22 
domesticated animals of more importance, or whose habits have been 
more carefully observed. 
The closest affinities of the Weasels are with the Bears, next with the 
Cats. They stand in the carnivorous series between the Canide and the 
Urside. In size they are medium or small, ranging from the Wolverine, 
weighing thirty to forty pounds, to the Least Weasel, but six or seven 
inches long, and weighing three or four ounces. - The feet may be either 
plantigrade or digitigrade, and, in the Otters, with the toes palmate, 
adapted forswimming. The feet may be naked or hairy, with or without 
naked pads; but this does not indicate whether the animal is digitigrade 
or plantigrade. (Wagner.) 
Some are strictly carnivorous; the Otters are piscivorous, while others 
are omnivorous. The anal glands, with which most species are supplied, 
secrete a foetid liquid, which reaches the maximum of offensiveness in 
the American Skunks. 
The diagnostic characters of the family are taken mainly from the 
molar teeth, and are as follows: 
Family Characters.—Carnivora, with a single tubercular molar tooth 
only, on either side of each jaw; the sectorial pre-molar of typical shape 
(rarely, in Enhydrine, with blunt tubercles). Molars 4:2 Gn Old World 
genus Mellivora 7-;). Feet five-toed, plantigrade or digitigrade. Czecum 
wanting, as in Urside. 
Sub-familes and Distribution.—The Mustelide include, according to Dr. 
Gill, eight sub-families, three of which, namely, Mellivorinx, Zorilline, and 
Helictidine, are confined to the Old World. The remaining five sub-families 
Musteine—Wolverines, Martens, and true Weasels; Mephitenee—the 
Skunks; Meline—the Badgers; Lutrine—the Otters ; Enhydrine—the Sea 
Otter, are neither of them peculiar to North America. Musteline and Lu- 
trine are of general distribution in both hemispheres; the lone repre- 
sentative of HEnhydrine, the Sea Otter, is found on both coasts of the 
North Pacific. The Badgers do not occur in South America, but are com- 
mon in the Old World. The three genera of Skunks found in North and 
South America are absent from the Old World, but are replaced by the Afri- 
can Zoruline. - 
Four of the sub-families are represented in Ohio— Musteline, by 
the Martens and Weasels; Mephitine, by the Skunks; Melinx, by the 
Badgers; and Lutrine, by the Otters. Of the seven genera and twenty- 
three species recognized by Professor Baird (Mam. N. A., 1857), Dr. Coues 
(Mon. N. A. Mus.) admits sixteen species distributed in eight genera. 
Six species of this family, representing five genera—the Fisher, Mustela 
pennanti ; the Common Weasel, Putorius erminea ; the Common Mink, Pu- 
