252 
The Ohio Naturalist. 
[Vol. V, No. 3, 
sex of the specimen is male, as was ascertained at the time it was 
mounted. It measured just six inches (152 mm.) in length for 
the head and body; the tail one inch, or, including the longest 
hairs, an inch and a quarter, making the total length seven and a 
quarter inches (184 mm.). In size this is the smallest of the 
weasels, and therefore of the carnivores. 
The nomenclature of the weasels has been in great confusion 
for several reasons. The animals are nowhere very abundant, 
and the collections have been rather meager and carelessly made. 
The great disparity in size between the sexes makes the positive 
determination of the sex an essential mattei in order to interpret 
correctly the measurements. The most thorough revision of the 
species is that of Mr. Outram Bangs,! published in 1896. Up to 
that date there were only two species recognized as belonging to 
our northern Ohio region, namely: 
The New York Weasel, Futorius noveboracensis Emmons. 
Bonaparte’s Weasel, P. cicognani (Bonaparte). 
The New York Weasel has a total length in the male of sixteen 
inches, and in the female of thirteen inches. Bonaparte’s weasel 
measures eleven inches in the male and nine inches in the female. 
Both of these species have black tips to their tails both summer 
and winter. It is clear, therefore, that our specimen can not 
l)elong to either of the commonly recognized species. 
In the year 1901, Mr. Samuel N Rhoads published! a descrip- 
tion of a much smaller species from a few specimens taken in the 
vicinity of Pittsburgh, Pa., giving it the name of Futorius alle- 
gheniensis . Our specimen agrees in dimensions with this species, 
and falls in with two other specific characters which may be 
mentioned, viz:, (1) the tip of the tail is never black, but of the 
same color as the rest of the body. (2) the two .sexes are essen- 
tially of the same size. 
Hitherto only seven specimens of this Alleghenian weasel have 
been brought to the notice of scientific men and placed on record 
in publications. These were all from Washington and Allegheny 
counties in Pennsylvania, and Jefferson county, Ohio. Six of 
these specimens were exhibited together at the February meeting 
of the Pittsburgh Academy of Science and Art, by Mr. Frederic 
S. Webster, who gives an account of the meeting in the issue of 
Science for May 27th last. Our specimen constitutes the eighth 
and extends the range of the species towards the shores of Lake 
Erie. 
It is hardly possible that this should be so rare a species as 
the present figures would indicate. Other specimens have doubt- 
t A Review of the Weasels of Eastern North America, by Outram Bangs. Proc. Biol. 
Soc. Washington Vol X, pp. 1-24, Feb., 1896. 
X Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. for 1900. Issued Feb. 7, 1901. Also Rhoads, Mammals 
of Penn, and New Jersey p. 173. 1903. 
