

 is indistinguishable from specimens in the British Museum 

 collection from Xanthus, in Asia Minor, and from Kandahar. 

 In the Afghanistan region, however, there is another form — 

 M. leucolachncea — of which the British Museum collection 

 possesses a specimen from Hazara, in Afghanistan, and a 

 second from Vernoe, in Turkestan. Finally, a third form — 

 M. toufcBa — is represented in the same collection by specimens 

 from Gilgit, Hunya (Cashmere), and from Tibet. 



Probably all these forms intergrade with each other in the 

 intermediate regions, and their treatment presents many 

 difficulties, in illustration of which 1 need only quote the 

 remark of Mr. W. T. Blanford*, that " probably the martens, 

 like the cats, comprise a large number of incipient species, 

 imperfectly differentiated. This is Severtzoff's view also." 

 They may be treated as distinct species, or as varieties or 

 subspecies of the typical M. foina^ according to the individual 

 preference of the investigator ; but it will be useful to give 

 a concise review of the characters by which they may usually 

 be distinguished from one another. 



General character s\ (common to all the /oe'na group). — 

 Third upper premolar convex externally ; external margin of 

 the fourth upper premolar exceeding in length the transverse 

 diameter of the single upper molar ; external margin of 

 hindmost tooth incurved and bilobed. 



The subspecies are 



Mustela foina, Erxleb. 

 (Syst. R. An. 1777, p. 458), 



which has the throat-patch pure white, the fur close in tex- 

 ture and of a dark brown colour, the underfur greyish white, 

 and the tail not bushy. 



* ' Scientific Results of the Second Yarkand Expedition,' Mammalia, 

 p. 29. 



t for further details see Blasius, Saugeth. Deutsch. pp. 213-219, and 

 R. Hensel, in Archiv fur Naturgeschichte, 1853, pp. 17-22 (with plate). 



