ORDER CARNIVORA: CARNIVORES 237 



Winter pelage like that of the Kamchatka Sable but of a more 

 decided cinnamon tint and lighter; throat patch of the same cinna- 

 mon color; head avellaneous, back darker; flanks sayal brown or 

 tawny-olive; underfur pale yellowish, more cinnamon at the tips; 

 summer pelage duller and darker, more brownish. 



Range: the whole of Sakhalin Island. 



M. z. brachyura (Temminck). (Mustela brachyura Temminck, 

 in Siebold, Fauna Japonica, Mammiferes, p. 33, 1844; Matimaja, 

 Hokkaido, Japan.) Japanese Sable. 



FIG. 24. Russian Sable (Maries zibellina subsp.) 



Inferior to the Siberian Sable in fineness and length of fur; back 

 and tail dark brown; sides and limbs lighter; long hair of feet con- 

 cealing the claws. Tail, 3.5 inches. (Temminck, 1844, pp. 33-34.) 



Range : Hokkaido and the Kuriles. 



Russia. In past centuries the Sable's range extended westward 

 perhaps as far as the Kola Peninsula or even Lapland. In the six- 

 teenth and seventeenth centuries it was found on the Petchora 

 River and probably at the same time in the Dvina region. In Pallas's 

 time it occurred in the vicinity of Ufa, west of the southern Urals; 

 the last one in this general region was killed in 1850 near Ufimsk. 

 Its southern limit on both slopes of the Urals was about latitude 

 52 N., or possibly 51 N. About 1700 it inhabited the entire Gov- 

 ernment of Perm and the eastern half of the Governments of Vo- 

 logda, Archangel, and possibly Viatka. By 1875 about 300 Sables 

 were trapped annually in the northeastern part of Perm. More 



