( 225 ) 

 NOTES AND QUERIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



The proper Specific Name of the Weasel.— The editorial note 

 appended to my remarks on this subject obviously demands an immediate 

 reply, for the question at issue is particularly one which should be settled 

 as soon as possible. Every one will agree that the proposed change 

 of name "ought not to be too hastily accepted," and feeling this I have 

 pondered on the subject, off and on, for about a dozen years, in the vague 

 hope that the obvious suggestion as to Linnseus's " Mustela nivalis " being 

 a small female Stoat might turn out to be correct. Such drifting on, 

 however, is one of the main causes of the present confusion in zoological 

 nomenclature, and the sooner such a question is cleared up the better. In 

 deference to those who may think that long usage of a name has a bearing 

 on the question whether it be the correct name to use, it may first be 

 pointed out that such " use " should be sole use, which is not the case in 

 the present instance. On the contrary, nearly every Scandinavian natu- 

 ralist of repute has actually used nivalis for the Weasel, while (which is 

 vital) those who have not, have all without exception put nivalis (or at least 

 " snomus ") among its synonyms. And this is equally the case with other 

 continental naturalists, not excepting Blasius, whose volume on European 

 mammals remains the standard work on the subject. In fact, with the 

 exception of the Editor, I have failed to find one single writer who 

 seriously considers nivalis to be a synonym of ermineus. But the real 

 question is not that of the name vulgaris having been " 120 years in use," 

 but whether the characters given by Linnaeus best fit the female Stoat, as 

 suggested by the Editor, or the Weasel in its winter dress. As the 

 Swedish Weasel must of course be mainly considered, I extract the 

 following from Prof. Lilljeborg's ' Sveriges och Norges Ryggradsdjur,' the 

 latest and best work on the subject (vol. i. p. 508); — "Aldre individer 

 hafva i denna dragt icke sallan nagra pa svartaktiga bar i yttersta svans- 

 spitsen": that is to say, " Old individuals [of " Mustela nivalis "] have in 

 this [winter] dress not infrequently some few blackish hairs at the extreme 

 tip of the tail " ; and words to the same effect occur in other diagnoses of 

 the species. Can anything better correspond to Linnasus's account, quoted 

 by the Editor, "caudse apice vix pilis ullis nigris "? Even in Britain 

 occasional specimens of the Weasel occur with black tips to their tails, a 

 fact which such a student of British mammals as the Editor might have 

 been aware of. As to changing white, the Weasel throughout the northern 

 portions of its continental range habitually turns to white every winter. 

 The name nivalis I have always supposed to have been a latinization of the 

 Swedish Snomus, & colloquial term quoted by every Scandinavian writer; 



