Part 55

H. H. Bailey (1930:1) credits the range of this subspecies as extending south "to the shores of Florida Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, where ever high ground occurs."

Evidence of intergradation between M. f. peninsulae and M. f. olivacea is provided by specimens of olivacea from Gainesville, Florida, and the Okefinokee Swamp, Georgia. These specimens, on the average, have the color of the underparts wider, the skull larger, and the tympanic bullae relatively larger than do specimens of olivacea from farther north. In these features, approach to M. f. peninsulae is shown.

Light facial markings occur in this subspecies. They are similar to those possessed by weasels which occur at the same latitude and under corresponding climatic conditions on the Pacific Coast. The type specimen and one from Tarpon Springs have white facial markings. Two of the three specimens from Apopka also show white facial markings, although in reduced amount. One of the four specimens of M. f. olivacea from Gainesville, Florida, has well-developed light (white) facial markings. Also of the four specimens of M. f. olivacea examined from Okefinokee Swamp, Georgia, one has prominent white facial markings. However, in it the pattern is so unusual as to suggest that it is an instance of partial albinism rather than an outcropping of a racial tendency, or a pattern of coloration induced by climatic factors.

None of the eight available skulls show any infestation of the frontal sinuses by parasites.

Specimens examined.--Total number, 10, arranged by counties from west to east.

=Florida.= Pasco County: Hudson's, 1. Pinellas County: Tarpon Springs, 1. Hernando County, 1. Polk County: Auburndale, 1; no locality more definite than county, 1. Orange County: Apopka, 3. Volusia County: Enterprise, 1. Seminole County: Osceola, 1.

=Mustela frenata spadix= (Bangs)

Long-tailed Weasel

Plates 16, 17, 18, 31, 32 and 33

Putorius longicauda spadix Bangs, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 10:8, February 25, 1896; Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna, 11:21, figs. 10, 11, June 30, 1896; Cory, Mamm. Illinois and Wisconsin, p. 374, 1912.

Mustela longicauda spadix, Miller, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull., 79:98, December 31, 1912; Bailey, Journ. Mamm., 10:156, May 9, 1929.

Mustela longicauda, Johnson, Journ. Mamm., 11:439, November 11, 1930.

Mustela noveboracensis, Murie, Journ. Mamm., 16:321, November 15, 1935.

Mustela frenata spadix, Hall, Carnegie Instit. Washington Publ. 473:105, November 20, 1936.

Type.--Male, young, skull and skin; no. 3265/1786, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.; Fort Snelling, Hennepin County, Minnesota; June 25, 1889; obtained by Edgar A. Mearns; original no. 812.

The skull is complete although there are fractures on the top of the braincase, on the right side of the braincase and at the middle of the right zygomatic arch. The teeth all are present and entire. The skin, although overstuffed, is complete, well preserved, and in summer pelage.

Range.--Upper Austral and Transition life-zones of Minnesota, northern and western Iowa, southeastern North Dakota, eastern part of South Dakota, and northeastern Nebraska. See figure 29 on page 221.

Characters for ready recognition.--Differs from M. f. noveboracensis and M. f. primulina in that specimens of all ages have least width of color of underparts amounting to more than 41 per cent of greatest width of color of upper parts, and have light color of underparts extended onto hind foot rather than stopped short of ankle; adults with hind feet more than 50 in males and 40 in females; orbitonasal length more than 15.5 in males and 13.5 in females; length of tooth-rows more than 18.0 in males and 15.7 in females; mastoid breadth more than 25.5 in males and 22.0 in females. From M. f. longicauda by color darker than near (h) Clay Color, in males by a flattened occiput in which the depth of the skull, exclusive of the sagittal crest and taken at the anterior border of the basioccipital, amounts to less than 58 per cent of the mastoid breadth.

Description.--Size.--Male: Three adults from Elk River, Minnesota, yield average and extreme measurements as follows: Total length, 458 (444-467); length of tail, 154 (140-165); length of hind foot, 55 (52-59). Tail averages 51 per cent as long as head and body. Length of hind foot averages more than basal length. Corresponding measurements of three subadults from Madison, Minnesota, are as follows: 453 (438-469); 157 (152-165); 50 (47-51). Tail averages 53 per cent as long as head and body.

Female: Three adults from Elk River, Minnesota, yield average and extreme measurements as follows: Total length, 387 (380-391); length of tail, 131 (121-138); length of hind foot, 44 (43-46). Tail averages 51 per cent as long as head and body. Length of hind foot more or less than (approximately equal to) basal length. Corresponding measurements of two adults and one subadult from Madison, Minnesota, are as follows: 385 (379-396); 137 (119-159); 42 (38-44). Tail averages 55 per cent as long as head and body.

The average differences in external measurements of the two sexes from Elk River, are: Total length, 71; length of tail, 23; length of hind foot, 11. At Madison, corresponding differences are 68, 20, and 8. Two adult females from Elk River, Minnesota, weigh 205 and 210 grams.

Externals.--Longest facial vibrissae black, brown, or white (often all three colors in same specimen) and extending beyond ear; carpal vibrissae same color as underparts and extending to apical pad of fifth digit; hairiness of foot-soles (in summer pelage) as shown in figure 19.

Color.--Winter pelage all white except tip of tail. In southern part of range sometimes assumes a brown winter coat. Summer pelage with upper parts ranging from near (16´) Cinnamon Brown to Vandyke Brown. Chin and upper lips white. Remainder of underparts ranging from near (a) Olive Ocher to Ochraceous Buff and Pale Orange Yellow. Tip of tail at all times black. Upper parts of uniform color except for occasional slight darkening of nose. Color of underparts extends distally on posterior sides of forelegs over toes onto antipalmar faces of feet and ankles, on medial sides of hind limbs to ankle, over antiplantar faces of toes and distomedial fourth of each tarsus, and over proximal fifth to third of under side of tail. Least width of color of underparts averaging (in 3 specimens from Elk River) 54 (47-59) per cent of greatest width of color of upper parts. Black tip of tail averaging same length as hind foot and 28 per cent of length of tail-vertebrae. Save for the greater width of the light-colored underparts and relatively short black tip of the tail, both features of M. f. longicauda, spadix is variously intermediate, depending on locality, as between noveboracensis and longicauda.

Skull and teeth.--Male (based on 3 adults from Elk River, Minn.): See measurements and plates 16-18. As described in Mustela frenata longicauda except that: Weight, 5.6 (5.0-6.5); basilar length, 49.0 (48.7-49.2); zygomatic breadth sometimes less than distance between anterior palatine foramen and anterior margin of tympanic bulla; postorbital breadth more or less (about equal to) width of basioccipital measured from medial margin of one foramen lacerum posterior to its opposite; interorbital breadth more or less than distance between foramen opticum and anterior margin of tympanic bulla; anterior margin of tympanic bulla as far posterior to foramen ovale as width of 4 to 5 upper incisors; height of tympanic bulla more or less than distance from its anterior margin to foramen ovale; length of tympanic bulla less than length of rostrum; anterior margin of masseteric fossa below talonid of m1.

Female (based on 4 adults from Elk River, Minn.): See measurements and plates 31-33. As described in Mustela frenata longicauda except that: Weight, 3.5 (3.3-4.0) grams; basilar length, 42.9 (42.3-43.2); least width of palate more or less than greatest length of P4; tympanic bulla as far posterior to foramen ovale as width of 3 to 5 upper incisors.

The skull of the female averages 33 per cent lighter than that of the male.

Skulls of adult males of spadix from Elk River, Minnesota, as compared with those of longicauda from Alberta, are larger in every part measured. Relative to the basilar length these skulls of spadix are broader across the mastoid region, narrower across the zygomata, deeper through the plane of the postorbital processes, shallower through the braincase and have relatively shorter tympanic bullae. Whereas the tympanic bullae of longicauda are, on the average, approximately as long as the rostrum (orbitonasal length), in spadix the rostrum is longer than the bulla. Viewed posteriorly, the braincase of spadix is seen to be much shallower and wider than that of longicauda. Indeed, the depth of the braincase, measured at the anterior end of the basioccipital, amounts to only 56 per cent of the mastoid breadth in spadix as against 61 per cent in longicauda. The longer, waistlike, postorbital constriction, relatively smaller braincase, and especially the relatively narrower zygomatic expanse in spadix imparts to its skull a more slender appearance than has the skull of longicauda. These differences are not shown by the skulls of females. To be sure, spadix, in most of its cranial measurements, averages slightly larger, has a relatively shallower braincase and is relatively deeper through the postorbital processes, but these differences are so slight that inclusion of one more specimen, of slightly different proportions, in the average might cause the average measurements to read as they do in longicauda.

Compared with noveboracensis, from Massachusetts, adult skulls of spadix, taking sex into account, are larger in every part measured and are relatively as well as actually wider and deeper throughout. Also, in spadix: Sagittal and lambdoidal crests higher, especially in females; anterior margin of tympanic bulla projecting up sharply from squamosal; occiput more flattened in posterior view; tooth-rows relatively and actually longer but orbitonasal length relatively shorter; postorbital processes more robust; zygomatic arches widely bowed outward rather than evenly rounded; canines larger; squamosal less swollen ventrally, especially in females. Between noveboracensis and spadix, the differential cranial characters are greater in number and degree between females than between males. Comparison of the skull with that of M. f. primulina is made in discussion of that subspecies.