36 
NEW-YORK FAUNA. 
GENUS I’UTORIUS. Cuvier. 
Form and habits of the preceding. Head sub-globose. Muzzle short and blunt. Body 
highly vermiform. Neck very long. Tail long, cylindrical, not bushy. Cheek teeth T \. 
All with a musky odor. Nocturnal. 
THE NEW-YORK ERMINE 
PUTORItJS NOVEBORACENSIS. 
PLATE XII. FIG. 2, Winter dress. —PLATE XIV. FIG. 2, Summer dress. — (STATE COLLECTION.) 
Stoat Weasel. Penn. Arct. Zool. Vol. 1, p. 75. 
Mustela erminea. Harlan, Fauna Am. p. 62. 
The Ermine Weasel. Godmas, Am. Nat. Hist. VoL 1, p. 193, fig. 1, winter dress. Id. ib. Vol. 1, p. 693, pi. fig. 2, 
summer dress. 
Putorius noveboracensis. . Report N. Y. Survey, 1840, p. 18. Emmons, Mass. Report, 1840, p. 45. 
• ‘ .. ' • 
Characteristics. Summer, reddish brown above, yellowish beneath; winter, white. Tip of 
the tail black. Length 16-24 inches. 
Description. Neck and body long and slender. Forehead convex. Whiskers numerous, 
a few extending as far as the ears. Eyes small, black and lively, 0*7 distant from the 
nose. Ears low, broad and rounded, 0*5 high, not entirely surrounding the auditory canal, 
which is covered with long hair; on the margin, the hairs are sparse and short. Legs 
short, robust, five-toed, the inner much the shortest. In winter, the sharp curved claws- 
and the soles covered with hair. Six abdominal and ventral teats. Fur short and soft, some¬ 
what coarser and longer on the hairy tail, which is bushy at the end. Teeth thirty-four, as 
in P. vison. 
Color. In summer the head, neck and body chesnut brown above, darker behind, and in¬ 
creasing in intensity along the tail to the tip. This brown color extends along the flanks, and 
the external parts of the extremities. Chin whitish, passing into yellowish white. A whitish 
stripe commencing at the chin, expanding a little on the throat towards the ears, broader over 
the breast, covering the interior and upper part of the fore legs, preserves nearly the same 
breadth along the belly, and terminates on the upper and inner part of the thighs. This color 
is separated along its course from the brown above by a well defined irregular line, which 
is occasionally dark brown. This is the ordinary state of the fur during summer, which it 
often retains late in autumn, and, as I have reason to believe, often through the winter. My 
friend Mr. Linsley has a specimen, which is “ entirely rufous black, with two white spots 
“ under the throat; lower jaw white from the point to the rictus.” In its complete winter 
coat, it is pure white along the back, light sulphur yellow along the sides and beneath, 
including the legs. Tail jet black at the tip. 
