102 BULLETIN NO. VII. 



the traps are destroyed and hidden, and the bait devoured or 

 cached. According to northern explorers the animal is a victim 

 of a senseless kleptomania, not contenting itself in confiscating 

 everything it can devour, but stealing and secreting all articles 

 it is able to carry. It may be itself trapped in a dead-fall"or 

 steel- trap of large size, but great skill is required to outwit the 

 animal. 



The wolverene brings forth four or five young, in secluded 

 caverns or hollow logs, in June or July, and the female is said 

 to be very fierce and even dangerous while guarding the young. 

 The sense of smell is the best developed of the senses, the 

 vision being particularly unreliable ; which may give rise to 

 the habit with which it is credited, of shading its eyes with its 

 paw when looking at a distance. 



GENUS MUSTELA, LINN. 



This genus, including the martens, differs in many respects 

 from the glutton, and connects that animal with the slender 

 weasels. The dental formulas are identical, I :}:f :i==38, and dif- 

 fer from that of Putoris in having one more premolar above 

 and below. The skull is much less massive and more tapering 

 than in Gulo. The rostral portion is elongated. The frontal 

 profile is concave. There are seven cervical vertebrae, sixteen 

 dorsals, six lumbar, three sacral, and eighteen to twenty cau- 

 dal. The form is stout and somewhat cat-like or fox-like; size 

 moderate that of a cat; progression digitigrade; fur dense and 

 valuable; habit arboreal and terrestrial. Although many vari- 

 eties are known to furriers, zoologically but four, or at most 

 five, species can be recognized. The true sable is M. zibellina, 

 closely allied to which is M. martes, the common European spe- 

 cies. The house marten, M. foina, is of a greyer color, and 

 has a longer tail than the above. Our own M. americana, or 

 marten, closely resembles the M. martes, while the fisher is 

 widely different. The following table of differentia may prove 

 useful. 



M.pennanti (Fischer). Length 2 feet or more, tail over 1 foot, tapering; 



ears wide, semi-circular ; color blackish, darkest below ; no 



light throat-patch. 

 M. americana. Length under 2 feet; tail less than 1 foot, uniformly 



bushy ; ears high, triangular ; color brownish, darker above, 



usually with a lighter patch on the throat. 



