MUSTELID^ 245 



Pacific Martens are found along the coast from San Fran- 

 cisco northward to Puget Sound. Martens, probably of this spe- 

 cies, are found in the Sierra Nevada. Martens frequent thick 

 forests and subsist on mice, squirrels, birds, eggs and insects. 

 They climb trees readily. Their habits in general are sirhilar 

 to those oif Fishers, except that they prefer dry forests. 



Genus Lutreola Wagner. (Little Otter.) 

 Body slender, neck lonig; legs short; tail about half as long- 

 as head and body ; toes partly webbed ; anal glands moderately 

 developed; skull narrow and flat; upper sectorial tooth well de- 

 veloped; lower sectorial tooth of moderate size, without internal 

 cusps; auidital bullae large; palate extending about one-third of 

 the way from last molar to audital bulla; occipital crest usually 

 small.. 



Dental formula, I, 3 — 3 ; C, 1 — i ; P, 3 — 3; M, i — 2, X2=34. 



Lutreola vision energuemnos Bangs. (A scout; pos- 

 sessed by an evil spirit.) 



PACIFIC MINK. 



Dark vandyke brown, or dark chestnut; a few irregular 

 white spots about the chin, throat or belly ; tail backening toward 

 the tip; skull large; braincase broad and flat; teeth small; palate 

 comparatively! flat; mammae six. 



Length about 560 mm. (22 inches) ; tail vertebrae 195 

 (7.75) ; hind foot 70 (2.75) ; ear fromi crown 10 (.40). 



Type locality, Sumas, British Columbia. 



Pacific Minks are found from^ central California to British 

 Columbia. In California they are nowhere common, but they 

 occur in the central and northern part of the State, principally 

 in mountainous parts. They appear to be lacking altogether in 

 the southern part of the State. I saw. the skin of one, taken 

 near Ukiah, Mendocino County, and I caught a suckling female 



