Part 12

_Remarks._--In view of the heretofore erroneous assignment of the type locality of _Mustela erminea audax_ to Greenland, pains were taken to verify the statement by Barrett-Hamilton (1904:393) relative to the type specimen of _polaris_. Taking pains thus seemed the more worthwhile because in the specimen register at the British Museum of Natural History, there is written to the right of catalogue numbers 78-6 = 19 nos. 1-11, "Discovery Bay Presented by Mr. Hart Arctic Collection." This refers to no. 78.6.19.1. There are no ditto marks below but by implication this data applies also to nos. 1-11, which include the holotype of _polaris_. A label attached to the specimen does however give the locality as "Hall Land" "N Greenland" and another label has on it "Ermine, procured by Mr. Beaumont Greenland Lat 89° Long W 59-20." The 89° is obviously a mistake (on the label or in my transcription of it) for 82°.

Reference to Nares (1877:385) reveals that Lieutenant Lewis A. Beaumont, under date of June 15 and 16, 1876, wrote in his field journal as follows: "I shot an ermine." In the daily accounts of his journey from Discovery Bay on Grinnell Land [= Ellesmere Island], across Robeson Channel and along the north coast of Greenland to the west base of Mount Farragut near 50° 30´ W he mentions the ermine only this once. For several other kinds of animals, Beaumont mentions individuals seen or shot, often with the notation that this is the second, or third seen. This mention of a kind of animal whenever seen was in accordance with orders. On page 39 of the Discovery Report (_op. cit._, 1877) in "General orders to sledging parties" by Captain G. S. Nares, Commanding the Expedition, we find ". . . note daily: IV State the animals seen and those shot." Reference to the map facing page 358 of the (_op. cit._) report reveals that on the 15th and 16th, camps were made by Beaumont in Gap Valley, each 7-3/4 miles northeast of Cape Brevoort, one camp on either side of the 82° line, and separated from each other by a distance of only 2-1/4 air line miles or 4-1/2 miles march according to his journal.

These several data, then, are the bases for designating the type locality of _M. e. polaris_, in the way that I have stated it at the beginning of this account of the subspecies.

The light-colored upper parts and more intensely yellow underparts well differentiate this subspecies from _arctica_ or _semplei_. Intergradation is suggested by a skin, no. 1462, Copenhagen Zoological Museum, from Axel Heibergs Land, the color of the underparts of which agrees with that of specimens from Greenland. Also the color of the upper parts is decidedly nearer that of animals from Greenland than to that of specimens from Ponds Inlet, Tulican and Gifford River. No other specimens west or south of Greenland suggest intergradation. In Greenland itself, one adult, a female from Turner Sund, East Greenland, has the underparts no more yellowish than in some specimens from Melville Peninsula. This female is darker on the back than any one of the other 10 specimens from Greenland in summer pelage examined at the same time, but even so is not so dark colored as animals from Baffin Island or other islands to the west of Greenland.

The final summation of information about this subspecies would have been more precise if I had been able to have actually in hand, at the time of writing, specimens preserved in the Copenhagen Zoological Museum. The war made it impractical to secure the loan of these as previously planned. Even so, the measurements and notes on color that I obtained from this material, in 1937, in Copenhagen, suffice to prove that the subspecies _polaris_ is well set off in color from the other American subspecies of _Mustela erminea_.

The best material of this subspecies is in the University Zoological Museum at Copenhagen, Denmark.

_Specimens examined._--Total number, 35, arranged by locality from the western end of the north coast of Greenland, eastward and then southward down the east coast. Unless otherwise indicated, specimens are in the Universitetets Zoologisk Museum, Købnhavn, Danmark.

Gap Valley, 7-1/4 mi. NE Cape Brevoort, 82 N, 59 20´ W, 1 (British Mus.); Dragon Point, 1; Danmarks Havn (Fjeldene ved Baadskjeret, 1; lille Fjeld, 1; Lyservig, 1; harefjeldets, 4; Rypefjeldet, 1; Baadskjeret, 1; Danmarkshavn, 3) 12; Christians Havn, 1 (not found on map); Shannon Island, 4; Germania Havn, 2; Claveringoen, 1; Carls Havn, 1; Myggbukta, 2 (British Mus.); Ymer[s] Island, 2 (Mus. Comp. Zool.); Kap Hoegh, Jamesonsland, 1 (Berlin Zool. Mus.); Scoresby Sund, 3; Turner Sund, 4.

=Mustela erminea semplei= Sutton and Hamilton

Ermine

Plates 2, 3, 4, 9, 10 and 11

_Mustela arctica semplei_ Sutton and Hamilton, Ann. Carnegie Mus., 21:79, February 13, 1932.

_Mustela arctica labiata_ Degerbøl, Rept. 5th Thule Exped., 2 (no. 4):25, 1935, type from Malugsitaq, Melville Peninsula, Canada.

_Mustela erminea semplei_, Hall, Journ. Mamm., 26:179, July 19, 1945.

_Type._--Male, subadult, skull and skin; no. 6470, Carnegie Mus.; Coral Inlet, South Bay, Southampton Island, Canada; October 8, 1929; obtained by George Miksch Sutton, original no. 3M.

The skull has two holes in it: one is immediately above the left canine, and the other (2 × 5.5 mm.) is 3 millimeters to the left of the median line at the juncture of the frontal and parietal bones. From this last mentioned hole a fracture extends back halfway to the lambdoidal crest. The tip of the left upper canine is broken off. Otherwise the skull is complete, and the teeth all are present and entire. The skin is well made and in fresh white winter pelage except for a trace of the old brown summer pelage on the back, on the tail, on the anterior borders of the ears, and in a spot 11 mm. long and 8 mm. wide on the nose.

_Range._--Baffin and Southampton islands, Melville Peninsula and west side of Hudsons Bay as far south as Eskimo Point. See figure 25 on page 95.

_Characters for ready recognition._--Differs from _M. e. arctica_, in that, in males, hind foot less than 44 and basilar length less than 41 and in that females average smaller, their skulls being only about 10 per cent lighter; from _M. e. polaris_ in darker upper parts (Raw Umber rather than Buckthorn Brown) and less-intensely-colored underparts that are Sulphur Yellow, Colonial Buff or Primrose Yellow rather than Buff Yellow, and in lesser size in the same fashion as from _arctica_; from _M. e. richardsonii_, of both sexes, in that proximal two-thirds of under side of tail colored same as underparts rather than same as upper parts and by least interorbital breadth amounting to more, instead of less, than distance between glenoid fossa and posterior border of external auditory meatus.

_Description._--_Size._--Male: Ten adults and subadults, from Southampton Island, yield average and extreme measurements as follows: Total length, 282 (267-318); length of tail, 77 (59-87); length of hind foot, 40 (38-43).

Female: Four subadults from Southampton Island yield average and extreme measurements as follows: Total length, 271 (256-288); length of tail, 71 (69-74); length of hind foot, 35 (33-38).

_Color._--As described in _M. e. arctica_ except that least width of color of underparts averaging, in 7 males, 59 (45-81) per cent of greatest width of color of upper parts. Black tip of tail in 19 male topotypes averaging 72 (64-83) mm. which is 91 (75-122) per cent of length of tail-vertebrae.

_Skull._--Male (based on 2 adults and 10 subadults from Southampton Island): See measurements and plates 2-4. As described in _Mustela erminea richardsonii_ except that: Weight, 2.0 (in one subadult) grams; basilar length, 37.5 (35.7-39.9); length of tooth-rows more than length of tympanic bulla; breadth of rostrum more than a third of basilar length; interorbital breadth more than distance between glenoid fossa and posterior border of external auditory meatus; zygomatic breadth more than distance between last upper molar and jugular foramen.

Female (based on 1 adult and 4 subadults from Southampton Island): See measurements and plates 9-11. As described in _Mustela erminea richardsonii_ except that: Weight, 1.35 (in one adult) grams; basilar length, 34.2; breadth of rostrum more than 30 per cent of basilar length; interorbital breadth more than distance between glenoid fossa and posterior border of external auditory meatus; zygomatic breadth more or less than (approximately same as) distance between last upper molar and jugular foramen.

In comparison with _richardsonii_, the skulls of males averaged smaller in every measurement taken except breadth of rostrum and interorbital breadth which are more, and zygomatic breadth and length of inner lobe of M1 which are approximately the same; skull about 20 per cent lighter; in relation to basilar length, preorbital region longer and broader in every part measured. Female averages larger, in every part measured; 23 per cent heavier; in relation to basilar length, every other measurement more. It is noteworthy that the skull of the male is smaller and the skull of the female larger than in _richardsonii_.

Differences from _arctica_ are: Size less, in each sex; males about 40 per cent and females 10 per cent lighter; in males, skull more rounded in outline as viewed from above because zygomatic arches arise less abruptly from skull; in males tympanic bullae do not project so far ventrally from squamosal floor of braincase; with these exceptions, skull of _semplei_ can be said to be a smaller edition of that of _arctica_.

From _polaris_, _semplei_ differs, cranially, in the same way as from _arctica_.

_Remarks._--There is a slight increase in size of ermines toward the north which probably is the result of intergradation between _semplei_ and _arctica_. Specimens from the northern part of Baffin Island are larger than those from farther south. Specimens from the mainland west of Southampton Island may owe their smaller (than in _arctica_) size to intergradation with _richardsonii_ almost as much as to intergradation with _semplei_.

Degerbøl's name _Mustela arctica labiata_ was applied to specimens, which to me are indistinguishable from topotypes of _Mustela arctica semplei_, which latter name has three years priority. Degerbøl (1935:34) states that Malugsitaq, Melville Peninsula, is the type locality. He did not designate a type specimen. Reference to his account (_op. cit._:26) shows that he lists five specimens from the type locality, or more precisely as "Malugsitaq, Lyon Inlet. 5 summer skins. [M] [M] June-July 1922. P. F., CN. 2262-2266." On labels attached to these specimens, "Lyon Inlet" is replaced with "Melville Peninsula." On July 28, 1937, Degerbøl and I together examined these specimens in his laboratory. Because no. 2262 is first mentioned I regard it as the type. It is a juvenal male, skull and skin, no. 2262 (20.5 1931.8), Univ. Zool. Mus. Copenhagen, obtained in June or July of 1922 by Peter Freuchen whose original number was / s 2324. The specimen is one of 5 males taken at the same locality by the same collector and they bear identical data as to date. They look to be of the same litter for all are roughly of the same size and each retains milk teeth.

Additional females, with external measurements carefully taken, are much needed from Southampton Island, because the available females are insufficient to show the degree of sexual dimorphism. If the meager data available be accepted, the difference in size between the two sexes is less than in other subspecies. My own feeling is that a better sample of females would show the secondary sexual difference in size to be more than available data indicate.

_Specimens examined._--Total number, 183, arranged from north to south by islands, or regions attached to the mainland, and from north to south in each region or island. Unless otherwise indicated, specimens are in the Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

=Baffin Island.= Pond[s] Inlet, 8; (5[77]); Tulukan (sometimes spelled Tulukat), 6; Cape Eglinton, 1[7]; Gifford River, 2; Clyde, 3[86]; head of Cumberland Sound, 1[91]; Pangnirtung, 2[77]; Kingnait Fiord, 1[91]; Kikkulin Island, Cumberland Sound, 1[7]; Blacklead Island, Cumberland Gulf, 1; merely Cumberland Gulf, 1[7]; merely east Baffin Island, 34[7]; Cape Dorset, 2[2]; SW coast of Baffin Island, 1[75].

=Melville Peninsula.= Iglulik, 3; Pingerqalik, 2; Kingadjuaq, Amitsog, 3; Rae Isthmus, 3; Lyons Inlet, 13(9[2]); M[N?] alugsitaq, Lyon Inlet, 5; Itibdjeriang, 2; Repulse Bay, 27 (22[2], 2[19]); Drichetts Cove, Hurd Channel, 1[2]; Gore Bay, 1; Haviland Bay, 1; Cleveland Harbor, Frozen Strait, 1.

=Southampton Island and adjacent islands.= Danish Island, 11; Vansittart Island, 4. Southampton Island: Coral Inlet, 19 (1[77], 18[9]); Prairie Point, 1[9]; Munnimunnek Point, South Bay, 5[9]; Native Point, 1[9]; Ranger Rim, 1[9]; Koodloatok (not found on map), 1[77]; merely Southampton Island, 1[77]; Gore Bay, 1[2]; Fox Channel, 2[2].

=Mainland to west of Southampton Island.= Cape Fullerton, 3 (1[77], 2[2]); Chesterfield Inlet, 4 (1[77], 1[9]); Tavane, 1[77]; N of Wagner Inlet, 1; Eskimo Point, 1[86].

=Mustela erminea kadiacensis= (Merriam)

Ermine

Plates 2, 3, 4, 9, 10 and 11

[_Putorius arcticus_] subspecies _kadiacensis_ Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna, 11:16, June 30, 1896.

_Putorius kadiacensis_, Preble, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 12:169, August 10, 1898.

_Mustela kadiacensis_, Miller, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull., 79:97, December 31, 1912.

_Mustela erminea kadiacensis_, Hall, Journ. Mamm., 26:179, July 19, 1945.

_Type._--Male, subadult, skull and skin; no. 65290, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biol. Surv. Coll.; Kodiak Island, Alaska; April 25, 1894; obtained by B. J. Bretherton, original no. 304.

The skull lacks the basioccipital, part of the basiphenoid, the occipital region on the right side and the posterior part of the right tympanic bulla. The third, upper, left incisor is missing. Otherwise the teeth all are present and entire.

The white, winter skin is only moderately well stuffed but in a good state of preservation. The spring coat is appearing along the back. This coat is visible at only two places unless the hair be parted when the new brown pelage, which is coming in, can be seen all along the midline of the back.

_Range._--Kodiak Island, Alaska. See figure 25 on page 95.

_Characters for ready recognition._--Differs from _M. e. arctica_ in hind foot less than 33 in females and in zygomatic breadth amounting to less, instead of more, than distance between last upper molar and jugular foramen irrespective of sex.

_Description._--_Size._--Male: One adult and 3 subadults yield average and extreme measurements as follows: Total length, 341 (318-360); length of tail, 93 (86-102); length of hind foot, 47 (44-49).

Female: An adult measures: Total length, 258; length of tail, 70; length of hind foot, 31.

_Color._--As described in _M. e. arctica_, except that least width of color of underparts averaging 54 (40-83) per cent of greatest width of color of upper parts. Black tip of tail in 3 males in summer pelage averaging 80 (70-90) mm. which is 85 (69-96) per cent of length of tail-vertebrae.

_Skull._--Male (based on 2 adults): See measurements and plates 2-4. As described in _Mustela erminea richardsonii_ except that: Weight 3.1 grams; basilar length, 42.6 (42.1-43.2); length of tooth-rows more than length of tympanic bulla; breadth of rostrum measured across lacrimal processes averaging more than a third of basilar length; interorbital breadth more than distance between glenoid fossa and posterior border of external auditory meatus.

Female (based on one adult, no. 98042): See measurements and plates 9-11. As described in _Mustela erminea richardsonii_ except that: Weight, 1.2 grams; basilar length, 33.0; length of tooth-rows more than length of tympanic bulla.

Comparison with _arctica_ has been made in the account of that subspecies. Although _richardsonii_ and _kadiacensis_ are described as having the zygomatic breadth less than the distance between the last upper molar and jugular foramen, the zygomatic breadth is considerably more in _kadiacensis_ than in _richardsonii_; consequently the two dimensions are more nearly equal than in _richardsonii_. Except for being slightly narrower, the skull of _kadiacensis_ is only a slightly smaller edition of that of _arctica_.

_Remarks._--When naming the weasel from the mainland of Alaska as new, under the name _Putorius arcticus_, Merriam (1896:16) wrote: "A small form of _arcticus_ occurs on Kadiak Island. . . . It is probably worthy of recognition as subspecies _kadiacensis_." The informality of this description possibly was in part due to the describer's recognition of the fact that the degree of difference between _arcticus_ and the insular _kadiacensis_ was slight. Specimens collected after Merriam proposed the name for the weasel of Kodiak Island show the animal there to be less different from _arctica_ of the adjacent mainland than he thought; small size is the most pronounced distinction of _kadiacensis_ and Merriam's male type specimen is smaller than any of the five additional males saved from Kodiak Island since that time. Even so the differences fully warrant subspecific recognition, in my opinion, although _kadiacensis_ is not a strongly differentiated race. More adult females are needed to ascertain the norm of form and size for that sex. If the one female known is typical, the difference from _arctica_ is more pronounced in females than in males. The lesser size of _kadiacensis_ can hardly be credited entirely to the effect of insularity, for animals from the southern part of the mainland, on Kenai Peninsula for example, are smaller than those from central and northern Alaska and provide evidence of intergradation of a sort between _kadiacensis_ and _arctica_.

_Specimens examined._--Total number, 9, all from Kodiak Island, Alaska, and unless otherwise indicated in the U. S. National Museum.

Karluk, 1 (Stanford Univ.); Kodiak, 7; Kodiak Island, 1 (Field Mus. Nat. Hist.).

=Mustela erminea richardsonii= Bonaparte

Ermine

Plates 2, 3, 4, 9, 10 and 11

_Mustela richardsonii_ Bonaparte, Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist., 2:38, 1838.

_Putorius cicognanii_, Baird, Mamm. N. Amer., p. 161, 1858 (part).

_Putorius richardsonii_, Baird, Mamm. N. Amer., p. 164, 1858 (part-Halifax, N. S.).

_Putorius_ (_Gale_) _erminea_, Coues, Fur-bearing animals, p. 109, 1877 (part).

_Putorius richardsoni_, Bangs, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 10:16, February 25, 1896.

_Putorius cicognani richardsoni_, Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna, 11:11, June 30, 1896.

_Putorius (Arctogale) cicognanii cicognanii_, Bangs, Proc. New England Zoöl. Club, 1:18, February 28, 1899.

_Putorius microtis_ Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 19:563, October 10, 1903. Type from Shesley, British Columbia.

_Putorius arcticus imperii_ Barrett-Hamilton, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 13(ser. 7):392, May, 1904. Type from Fort Simpson, Mackenzie, Canada.

_Putorius cicognanii richardsoni_, Preble, N. Amer. Fauna, 27:231, October 26, 1908.

_Mustela microtis_, Miller, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull., 79:96, December 31, 1912.

_Mustela cicognanii mortigena_ Bangs, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zoöl., 54:511, July, 1913. Type from Bay St. George, Newfoundland.

_Mustela cicognanii_, Sheldon, Journ. Mamm., 13:201, August 9, 1932.

_Mustela cicognanii richardsonii_, Miller, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull., 79:95, December 31, 1912; Hall, Univ. California Publ. Zoöl., 40:368, November 5, 1934.

_Mustela cicognanii cicognanii_, Hall, Canadian Field-Nat., 52:108, October, 1938.

_Mustela erminea richardsonii_, Hall, Journ. Mamm., 26:77, February 27, 1945; Hall, Journ. Mamm., 26:180, July 19, 1945.

_Type._--Male, age unknown, skin; no. 43.3.3.4, British Museum of Natural History; probably from Fort Franklin, Canada; presented to British Museum on or before March 3, 1843; may be the type.

In September, 1937, when I searched in the British Museum for the skull, I found no trace of it nor mention of it in catalogues. The skin is in white, winter pelage, mounted on a pedestal. See under remarks for _Mustela e. cicognanii_ for reasons for and reasons against regarding this specimen as the holotype.

_Range._--Hudsonian and Canadian life-zones of the greater part of Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific. See figure 25 on page 95.

_Characters for ready recognition._--Differs from _M. e. arctica_, _polaris_, _semplei_ and _haidarum_, in both sexes, by proximal two-thirds of under side of tail colored same as upper parts rather than same as underparts, and interorbital breadth less, rather than not less, than distance between glenoid fossa and posterior border of external auditory meatus; from _M. e. bangsi_, in that, in both sexes, least width of color of underparts averages two-fifths rather than about a third of greatest width of color of upper parts, and in that skulls of males are a fourth heavier, basilar length averaging more than 40; from _M. e. cicognanii_, in both sexes, in that least width of color of underparts averages two-fifths instead of less than a third of greatest width of color of upper parts, in females by 20 per cent heavier skull (1.1 versus 0.92), in males by skull more, rather than less, than 1.9 grams, and basilar length more, instead of less, than 38; from _M. e. invicta_, in males, by skull more, instead of less, than 1.9 grams; mastoid breadth more, instead of less, than 19.9 mm.; depth of skull at anterior margin of braincase more, instead of less, than 12.4 mm.; in females, by same measurement of depth more, instead of less, than 10.1, and weight of skull averaging more, instead of less, than one gram; from _M. e. fallenda_ in both sexes upper lips white rather than brown, in males, hind foot more than 41, basilar length more than 38.3, in females hind foot more than 29, basilar length more than 31.4, and breadth of rostrum amounting to less, instead of more, than 30 per cent of basilar length; from _M. e. alascensis_ in males in that black tip of tail more than 43, total length more than 320, tympanic bullae more than 14 and longer than tooth-row rather than less than 14 mm. and sometimes shorter than tooth-row, females not individually distinguishable.

_Description._--_Size._--Male: Four adults (Fort Franklin, Fort Simpson, Mts. W Fort Nelson, and Govt. Hay Camp, Wood Buffalo Park) yield average and respective measurements as follows: Total length, 331 average (340, 325, 330, 328); length of tail, 93 (102, 91, 93, 87); length of hind foot, 45 (48, 43, 45, 44). Weight of 4 adults from the Belcher Islands is 175 (135-180) grams. Of 10 subadults from Belcher Islands it is 119 (92-137) grams.