48 ; NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 
[16.] 3. Musrera (Purorivs) vison. (Lin. Gmel.) 
The Vison-W easel. 
Otay. Sacarp TuHEopat, Hist. du Can. p. 749. An. 1636. 
Foutereau. La Honran, Voyage, i. p. 81. An, 1703. 
Mink. Katm, Journ. 
Le vison. Byrron, xiii. p. 308, t. 43. 
Mustela vison. Lin. GMEL, i. p. 94. 
Minx. Lawson, Carol., p. 121. 
Mustela lutreola? Forsrer, Phil. Trans., lxii. p. 371. 
Minx Otter. PENNanT, Arctic Zool., i. p. 87. 
Vison-Weasel. Ixsip. i. p. 78. 
Jackash. HEARNE, Journey, p.376. Grauam, MSS., p. 6. 
Mustela vison. Cuvier, Régne An., i. p. 150, t. 1. fig. 2. 
Mustela lutreola. Sabine, Franklin’s Journ., p. 652. 
Mustela vison et M. lutreocephala. Hanrian, Fauna, pp. 63, 65. 
The Mink. Gopman, Wat. Hist. i. p. 206. 
Vison Weasel. Britiso Museum. 
Shakweshew or Atjackashew. CREE INDIANS. 
Mink. Hupson’s Bay TrapERrs. Foutereau. CANADIAN VOYAGERS. 
This animal is very similar to the mustela lutreola of the north of Europe, in 
form; and the name of menk, applied to the latter, is supposed by Pennant, with 
great probability, to have been transferred to the former by some Swedish 
colonists. La Hontan mentions a sort of small amphibious Weasels, under the 
name of Foutereaux, which is the appellation of the minks to this day amongst 
the French Canadian voyagers. « Buffon described a specimen from Canada, pre- 
served in the museum of M. Aubry, under the name of Vison, and gives a correct 
figure, except that the form of the tail of the specimen had been spoiled in 
mounting. Pennant admits the Vison into his list of species, having had merely 
an imperfect view of M. Aubry’s specimen through its glass-case, and not recog- 
nising it to be the same with his minx or lesser otter, which he considers as 
identical with the Mustela lutreola. Forster, who received a Vison from Hudson’s 
Bay, under the name of mink, expresses a doubt of its being the latter species ; 
and Baron Cuvier has placed the European mink in his sub-genus Putorius, whilst 
he ranges the Vison amongst the true martens. The Hudson’s Bay Vison has the 
teeth of the polecats. I have not been able to trace the origin of the term Vison ; 
but a list of the furs exported to France, presented by a Montreal merchant to 
Kalm in 1749, informs us, that ‘the visons, or foutereaux, are a kind of martins 
that live in the water.” There is no animal of the genus mustela inhabiting the 
