WEASEL FAMILY. 67 



year 1833 ; but at a later period, owing to depreciation in value, the Hudson's 

 Bay Company found that ermine skins were not worth the trouble of collection. 

 At the present day the ermine is much more abundant in British North America 

 and Alaska than it is in the United States ; the largest number of skins being 

 obtained from Alaska. 



In addition to the weasel and stoat, there are a number of more 



or less closely-allied species inhabiting the Northern Hemisphere, 

 while a few descend below the Equator. In North America, inhabiting the 

 region of the Upper Missouri, we have the long-tailed stoat (M. longicauda), 

 distinguished from the ordinary stoat by its longer tail. The Brazilian, or 

 bridled weasel (M. frenata), is a more southerly species, ranging from Texas to 

 Brazil, and distinguished by the head being darker than the body and blotched 

 with white, and also by the retention of the dark colour throughout the year. A 

 weasel from Patagonia may be only a variety of this species. 



Asia also possesses a number of representatives of the group, such as the 

 Himalayan weasel (M. hemachelana), in which the under-parts are brown and 

 the tip of the tail dark; the striped weasel (M. strigidwsus), of Sikhim, in 

 which there is a pale stripe down the back; the yellow-bellied weasel (M. 

 catl da), from the Central and Eastern Himalaya ; the pale weasel (M. alpina), 

 ranging from the Altai to Gilgit ; as well as several others, some of which are 

 confined to Tibet. 



Weasels were also well represented in past epochs of the earth's 



history, the remains of numerous species having been described from 

 the Miocene or Middle Tertiaries of Europe. Of those referred to the existing 

 genus Mustela, some differ from living weasels, and thereby agree with the larger 

 martens, in having four pairs of premolar teeth in both jaws ; while others have 

 four pairs of these teeth in the upper jaw, and only three in the lower jaw ; and 

 others, again, have the reverse of this arrangement. Another extinct weasel-like 

 animal from the same deposits, for which the name Plesictis has been proposed, is 

 one of the forms already alluded to as apparently connecting the weasels so 

 intimately with the civets. 



The animal represented in the illustration on the next page forms 



one of a group of three species of comparatively large size, whose 

 nearest allies are the polecats. The European representative of this group 

 (J/. lutreola), is generally known on the Continent as the nertz, or sumpf -otter 

 (marsh-otter), and has no recognised English title, although the name of 

 European mink has been suggested for it, and is adopted in this work. The 

 second species is the true mink (M. vison) of North America; while the third 

 is the Siberian mink (M. sibirica), which is stated tc connect the other two with 

 the polecats. 



These three are distinguished from the other members of the genus, not 

 only by their semi -aquatic habits, but by certain structural peculiarities. 

 While agreeing with the polecats in the number of their teeth, the minks 

 differ from them, as well as from the weasels, by the narrower muzzle to their 

 skulls, being thus more like the martens. The premolar teeth are relatively 

 larger than in their nearest allies ; while a more important point of distinction is 



