1911] Swarth: Alaska Expedition of 1909. 139 



Lutreola vison nesolestes Heller. Island Mink. 



Generally distributed over this entire region, and fairly 

 abundant where they have not been trapped to excess. The 

 mink is the Indian trapper's best standby on the islands, and 

 wherever we went we found in the woods scores of little dead- 

 falls of various ages arranged for their capture. One Indian at 

 Three-mile Arm, Kuiu Island, had some thirty mink, one marten 

 and two otter to show as the result of his winter's trapping. 

 Hasselborg caught two mink at this point (nos. 8791, 8792), 

 besides a third destroyed in the trap, probably by another mink, 

 two at Egg Harbor, Coronation Island (nos. 8793, 8794), and one 

 on the Taku River (no. 8795). I also purchased seventeen 

 skulls from the Indian on Kuiu Island (nos. 8796-8812), and 

 found an additional skull on Coronation Island (no. 8813). 



More or less fresh sign was seen at many of the points visited, 

 and I saw a mink running along the bank of a stream at Boca de 

 Quadra, but failed to secure it. 



The island specimens all exhibit to a marked degree the 

 characters of -nesolestes, the crowded tooth row, and greatly 

 enlarged last upper molar. The single mainland example (no. 

 8795 $, Taku River, September 24), is much darker colored 

 than any island specimens at hand, winter or summer, closely 

 resembling a Prince William Sound example of L. v. melampeplus 

 (no 858, $, Disc Island, September 4), but the dental characters 

 are clearly those of nesolestes. 



Mustela nesophila Osgood. Queen Charlotte Marten. 



A single marten slrall (no. 8814) was obtained at Three-mile 

 Arm, Kuiu Island, purchased from an Indian who had caught 

 the animal somewhere in the immediate vicinity. It is appar- 

 ently most like M. nesophila of the Queen Charlotte Islands, from 

 which it differs in slightly greater width, with especially wide 

 spreading zygomata, judging from the published measurements 

 and figures of the species ( see Osgood, 1901, p. 33). The small 

 audital bullae and short, heavy rostrum, with crowded upper 

 tooth row and large sized last upper molar, all serve to distin- 

 guish it from the mainland forms. Should additional specimens 



