The Ohio ^J^aturalisty 
PUBLISHED BY 
The Biological Club of the Ohio State Uni'versity. 
Volume V. JANUARY, 1905. No. 3. 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
Y'right— Our Smallest Carnivore 
W.\LTON — A Land I’lanarian in Ohio 
ScHAFFNER— The I.ife Cycle of a Ileterosporous Pteridophyte 
Walton — Actiuoloiilins Minutns a Mew Heliozoan, with a Review of the Species Enu- 
II. 
merated in the Genus , 
Gleason— Notes from the Ohio State Herbarium. 
SCHAFFNER— Mat Plants 
SCHAFFNER— Plants with Nodding Tips 
Riddle— Brush Lake .\lgae 
Scholl— Key to the Ohio Hickories in the Winter Condition . 
Cotton — Key to Ohio Ashes in the Winter Condition 
SCHAFFNER— Key to Ohio Poplars in the Winter Condition . . . 
Clevenger— llydrollnoric Acid for Marking Slides 
Frank— Meeting of the Biological Club 
251 
254 
255 
261 
264 
265 
2ti7 
. /S.B \%7o-, 
OUR SMALLEST CARNIVORE * 
Albert A. Wright. 
On the 23d of January, 1904, there was brought to me a 
diminutive weasel in full white winter pelage. It was captured 
alive by Mr. Clarence Metcalf upon his farm four miles south of 
Oberlin. It was in a corn field and was chased out from one of 
the shocks of corn, where it may have gone in pursuit of the 
rodents that habitually pilfer the grain. It was accompanied bv 
a second specimen, of similar size, but of a brown color above, 
with some white on the under parts. This one escaped and could 
not be critically examined. 
The white one was without any visible spots of brown or 
black upon it. Even the black tip of the tail which characterizes 
most weasels, both in their winter and summer pelage, is wanting. 
A careful examination with a lens, however, will show that there 
are a few darker hairs present. The vibrissas and the few long 
hairs of the eyebrow are of an inconspicuous brown color. The 
ghost of a spot an eighth of an inch across, consisting of a few 
submerged Itowu hairs can be detected upon the crown of the 
head. At the tip of the tail about ten distinctly black hairs can 
be counted concealed by the more abundant white. There is no 
evidence of a brush of longer hairs at the end of the tail. The 
* Read before the Ohio State Academy of Sciences, Nov. 26 1904. 
