WEASEL FAMILY. 67 
year 1835; but ata 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 (I. longicauda), 
distinguished from the ordinary stoat by its longer tail, The Brazilian, or 
bridled weasel (JZ. 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 CM. hemachelana), in which the under-parts are brown and 
the tip of the tail dark; the striped weasel (JZ strigidorsus), of Sikhim, in 
which there is a pale stripe down the back; the yellow-bellied weasel (I/. 
cathia), from the Central and Eastern Himalaya; the pale weasel (JZ. alpina), 
ranging from the Altai to Gilgit; as well as several others, some of which are 
confined to Tibet. 
Other Species. 
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 
Extinct Forms. 
Mink. ; 
one of a group of three species of comparatively large size, whose 
nearest allies are the polecats. The European representative of this group 
(M. 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 (V/. vison) of North America; while the third 
is the Siberian mink (MV. sibirica), which is stated to 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 
