38 
papery texture. With age the skin thickens and toughens, and the 
pelage grows rusty. 
The “Little Black Mink,” moreover, is not characteristic of any cir- 
cumscribed faunal area. 
With reference to the specific difference between P. lutreola, of the Old 
World, and P. vison, Dr. Coues has given the following comparative diag- 
nosis : 
P. lutreola.—Back upper molar small, quadrate, transverse, the inner moiety scarcely 
longer than the outer (fide Gray); averaging smaller; upper lip normally white. 
P. vison.—Back upper molar large, with great constriction across the middle, making 
an hour-glass shape, the inner moiety of which is nearly twice as large as the outer 
[forty specimens seen]; averaging larger; upper lip normally dark. 
Mr. Allen (Bull. Mus. Comp. Zodl., i, 1869, pp. 175-177) asserted, re- 
garding the sub-genus Lutreola, that “we have again but one circumpolar 
and widely dispersed species, with possibly two continental or geograph- 
ical races.” Hxamination of the molar teeth and skull afterward 
satisfied him that, while externally the form cannot be specifically dif- 
ferentiated, they are in fact distinct species. The Siberian Mink, P. 
stbericus, is the remaining Old World species. 
History and Hants.—The history of the Mink begins prior to the bien- 
nialnomenclure. Itis noticed, in Smith’s Virginia, 1624,as the “ Mink”; 
as the “ Minx ” (Lawson, Carol, 1709); as the “Otay” (Sagard-Theodat, 
Hist. Canad , 1636); asthe Foutereaux (La Hontan, 1703, and of the French 
Canadians). 
The term vison, generally used since Buffon as its specific title, was 
applied by him in 1765 toa Canadian specimen in M. Aubry’s museum, 
probably the same on which Brisson and Pennant based their descrip- 
tions. Dr. Coues ingeniously suggests that the identity in form of Mink 
and Minx, may be more than fortuitous; Minx, formerly the name of a 
female puppy, subsequently signified a pert, wanton girl, the forward, 
prying, and spiteful nature of the animal in question gives a color to the 
relationship of the terms. 
Since the early authors mentioned, the Mink has appeared in the 
writings of systematic authors, and has furnished material for several nom- 
inal species (see synonymy), which have occasioned but little confusion 
so definite are the zoological characters of the animal. Authors, mistak- 
in, the number of its teeth (84) have placed it in Mustela, teeth 38. Its 
peculiarly aquatic nature leads it to seek well watered regions; hence in 
the dry interior regions they are collected in a few places instead of being 
uniformly dispersed, so, where found, their numbers are exaggerated. 
Richardson found the Mink on the Mackenzie at 66°, and Audubon 
states that he has seen it “in every State in the Union.” 
