Part 42

An adult male, taken on July 15 at Miquihuana, Tamaulipas, is unique in several respects. The top of its head is black, rather than blackish, and this color extends posteriorly on the top and sides of the neck almost halfway to the shoulders. All of the upper parts are much more darkly colored than in other specimens of this race. The least width of the color of the underparts is 63 per cent of the greatest width of the color of the upper parts; thus the color of the underparts is considerably more extensive than in any other specimen seen. The underparts are more intensely colored than in the average specimen. The mastoidal breadth is greater than in any other adult male and amounts to more than the postpalatal length. On available maps the elevation of Miquihuana is given as 1892 meters (about 6200 feet). Thus the dark colors can hardly be ascribed to more tropical conditions than those under which animals from Brownsville, Texas, live. Brownsville is only a few feet above sea level and only 235 miles farther north. The difference noted, therefore, seems to be of geographic significance. However, there is from Alvarez, San Luis Potosí, approximately 115 miles south of Miquihuana, a young (nearly subadult) female, no. 21968, which is as light colored as specimens from Brownsville, Texas, or Tlalpam, México. The only distinctive feature of this specimen is the much greater extent of its white facial markings; they are more extensive even than in the specimen from Miquihuana.

Finally, the series from Brownsville, Texas, indicates that the animal there is smaller than _frenata_ from the vicinity of México (city). The skull is similarly proportioned except that relative to the basilar length the orbitonasal length is more. Several other measurements of the skull of the adult male from Tlalpam, as pointed out above, are actually, although not relatively, greater than in any specimen from Brownsville. The similarities between specimens from the two localities, Tlalpam and Brownsville, are striking; since the two localities lie at opposite, extreme ends of the range more geographic variation would be expected. All that is known of the characters of populations from intermediate localities is that the one specimen from Alvarez shows no peculiarities whereas the one from Miquihuana suggests the existence there of a geographic variant.

None of the specimens seen shows actual intergradation with _M. f. neomexicana_ or with _M. f. arthuri_ but it is supposed that frenata intergrades with each of these subspecies. The difference between _frenata_ and _arthuri_ is greater than between _frenata_ and _neomexicana_. Bailey (1905:198) records tracks of a weasel seen just below El Paso which he supposed had been made by a weasel of the _neomexicana_ type. He also cited the taking of a weasel at Langtry which suggested to him (_op. cit._) ". . . a continuous range from the country of _frenatus_ up the Rio Grande to the type locality of _neomexicanus_ at Mesilla Valley," New Mexico. Other records of occurrence in Texas cited by Bailey, in addition to those provided by specimens examined by the writer, are San Diego, Beeville, and Port Lavaca. The Port Lavaca record is the easternmost one assigned to the subspecies _frenata_; possibly specimens from there would be referable to _arthuri_.

The series of thirty-four specimens from Brownsville, Texas, permits measuring the amount of individual and age variation in several features. For instance, the material is sufficient to show that external measurements of subadults and those that fall in the upper part of the category designated as "young" may be included with the measurements of adults, because the mentioned measurements are not appreciably greater in adults. The series of skulls, although not providing more than six of any one age, shows the range of variation in size and proportion of certain parts and enables the student the better to evaluate cranial characters of nearby races known from only a few specimens. For example, not one of the twenty skulls of males from Brownsville and immediate vicinity is as large as either of the two specimens of _texensis_ from Kerr County.

The white facial markings vary much in size and shape. In the series of thirty-four skins from Brownsville the broad white bands in front of the ears are confluent with the white patch between the eyes on both sides in three specimens and on one side only in six other specimens. These bands are confluent with the color of the underparts in all but two specimens. In one specimen the connection is lacking on both sides and in the other on one side only. A white patch between the ears is present in two specimens. The dark spot at each angle of the mouth is absent on both sides in eleven specimens and absent on one side only in ten others.

In six other specimens from parts of Texas north of Brownsville, the broad white bands in front of the ears are confluent with the white patch between the eyes on both sides in one specimen. A white spot between the ears is present in one specimen. The dark spot at each angle of the mouth is absent on both sides in six specimens and on one side only in three other specimens.

In eleven specimens from México, the broad white bands in front of the ears are confluent with the white spot between the eyes on both sides in two specimens and on one side only in one other specimen. The white spot between the ears is present in one specimen. The dark spot at each angle of the mouth is absent on both sides, in six specimens, and on one side only in one other specimen.

Thus, in 51 specimens the broad bands (one in front of each ear) are confluent with the white patch between the eyes in nineteen out of 100 instances, and not with the color of the underparts in three instances. A white spot between the ears is present in four specimens. The dark spot at each angle of the mouth is present 47 out of a possible 98 times.

Four juvenal specimens from Brownsville, Texas, with their dates of capture and probable age, are as follows: no. 58574, [F], three weeks old, taken on February 15; no. 17318/24239, [M], four weeks old, taken on March 16; no. 45899, [F], forty days old, taken on May 21; no. 21778/36481, [M], thirty days old, taken on October 20. In the order given, the dates of birth of these four juveniles would be approximately as follows: January 25, February 15, April 1, and September 20. The dates of birth of other specimens less than three months old as judged by the stage of development of the skull, and reckoning backward from the dates of capture, are as follows: April 1, April 30, May 25, October 12, and December 21. Thus, young appear to be brought forth at Brownsville, Texas, in the fall, winter and spring, that is to say from the latter part of September until the latter part of May.

_Mustela frenata frenata_ is either free of the parasites that infest the frontal sinuses of most weasels, or withstands their presence remarkably well, for only one skull shows a definite pathological condition of the frontal sinuses.

Allen (1896:74) quotes H. P. Attwater, with respect to this species in Bexar County, Texas, as follows: "Not common, but occasionally met within the chaparral and cactus lands, where Wood Rats, Rabbits and Quail abound. They were frequently met with around San Antonio during the great 'Tramp Rat' [= _Sigmodon hispidus texianus_, see Bailey (1905:116)] invasion of 1889-90."

_Specimens examined._--Total number, 63, arranged by counties, and in México by states, from north to south. Unless otherwise indicated specimens are in the collection of the United States National Museum.

=Texas.= _Bexar County_: San Antonio, 2 (1[2]). _Goliad County_: Charco, 1. _Nueces County_: Corpus Christi, 1[2]. _San Diego County_ (not found), 1. _Hidalgo County_: La Hacienda, 1. _Duval County_: San Diego, 2[7]. _County_ in question: Lower Rio Grande, 1. _Cameron County_: Brownsville, 34 (3[2], 4[1], 3[93], 2[75], 1[59], 1[60], 1[4]); no locality more definite than county, 2.

=Nuevo León.= Río Ramis, 20 mi. NW Montemorelos, 1[90].

=Tamaulipas.= Matamoros, 6; Miquihuana (now in Nuevo León), 1[75].

=San Luis Potosí.= Alvarez, 1[75].

=México=: Region montagneuse des environs de Toluca, Nevada Toluca, 3200 M., 1[84]

=Distrito Federal.= City of México, 2 (1[4]); Tlalpam, 2. No locality more definite than México, 4 (1[4], 3[7]).

=Mustela frenata leucoparia= (Merriam)

Long-tailed Weasel

Plates 1, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 36, 37 and 38

_Putorius frenatus leucoparia_ Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna, 11:28, June 30, 1896.

_Putorius brasiliensis frenatus_, Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 2:165, October 21, 1889.

_Putorius frenatus frenatus_, Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 22:259, July 25, 1906.

_Mustela frenata leucoparia_, Miller, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull., 79:100, December 31, 1912; Hall, Carnegie Instit. Washington Publ. 473:108, November 20, 1936.

_Type._--Male, adult, skull and skin; no. 34914/47179, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biol. Surv. Coll.; Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, México; July 27, 1892; obtained by E. W. Nelson; original no. 2960.

The skull (plates 29 and 30) lacks most of the braincase; a fragment, consisting of the supraoccipital and the coalesced frontals and parietals remains. The rostrum, left zygomatic arch, palate, left pterygoid, left glenoid fossa and right postorbital process are intact. The teeth all are present and entire. The lower jaw lacks the right coronoid process and the lateral part of the articular condyle. The skin is well made and in good condition. It differs from an adult male topotype (36855, U. S. Nat. Mus.) and other referred specimens in having: the black of the head extended farther posteriorly on the neck, the maximum amount of white on the head, and a white stripe 50 mm. long extending down the middle of the nape from a point between the ears more than half way to the shoulders.

_Range._--Sonoran and Transition life-zones of mountains west of México (city) in Michoacán and Nayarit. See figure 29 on page 221.

_Characters for ready recognition._--Differs from _M. f. goldmani_ in least width of color of underparts more than 47 per cent of greatest width of color of upper parts, hind feet colored like underparts rather than like upper parts; postorbital constriction less than, rather than more than, combined length of upper premolars; from _M. f. macrophonius_ by same details of coloration as from _goldmani_ and by ventrally concave rather than ventrally convex pretympanic part of squamosal; from _M. f. perotae_ by least width of color of underparts more than 40 per cent of greatest width of color up upper parts; height of tympanic bulla more than three-fifths distance from its anterior margin to foramen ovale; from _M. f. frenata_ by white facial markings that cover half of surface of head in front of ears, by extension of black of head onto neck halfway to shoulders and by narrower (less than 7.8) tympanic bullae; from _M. f. neomexicana_ by Argus Brown rather than Buckthorn Brown color of upper parts and distance from anterior margin of tympanic bulla to foramen ovale more, rather than less, than four-fifths of height of tympanic bulla.

_Description._--_Size._--Male: Two adults and one young from Los Reyes and Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, yield average and extreme measurements as follows: Total length, 514 (510-523); length of tail, 206 (196-215); length of hind foot, 55 (52-58). Tail averages 67 per cent as long as head and body. Length of hind foot more than basal length.

Female: One adult from Artenkiki, Jalisco, and one subadult from Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, measure, respectively, as follows: Total length, 412, 400; length of tail, 159, 159; length of hind foot, 41, 42. Tail averages 64 per cent as long as head and body. Length of hind foot equal to or greater than basal length.

The average differences in external measurements of the two sexes are: Total length, 108; length of tail, 47; length of hind foot, 13.

_Mustela frenata leucoparia_ has a greater total length and length of tail than either _M. f. frenata_ or _goldmani_. The hind foot is longer than that of _frenata_ and approximately the same as in _goldmani_. Relative to the body length, the tail averages longer than that of _goldmani_ and shorter than that of _frenata_.

_Externals._--As described in _Mustela frenata frenata_.

_Color._--Broad white bands on sides of head, extending anterodorsally anterior to each ear, confluent with white spot between eyes and with color of underparts; posterior third of each upper lip white; remainder of sides and top of head, and neck posteriorly to point halfway to shoulders from ears, black; no dark spots at angles of mouth; tip of tail black; remainder of upper parts Argus Brown; chin white and sometimes also chest, neck and medial sides of hind legs; remainder of underparts near (16´) Ochraceous-Buff (near (_a_) Ochraceous-Buff in juvenal female), which color extends distally over all of each foreleg (except its lateral face proximally from about middle of forearm) and on medial side of hind leg and over most of upper side of each foot. Least width of color of underparts averaging, in eight specimens, 54 (extremes 44-61) per cent of greatest width of color of upper parts; black tip of tail averaging, in four males, 52 (extremes 38-78) mm. long, thus averaging 25 per cent of length of tail-vertebrae.

As compared with _M. f. frenata_ and _goldmani_: white facial markings more extensive; color of underparts less restricted and more extended on legs; black tip of tail relatively of about same extent as in _frenata_ and thus much less than in _goldmani_; black color of head extending farther posteriorly than in _frenata_ but not so far as in _goldmani_.

_Skull and teeth._--Male (adult): See measurements and plates 24-26, 29, 30. As described in _Mustela frenata frenata_ except that: Weight (no. 128972) 6.3 grams; basilar length, 51.2; interorbital breadth 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 or 5 upper incisors; height of tympanic bulla more or less than (about equal to) distance from its anterior margin to foramen ovale; anterior margin of masseteric fossa anywhere from slightly anterior, to slightly posterior, to m2.

Female (based on no. 26153): See measurements and plates 37-39. As described in _Mustela frenata frenata_ except that: Weight, 3.6 grams; basilar length, 44.5; zygomatic breadth less than distance between condylar foramen and M1, or than between anterior palatine foramen and anterior margin of tympanic bulla; tympanic bulla as far posterior to foramen ovale as width of 4 or 5 upper incisors; height of tympanic bulla not more than distance from its anterior margin to foramen ovale; length of tympanic bulla more than length of lower molar and premolar tooth-row or than length of rostrum.

The skull of the female is 43 per cent lighter than that of the male.

Comparison of the skull with those of _M. f. perotae_, _goldmani_ and _neomexicana_ has been made in the accounts of those subspecies. As compared with that of _frenata_ the main difference is the less inflated tympanic bulla, the height of which is approximately equal to, rather than decidedly more than, distance from its anterior margin to foramen ovale.

_Remarks._--The first specimen known to have been preserved is the alcoholic in the British Museum of Natural History, taken in September, 1891, on the Río Santiago in Jalisco, by D. A. C. Buller. The other known specimens of this white-faced weasel are divided between the American Museum and the United States National Museum. The two referred specimens from Jalisco were the last of several helpful ones collected in México and Central America by J. H. Batty, and these two were taken less than three months before Batty's tragic death in Chiapas (see Allen, J. A., 1906:191). The five specimens from Michoacán were taken by Nelson or Nelson and Goldman together. Merriam had only three of these when he named the subspecies and remarked (1896:29) that "This form is the poorest subspecies described in the present paper." Although the form is not strongly marked, the two additional specimens from Michoacán and better comparative material than Merriam had confirm several of the differential characters ascribed to it by him and indicate the existence of still other characters.

_M. f. leucoparia_ occurs in the Sonoran and Transition life-zones. No. 27258 from Los Masos, and no. 26153 from Artenkiki (see specimens examined for other spellings) approach true _frenata_ in coloration. Each of these specimens has a few white hairs between the ears and the white patch between the eyes is confluent on one side only with the lateral white bands on the side of the head. No. 27258 from Los Masos has a dark spot at each angle of the mouth. The 7 other specimens are relatively uniform in coloration. Each has the white spot between the eyes confluent on both sides with the extensive white areas on each side of the face. None has a dark spot at either angle of the mouth. Of these 7 specimens, the type specimen and three others have white hairs forming a median line between the ears and a fifth specimen has a white spot behind each ear.

_M. f. leucoparia_ is most like _M. f. frenata_. Unlike _frenata_, _leucoparia_ has tympanic bullae that are less inflated, narrower and less projected, at their anterior margins, from the cranium. In these characters _leucoparia_ is intermediate between _M. f. frenata_ and _M. f. goldmani_. The latter subspecies has the least inflated, narrowest and least projecting tympanic bullae of the three. The black color of the head extends, on the average, farther posteriorly than in _M. f. frenata_ but not so far as in _M. f. goldmani_. The general color, too, is intermediate between that of _M. f. frenata_ and that of the much darker _M. f. goldmani_. The white facial markings are more extensive than in either _M. f. frenata_ or _M. f. goldmani_. This applies to both the white area between the eyes and the one on each side of the head between the ear and eye. _M. f. neomexicana_, whose range possibly meets that of _M. f. leucoparia_, also has more extensive white facial markings than _M. f. frenata_ but less extensive markings than _M. f. leucoparia_.

On the basis of skulls alone, specimens of _frenata_ from Tlalpam and those of _leucoparia_ from Los Reyes can hardly be distinguished. This fact, and the circumstance that the specimens from the northern part of the range of _leucoparia_ closely resemble _frenata_ in color, constitute sufficient evidence for regarding the two as only subspecifically distinct. The female, no. 26153 from Artenkiki, as mentioned above, approaches true _frenata_ in coloration. On this account it is not to be regarded as typical and it was because no other skulls of adult females were available that this one was used for comparison with females of allied races.

_M. f. leucoparia_ is, then, a subspecies of the large, temperate-zone group and is unique in possessing the maximum extent of white facial markings.

None of the seven skulls shows signs of having had the frontal sinuses infested with parasites.

_Specimens examined._--Total number, 8, all from México. Localities are listed by states from north to south. Specimens from Michoacán are in the United States National Museum; one from Río Santiago is in the British Museum of Natural History; all others are in the American Museum of Natural History.

=Nayarit.= Tepic, 1.

=Jalisco.= Río Santiago, 1; Los Masos, 1; "Artenkiki" (J. A. Allen, 1906, p. 238, writes "Artenkikil" and, on p. 259, "Artenkiki."), 1.

=Michoacán.= Zamora, 1; Los Reyes, 1; Pátzcuaro, 3.

=Mustela frenata perotae= Hall

Long-tailed Weasel

Plates 36, 37 and 38

_Mustela frenata perotae_ Hall, Carnegie Instit. Washington Publ. 473:100, November 20, 1936.

_Putorius frenatus_, Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna, 11: pl. 3, fig. 2, June 30, 1896.

_Type._--Female, adult, skull and skin; no. 54278, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biol. Surv. Coll.; 12,500 feet, Cofre de Perote, Veracruz, México; May 26, 1893; obtained by E. W. Nelson; original no. 4864.

The skull (plates, 37-39) lacks the right zygomatic arch. Left p2 is missing. The skin is fairly well made and in good condition except that the extreme tip of the tail has been broken off and there are two holes in the right hind leg. The underparts show the beginning of a spring molt.

_Range._--From 7500 (?) feet (Perote) to 13,500 feet (Popocatépetl), Upper Sonoran, Transition and Boreal life-zones of mountains along Puebla-México boundary, eastward to western central Veracruz and south into Oaxaca. See figure 29 on page 221.

_Characters for ready recognition._--Differs from _M. f. frenata_, its nearest relative, in extension from head of blackish onto anterior fourth of neck; restriction of color of underparts (least width of same less than 37 per cent of greatest width of color of upper parts), height of tympanic bulla less than distance from its anterior margin to foramen ovale; from _M. f. macrophonius_ and _M. f. goldmani_ in presence of, rather than absence of, color of underparts on hind feet; upper parts (black) Brussels Brown rather than Argus Brown or darker; from _M. f. tropicalis_ in larger size (adult female with total length more than 400, basilar length more than 40, weight of skull more than 3 grams); postorbital breadth less than combined length of upper premolars; m1 more than 5.4 long; from _M. f. leucoparia_ in white facial markings so restricted that spot between eyes is not confluent with white stripe in front of ear, or, if so, narrowly (less than 4 wide) confluent; color of upper parts extending onto antipalmar face of forefoot, least width of color of underparts not more than 40 per cent of greatest width of color of upper parts; height of tympanic bulla not more than three-fifths distance from its anterior margin to foramen ovale.

_Description._--_Size._--Male: A nontypical specimen from Cerro San Felipe, Oaxaca, measures: Total length, 500; length of tail, 205; length of hind foot, 52.

Female: The type specimen, measures: Total length, 418; length of tail, 160; length of hind foot, 45.

In this male the tail is 70, and in the female, 62 per cent as long as the head and body. In each the hind foot is longer than the basal length.

The differences in external measurements between these two specimens, representing the two sexes, are: Total length, 82; length of tail, 45; length of hind foot, 7.

_Externals._--As described in _Mustela frenata frenata_.

_Color_ (based on type specimen).--Color and color pattern as described in _Mustela frenata frenata_ except that: blackish of sides and top of head extends one-fourth of way back to shoulders from ears; throat and breast as well as chin white; remainder of underparts near (16´ _c_) Ochraceous-Buff; least width of color of underparts equals 36 per cent of greatest width of color of upper parts; black tip of tail equal to 28 per cent of length of tail-vertebrae.