26 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



row vertical bar between eye and ear, white; throat white: rest of 

 under parts, including fore feet and inner sides and distal half of hind 

 feet, pale yellowish; terminal one-fifth of tail black; rest of tail above 

 and below concolor with back and without the yellowish tinge which 

 is characteristic of xanthogenys. 



Cranial characters. Skull similar to that of xanikogenys but larger 

 and decidedly broader. The skull of the type, an adult female, com- 

 pared with skulls of xanthogenys of the saiue sex and age from south- 

 ern California, differs in the following particulars: Skull everywhere 

 broader; muzzle, palate, interorbital breadth and constriction very 

 much broader; zygomata more spreading. 



Measurements. Type specimen, female adult: Total length, 412; tail 

 vertebra^ Io5; hind foot, 44. 



PUTORIUS FRENATUS (Lichtenstein). Bridled Weasel. 

 (PL III, figs. 1, la, Ib, 2.) 



1813. Musiela Irasilienaix Sevastianoff : Mem. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Petersburg, IV, 

 356-363, Table iv, 1813. (Name on plate only; diagnosis in text.) Preoc- 

 cupied by Musiela brasiliensis [an otter] Gmelin, 1788. 



1832. Mustda frenatu Lichtenstein : Darstelluug neuer oder wenig bekannter Sau- 

 gethiere, PI. XL1I and corresponding text (unpaged), 1832. 



1857. Putorius frenatu s Bnird: Mammals N. Am., 173-176, 1857. 



Type locality. Valley of Mexico, near City of Mexico. 



General characters. Size large; tail long; its black tip relatively 

 short; head black, Avith conspicuous white markings. 



Color. Top of head blackish, interrupted between eye and ear by a 

 broad, whitish band, which is nearly confluent with a patch of same 

 color between the eyes; rest of upper parts brown; a dark spot behind 

 corners of mouth; chin and throat whitish; rest of under parts ochra- 

 ceous yellow; forefeet to or above wrists whitish or pale buffy yellow- 

 ish, continuous with and shading into ochraceous of under parts; color 

 of under parts extending down on inner side of hind legs and feet to 

 toes, which are whitish or yellowish white. 



Cranial characters. Skull large aiid massive, with strongly devel- 

 oped postorbital processes, deep postorbital constriction, marked sagit- 

 tal crest, and peculiar audital bull a? , which are obliquely truncated 

 anteriorily (the inner side reaching farthest forward) and abruptly 

 highest on inner side, falling away suddenly on outer side so as to 

 form a rounded ridge along the inner side of the longitudinal axis of 

 the bulla. The skull of frenaius resembles that of longicauda, but is 

 considerably larger, and differs in the form of the audital bulhe just 

 described, and also in the extent of the postglenoid space, which is 

 much larger than in longicauda. The dentition is heavy and the 

 upper carnassial tooth relatively shorter than in longicauda. The 

 ramus of the under jaw is much more convex inferiorly. 



Remarks. Lichtenstein, in his original description of Mvtstelafrenatdi 

 states that the tail is about one-third longer than that of the European 



