﻿MUSTELULE. 3 



paper was followed in 1879 by LiebeV account of the caves at Vypustek, in 

 Moravia, where glutton, marten, stoat, and polecat were met with. In Woldrich's 2 

 three beautifully illustrated papers (1880, 1882, 1884), on the fauna of Zuzlawitz, 

 near Winterberg, in the Bohmerwald, remains of polecat, stoat and weasel are 

 figured, and in particular some very large skulls, which are attributed to the 

 polecat, closely resemble the form afterwards described by Newton as Mustela 

 robusta. Lastly, in 1886 appeared an important paper by Winterfeld, 3 giving a 

 general account of the Quaternary Musteline remains of Grermany. 



II. GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THE VARIOUS BRITISH MUSTELID.E. 



Mustela martes, the Pine Marten. 



Two British species of marten, the pine marten (Mustela martes, Linn., or 

 abietum, Fleming) and the beech marten (Mustela foina, Erxl.), have commonly 

 been recognised as members of the British fauna. Alston, 4 however, shows good 

 reason for believing that Mustela martes is identical with Mustela sylvatica of 

 Nilsson, and that Mustela foina is not really an inhabitant of the British Isles. 

 He mentions among others the following points of difference between the skulls 

 of M. martes and M. foina, though many of them appear to be inconstant or 

 inappreciable. 



M. martes. M. foina. 



1. The breadth of the skull across the zygomatic 1. The breadth of the skull across the zygomatic 



arches is rather more than half the length. arches is much more than half the length. 



2. The arches are highest posteriorly, whence 2. The arches are regularly curved, and broadest 



they slope rather suddenly downwards and and highest in the middle, 



forwards. 



3. The sides of the muzzle are nearly parallel. 3. The sides of the muzzle are converging. 



4. The anterior narial opening is oval. 4. The anterior narial opening is heart-shaped. 



5. The palate is comparatively narrow. 5. The palate is comparatively broad. 



6. The upper premolars are placed regularly in 6. The upper premolars are crowded, and often 



the line of the series ; the fourth has the inner placed diagonally, their anterior extremities 



cusp large and placed nearly at right angles being directed inwards ; the inner cusp is 



to the axis "of the tooth. small and placed somewhat diagonally. 



7. m. 1 has a slightly developed inner tubercle. 7. m. 1 has a well- developed inner tubercle. 



The marten was not mentioned by Owen in his 'British Fossil Mammals and 



1 ' Sitzb. k. Akad. Wiss. Wien,' lxxix, pt. i, p. 472. 



2 Ibid., lxxxii, pt. i, p. 32 ; lxxxiv, pt. 1, p. 194 ; and lxxxviii, pt. i, p. 993. 



3 ' Ueber quartiire Mustelidenreste Deutschlands,' Berlin. 



* ' Proc. Zool. Soc.,' 1879, pp. 468— i74, and ' Zoologist,' iii, 1879, pp. 441—448. 



