292 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 



[No, 55 



FIGURE 68. Range of the three small weasels in 

 Oregon : 1, Mustela cicognanii streatori; 2, M. c. 

 muricus; 3, M. c. leptus. 



where dense cover and dark soil have left their indelible stamp of 

 color intensity. Ranging from southwestern British Columbia to 

 southern Oregon west of the Cascades, they are typical only in the 

 low country (fig. 68). 



General habits. Like other weasels the Puget Sound weasels are 

 wanderers and hunters of small game, the size of the game being 

 limited only by their power to overcome and kill it. Mice, gophers, 



chipmunks, and the young 

 of larger species of rodents 

 evidently constitute most 

 of their prey and usually 

 are to be found in abun- 

 dance. If game is scarce 

 in one locality the weasels 

 hurry away to other and 

 better hunting grounds, 

 or add more energy and 

 speed to their search until 

 blood and meat satisfy 

 their rapacious appetites. 

 Too small to be a menace to 

 poultry or game, or to be 

 of value for fur, they can 

 go on destroying small 

 rodents with little danger 

 of interference by man. However, many are caught in traps set for 

 the more valuable fur bearers, and perhaps in this way their abun- 

 dance may be seriously curbed. 



MUSTELA CICOGNANII MURICUS (BANGS) 

 SIEBBA LEAST WEASEL 



Putorius (Arctogale) muricus Bangs, New England Zool. Club Proc. 1:71, 1899. 



Type. Collected at Echo, El Dorado County, Calif., adult male, by W. W. 

 Price and E. M. Nutting, July 15, 1897. 



General characters. Very small, the smallest weasel at present known in 

 Oregon; skull long and narrow, bullae long and continuous with inflated 

 squamosals; tail rather short; lower parts broadly white. Summer pelage: 

 Upper parts light chocolate brown (close to natal brown of Ridgway) ; lower 

 parts broadly white, including upper lips, toes, and inside of legs ; tip of tail 

 for about 1 inch black. Winter pelage unknown but probably all white except 

 black tip of tail. 



Measurements. Of adult male type from Echo, Calif. : Total length, 220 mm ; 

 tail, 60; foot, 31. Adult male from Warm Springs, Oreg.: 235; 68; 30. A 

 female from Siskiyou County, Calif., recorded by Kellogg, measured 210 ; 55 ; 27. 

 Weight of male 54.5 g (Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale 1930, p. 463). 



Distribution and habitat. The only specimen of this little weasel 

 from Oregon was taken at Mill Creek about 20 miles west of Warm 

 Springs, on the east slope of the Cascades, by Stanley G. Jewett, 

 May 7, 1915 (fig. 68). It is in brown summer coat, slightly larger 

 and darker than typical muricus, suggesting the first step of grada- 

 tion toward streatori. Two specimens from Siskiyou County, Calif., 

 were identified by Kellogg as muricus, and an unsexed skull from 

 Fort Klamath if a male, is muricus; if a female, streatori. 





