MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. lyj 



rare mammals. The size of these tiny weasels, so different from anything to 

 be expected from that region, raised the question of their being a, genuine 

 Pennsylvania product, and I wrote Mr. Nease for particulars. In answer, 

 Mr. James S. Nease, who conducted the entire correspondence on the subject 

 for his father, Jacob Nease, to whom the specimens belonged, sent me the 

 following letter : 



ft ( 



" ' Beallsville, Fa., 11-6-1899.' 



Mr. Jas. S. Nease, Washington, Pa. 



"' Dear Sir : In reply to your letter of 2d inst., I have consulted father in 

 regard to the weasels which he sent your father to have stuffed. They were 

 caught under dead-falls set for skunks, and of course were wild as any weasel. 

 Father remembers well of catching them and sending them up, and got one 

 or two he did not send, but has not seen any since then, some ten or fifteen 

 years ago, if memory serves him right. They were caught when the bounty 

 was on hawks and owls.* 



" ' Very truly, J. W. Hawkins." 



" While there seemed to be no question as to the statements of the gentle- 

 men above mentioned, the publication of them was deferred nearly a year, 

 when I was unexpectedly confronted with the specimen in the collection of 

 the Carnegie Museum. As it had been taken along the Ohio river, only a 

 few miles below Pittsburg, by a resident collector regularly emplc/yed by the 

 Museum, it was accepted as conclusive evidence that these weasels are 

 indigenous and living in those parts. 



" Regarding the affinity of allegheniensis with rixosus, it may be stated that 

 the nearest localities from which the latter has been recorded are Moose 

 Factory, Ontario, and Pembina, Minnesota, the latter being the specimen 

 mentioned by Prof. Baird under 'Putorius pusillus Dekay ' in the Pacific R. 

 R. Reports. It will be seen that there is an immense stretch of territory 

 between these places and Pittsburgh, besides the great difference in the faunal 

 position of the localities. That the habitat of these weasels shall prove to be 

 continuous through the Appalachian system from Ontario southward is not 

 impossible, but that specimens from the intermediate country have as yet es- 

 caped notice is indeed strange. The facts now known to us as to the differ- 

 ence between rixosus and its southern ally in size, cranial proportions and 

 color are sufficient to indicate specific values. It is singular that all the 

 known specimens of rixosus and allegheniensis appear to be females, though 

 in every case the sex has not been absolutely determined. If any of them 

 are males the great difference in size between the sexes, so notorious in all 

 other species, is not apparent among the least weasels. Mr. Bangs, in his 



* This bounty act was passed in May, 1885, and repealed about eighteen months later. 



