NORTH AMERICAN BEAVERS, OTTERS AND FISHERS. 435 



has white patches on lower fore leg, breast and vent, and an immature specimen of paci- 

 fica has white spots on throat, arm-pits and vent. The four adult specimens examined 

 are not thus pied. Dr. Coues, in his Fur-bearing Animals, says that the fisher is an 

 exception to the marten, mink and weasel in not having these jmtches. They may dis- 

 appear with age in the fisher, but they do not in the other species. 



Anatomical Characters. — Size, smaller than subspecies pacifica. Skull small ; nasals 

 relatively short, less elongate at basal apex. Posterior upper molar relatively small, its 

 inner lobe not greatly developed longitudinally so as to only slightly exceed the breadth 

 of outer lobe ; neck of crown of same tooth but slightly constricted. 



Measurements. — Of Dr. Raub's Pennsylvania specimen, old ad. cT, /. c: Total 

 length, from end of nose to end of tail hairs, 965 mm.; tail vertebrae, 318 mm.; hind 

 foot, 115 mm.; ear from crown, 27 mm. A mounted specimen, No. 507, Academy 

 Natural Sciences, adult d\ from " Pennsylvania," has a total length of 1000 mm., with 

 tail (minus brush), 390 mm., and hind foot, 112 mm., taken from the dry mount. The 

 Idaho sj>ecinien, No. 6964, young adult cT, coll. of E. A. and O. Bangs, is 978 mm. long, 

 with tail, 369 mm., and hind foot, 117 mm. Skull of No. 7437, yg. ad. d\ Greenville, 

 Me., total length, 117 mm.; zygomatic width, 63 mm.; mastoid width, 54 mm.; mesial 

 nasal length, 22 mm. 



' Remarks. — The characters of the Pennsylvania fishers above enumerated, so far as 

 they are based on reliable measurements and color diagnoses, may be considered as repre- 

 senting typical canadensis, based on Pennant's original notice of the animal. Whether 

 a series of Alleghenian fishers will show the Hudsonian animal to be separable is an 

 interesting question probably to be decided in the affirmative. The Idaho and Maine 

 specimens examined, though not contrasted by me with Dr. Raub's specimen, must be 

 very close to it. No skulls of Pennsylvania fishers have been examined, but the close 

 resemblance of the Idaho skull to those from Maine, as indeed to pacifica also, strongly 

 indicates that no cranial differences exist between the. east American fishers of the north 

 and south. The " saturated " color characters of pacifica are alone sufficient to distin- 

 guish it from all fishers found east of the Cascades. 



Specimens Examined. — Pennsylvania, 1 mounted specimen {fide Dr. Raub, 1 

 mounted specimen) ; Maine, Mooseland lake, 1 skin with skull ; Greenville, 2 skulls ; 

 Lincoln, 1 skull ; Idaho, Idaho county, 1 skin with skull. Other specimens from east- 

 ern North America, 1 mounted, 2 old ad. skulls. 



Pacific Fisher. Mustela canadensis pacifica, subsp. nov. 

 Type Locality. — Lake Kichelos, Kittitass county, Washington ; altitude about 8000 



