BANGS: LAND MAMMALS OF FLORIDA AND GEORGIA. 231 
throughout, the upper molar teeth especially being very large. 
(The dentition is about equaled by that of the Louisiana mink, P. 
vulgivagus .) 
Measurements. Skull, the type, $ old adult: basal length, 63.8; 
zygomatic breadth, 37 ; mastoid breadth, 31.2 ; interorbital width, 
14.2; least width behind postorbital processes, 10.6; distance across 
postorbital processes, 16.2 ; distance from postorbital process to end 
of nasals, 19.2 ; greatest length of single half of mandible, 40.8. 
An adult 9 topotype, No. 7,230 : basal length, 53.6; zygomatic 
breadth, 31.6; mastoid breadth, 27.2; interorbital width, 12.8; 
least width behind postorbital processes, 11 ; distance across post¬ 
orbital processes, 14; distance from postorbital process to end of 
nasals, 18 ; greatest length of single half of mandible, 34.8. 
General remarks. The home of P. lutensis is the illimitable salt 
marsh of the South Atlantic States. Its range extends from the 
marshes of the Matanzas River, Florida, 1 certainly to the coast of 
South Carolina. It is very abundant and in its favorite haunts 
about the muddy margins of the creeks, and in the wetter parts of 
the marsh, where the growth of marsh grass is the heaviest, it can 
be trapped in almost any numbers'. At Matanzas I caught seven 
mink in two nights with only six sets. Both nights all the traps 
that did not catch, were tripped and the bait, mullet, stolen, and the 
first night a raccoon occupied one of the traps. On the marshes of 
the St. Mary’s River, I found the salt-marsh mink nearly as common 
as at Matanzas. Mr. Brown took it on the marshes at Montgomery 
and Ossabaw Island, Geo. 
Living under the peculiar conditions of the salt marsh a mink has 
developed, in P. lutensis , that is very different from its nearest geo¬ 
graphical relative, P. lutreocepltalus , with which it apparently no 
longer intergrades. The skulls of the two are very unlike. The 
long slender rostral and frontal region, and wedge-like form of the 
zygoma seem to adapt P. lutensis admirably for pushing its way 
through the dense growth of heavy marsh grass in which so much 
of its life is spent. 
The dentition of P. lutensis is very heavy and strong, and in 
this respect, as also somewhat in color, it resembles the form of the 
ir fhe salt marsh proper ends about here, though occasional expanses may be found 
farther south, as at Merritt’s Island, etc. It seems improbable that mink occur, how¬ 
ever, in these small, isolated marshes. The salt savannahs of the Indian River are very 
different in character from the salt marsh of the coast farther north. I never have 
found any signs of mink on the Indian River. 
