324: On the Occurrence of a Weasel in the Azores. 



of dark brown hairs, it resembles P. 7i. numidicus and P. n. 

 africanus. 



Colour. — Above between *' mummy-brown " and " Mars 

 brown " *, the under-fur a shade ligliter. Below, except the 

 lower surface of the tail, but including the inner and lower 

 surfaces of the fore legs, the soles of the fore feet, and the 

 inner and lower surfaces of the hind legs almost down to the 

 ankles, white slightly washed with yellow. The line of de- 

 marcation is decided, and runs on each side directly from a 

 point slightly anterior to the angle of the mouth to its 

 debouchment at the shoulders and thence to the hind legs. 

 Q'he upper surfaces of all four feet are white for a distance 

 of about 13 and 11 mm. in the case of fore and hind feet 

 respectively from the base of the claws. In the hind feet 

 the white colour only just reaches the soles at their external 

 borders. Tiie tail is brown above and below, and terminates 

 in a moderately developed " pencil " of longer hairs of a 

 deeper shade than the rest of the upper surface. There is 

 no trace of white on the ears. 



The dimensions of the hind foot and ear, both taken from 

 the type specimen when in spirit, are 42 and 21*5 mm. re- 

 spectively. No record was taken of the lengths of either 

 head and body or tail in the flesh, but the latter reaches a 

 length, including the terminal hairs, of 98 mm. in the dried 

 skin. 



The skull, although strongly built, massive, and with 

 sagittal and lambdoid crests well developed, is less so than 

 that of P. n. africanus of the Azores. The postorbital pro- 

 cesses are moderately prominent, the nasal region moderately 

 broad and depressed anteriorly, and the posterior narial 

 aperture narrowed. The incisive foramina are elongated, 

 having a length of about 2 mm., and recall those of the P. ermi- 

 neus group. The following are the dimensions (in milli- 

 metres) of the type: — Greatest length 48; basal length 44*5 ; 

 greatest breadth at zygoma 26 ; palatal length 20. 



The type, a female, no. 2. 1. 7. 4 of the British Museum 

 Collection, from the Atlas Mountains, Morocco, was presented 

 by Mr. E. G. Meade- Waldo. 



Opportunity may here be taken to point out that the 

 specimens recently received by the Britisii Museum bear out 

 the opinion, some time since expressed by Professor J. V. 

 Barboza du Bocage f, that Desmarest's type specimen of 



* Names of colours printed in inverted commas are taken from 

 Mr. Robert Ridgway's ' Nomenclature of Colors,' 1886. 



t Jornal de Sci. Math,, Phys. e Nat. ser. 2, no. xiii. (Lisbon, 1895) 

 pp. 24-27. 



