590 CARNIVORA 



near the surface of the ground, but it can not only pursue its prey 

 through very small holes and crevices of rocks and under dense 

 tangled herbage, but follow it up the stems and branches of trees, 

 or even into the water, swimming Avith perfect ease. It constructs 

 a nest of dried leaves and herbage, placed in a hole in the ground 

 or a bank or hollow tree, in which it brings up its litter of four to 

 six (usually five) young ones. The mother will defend her young 

 with the utmost desperation against any assailant, having been often 

 known to sacrifice her own life rather than desert them. 



The Stoat or Ermine (M. erminea) has nearly the same distribu- 

 tion as the Weasel, but in Asia it is said to extend into parts of 

 the Kashmir Himalaya. Its size, as already mentioned, consider- 

 ably exceeds that of the Weasel ; and its 'most distinctive feature is 

 the black tip at the end of the tail, which remains when the rest of 

 the pellage turns white. The white winter skins from the northern 

 regions of its habitat, where the fur is thick and close, form the 

 well-known and valuable ermine of commerce. Remains of the 

 Stoat are found in the Pleistocene cavern-deposits of Europe. The 

 other species of Weasels are very numerous and widely distributed. 



Extinct Mustelines. A number of European Miocene Carnivores 

 may be referred to the genus Mustela in its wider sense, and serve to 

 confirm the propriety of this use of the term. Thus M. sedoria is 

 a species of somewhat larger size than the Stoat, with p \, while in 

 M. angustifrons the number of premolars is -, and in M. mustelina 

 - ; the latter species agreeing very closely in size with the Stoat. 

 The extinct Plesictis, in which there are p -f- and the lower car- 

 nassial has a large inner cusp, is distinguished from Mustela by the 

 circumstance that the temporal ridges of the skull never unite to 

 form a sagittal crest. Moreover, the inner tubercular portion of the 

 upper molar (as in some of the Miocene species of Mustela} is shorter 

 in an antero-posterior direction than the secant outer moiety; and 

 the auditory bulla is more inflated than in Mustela, although it has 

 no septum. Both these features indicate a decided approximation to 

 the Viverroid genus Stenoplesiotis (p. 539) ; and since there are no 

 well-marked characters of family value by which these two genera 

 can be distinguished the available evidence points to a transition from 

 the Viverroid to the Musteloid type. Mustela larteti, of the Middle 

 Miocene of France, should perhaps be referred to Ictonyx. 



Pcedlogale. 1 This genus has been made for the reception of the 

 South African Mustela albinucha, in which the coloration is similar 

 to that of Ictonyx, but the number of cheek-teeth is usually reduced 

 to p % , m $, although there may be a second lower molar. The 

 auditory bulla is quite flat. 



Lyncodon. 2 This name has been proposed for a small Musteline 

 1 0. Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 5, vol. xi. p. 370 (1883). 

 2 Gervais, Diet. Univ. cCHist. Nat. t. iv. p. 685 (1849). 



