590 CARNIVORA 
near the surface of the ground, but it can not only pursue its prey 
through very small holes and crevices of rocks and under dense 
tangled herbage, but follow it up the stems and branches of trees, 
or even into the water, swimming with perfect ease. It constructs 
a nest of dried leaves and herbage, placed in a hole in the ground 
or a bank or hollow tree, in which it brings up its litter of four to 
six (usually five) young ones. The mother will defend her young 
with the utmost desperation against any assailant, having been often 
known to sacrifice her own life rather than desert them. 
The Stoat or Ermine (J/. erminea) has nearly the same distribu- 
tion as the Weasel, but in Asia it is said to extend into parts of 
the Kashmir Himalaya. Its size, as already mentioned, consider- 
ably exceeds that of the Weasel ; and its most distinctive feature is 
the black tip at the end of the tail, which remains when the rest of 
the pellage turns white. The white winter skins from the northern 
regions of its habitat, where the fur is thick and close, form the 
well-known and valuable ermine of commerce. Remains of the 
Stoat are found in the Pleistocene cavern-deposits of Europe. The 
other species of Weasels are very numerous and widely distributed. 
Extinct Mustelines—A number of European Miocene Carnivores 
may be referred to the genus Jfustela in its wider sense, and serve to 
confirm the propriety of this use of the term. Thus JL. sectoria is 
a species of somewhat larger size than the Stoat, with p +, while in 
AL. angustifrons the number of premolars is 2, and in J. mustelina 
4; the latter species agreeing very closely in size with the Stoat. 
The extinct Plesictis, in which there are p + and the lower car- 
nassial has a large inner cusp, is distinguished from J/ustela by the 
circumstance that the temporal ridges of the skull never unite to 
form a sagittal crest. Moreover, the inner tubercular portion of the 
upper molar (as in some of the Miocene species of J/ustelw) is shorter 
in an antero-posterior direction than the secant outer moiety; and 
the auditory bulla is more inflated than in A/ustela, although it has 
no septum. Both these features indicate a decided approximation to 
the Viverroid genus Stenoplesiotis (p. 539); and since there are no 
well-marked characters of family value by which these two genera 
can be distinguished the available evidence points to a transition from 
the Viverroid to the Musteloid type. Austela lurteti, of the Middle 
Miocene of France, should perhaps be referred to Letonye. 
Peecilogale.A—This genus has been made for the reception of the 
South African Mustela albinucha, in which the coloration is similar 
to that of Ictonyz, but the number of cheek-teeth is usually reduced 
to pg, m4, although there may be a second lower molar. The 
auditory bulla is quite flat. 
Lyncodon.?—This name has been proposed for a small Musteline 
1 0. Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 5, vol. xi. p. 870 (1883). 
> Gervais, Dict. Univ. d’ Hist. Nat. t. iv. p, 685 (1849). 
