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ON THE PROPER SPECIFIC NAME OF THE WEASEL. 

 By Oldfield Thomas, F.Z.S. 



Many years ago the late Mr. E. K. Alston told me he saw no 

 escape from the necessity for using the specific name nivalis, 

 Linn., for the Common Weasel ; and though, so far as I know, 

 he never carried this view into effect, nor, with the common laxity 

 of authors in this respect, has any one else done so, with the 

 exception of Scandinavian zoologists, the case seems to be so 

 clear that, on the principle enunciated in my note on the Shrews 

 (p. 62), I feel compelled to adopt the name Linnaeus gave to the 

 species. 



Its synonymy would then stand as follows : — 



Putorius nivalis (Linn.). 



Mustela nivalis, Linn. Syst. Nat. (12), i. 69, 1766; Hellenius, 

 Retzius, Holmgren, "Lilljeborg, &c. 

 Mustela vulgaris, Erxl. Syst. Regn. An. Mamm. p. 471, 1777; 

 et auctorum plurimorum. 



The name was given to a specimen found running about 

 on the snoiv, and had no reference to the colour of the animal. 



[The proposal to change a name which has been in use for nearly 

 120 years is one which probably most of our readers will agree ougbt 

 not to be too hastily accepted ; and before adopting the view above 

 expressed it will be well to look into the matter a little more closely. 

 Mr. Thomas says the case " seems to be so clear that he feels compelled 

 to adopt the name Linnaeus gave to the species." But the question 

 arises, "Did Linnaeus give the name to the species?" His "common 

 Weasel" (the Mustela vulgaris of older authors) was evidently the Stoat, 

 which he named Mustela erminea, and described as Mustela pedibus Jissis, 

 cauda apice atro, with the tip of the tail black, an expression sufficiently 

 diagnostic of the animal. What is his description of M. nivalis, which 

 Mr. Thomas identifies with our Weasel? It is as follows: — "Mustela 

 pedibus Jissis, corpore albo, caudce apice vix pilis ullis nigris;" in other 

 words, an animal with a white body and with scarcely any black hairs 

 (implying that it had some) in the tip of the tail. He refers to his 

 previously published ' Fauna Suecica ' (1761), and turning to the species 

 numbered 18 in that work we find the same animal described as above, 

 "with the additional remark: — " Praecedenti simillima (i.e. M. emiinea) 



ZOOLOGIST, THIRD SERIES, VOL. XIX. MAY, 1895. P 



