116 MUSTELID^E. 



CARNIVORA. MUSTELIDJE- 



Fig. 40. 



Fossil, nat. size. Cave. 



PUTORIUS EEMINEUS. Stoat. 



Fossil Weasel, BUCKLAND, Reliquiae Diluvianae, pp. 18, 73. PL vi. figs. 28, 



29. PL xxiii. figs. 11, 12, 13. 

 Bektte commune, CUVIER, Oss. FOBS. iv. p. 475. 

 Putorius vulyaris, OWEN. Report of Brit. Association, 1842. 



THE most instructive fossil of the ancient British Ermine 

 was discovered by Mr. Bartlett of Plymouth in the Bone- 

 cave at Berry Head, and is now in the British Museum. 

 It is a remarkably perfect skull, with the lower jaw ce- 

 mented by stalactitic matter in its natural position (fig. 

 40) ; the specimen is absorbent from the loss of animal 

 matter, and slightly stained red by the ferruginous deposit 

 of the waters which percolated the limestone fissures. The 

 zygomatic arches are broken, but the teeth are unusually 

 complete, the incisors of the upper jaw, and the long, 

 slender, and sharp canines in both jaws being entire. 



The size of this skull, and a slight superiority of breadth 

 in proportion to its length, indicate it to have belonged to 

 the larger species of Weasel, called the Stoat or Ermine 

 (Putorius ermineus). Fig. 41, shows a small exostosis or 

 bony tumour on the right os frontis of the specimen. 



