6TOAT OR ERMINE. 157 



and active little animal. Its body is much elon- 

 gated, and of nearly equal thickness in its whole 

 length ; its neck rather long, and nearly as thick as 

 the body ; its head oblong, flattened above, with 

 rather obtuse muzzle ; the tail of moderate length 

 and the feet short. On the fore foot the first toe 

 is very small, the second longer than the fifth, the 

 third longest, the fourth a little shorter ; under the 

 last joint of each is a bare tubercle. On the hind 

 feet are also five bare tubercles, and the toes have 

 nearly the same proportions as those of the fore 

 feet ; the soles covered with hair. The ears are 

 rather large, broad, and rounded, with a slit in the 

 posterior margin, forming a lobe there. The pile is 

 shortish and soft ; the hairs acuminate, a little flat- 

 tened, and slightly curved or undulated ; the under 

 fur very soft and woolly; the my stachial bristles 

 long ; the coarse hairs on the terminal half of the 

 tail very long. The dentition is similar to that ol 

 the Polecat, the teeth of the upper jaw, 3, 1, 4 ; o\ 

 the lower, 3, 1, 5, on each side ; the third grinder 

 of the upper jaw has two small terminal and a large 

 thin- edged middle tubercle, with a small anterior 

 and inner process; the fourth is transverse, witk 

 three small crowded external tubercles, and a larger 

 internal knob ; the second incisor of the lower ja\v 

 is placed a little behind the line of the rest, as in 

 the Polecat and Weasel ; the two anterior grinders 

 are obliquely conical, the third directly conical, the 

 fourth large and three-lobed, the last merely pre- 

 sents the appearance of a small knob. The males 



