100 
PUTOKIUS PUSILLUS. — Dekay. 
The Small Weasel. 
PLATE LXI V. — Natural Size. 
P. erminia tertia parti minore ; cauda breviuscula. Supra rufo-fuscus 
subtus albus. 
CHARACTERS. 
A third smaller than the Ermine ; tail rather short ; Colour, brown 
above white beneath. 
SYNONYMES. 
Mustela (putorius) Vulgaris, Bach., Fauna Bor. Am., vol. i., p. 45. 
P. Vulgaris, Emmons, Mass. Report, 1840, p. 44. 
Mustela Pusilla, Dekay, Nat. Hist. N. Y., p. 34. 
DESCRIPTION. 
This is much the smallest of all our species of Weasel, if we are to judge 
from two specimens that are in our possession, which appear to be full 
grown. The tail is about one-fourth the length of the body, and is a lit- 
tle longer than that of the common Weasel {M. Vulgaris) of Europe. It 
is, however, a still smaller animal, and differs from it in several other 
particulars ; its ears are less broad, its feet smaller, the colour on the 
back is a shade darker, the white on the under surface extends much far- 
ther along the sides, towards the back, and the dividing line between the 
colours on the upper and lower surface is more distinct. The head is 
small, neck slender, and the body vermiform. Whiskers the length of 
the head, ears very small, toes and nails slender, covered with hairs. 
colour. 
We are inclined to believe that this species does not become white in 
winter. We kept a small weasel alive throughout a winter in our boy- 
hood, but cannot now decide whether it was this species or another, 
(P . Fuscus,) which we will describe in our next volume. That species 
underwent no change in winter. It is more glossy than the ermine in 
