952 



MR. E. I. POCOCK OX WAEXING COLORATION [DeC. 15, 



piteouslv crying out in their shrill voices and moving about in 

 circles, without making the slightest attempt to escape, or to 

 conceal themselves, as young birds do." * These passages attest 

 the savage aspect and fearless behavioiu" of the Grison and the 

 suppression of the instinct to hide in young individuals. These 

 are precisely the attributes one would expect, if the species is 

 specially protected and warning] y coloured. 



Text-fig. 196. 



>?>-*'M6n'Haj};l 



Grison [Grison fur ax), upper figure, and Patagonian Weasel {Lpicodon 

 patagoiiicus), lower figure. 



A s is the case with the Eatel and some other mustelines, the 



* 'The Naturalist in La Plata,' pp. 15-16, 104, and 385-386, 4th ed. 1903. In 

 the paragraphs above quoted I have substituted the name Grison furax for 

 Galictis harhara. Mr. Hudson's description of the larger animal, apart from his 

 remark that it is " about the size of a cat," coupled with my own knowledge of the 

 geographical distribution of Galera harhara and of Gr/soji y«ra.r, convinced me 

 that he had applied the wrong specific name to the larger La Plata musteline. I 

 therefore wrote to him on the matter, and he kindlj' confirmed this, adding that he 

 was misled by a wrong label in the Buenos Ayres Museum and had discovered the 

 mistake subsequently. It is important that the error should be corrected, because 

 although obvious enough to those who know the two species under discussion, it has 

 already made its way into the literature of natural history. In the ' Koyal Natural 

 Historj',' for example, the larger of the two weasels meiitioned by Mr. Hudson is 

 cited as the Tayra {Galera harhara), and the smaller as the Grison {Grison fur a. r): 

 whereas the larger is, as stated, the Grison, and the smaUer, I suspect, the Pata- 

 gonian Weasel {Li/ncodon pataffonicus) . 



