TAWNY WEASEL. 
235 
body are of two kinds : the longer hairs are a little more rigid, and far 
more numerous, than on the ermine, and the under fur is a little longer, 
coarser, and less woolly than the fur of the latter animal. 
COLOUR. 
The whole upper surface, sides, outside of legs, feet, ears, and tail to 
within an inch of the extremity, uniform tawny brown, except on the centre 
of the back and top of the tail, where the colouring darkens. Thus the body 
of the animal is a shade darker than the summer colour of the ermine, 
while the colour of the tail is, for about an inch, nearly as black as in that 
species. The white on the lower surface is not mixed with brown hairs as 
in Putorius vulgaris, and not only occupies a broader space on the belly, 
but extends along the inner surface of the thighs as low as the tarsus, 
whilst in P. vulgaris the white scarcely reaches the thighs. The whole of 
the under surface is pure white ; this colour does not commence on the 
upper lip, as is generally the case in the ermine, but on the chin, extending 
around the edges of the mouth, and by a well defined line along the neck, 
inner parts of the lore-legs, and inner parts of the thighs, tapering off to a 
point nearly opposite the heel on the hind-legs. 
Whiskers, dark-brown, with a few white ones interspersed. The speci- 
men from which our figure was drawn, was captured on Long Island in 
May 1834, and is therefore in summer pelage. 
DIMENSIONS. 
For the sake of convenient comparison we will also here give the dimen- 
sions of the two species of Weasel to which our animal is most nearly 
allied, taken from specimens now before us. 
P. fuscus. P. erminea. 
Inches. Lines. Inches. Lines. 
Length of head and body, - 9 0 11 7 
tail (vertebra;), - 2 9 4 6 
“ (including fur), 3 2 6 2 
Height of ear posteriorly, - 3 2% 
P. vulgaris. 
Inches. Lines. 
7 0 
1 9 
2 1 
2 
HABITS. 
We find from our notes, that in the State of New York in the winter of 
1808, we kept a Weasel, which we suppose may have been this species, ixi 
confinement, together with several young ermines. The latter all became 
