126 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



the middle of the fore arm, and on the hind limbs at the middle 

 of the tibia ; the feet, above and below, are usually entirely 

 brown, except for a few scattered hairs on the toes. 



Skull of male about equal in size to that of a female P. 

 ermineus, and just intermediate between those of the male 

 P. ermineus and the Weasel. 



Dimensions, measured in the flesh, of the specimen we pro- 

 pose to select as the type — an adult male, killed at Enniskillen, 

 Co. Fermanagh, on Jan. 7th, 1895, and presented to the British 

 Museum by Mr. J. E. Harting. Head and body, 228 mm. ; tail, 

 88 ; hind foot, 40 ; ear, 21. Basal length of skull, 41*2. 



The first Irish specimen received by the Museum was obtained 

 by Col. Yerbury at Carna, Co. Galway, in Jan. 1893, and besides 

 the type, Mr. Harting has recently placed a second skin from 

 Co. Fermanagh at our disposal. To Sir Douglas Brooke we also 

 owe three specimens from Colebrook, Co. Fermanagh, and male 

 examples have been sent to us from Armagh and Wexford ; so 

 that different parts of Ireland are well represented. 



As it thus proves that we have in the British Isles three 

 animals of this group, it seems convenient to have three English 

 names for them, and we would suggest the use of the Irish word 

 for the animal, modified to suit English pronunciation. Thanks 

 to the kindness of Messrs. Pocock and McSwiney, who are 

 authorities on Irish Gaelic, we are informed that the name is 

 Easog, pronounced Assogue, and the latter form we propose to 

 use as the English name of Putorius hibernicus. 



With regard to the relationship of P. hibernicus, it should be 

 borne in mind that the Weasel itself only differs from the Stoat 

 by the following four characters — (1) smaller size, (2) shorter 

 tail, not tufted, (3) white instead of yellow or yellowish white 

 belly, and (4) less extent of light colour below ; and that as to 

 (1) P. hibernicus is intermediate, and approaches the Weasel in (3) 

 and agrees with it in (4), and therefore that the only character 

 which is decisively Stoat-like is (2), the fairly long and broadly 

 black-tipped tail, and even this is shorter. 



In the ground colour of the upper surface, however, the 

 Assogue is even darker than the Stoat, our specimens, all killed 

 in winter, being as dark as the darkest summer Stoats. 



It would therefore seem as though the popular name Weasel 

 instead of Stoat for this animal in Ireland were almost justified by 



