COMMON WEASEL. 189 



times, always retains its reddish tinge, as that of the 

 Ermine does its black tip. In this state it is the 

 M. nivalis of LinnsDus. One which we received from 

 the extreme north of Scotland had two white spots on 

 each side of the nose, which it retained through the 

 summer. 



The name is Teutonic ; the Anglo-Saxon word being 

 " Wesle,"and the Danish " Vassel ;" which latter, however, 

 is equally applied to the Ermine. 



We have chosen to retain the generic appellation 

 Mustela for the present form, in preference to Putorius, 

 applied to it as a sub-genus by Cuvier, because we con- 

 sider it as the type of the family ; for which reason also, 

 the word Maries having been assigned by Ray to the 

 Martens, we have retained it for that genus instead of 

 Mustela. Count Keyserling and Professor Blasius, in 

 their work on the European Vertebrata, " Die Wirbel- 

 theire Europas," have rejected the genus Maries, and 

 made use of the old Linnsean one, Mustela, for the Mar- 

 tens ; whilst for animals of which we are now treating 

 they have formed a new genus called Fcetorius. We see 

 no sufficient reason, however, for rejecting the name of 

 Maries, assigned by Ray to the Martens, and shall con- 

 tinue the same generic names for this group which were 

 made use of in the former edition of this work. 



It will be unnecessary for us to mention specially the 

 different countries in which the Weasel is found, except- 

 ing to state that it is distributed over the whole of 

 Europe, and has been met with near the Amoor River 

 by Dr. Von Schrenck. 



The general form and aspect of the Weasel show it 

 to be typical in the group of vermiform Carnivora. The 

 body is extremely slender and arched ; the head small 

 and flattened ; the eyes black, and remarkably quick 



