MAMMALS MARTINAE PUTORIUS CICOONANII. 



161 



the canines, instead of two, as is really the case, both in this and in P. vulgaris. I am not 

 able to state its range with precision, though it appears to be a very northern species. 



List of specimens. 



PUTORIUS CICOGrNANII. 



Small Brown Weasel. 



Mustela etcognanii, BONAP. in Fauna Italica, Mamtn. 1838. Under head of Mvattla boccamela. 

 IB. Charlesworth's Mag. N. H. II, Jan. 1838, 37. 

 WIEGMANN'S Archiv, 1839, H, 423. 

 Mustela vulgtris, THOMPSON, Hist. Vermont, 1842, 30. 

 Mustela fusca, ADD. & BACH., J. A. N. Sc. Philada. VIII, u, 1842, 288. 

 DEKAT, N. Y. Zool. I, 1842, 35. 

 WAGNER in Wiegmann's Archiv, 1843, n, 32. 

 Putorius /uicus, AUD. & BACH., N. A. Quad. Ill, 1853, 234 ; pi. cxlviii. 



S P . CH. Length to tail, 8 inches or less. Tail vertebra, one-third this length. Black of tail, two-fifths its length. Out 

 stretched hind feet reach the end of the vertebra. In summer, brown above, whitish beneath ; edge of upper lip white. In 

 winter white ; tail with black tip. 



The dimensions of this species are less than those of our two ermines, although the precise 

 limits of adult size have not yet been ascertained. The specimen before me and belonging to 

 the Boston Society of Natural History, (kindly loaned for examination,) measures but 7|- inches; 

 the tail vertebrse, 2 inches ; yet it is completely adult. The ears are broad, and the false lobe 

 comes nearly up to the highest part of the ear. The auditory aperture is very broad. The feet 

 are moderately large, densely coated with hair, so as to obscure very greatly the tubercles. The 

 tail vertebra are about one-third the head and body, or even less ; with the hairs, not three- 

 sevenths. 



The general color of the back, side, legs, and tail, is rather dark brown, deepest along the 

 vertebral line ; this color is darker and with less of a chestnut -brown tint than in P. novebora- 

 censis. The under parts, except as described, and the fingers and toes, are white. The white of 

 the belly extends to the genitalia, and on the upper lip forms a narrow margin to the nose, on 

 a line with the lower part of the nasal aperture. There is a large indistinct blotch, colored 

 like the back, on the breast between the arms, and another behind that, though this is probably 

 not constant. The tail begins to darken at about one-third its length from the base above, and 

 two-thirds below ; on the terminal third it is entirely black, the hairs forming a dense pencil of 

 this color, much as in the European ermine, (P. erminea,) this color not extending much behind 

 the end of the vertebrae, as in P. noveboracensis. There are a few scattered white hairs in this 



brush. 



A large collection of weasels made by Mr. Jenks, at Middleboro', Massachusetts, and received 

 since the preceding description was written, has enabled me to determine with more accuracy 

 21 L 



