MAMMALIA. 31 



Family— FELIDtE. 



The Yellow-Cheeks Weasel. — Mustela xanthogenys. 



Plate IX. 



Mustela xanthogenys, Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1843. 118. List Mam. Brit. Mus. 16. 



Mustela Braziliensis, Sevast. Mem. Acad. Petersb. iv. 356. t. 4.? (very bad.) 



Mustela Javanica, Seba, Thesaur, i. 77. t. 48. f. 4.? (bad.) Zimmerm. G. G. 11. 308.? Fischer, 



Syn. Mamm. 222? 

 Mustela Erminea, var. Pallas, Zool. Ros. Asiat. 92. ? note, from Seba's original specimen. 

 Viverra Javanica, Brisson, R. A. 245. ? from Seba's fig. 



Bright chesnut ; beneath golden-yellow ; chin, small spot above the angle of the mouth and 

 feet white. Spot under the ear yellowish white ; spot behind the angle of the mouth 

 towards the throat chesnut. End of the tail black. 



Inhab. North-west coast of America, California. 



The Mustela Javanica of Seba, Thes. i. 77, t. 48, f. 4, which passed into the 

 hands of M. Meyer of Amsterdam, where it was examined by Pallas, (Zool. Ross. 

 Asiat. 92.) appears to have been very similar to this species ; and as Seba was 

 very often misinformed respecting the real localities of his species, it is not impos- 

 sible that it may be the same. 



This species agrees in many parts with the figures of Mustela Braziliensis of 

 Sevastianoff, published in the Memoirs of the Petersburg Academy, 1811, iv. 356, 

 t. 4, but I cannot find in our specimen any tendency to green in the colour. The 

 spot between the eyes is indistinct and irregular, and it does not well agree with his 

 description in other particulars, but this may arise from the bad condition of M. 

 Sevastianoffs specimen, the hairs of which, he says, fell off with the least hand- 

 ling. His specimen was brought home by M. Krusenstern. The particular 

 locality is not given, and M. Sevastianoffs figures are very ill drawn. 



Should both these descriptions belong to this species, it is impossible to 

 keep either of the names which have been given it, as they both give an 

 erroneous idea of the habitat of the species. This animal is intermediate 

 in character between the common Stoat (31. Erminea), and the Black-faced 

 Ermine (Mustela frenata, Licht. Saugeth,) from Mexico, the head of which is 

 engraved for the sake of comparison on the same plate, t. 9. 



