1936] MAMMALS OF OREGON 289 



are killed and eaten. With all their abundance of easily procured 

 food the weasels rarely show any signs of fat, being usually very thin 

 and muscular. 



Economic status. Occasionally a weasel gets into an unprotected 

 chicken house and kills young chickens or even some of the old hens. 

 This is remembered for a whole generation, while their constant 

 check on the overabundance of destructive rodents is unknown or 

 little noticed. Their destruction of poultry is usually preventable, 

 however, and should not be given undue importance. To what extent 

 they destroy quail, grouse, or other ground-nesting birds is not well 

 known, but it is certain that they do kill some young rabbits, which 

 locally are counted as game. As fur bearers they have a small value, 

 good white winter skins usually bringing the trappers about 50 

 cents to $1 each, sometimes forming an important part of his catch. 

 The greatest value of weasels, however, is their holding in check 

 the rapid increase of numerous rodent pests, thus helping to main- 

 tain an important and long-established check on abundance of 

 meadow mice, ground squirrels, and other small rodents. 



MUSTELA LONGICAUDA SATURATA (MERBIAM) 

 CASCADE WEASEL 



Putorius saturatus Merriam, North Amer. Fauna No. 11, p. 21, 1896. 



Type Collected at Siskiyou, near southern boundary of Oregon, by Clark 

 P. Streator, June 6, 1894. 



General characters. Slightly larger than typical arizonensis, colors darker 

 and richer, skull relatively short and wide with short, deep audital bullae. 

 Summer pelage, upper parts dark snuff brown, darkest on face with occasionally 

 a white spot or specks between eyes ; lower parts rich clay or ochraceous buff ; 

 tip of tail always black. Winter pelage pale wood brown with lighter underfur, 

 darker face, and black tip of tail; lower parts whitish or tinged with pale 

 yellowish posteriorly. If a white winter pelage occurs locally, it has not been 

 recorded. 



Measurements. Adult male, type: Total length, 402 mm; tail, 154; foot, 46; 

 ear (dry), 20. Female from Anchor, Oreg.: 339; 123; 39; 16. 



Distribution and habitat. The Cascade weasel ranges over north- 

 western California to southwestern British Columbia, west of the 

 Cascades (fig. 66). Specimens from Hornbrook, Fort Klamath, and 

 Mount Mazama are intermediate and could almost as well be referred 

 to arizonensis. The darkest specimens are from Salem and other 

 localities in the coast country. 



General habits. The type of this weasel was taken in a trap set 

 in an Aplodontia burrow, a favorite run for all weasels in this region. 

 At the type locality in June 1897, A. K. Fisher called 3 of them out 

 of the thick brush by squeaking, and shot 1 of them with his cane gun, 

 but they would not come to his traps set and baited especially for 

 weasels. In the timbered country where they live, relatively few 

 specimens have been taken and their habits have been but rarely 

 observed. There is no reason to suppose that their habits differ 

 greatly from those of the more widely distributed and better-known 

 arizonensis except as the animals have adapted themselves to a mild 

 climate and humid habitat of timber and brush land. 



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