JUNE, 1896.] SYNOPSIS OF THE WEASELS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



11 



darker form, P. fijrentori. In the United States it is common in New 

 England and New York, and in the forest-covered parts of Minnesota. 

 It probably occurs also in northern Michigan and Wisconsin. 



General characters. Size small; tail slender and rather short; color 

 of under parts covering toes and inner sides of both fore and hind feet; 

 color of upper parts never encroaching on belly, but ending along a 

 straight line. 



Color. Upper parts in summer pelage : uniform dark brown, hardly 

 darker on head; end of tail blackish ; no dark spot behind corners of 

 mouth; under parts, usually including upper lip, white, more or less 

 tinged with yellow. In ic inter pelage: pure white with a strong yellow- 

 ish tinge on rump, tail, and under parts; end of tail black. 



Cranial cliaraclcrx. Skull small, light, narrow, and elongated with- 

 out marked postorbital processes, and only a slight postorbital constric- 

 tion; xygomata narrow, and not bowed outward ; brain case elongate 

 and snbcylindric; audital bulhe small, narrow, and subcylindric, almost 

 continuous anteriorly (except in old age) 

 with the greatly inflated squamosals; 

 palate narrow; the tooth rows more 

 nearly parallel than in the other spe- 

 cies; skull of female similar to that' 

 of male, but smaller. Contrasted with 

 richardxoiti. the skull of cicognani is 

 smaller, the audital bulla; decidedly 

 smaller, and the dentition lighter. In 

 nearly every series of cicognani there are 

 one or two old males whose skulls arc 

 abnormally large and closely resemble 

 skulls of riehardsoni, except that the 

 audital bulla- are always smaller. 



Measurements. Average of 5 males from Ossipee, N. H. : Total 

 length, 278; tail vertebra 1 , 80; hind foot, 3G.5. Average of 3 females: 

 Total length, 230; tail vertebrae, 69 ; hind foot, 30.5. 



PUTORIUS CICOGNANI RICHARDSONI (Bonap.). Richardson's Weasel. 



1820. Mnstela (Puior'ms) crminea Richardson: Fauna Boreali-Americana, pp. 46-47, 

 1829. (In part: specimen from Fort Franklin, Great Bear Lake. Not M. 

 crminea Linn.) 



1838. Mmlela richanlsoni Bonap. : Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist., Vol. XI, p. 38, 



1838. (based on Richardson's specimen from Great Bear Lake). 



1839. I'nloriiiHrichardsoni'Ricli.: Zool. Beechey's Voyage of Blossom, Mammalia, 10% 



1839. 

 1896. Bangs: Proc. Biol. Soc. Waskn., X, pp. 1-24, Feb. 25, 1896. (In part.) 



Type locality. Fort Franklin, Great Bear Lake. 



Geographic distribution. Ilndsoniau timber belt from Hudson Bay 

 to interior of Alaska and British Columbia. 



General character*. Similar to P. cicognani but larger; tail of 

 medium length, its terminal third 'black. 



FIGS. 2 and 3. P. cicognani tf ad. Elk 

 River, Minnesota. 



