PUTOEIUS. 165 



brown ; the terminal portion white, except at the end of the tail 

 where all the tips of the hairs are black. 



Dimensions. Head and body 13 inches, tail without hair 65 ; 

 weight 8 to 12 ounces. Skull (of a female) 2-05 long (basal 

 length), 1-3 broad across the zygomatic arches. 



Distribution. Eastern Europe and parts of Western Asia, gene- 

 rally very rare, but common in South Afghanistan about Kandahar 

 and Quetta. It has been obtained at or near the latter locality by 

 Captain Hutton and Dr. Leith, and, as I learn from Sir O. B. 

 St. John, occurs in Pishin, north of Quetta. 



Habits. An excellent account of this animal is given by Hutton, 

 very little about it having been recorded in Europe. It lives in 

 the ground in burrows (probably made by rats originally), and 

 appears to be equally common in cultivation and in uncultivated 

 tracts. It is chiefly nocturnal, but is occasionally seen abroad 

 hunting in the daytime. It feeds on birds, rats, mice, lizards, 

 beetles, and snails, and probably, like the common polecat, on any 

 animals that it can master, and is excessively sanguinary. A caged 

 animal kept by Hutton killed in succession 4 wagtails and 4 rats, 

 two of the latter full-grown and large. The rats were always seized 

 in the same place, just behind the ear, held until they ceased to 

 struggle, and then killed by one or two bites through the back of 

 the skull. As the blood flowed from the wounds, the polecat 

 lapped it up, but never attempted to suck it. Although the animal 

 that slaughtered all these birds and rats had been fasting for some 

 time, it made no attempt to eat its victims during the day, but 

 stored the bodies in a portion of its cage divided off as a sleeping 

 apartment, and only fed after nightfall. The whole account given 

 (I. c.) is too long to copy, but is worth reading. 



The young are produced in holes about the end of March or 

 beginning of April and are usually three or four in number. 



This species has the same disagreeable foetid odour that is 

 characteristic of the common polecat. 



81. Putorius ermiuea. The Ermine or Stoat. 



Mustek erminea, L. Syst. Nat. i, p. 68 (1766) ; Hodgson, J. A. S. & 

 vi. p. 564, x, p. 909, xi, p. 280 ; Horsf. Cat. p. 104 ; JSlyth, Cat. 

 p. 68 ; Slanf. Yark. Miss., Mam. p. 32. 



Body very slender. Tail about a third the length of the head 

 and body. Soles of feet covered with hair except the small toe- 

 pads. Fur soft, with woolly underfur. 



Skull elongate, muzzle very short. The bony palate continues 

 back for more than half the distance between the last molars and 

 the end of the pterygoids, which are simple at the end, not curved 

 outwards, nor is there any process opposite to them projecting 

 from the bulla. Upper molar concave before and behind, so as to 

 be slightly dumbbell-shaped, and slightly emarginate posteriorly 

 on the outer edge. 



