MAMMALS OF UTAH 143 



ing. All the meat it can find it carries^ away and smears 

 it with a fetid glandular secretion loathsome to other ani- 

 mals. So many tracks are made in the snow that its caches 

 are almost imperceptible; and in fact a fox is about the 

 only animal with the taste to ferret out the stinking meat. 



Wolverines are almost uncanny in their actions at 

 times. A set gun was placed for one once; the wolverine 

 appeared, bit the string in two just behind the gun muzzle 

 and carried the bait away. Three times this was repeated 

 by the trapper; and each time the wolverine bit the string 

 just behind the previous knot, invariably getting the meat. 

 According to Lockhart, who reports this incident, the trap- 

 per thought the animal so weird that he left the neighbor- 

 hood to trap elsewhere. 



It is said that a hunter may safely leave a carcass for 

 one night but never for two, as the wolverines will on its 

 second visit do away with it all. Why a wolverine should 

 carry off knives, axes, kettles and such things is difficult 

 to explain unless it be to mark them with his well known 

 brand of ownership, the foul secretion. 



Wolverines have such poor eyesight that they have 

 been known to shade their eyes with their paws ; and snow- 

 blindness sometimes kills them. 



ROCKY MOUNTAIN MARTEN 



MUSTELA CAURINA ORIGENES (Rhoads) 



Mustela caurina origenes' Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Scien. 

 Phil., 1902, p. 458. 



Description — Upper parts and sides wood brown; long 

 hairs on dorsal region and rump broccoli brown ; gular patch 

 extensive; buffy orange; rest of under parts lighter than 

 back; tail long; dark; ears edged with ochraceous buff. 

 (Elliot.) Length 28.25; tail, vert., 8.25; hind foot, 3.0. 

 (Rhoads.) They do not turn white in winter; that is, their 

 winter coat is not very different in color from that of 

 summer. (Seton.) 



Distribution— Gerald Thorne of Logan has mounted sev- 

 eral marten skins taken from the Uinta mountains. This 

 animal is rare in this state, being confined to the moun- 

 tains of the eastern section. 



Mr F A. Wrathall dressed eight skms that were taken 

 near Brighton, Salt Lake County, in the winter of 1917-18, 

 and they are reported as fairly plentiful m that vicmity. 



