MAMMALS MARTIN AE MUSTELA AMERICANA. 



157 



especially) by darker coloring. A spot behind the ear and a smaller one above and behind 

 the eye are similarly colored. The color of the head differs from that of the trunk only in the 

 greater or less amount of sprinkling of white. The upper margin of the ear is rounded, with 

 out a projecting blunt point. The appressed whiskers reach behind farther than the ear. The 

 blotch on the lower part of the neck ends anteriorly under the throat in five to six small points 

 (three, more rarely four, median, and two lateral) ; posteriorly, it terminates always in one 

 simple point, continued but ending between the fore legs ; this spot is usually light yellow, or 

 varying to light brownish orange yellow, not rarely interrupted by single brown spots. The 

 under fur in the gular blotch is whitish, or yellowish orange, or almost white. The paws and 

 inside of the feet are distinguished from the outer side of the lower thigh (which is colored 

 more or less like the trunk) by a blackish brown darker color. All the stiff straight contour 

 hairs of the tail (with the yellowish gray under fur) in winter are much lengthened, and form 

 a bushy brush from the base ; the tail is grayish brown nearly to the middle, then blackish 

 brown, with single whitish contour hairs. The entire trunk, including the lower thigh, is 

 covered with moderately stiff light grayish brown softer hairs, a little darkest on the lower 

 thigh. The under fur of the trunk, with the exception of the throat, in winter is light ash 

 gray at the base and in the middle ; at the end light brownish gray. The moderately stiff 

 bristly hairs of the toes do not conceal the claws, being constantly shorter than they are. The 

 pads of the toes, even in winter killed specimens, with hairs only on the sides, and enclosed by 

 them, as also the pads of the soles. 



Length of a specimen preserved in alcohol (in inches.} 



Mustelafoina, Beech marten. As there is no American species with which the Mustela foina 

 needs to be compared, it is here only necessary to say that it differs from the M. martes, or pine 

 marten, in the pure white color of its gular blotch, which is forked behind, and extends on either 

 side, in. one of its branches, to the upper part of the fore feet. The body is of a more reddish 

 yellow brown color ; the chin and snout are lighter, and not different in color from the upper 

 part of the head ; the tail is brownish black, or black, from the base, with somewhat crisped 

 hairs, and differs from the lower part of the back in color. The downy fur of all parts of the 

 body is of a lighter whitish color. The tail is generally longer, with more vertebrae. 



I am, myself, however, far from admitting the identity of the American marten with the 

 Russian sable, although it occupies a position intermediate between the latter and the M. martes 

 in size, length of tail, and coloration, as well as intrinsic value of the fur. The white headed 

 varieties of New York are most like the sable ; the darker headed ones of the western country 

 like the pine marten. I have never seen winter specimens of the latter, nor summer of the 



