Part 10

1734. =javonica= (Mustela) Seba, Locupletissimi Rerum naturalium Thesauri ..., 1:77, 78, pl. 48, fig. 4. The weasel to which this name was applied was said to have come from Java. Since no animal answering to the description has again been found in Java, and because specimens from Central America or possibly some from northern India, may do so, it is conceivable that Seba was the first to distinguish by name an American weasel from those in the Old World. My attempts to locate the specimen concerned in places where it might have been preserved along with some of the other specimens thought to have belonged to Seba have been fruitless. Since it is impossible positively to link Seba's description with any known weasel, no further use is made of the name javonica in the present account.

1772. =erminea= (Mustela) Forster [= Mustela erminea richardsonii], Philos. Trans., London, 1772:373. Forster's use of the name is one of the earliest applications of it to American animals. The name dates from Linnaeus, Syst. Naturae, (10th ed.) 1:46, 1758, with type locality in Europe. In the subspecific sense the name applies to the ermine which occurs over most of the Scandinavian Peninsula, if Miller (1912:387) be followed in regarding the type locality as Upsala, Sweden. If, instead, Cabrera (1913A:394-396) be followed in regarding the type locality as in Switzerland, the name, in the subspecific sense, will apply to the ermine of continental Europe. As the earliest available name applied to the circumpolar species concerned, it is used now as the name of the species in the New World as well as in the Old World. From the time of Forster until approximately 1890 the name erminea by many, but not by all, authors was applied to the American weasels in the belief that they were zoölogically indistinguishable from those in the Old World. From 1896 to 1943 the name was not used by American authors at all because the ermine of America was in 1896 treated nomenclaturally by Merriam as specifically distinct from the animal in the Old World. Since 1943 erminea has been used in the specific sense for American animals in recognition of the circumpolar distribution of the species. Some of the early allocations of American specimens to erminea probably resulted in a composite use of the name in that one or another subspecies of the American species Mustela frenata may also have been included with individuals truly of the species erminea.

1772. =nivalis= (Mustela), Forster, Philos. Trans., London, 1772:373. This is one of the early applications of this name to American weasels of small size, made in the belief that they were taxonomically the same in America and Europe. Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. (12th ed.) 1:69, 1766 is the authority for the name [Mustela] nivalis, and the Province of Vesterbotten, Sweden, is regarded as the type locality. The name is in use today for the common weasel of Europe and parts of Asia. Animals of the species nivalis are intermediate in size between Mustela erminea and Mustela rixosa. The name as used for American animals by some authors who wrote later than Forster did, probably was composite in that these authors may have applied the name to the small weasels of North America and thus may have intended it to apply not only to Mustela erminea cicognanii but also to females of Mustela frenata noveboracensis, and conceivably to both sexes of Mustela rixosa of any American subspecies.

1813. =Brasiliensis= (Mustela) Sevastianoff, Mem. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Petersburg, 4:356-363, table (= plate) 4. This name was proposed for a weasel brought to St. Petersburg by Capt. Krusenstern on his return from a voyage around the world. The animal was said to have come from Brazil, but to judge from the description, came instead from México, Central America, or west of the Andes in South America, and was based on some one of the subspecies of Mustela frenata. Although the name was in use for more than 60 years it was shown by Merriam (1896:27) to be unavailable because it was preoccupied by Mustela brasiliensis, a name earlier used by Gmelin (Syst. Nat., ed. 13, p. 93, 1788) for a South American otter.

1815. =vulgaris= (Mustela), Ord, Guthrie's Geography as reprinted by Rhoads in 1894, vol. 2, p. 291. This use by Ord is one of the earliest applications of this name to American weasels, in the belief that the smaller weasels of North America and Europe were zoölogically the same; [Mustela] vulgaris seems originally to have been proposed in 1777 by Erxleben on p. 471 of vol. 1 of his Syst. Regni Anim., for the weasel of the temperate part of Europe and to be a synonym of Mustela nivalis Linnaeus (1766). Probably the name as used by Ord was composite in the sense that he may have intended it to apply to females of Mustela frenata noveboracensis as well as to one or both sexes of Mustela erminea cicognanii and, if he ever saw them, to the two sexes of Mustela rixosa (one or several subspecies).

1818. =africana= (Mustela) Desmarest [= Mustela africana africana], Nouv. Diction, d. Hist. Nat., 19:376. In 1808 E. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire visited Portugal and was given several African primates and the specimen of Mustela named by Desmarest in 1818 who wrongly supposed that it, like most of the primates, came originally from Africa. After the name had been misapplied for 95 years Angel Cabrera showed that it pertained instead to the tropical weasel of Brazil. Of distinctive names applied to American weasels today, this is the one first proposed.

1832. =frenata= (Mustela) Lichtenstein [= Mustela frenata frenata], Darstellung neuer oder wenig bekannter Säugethiere, pl. 42 and corresponding text unpaged. This name is the first one available for the long-tailed weasel and therefore applies to the species as a whole.

1838. =Cicognanii= (Mustela) Bonaparte [= Mustela erminea cicognanii], Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist., 2:38. The name erroneously spelled Cigognanii was correctly spelled on page 39. For a detailed consideration of this name see the account of the subspecies cicognanii on page 120.

1838. =Richardsonii= (Mustela) Bonaparte [= Mustela erminea richardsonii], Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist., 2:39. Until 1896 the name sometimes was applied to the subspecies now known as M. e. arctica and sometimes to part of the subspecies now designated as M. e. cicognanii under the principal treatment of which see (page 120) for a detailed account of the basis of the name =richardsonii=, and the reasons for regarding Fort Franklin as the type locality.

1838. =longicauda= (Mustela) Bonaparte [= =Mustela frenata longicauda=], Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist., 2:39. The type locality appears to be Carlton House, Saskatchewan, and the name always seems to have been applied to the long-tailed weasel of the Great Plains, although in some earlier accounts the name was used in a more inclusive sense to refer also to animals now of subspecies closely allied to longicauda. As with the two preceding names, a detailed consideration of the basis for, and application of, this name is given on pages 120-123 in the account of Mustela erminea cicognanii.

1840. =Noveboracensis= (Putorius) Emmons [= Mustela frenata noveboracensis], Quadrupeds of Mass., p. 45. This name was credited by Emmons to De Kay who in the same year published it in his report on the "Zoology of New York" but without a description and De Kay's name is a nomen nudum. Emmons' was the first use of the name accompanied by a recognizable description and therefore the name must date from Emmons although this obviously was not his intent since he credited the name to De Kay.

1842. =fuscus= (Putorius) Audubon and Bachman [= Mustela frenata noveboracensis], Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, 8: (pt. 2) 288.

1842. =pusilla= (Mustela) De Kay [= Mustela erminea cicognanii], Nat. Hist. of New York, Zool., Pt. 1, Mammalia, p. 34. This name was proposed for small weasels of 12 to 13 inches in length of which the tail amounted to a fourth of the same and although obviously applying in considerable part to the earlier named M. e. cicognanii seems to have included some individuals of the also earlier named M. f. noveboracensis.

1843. =xanthogenys= (Mustela) Gray [= Mustela frenata xanthogenys], Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 11:118, February, 1843, was applied to all of the long-tailed weasels of California that had light-colored facial markings. Merriam in 1896 suggested that San Diego was the type locality and in 1899 Bangs proposed the name mundus for the California weasel north of San Francisco Bay thus restricting the application of the name xanthogenys. In 1936 Hall further restricted the application of the name and applied it to the long-tailed weasel of the big interior valley of California, pointing out that the name was correctly applied to this weasel of the big interior valley or possibly instead to the race named munda.

1844. =agilis= (Mustela) Tschudi [= Mustela frenata agilis], Untersuch. ü. die Fauna Peruana, p. 110, is a name applied today to the race of weasel of the Temperate Zone of the western Andes and intermountain valleys of Perú.

1851. =nigripes= (Putorius) Audubon and Bachman [= Mustela nigripes], Quadr. N. Amer., 2:297, 1851, applies to the black-footed ferret of North America.

1853. =agilis= (Putorius) Audubon and Bachman [= Mustela frenata noveboracensis], Viv. Quadrupeds N. Amer., 3:184, pl. 140. This name was proposed for the female in the mistaken belief that it was specifically distinct from the larger male for which several names already were available. Also Tschudi in 1844 had already used the name Mustela agilis for a South American weasel.

1864. =aureoventris= (Mustela) Gray [= Mustela frenata aureoventris], Proc. Zoöl. Soc. London, 1864:55, pl. 8, February 9, 1864, is the name applicable to the dark-colored weasel of the Pacific coastal region of Ecuador and Columbia.

1865. =americana= (Mustela erminea Var. 3) Gray, Proc. Zoöl. Soc. London, 1865:111. The larger individuals of American weasels of both Mustela erminea and Mustela frenata from the Atlantic Coast to as far west as Carlton House, Saskatchewan, were lumped under this name because Gray desired more information than he then had before recognizing as different from one another several species proposed for America up to the time concerned. The name is unavailable because it is preoccupied by Mustela americana Turton (1806) the name for the American marten.

1865. =americana= (Mustela vulgaris Var.) Gray, Proc. Zoöl. Soc. London, 1865:113. Under this name the smaller weasels of the northern and northeastern part of North America were lumped by Gray but the name is preoccupied and can be ignored.

1874. =affinis= (Mustela) Gray [= Mustela frenata affinis], Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 14 (ser. 4):375, 1874, from New Granada [= Colombia], had the type locality restricted to Bogotá, Colombia, by Allen in 1916, and is applied to the long-tailed weasel of the tropical and temperate zones of the eastern Andes of Colombia.

1874. =macrura= (Mustela) Taczanowski [= Mustela frenata macrura], Proc. Zoöl. Soc. London, for 1874, p. 311, pl. 48, May 19, 1874, applies to the long-tailed weasel of central Perú and northern Ecuador.

1877. =culbertsoni= (Putorius) Coues [= Mustela frenata longicauda], Fur-bearing animals ..., p. 136, 1877, is based on specimens from Fort Laramie, Wyoming. In the past the name has been regarded as a nomen nudum but there is some reason for regarding it as having nomenclatural status. In either event it is here arranged as pertaining to the long-tailed weasel of the Great Plains which takes the prior name longicauda. See the account of longicauda for a more detailed account of the name culbertsoni.

1877. =aequatorialis= (Putorius (Gale) brasiliensis) Coues [= Mustela frenata aureoventris], Fur-bearing animals ..., p. 142. Proposed "merely as a substitute for Gray's [supposedly] preoccupied name," aureoventris.

1881. =stolzmanni= (Mustela) Taczanowski [= Mustela africana stolzmanni], Proc. Zoöl. Soc. London, for 1881, p. 835, November 15, 1881, is applied to the tropical weasel of the Upper Amazon Basin.

1881. =jelskii= (Mustela) Taczanowski [= Mustela frenata macrura], Proc. Zoöl. Soc. London, for 1881, p. 647, May 17, 1881, was proposed for the female in the mistaken opinion that it was specifically distinct from the larger male which the same author previously had named macrura.

1891. =arizonensis= (Putorius) Mearns [= Mustela frenata arizonensis], Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 3:234, June 5, 1891, until 1936 was applied to long-tailed weasels of most of the western United States west of the Great Plains but by restriction since 1936 has been applied only to the animals in parts of Arizona and New Mexico.

1894. =peninsulae= (Putorius) Rhoads [= Mustela frenata peninsulae], Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1894:152, June 19, 1894, applies to the weasel of central and southern Florida.