514 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



trackers told me were bears. I went out in that direction next evenino- 

 and met three bears together, out of which I was fortunate enough to baa- 

 two. 



RONALD T. FOSTER, Capt., 



1st Sherwood Foresters. 

 Bangalore, 2Uh May 1910. 



No. V.— OCCURRENCE OF THE ERMINE (PUTORIUS 

 ERMINE A) IN CHITRAL. 



From Blanf orcl's Mammalia (p. 166), it appears that the Ermine has only 

 once been reported with any certainty from within Indian limits, viz., from 

 near Dros, north of the Zoge-la in Kashmir. Hodgson's specimen from 

 Nepal is believed to have been obtained from a trader in skins, and Adam's 

 statement that it occurs in the lower and middle regions of the Western 

 Himalayas, is discredited by Jerelon, and his doubt apparently supported 

 by Blanforcl, there being no skin other than the Kashmir one just referred 

 to, in any of our Museums procured in the Himalayas. 



It is interesting therefore to be able to record a specimen from within 

 Chitral Territory, the skin of which I send you. This specimen was killed 

 by a Chitrali at Ayun {Circa 5,000 feet), who saw it come down to the river 

 to drink in March this year. 



The skin was submitted to the Mehtar, who elicited from his attendants 

 that it is called " mirimustran " in Khowar, and that " it is well known in 

 Chitral, but is not commonly or numerously found everywere." 



F. WALL, C.M.Z.S., 



Ma job, I. M. S. 

 Chitral, 21st May 1910. 



[ In Volume XVIII, pp. 882-3, of the Journal, Mr. R. C. Wroughton described a new race 

 of stoat or ermine under the name Mustela whitehead! from three specimens obtained by 

 Mr. C. H. T. Whitehead in the Hazara district, N.-W. Frontier Province. There is also a 

 specimen in the Society's collection of what is probably a stoat in winter dress (but the tip of 

 tail is missing, and it is impossible to say whether it is a stoat or a weasel) from the 

 Kurram Valley where it was obtained by Colonel Rattray in February 1899. Shortly 

 before Mr. Wroughton's paper was published we received a letter from Lt. D. Maclntyre 

 of the 2nd Goorkhas, saying he had shot an animal like a stoat and asking if the stoat 

 had been known to occur before in Chitral or India. He offered to send us the skin and 

 skull of the one he had shot for examination, but though we asked for specimens none have 

 been forthcoming. Mr. Maclntyre at the end of his letter mentions that his Chitrali 

 shikari says " there are two kinds of the same animal, one large and the other like the 

 one mentioned. The former (possibly the pine-marten), he calls hharbush, the latter mush 

 or musha." Unfortunately we have seen no skin with a skull of the stoat from Chitral, 

 and it is therefore impossible to say whether the one which is found there is the ordinary 

 Mustela erminea, M. whiteheadi or the very small M. ferghance which was described by 

 Mr. Oldfield Thomas in 1895 from a specimen from Ferghana, Central Asia.— Eds.] 



