28 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 11. 



around the world. The animal was said to have come from Brazil, hut 

 no definite locality was given. In the numerous publications that have 

 since appeared relating to the mammals of Brazil and adjacent terri- 

 tory, no weasels are mentioned as inhabiting that country, and the 

 species described from the mountains to the westward differ so widely 

 from SevastianofPs brasiliensis that it is almost certain his animal did 

 not come from Brazil. The original description (including measure 

 merit!?) agrees in every respect with P. frenatus of Lichteustien from 

 the Valley of Mexico, indicating that the two animals are identical. 

 On this assumption the well-known and appropriate name f remit its 

 would have to fall before the earlier and inappropriate 'brasiliensixS 

 Fortunately, however, Sevastianoff placed his animal in the genus 

 Mustela, and the name Mustela brasiliensis is preoccupied by Gmelin 

 for a South American otter. (Syst. Nat., ed. 13, p. 03, 1788.) Hence, 

 unless some earlier name is found, frenatus will stand for the Mexican 

 bridled weasel. 



Measurements. An adult male from Tlalpam, Valley of Mexico (type 

 locality) : Total length, 505; tail vertebra, 203; hind foot, 53. Average 

 of G males from Brownsville, Tex. : Total length, 488; tail vertebrae, 192; 

 hind foot, 51. Average of 3 females from Brownsville: Total length, 

 438; tail vertebra?, 187; hind foot, 41.5. 



PUTORIUS FRENATUS GOLDMANI subsp. nov. 



Type from Pinabete, Chiapas, Mexico. No. 77519, $ ad.. U. S. Nat. Mus., Dept. Agric. 

 coll. Collected Feb. 10, 1896, by E. A. Goldman. Altitude about 8,200 feet ( = 2,500 

 meters). Original number 9279. 



Geographic distribution. Mountains of southeastern Chiapas; limits 

 of range unknown. 



General character*. Similar to P. frenatus in size and general char- 

 acters, but tail and hind feet longer; light markings more restricted; 

 black of head reaching much farther back on neck; color of upper parts 

 darker and more extensive, encroaching on sides of belly and covering 

 fore and hind feet; black tip of tail longer. 



Color. Upper parts, including whole of fore and hind feet, dull, dark 

 chestnut brown, washed with black on the neck from shoulders forward, 

 and becoming pure black on the head; face marked by a whitish patch 

 between the eyes, and a narrow, oblique band between eye and ear; a 

 blackish spot behind angle of mouth; color of under parts salmon 

 ochraceous, reaching wrists inferiorly, but not reaching heels; terminal 

 third of tail black. 



Cranial characters. Skull rather large; zygomata moderately spread- 

 ing: squamosal inflation moderate, but large for a member of the Jre- 

 natus series; audital bulla 1 small, steep on inner side, and only slightly 

 elevated anteriorly above squamosal inflation. The skull as a whole 

 resembles that of frenatus, but differs conspicuously in the greater 

 length and inflation of the postglenoid part of the squamosal, greater 

 breadth of the basioccipital, and in the size and form of the audital 



