130 FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST. 



parts bufE-wMte irregularly defined against the brown ; 

 feet brown ; turns white only in the northern part of 

 its range. The male of this species is much larger 

 than the female. 



In respect to the general color both weasels are 

 the same. But Elliott Coues makes an emphatic 

 point of distinction between the 

 two species, which is obvious in a 

 comparison of the tails. He says: 

 " This member is both absolutely 

 and relatively shorter in the weasel 

 than in the ermine. ... In the 

 weasel the tail is without the slight- 

 est bushy enlargement, and in most 

 of the specimens I have seen there 

 is no black whatever at the end of 

 the tai! ; on the contrary, the end is 

 frequently tipped with a few white 

 hairs.* In other specimens, how- 

 ever, the tail is dusky, while in one from Oregon the 

 tip is quite blackish." He furthermore says, speak- 

 ing of the skins which he had seen (from British 

 America) of the whole animal, that " they were about 

 six inches long, and also somewhat peculiar in the 

 intensity of a liver-brown shade." ISTow Dr. Coues 



* He evidently refers to the northern or Arctic species called 

 the least weasel {Putorius rixosus), which is not found in the Bast. 



Weasels' tails. 



1. P. rixosus ; 



2. P. cicognani ; 



3. P. noviboracensis. 



