34 
NEW-YORK FAUNA. 
fortnight, and oftener if practicable. The fisher and wolvrene, as we have before remarked, 
will often destroy these traps, by breaking into them behind, and eat up not only the bait, 
but the captured animal. 
I am inclined to believe that the American Sable is very distinct from the Pine Marten of 
Europe, with which it is usually arranged ; but as I have had no means of making a direct 
comparison, I shall adhere to the ancient name. Its geographical range extends from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific, and it is found in all the dry wooded districts between the fortieth and 
sixty-eighth parallels of north latitude. 
THE SMALL WEASEL 
Mustela pusilla. 
PLATE XIV. FIG. I. —(ALBANY MUSEUM.) 
Mustela ( Putorius ) vulgaris. Richardson, (excl. syn.) Fauna Bor. Am. Vol. 1, p. 45. 
P. vulgaris. Emmons, Mass. Report, 1840, p. 44. 
Characteristics. Color same as that of P. noveboracensis in its summer coat, but smaller; 
unchanging. Tail one-fourth of the whole length. Length 12-13 inches. 
Description. Body vermiform; head somewhat obtusely pointed. Ears broad, wide, and 
slightly pointed above. Eyes black and prominent. A series of dark brownish whiskers along 
the upper lips, and another, consisting of five or six, parallel with it above; a small patch 
of two or three above the eye. Fore feet short, and rather robust; claws acute, curved, and 
almost entirely concealed by the long hairs. Tail short, cylindrical, even throughout, not 
bushy; the tips of hairs extending beyond the vertebrae. Teeth of the typical number ; above, 
the two outer incisors largest, the intermediate ones equal; beneath, they are crowded, with 
the two external largest, the two intermediate small, and the remaining two behind and 
somewhat between the external and medial incisors. In the upper jaw, the second jaw tooth 
is small and distant, the posterior with a large spur directed inwards. 
Color. Unifonn throughout the year; more glossy, but paler than in the New-York weasel. 
Upper part of the head, neck and body, of a light reddish brown ; the same color prevails on 
the outer and anterior part of the fore legs, the whole of the head, legs, rump and tail. The 
chin, a small spot above the angle of the jaw extending to the borders of the upper lip, 
throat, belly and breast, white. On the throat this color extends to the sides of the neck, 
appears on the posterior parts of the fore legs, becomes dilated on the anterior part of the 
abdomen, then irregularly contracted, and subsequently throwing off an acute-angled patch 
of the same color on the upper and external part of the thighs. Tail a shade darker at the tip. 
Total length,. 10 - 8. Tail (vertebrae),. l - 8. 
Head and neck,_ 2 - 8. Ditto, including fur,_ 2*1. 
Body,. 6 - 0. 
