Polecat is dark brown above and black beneath, the face being variegated with dark brown and white markings.

The skull is rough, strongly ridged, and of a far more powerful type than that of the Stoats, Weasels, or Martens; being in the female much smaller and lighter than in the male. The fur, which

is long, coarse, and of comparatively small value, changes its colour very little, if at all, at the different seasons of the year.

The distribution and habits of this species have been described by Blasius, the following being an abstract of his account. The Polecat ranges over the greater part of Europe, reaching northwards into Southern Sweden, and in Russia to the region of the White Sea. It does not occur in the extreme South, but is common everywhere throughout Central Europe. In the Alps it ranges far above the tree-line during the summer, but retreats in winter to lower ground. In fine weather it lives either in the open air, in holes, fox-earths, rabbit-warrens, under rocks, or in wood-stacks, while in winter it seeks the protection of deserted buildings. During the day it sleeps in its hiding-place, sallying forth at night to plunder dovecots and hen-houses. It climbs but little, and shows far less activity than the Marten. It feeds ordinarily on small mammals, such as rabbits, hamsters, rats, and mice, on such birds as it can catch, especially poultry and pigeons, and also on snakes, lizards, frogs, fish, and eggs. Its prey is devoured only in its lair, but, even though it can carry away but a single victim, it commonly kills everything that comes in its way, often destroying all the inhabitants of a hen-house in order to gratify its passion for slaughter. The pairing time is towards the end of the winter, and the young, from three to eight in number, are born in April or May, after a period of gestation of about two months. The young, if taken early, may be easily trained, like Ferrets, for rabbit-catching. The Polecat is very tenacious of life, and will bear many severe wounds before succumbing; it is also said to receive with impunity the bite of the adder. Its fetid smell has become proverbial.

Four other species of Polecats are known, viz.-The Siberian Polecat (M. eversmanni) of Western and Northern Asia is nearly allied to the European species, but the head and back are almost white, and the skull is stouter and more constricted behind the orbits. The Tibetan M. larvata is distinguished from the last by the presence of a process connecting the pterygoid with the auditory bulla, and by a difference in the shape of the upper molar. The American Polecat (M. nigripes), inhabiting the central plateau of the United States, and extending southwards into Texas, is another closely allied species, although some zoologists have made it the type of the genus Cynomyonax. Finally, the Mottled Polecat (M. sarmatica) is a species sparsely distributed in Eastern Europe and parts of Western Asia, but common in Southern Afghanistan.

Its skull, although smaller, resembles that of the common species; but the coloration is very different, all the upper parts being mottled with large irregular reddish spots on a white ground, and the under side, limbs, and tail deep shining black. The tail is long. The Common Polecat occurs in a fossil condition in the cavedeposits of Europe.

The remaining members of the genus comprise the true Weasels and Stoats, which are of almost cosmopolitan distribution. In the Common Weasel (M. vulgaris, Fig. 269) the upper parts, outside of limbs and tail, are a uniform reddish-brown, the under parts pure

white.

In very cold regions, both in Europe and America, it turns completely white in winter, but less regularly and at a lower temperature than the Stoat, from which it is easily distinguished by its smaller size, and by its wanting the black end of the tail. The length of the head and body of the male is usually about 8 inches, that of the tail 2 inches; the female is smaller.

This species is pretty generally distributed throughout Europe, Northern and Central Asia, British North America, and the northern portions of the United States. It possesses in a full degree all the active, courageous, and bloodthirsty disposition of the rest of the genus, but its diminutive size prevents it attacking and destroying any but the smaller mammals and birds. Mice, rats, voles, moles, and frogs constitute its principal food. It is generally found on or

near the surface of the ground, but it can not only pursue its prey through very small holes and crevices of rocks and under dense tangled herbage, but follow it up the stems and branches of trees, or even into the water, swimming with perfect ease. It constructs a nest of dried leaves and herbage, placed in a hole in the ground or a bank or hollow tree, in which it brings up its litter of four to six (usually five) young ones. The mother will defend her young with the utmost desperation against any assailant, having been often known to sacrifice her own life rather than desert them.

The Stoat or Ermine (M. erminea) has nearly the same distribution as the Weasel, but in Asia it is said to extend into parts of the Kashmir Himalaya. Its size, as already mentioned, considerably exceeds that of the Weasel; and its most distinctive feature is the black tip at the end of the tail, which remains when the rest of the pellage turns white. The white winter skins from the northern regions of its habitat, where the fur is thick and close, form the well-known and valuable ermine of commerce. Remains of the Stoat are found in the Pleistocene cavern-deposits of Europe. The other species of Weasels are very numerous and widely distributed.

Extinct Mustelines.-A number of European Miocene Carnivores may be referred to the genus Mustela in its wider sense, and serve to confirm the propriety of this use of the term. Thus M. sectoria is a species of somewhat larger size than the Stoat, with p 4, while in M. angustifrons the number of premolars is, and in M. mustelina ; the latter species agreeing very closely in size with the Stoat. The extinct Plesictis, in which there are pand the lower carnassial has a large inner cusp, is distinguished from Mustela by the circumstance that the temporal ridges of the skull never unite to form a sagittal crest. Moreover, the inner tubercular portion of the upper molar (as in some of the Miocene species of Mustela) is shorter in an antero-posterior direction than the secant outer moiety; and the auditory bulla is more inflated than in Mustela, although it has no septum. Both these features indicate a decided approximation to the Viverroid genus Stenoplesiotis (p. 539); and since there are no well-marked characters of family value by which these two genera can be distinguished the available evidence points to a transition from the Viverroid to the Musteloid type. Mustela larteti, of the Middle Miocene of France, should perhaps be referred to Ictonyx.

Pacilogale.This genus has been made for the reception of the South African Mustela albinucha, in which the coloration is similar to that of Ictonyx, but the number of cheek-teeth is usually reduced to p, m, although there may be a second lower molar. The auditory bulla is quite flat.

Lyncodon. This name has been proposed for a small Musteline 10. Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 5, vol. xi. p. 370 (1883).

2 Gervais, Dict. Univ. d'Hist. Nat. t. iv. p. 685 (1849).

from Patagonia, with p, m, which Mr. O. Thomas suggests may be nothing more than an aberrant southern form of Mustela (Putorius) brasiliensis. The auditory bulla is more inflated than in the typical Weasels. This animal is somewhat larger than the Stoat. Gulo.-Dentition: i, c, p 4, m; total 38. Crowns of the teeth very stout. Upper molar very much smaller than the carnassial. Lower carnassial large, with very small talon and no inner cusp. Third upper incisor unusually large, almost like a canine. The dentition, though really but a modification of that of the Weasels, presents a great general resemblance to that of the Hyæna. Palate prolonged somewhat behind the last molar. Humerus with an entepicondylar foramen. Vertebræ: C 7, D 15, L 5, S 3, C 15. Body

and limbs stoutly made. Feet large and powerful, subplantigrade, with large, compressed, much curved, and sharp-pointed claws. Soles of the feet (except the pads of the toes) covered with thick bristly hairs. Ears very small, nearly concealed by the fur. Eyes small. Tail short, thick, and bushy. Fur full, long, and rather coarse. The one species, the Wolverene or Glutton (G. luscus, Fig. 270), an inhabitant of the forest regions of Northern Europe, Asia, and America, much resembles a small Bear in appearance. It is a very powerful animal for its size, climbs trees, and lives on grouse, squirrels, hares, foxes, beavers, reindeer, and is said to attack even horses and cows. The Wolverene has a curious habit of stealing and secreting articles of which it can make no possible use, as is exemplified in the following instance related by Dr. Coues :

1 Storr, Prodromus Meth. Mamm. p. 34 (1780).

"A hunter and his family, having left their lodge unguarded during their absence, on their return found it completely gutted— the walls were there, but nothing else. Blankets, guns, kettles, axes, cans, knives, and all the other paraphernalia of a trapper's tent had vanished, and the tracks left by the beast showed who had been the thief. The family set to work, and, by carefully following up all his paths, recovered, with some trifling exceptions, the whole of the lost property. The pairing season occurs in March, and the female, secure in her burrow, produces her young, four or five at a birth, in June or July. In defence of these she is exceedingly bold, and the Indians, according to Coues, "have been heard to say that they would sooner encounter a she-bear with her cubs than a carcajou (the Indian name of the glutton) under the same circumstances."

Fossil remains of the Wolverene are found in cavern and other Pleistocene deposits in various parts of Europe.

Suborder PINNIPEDIA.

The Eared-Seals, Walruses, and Seals differ from the rest of the Carnivora mainly in the structure of their limbs, which are modified for aquatic progression,-the two proximal segments being very short and partially enveloped in the general integument of the body; while the third segment, especially in the hinder extremities, is elongated, expanded, and webbed. There are always five welldeveloped digits on each limb. In the hind limb the two marginal digits (first and fifth) are stouter and generally longer than the others. The teeth also differ from those of the more typical Carnivora. The incisors are always fewer than 3. The cheek series consists generally of four premolars and one molar of very uniform characters, with never more than two roots, and with conical, more or less compressed, pointed crowns, which may have accessory cusps, placed before or behind the principal one, but are never broad and tuberculated; and there is no differentiated carnassial tooth. The milk-teeth are very small and simple, and are shed or absorbed at a very early age, usually either before or within a few days after birth. The brain is relatively large; the cerebral hemispheres being broad in proportion to their length, with numerous and complex convolutions. There is a very short cæcum. The kidneys are divided into numerous distinct lobules. There are no Cowper's glands. The mammæ are either two or four, and abdominal in position. No clavicles. Tail always very short. Eyes very large and exposed, with flat cornea.

The animals of this group are all aquatic in their mode of life, spending the greater part of their time in the water, swimming and diving with great facility, feeding mainly on fish, crustaceans, and other marine animals, and progressing on land with difficulty.