﻿JuNE,189G.] SYNOPSIS OF THE WEASELS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



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darker form, P. streatori. In tlie United States it is common in Kew 

 England and New York, and in the forest-covered parts of Miujiesota. 

 It probal)ly occurs also in nortliern Michigan and Wisconsin. 



Geuc7Yil characters. — Size small; tail slender and rather short; color 

 of under parts covering toes and inner sides of both fore and hind feet; 

 color of upper parts never encroaching on belly, but ending along a 

 straight line. 



Color. — Upper parts in mnimcr i^ela fje : nniform dark brown, hardly 

 darker on liead; end of tail blackish ; no dark spot behind corners of 

 month; nnder parts, usually including ni)per lip, white, more or less 

 tinged with yellow. In ir inter 2) dage : pure white with a strong yellow- 

 ish tinge on rump, tail, and under parts; end of tail black. 



Cranial characters. — Skull small; light, narrow, and elongated with- 

 out marked i)ostorbital processes, and only a slight postorbital constric- 

 tion; zygomata narrow, and jiot bowed outward ; brain case elongate 

 and subcylindric; audita! bulhe small, narrow, and subcylindric, almost 

 continuons anteriorly (except in old age) 

 with the greatly inflated srpianiosals; 

 palate narrow; the tooth rows more 

 nearly parallel than in the other spe- 

 cies; skull of female similar to that 

 of male, but smaller. Contrasted with 

 richardsoni, the skull of cicognani is 

 smaller, tlie audital bullae decidedly 

 smaller, and the dentition lighter. In 

 nearly every series of cicorjnaui there are 

 one or two old males whose skulls are 

 abnormally large and closely resemble 

 skulls of richardsoni^ except that the 

 andital bulhe are always smaller. 



MeasuremeRts. — zlverage of 5 males from Ossipee, N. H. : Total 

 length, 278; tail vertebra^, 80; hind foot, 3G.5. Average of 3 females; 

 Total length, 230; tail vertebrae, 69; hind foot, 30.5. 



PUTORIUS CICOGNANI RICHARDSONI (Bonap.). Ricliardson's Weasel. 



1829. Musteln {Ptiiorins) enniuea Ricliar<lson: Fanua Boreali-Araericaua, pji. 4G-47, 

 1829. (In part: specimen from Fort Franklin, Great Bear Lake. Not il/. 

 cnninea Linn. ) 



1838. Mnsida richardsoni Bonap.: Charles worth's Mag. Nat. Hist., Vol. XI, p. 38, 



1838. (based on Ricliardson's specimen from Great Bear Lake). 



1839. Pntoj-ins richardsoni'Rich.. : Zool. Beechey's Voyage of Blossom, Mammalia, 10*, 



1839. 



1896. Bangs: Rroc. Biol. Soc. Washn., X, pp. 1-24, Feb. 25, 1896. (In part.) 

 Type locality. — Fort Franklin, Great Bear Lake. 



Geographic distrihut ion. ^B.ndsom'<ii\ timber belt from Hudson Bay 

 to interior of Alaska and British Columbia. 



General characters. — Simihir to P. cicognani but larger; tail of 

 medium length, its terminal third black. 



Figs. 2 and 3.— P. cicognani cf acl. Elk 

 Eiver, i^Iiimesota. 



