CARNARIA. 87 



It is also to this sul)divisioii tliut wo must refer two small Euro- 

 pean species — 



M. vulgaris, L. ; Buff. VII, xxix, 1. (The Weasel). Of a uni- 

 form red ; and the 



M. erminea, L. ; BufF. VII, xxix, 2, and xxxi, 1. (The Stoat or 

 Ermine). Red in summer, white in winter ; end of the tail always 

 black. The winter skin is one of the best known furs. 



We should also place near it the 



M. lutreola, Pall. Spic. Zool. XI. 1; Leche, Stock. Mem. 1739, 

 pi. xi; Schreb. CXXVII. (The Mink or Norek, or Polecat). It 

 frequents the shores of rivers, &c., in the north and east of Europe 

 from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea, and lives on frogs and crabs. 

 The feet are slightly palmated at the base of the toes, but the teeth 

 and round tail approximate it nearer to the Polecat than the Otter. 

 It is of a reddish brown ; the circumference of the lips and the under 

 part of the jaw white ; it exhales a musky odour, and its fur is very 

 1)eautiful. 



The above animal is considered by some to be the same as the 

 Polecat of the North American rivers, to which the name of Mink 

 has been transferred, whose feet are likewise semi-palmated ; but the 

 only white about it is on the point of the chin, and sometimes a nar- 

 row line under the throat — it is a different species*. 

 W^arm climates also have their Polecats or Weasels. 

 Put. nudipes, Fred. Cuv. Mammif. (The Javanese Polecat). 

 Golden-yellow ; head and tip of the tail white. 



Put. africanus, Desm. (The African Polecat). Reddish fawn 

 colour above ; yellowish white below ; a red band reaching longitu- 

 dinally along the middle of the belly from the fore to the hind legs. 



Put. str/atus, Cuv. (The Striated Madagascar Ferret). Size of 

 the European Weasel ; reddish brown, with five longitudinal white 

 stripes; the under part and the tail nearly all white. 



Put. zorilla; Zon7/e, Buff. ; Viverra zorilla, Gm. ; Buff. XIII. 

 xl. 1 . (The Zorilla, or Cape Polecat). Irregularly striped with black 

 and white; an animal that has been so far confounded with the 

 mephitic weasels as to receive the name of Zorillo, or little Fox, 

 which the Spaniards have applied to those fetid American animals. 

 It approaches them in its claws, which are fitted for digging, but in 

 every thing else resembles the Polecats. They indicate a subter- 

 raneous habit, which might induce us to separate it from the other 

 species. 



MusTELA, Cur. 

 The true Weasels differ from the Polecats in having an additional false 

 molar above and below, and in the existence of a small internal tubercle 



* When this page was written, I had no otlier knowledge of the Norek, or Mink 

 of Europe, than what the description of Palhis afforded me. Having since then 

 procured some specimens, I have ascertained that the white about tlie jaws is not 

 pei-manent, and that very frequently the only white to be seen is at the end of the 

 lower jaw, as in the American Mink. 1 now think they are both one species. 



