166 U S. P. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS-ZOOLOGY—GENERAL REPORT. 
sables in the character of the head, ear, tail, and feet, and as, even in respect to color, the sables 
of the Nischnaja Tunguska, sent home by Middendorff, occupy an intermediate position between 
the dark Asiatic and yellow American sables, I am induced to consider the American animal 
rather as a yellower or more yellowish brown, and less densely furred variety of the Asiatic 
sable than as a distinct species, or as a pine marten {Mustela martes).” 
The author then presents the diagnosis of the three species of allied Mustela , {M. zibellina, 
martes, and foina ,) as follows: 
Mustela zibellina, (asiatica et americana). —Tail without the hairs, about one-third the body; 
shorter than the outstretched hind feet. The muzzle longer and more pointed. The top of the 
snout and the chin differing very slightly, if at all, from the side of the head in any darker 
coloring, especially the chin ; much lighter than the upper or middle portion of the fore paws. 
The sides of the neck and the head very different from the trunk in the lighter color, and 
especially in the greater or less sprinkling or etching of white. The sides of the head, from 
the eye to the ear, whitish, more or less mixed with brown. The upper border of the ear 
obtusely triangular. The whiskers scarcely reach as far back as the ear. The posterior surface 
of the ear lighter, rarely (especially in the American specimens) darker than the light nape. 
The throat and lower neck either only white here and there, or washed with light brownish 
yellow, or with smaller or larger whitish, yellowish, or orange brown spots, of varying size 
and number, of rounded, elongated, or angular form. When there is a well developed gular 
blotch it ends anteriorly in a single point. The color of the paws and lower part of the thighs 
quite uniform brownish black, or rather blackish brown, especially on the paws. The basal 
and median stiffer straight outer hairs of the black or blackish brown tail, even in winter, are 
shorter than the terminal ones ; the tail is consequently only tolerably bushy, most so at the 
end ; it is uniformly black from base to tip, sometimes more or less sprinkled with white. The 
whole body is covered with long stiff lustrous blackish brown or black hairs, sometimes, or 
almost always, mixed with white or white tipped ones. The very stiff bristly hairs of the toes 
enveloping the claws, and more or less hiding them. The pads at the ends of the toes mostly 
covered with hairs in the winter, leaving a very small portion not overgrown ; in summer mostly 
bare. 
Measurements in inches. 
Locality. 
Tip of nose to— 
Tail, from anus to end of— 
Length of— 
Nature of specimen. 
Eye. 
Occip. 
’Tail. 
Yert. 
Hairs. 
Fore ft. 
Hind ft. 
Russia-- 
11 
3 -h 
161 
41 
Ill 
3 i 
Freshly killed. 
Mustela martes. —The tail without the hairs about one-half or more than one-half the length 
of head and body, extending almost one-third its length beyond the outstretched hind legs. 
Muzzle shorter. Eidges of the fleshy palate much as in the sable. The upper part of the 
muzzle and the chin blackish brown, less light than the upper part of the dark blackish brown 
paws, and consequently separated from the light upper surface of the head (the vertex 
