Part 47

=Colombia=: Páramo de Tama, 1[60]; Cincinnati, 3[9]; Valdiva, 3800 ft., 1; Medellín, 2; 7200 ft., Barro Blanco, 1[2]; Santa Elena, 9000 ft., 1[2]; Santa Elena, 1[2]; Sonson, 2 (1[91], 1[2]); Mt. Auyan-tepui, 1[2]; Pueblo Rico, 5200 ft., 1[91]; Mira Flores, 1[2]; Jerico, near Cauca River, 1; Tornel, 20 mi. NE Quitichao, 1; Mt. Duida, 1[2]; El Tambo, Cauca, 1[78]; El Baldro, 1[2]; Río Japata, 2[2]; Río Zapata, 4500 ft., 1; Río Oscuro, 3300 ft., 1; Río Barrotow, 3300 ft., 1; Guasca, 1[75]; no locality more definite than Colombia, 1.

=Mustela frenata affinis= Gray

Long-tailed Weasel

Plate 30

_Mustela affinis_ Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 14(ser. 4):375, 1874.

_Putorius (Gale) brasiliensis frenatus_, Coues, Fur-bearing animals, p. 142, 1877 (part).

_Putorius affinis_, Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna, 11:31, June 30, 1896.

_Mustela affinis affinis_, Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 35:100, April 28, 1916; Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 35:220, May 31, 1916.

_Mustela frenata affinis_, Hall, Carnegie Instit. Washington Publ. 473:110, November 20, 1936; Hall, Physis, 16:175, 1939.

_Type._--Male, adult, skull with skin; no. 54.1.11.3 (skull originally numbered 195d, later 54.6.3.4), Brit. Mus. Nat. Hist.; Colombia [given as new Granada in original description]; purchased from Mr. S. Stevens. Type locality restricted by Allen (1916:99) to Bogotá, Colombia.

The skin is in a good state of preservation and has been made over into a conventional study specimen from a mount on exhibition. Exposure to light when mounted probably accounts for the faded color. The skull (plate 30) lacks the middle 9 mm. of the right zygomatic arch, occiput, basioccipital and posterior two-thirds of the left tympanic bulla. The teeth all are present and entire.

_Range._--Four thousand six hundred feet (Quetame) to 9154 feet (El Carmen), Tropical to Temperate life-zones of eastern Andes of Colombia. See figure 29 on page 221.

_Characters for ready recognition._--Differs from _Mustela africana stolzmanni_ by absence of median, longitudinal, abdominal stripe of same color as upper parts, by presence of p2 and by two roots rather than one root on P2; from _M. frenata meridana_, in case of males, by, on average, greater breadth and length of skull and lesser actual and relative size (see measurements) of facial part of skull; from _M. f. aureoventris_ by lighter-colored upper parts (tone 2 rather than tone 4, pl. 344, Reddish Black of Oberthür and Dauthenay); from _M. f. macrura_ by darker color (Reddish Black, tone 2, pl. 344, Ober. and Dauth., rather than Chocolate, tone 3, pl. 343, Ober. and Dauth.).

_Description._--_Size._--Male: Measurements in life, estimated from dried skins, are: Total length, 455; length of tail, 175; length of hind foot, 52. Proportions of parts supposedly as described in _Mustela frenata meridana_.

Female: Estimates from two dried skins: Total length, 365; length of tail, 135; length of hind foot, 43. Proportions of parts supposedly as described in _Mustela frenata meridana_.

The estimated differences in external measurements of the two sexes are: Total length, 90; length of tail, 40; length of hind foot, 9.

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

_Color._--As described in _Mustela frenata panamensis_ except that: posterior fourth of each upper lip and spot in front of each ear white in approximately half of the specimens; black of head proper not extending back of ears and grading insensibly into color of upper parts; upper parts near (_n_) Bay, or tone 2 of Reddish Black (pl. 344, Oberthür and Dauthenay). Least width of color of underparts (in five males from vicinity of Bogotá) 24 (15-29) per cent of greatest width of color of upper parts. Black tip of tail, in same series, 60 to 75 mm. long, thus longer than hind foot and averaging 38 per cent as long as tail-vertebrae.

_Skull and teeth._--Male (based on three adults and two subadult topotypes): See measurements and plate 30. As described in _Mustela frenata meridana_ except that: Weight, 4.5 grams (estimated); basilar length 45.8±; interorbital breadth not greater than distance between foramen opticum and anterior margin of tympanic bulla (type as in _meridana_ where interorbital breadth is more than distance between foramen opticum and anterior margin of tympanic bulla); least width of palate not less than length of P4; masseteric fossa confined to posterior two-fifths (38 to 40 per cent; average 39 per cent) of mandible and not extended anteriorly to middle of m2.

Female: No adults examined.

As compared with _M. f. meridana_ the skull of the male is larger, to the average amount of 2.2 mm. in basilar length and 1.2 mm. in zygomatic breadth of adults; length of tooth-rows and mastoid breadth average greater but relatively less; breadth of rostrum, interorbital breadth and orbitonasal length average actually and relatively less. Thus the skull of _affinis_ is longer and broader, but the facial region is actually, as well as relatively, smaller. As compared with the skull of the male of _M. f. aureoventris_, that of _M. f. affinis_ is about the same in basilar length. However, in no specimen of _affinis_ are the measurements of length of tooth-rows or breadth of rostrum, actually, or relatively, as great as in _aureoventris_. The same is true of all measurements taken of M1, P4 and m1. The specimens from the vicinity of Quito and north of there, although referred to _macrura_, are nearly as dark as typical _affinis_, approach _affinis_ in cranial characters, and indicate intergradation of _affinis_ with _macrura_.

_Remarks._--_Mustela affinis_ was named by John Edward Gray in 1874 (p. 375) on the basis of a specimen from New Granada. Although usually synonymized with _Mustela brasiliensis_ by later authors until 1896 when Merriam (1896:31) applied the name to weasels from Costa Rica, nearly all the South American and several of the Central American weasels have, at one time or another, had Gray's name, _affinis_, applied to them. Gray, in 1865 (p. 115) when giving measurements of _Mustela aureoventris_, probably mentioned the specimen, that later became the holotype. In 1916 (p. 98) Allen restricted the type locality to Bogotá, Colombia. Allen's action was a necessary procedure in clearing up the systematics of South American weasels and was based on good grounds. As set forth by Allen (_loc. cit._), and more in detail by Chapman (1917:642), Bogotá has long been the shipping point for Colombian vertebrate specimens, many of which were obtained in the mountains to the east. Allen (1916A:220) quotes Thomas as saying that the type specimen was purchased from Stevens at about the same time that a number of Colombian birds were purchased from the same dealer. Also, specimens from Bogotá agree with Gray's description of the type specimen.

_Mustela frenata affinis_, as here defined, constitutes one of the several slight geographic variants met with, on the sides of, and between, the three north and south mountain chains of Colombia. The others are lumped under the name _Mustela frenata meridana_. _M. f. affinis_, in common with specimens from the northern part of the range of _macrura_ has large teeth. Weasels of all of the region from Quito to Bogotá have large teeth. To the north there is the smaller-toothed _meridana_ and to the south the smaller-toothed _macrura_ grading into the still smaller-toothed _agilis_, and _boliviensis_.

Two skins, without corresponding skulls, from Caqueta are lighter colored than any others of _affinis_; possibly the skins are faded by exposure to light. Since they probably come from an elevation of less than 1000 feet in the Amazonian region, they may pertain to another subspecies.

Complete, unbroken, skulls of _affinis_ are needed to ascertain the degree to which _affinis_ and _meridana_ differ in cranial features. The several specimens from the immediate region of Bogotá show well the color and the color pattern but lack collectors' measurements.

None of the ten skulls examined shows malformation of the frontal region due to infestation of the frontal sinuses by parasites. Possibly three of the four adults were infested, although not severely.

_Specimens examined._--Total number, 27, arranged by localities from north to south and unless otherwise indicated in the United States National Museum.

=Colombia=: El Carmen, 1[2]; W. Cundinamarca, 1[7]; Muzzo [= Muzo?], 1[4]; Bogotá, 1; Castillo, near Bogotá, 1[7]; Fambrias, near Bogotá, 1[75]; Bogotá district, 1[2]; Choachí, 9 (1[75], 2[7], 1[84]); Páramo de Choachí, 2 (1[2], 1[84]); Laguna del Verjón (= City of Bogotá), 1[75]; Quetame, 2[2]; Fusagasuga, 1; Caqueta, 2[2]; no locality more definite than Colombia, 3 (1[7]).

=Mustela frenata aureoventris= Gray

Long-tailed Weasel

Plates 27, 28 and 29

_Mustela aureoventris_ Gray, Proc. Zoöl. Soc. London, 1864:55, pl. 8, 1864; Gray, Proc. Zoöl. Soc. London, 1865:115, 1865.

_Putorius (Gale) brasiliensis_ var. _aequatorialis_ Coues, Fur-bearing animals, p. 142, 1877, part? ("merely as a substitute for Gray's [supposedly] preoccupied name," that is, _aureoventris_).

_Mustela affinis costaricensis_, Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 35:101, April 28, 1916 (part).

_Mustela macrura_, Lönnberg, Arkiv för Zool., 14 (no. 4):11, 1921 (part ?).

_Mustela frenata aureoventris_, Hall, Carnegie Instit. Washington Publ. 473:110, November 20, 1936; Hall, Physis, 16:175, 1939.

_Type._--Probably female, juvenile, skull with skin, no. 64.6.6.3 (formerly 1432a), British Mus. Nat. Hist.; probably Subtropical Life-zone of western Ecuador (locality given as Quito, probably because received from that place).

The skin, once exhibited as a mount, has lost some hair from the back and other parts of the body and is not suitable for remaking into a conventional study specimen. The skull lacks the occiput, basioccipital, premaxillae, upper incisors, two of the lower incisors, all of the canines, premolars 2/2 on both sides, right P3, left p3, and has the left jugal mesially defective. The premolars present are not all fully emerged.

_Range._--Pacific coastal regions of Ecuador and Colombia; Subtropical and Tropical life-zones. See figure 29 on page 221.

_Characters for ready recognition._--Differs from _Mustela africana stolzmanni_ by absence of median, longitudinal, abdominal stripe of same color as upper parts, by presence of p2 and by two rather than one root on P2; from _Mustela frenata macrura_ by Reddish Black, tone 4, plate 344 rather than Chocolate, tone 3, pl. 343 (of Oberthür and Dauthenay), or slightly darker color of upper parts; from _M. f. affinis_ and _M. f. meridana_ by darker color (tone 4 rather than tone 2, Reddish Black of Ober. and Dauth.) of upper parts and larger size of teeth (M1 with length more than 2.4 and breadth more than 4.7; P4 with outside length more than 5.9; length of m1 more than 6.2).

_Description._--Unless otherwise stated, information concerning this subspecies is derived from the one referred specimen available, a young male, no. 34677, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.

_Size._--Male: Total length, 470; length of tail, 160; length of hind foot, 50. Tail 51 per cent as long as head and body.

Female: Not known.

_Externals._--Longest facial vibrissae black and reaching beyond ear. Carpal vibrissae reaching to or beyond apical pad of fifth digit; hairiness of foot soles slightly less than shown in figure 20.

_Color._--Sides and top of head and neck posteriorly to shoulders black; white facial markings represented by only five white hairs anterior to right ear, one anterior to left ear and three far back on forehead; dark areas at angles of mouth confluent with color of upper parts; tip of tail black; remainder of upper parts near (_n_) Bay or Reddish Black, tone 4 of Oberthür and Dauthenay, pl. 344; chin whitish; remainder of underparts Warm Buff, deep orange in juvenile, type specimen, according to Gray (1864, pl. 8); color of underparts extending distally on posterior sides of forelegs to wrists but not reaching foot soles and on hind legs to or slightly below knees. Least width of color of underparts equal to 15 per cent of greatest width of color of upper parts. Black tip of tail equal to 27 per cent of length of tail-vertebrae.

In color, no. 34677 is, to me as it was to Allen (1916:101), indistinguishable from the darkest specimens (nos. 178970 and 10112) of _M. f. panamensis_. Therefore, _M. f. aureoventris_ is one of the two darkest subspecies of weasels.

_Skull and teeth._--Male: See measurements and plates 27-29; weight, 4.3 grams; basilar length, 45.8; zygomatic breadth approximately equal to distance between condylar foramen and M1 and to distance between anterior palatine foramen and anterior margin of tympanic bulla; mastoid breadth less than postpalatal length; postorbital breadth more than length of upper premolars and greater than width of basioccipital measured from medial margin of one foramen lacerum posterior to its opposite; interorbital breadth greater than distance between foramen opticum and anterior margin of tympanic bulla; breadth of rostrum less (at least in young specimen) than length of tympanic bulla; least width of palate seldom if ever greater than length of P4; anterior margin of tympanic bulla as far posterior to foramen ovale as width of three (including I3) upper incisors; height of tympanic bulla not greater than distance from its anterior margin to foramen ovale; length of tympanic bulla more than length of lower molar and premolar tooth-row and shorter than orbitonasal length; anterior margin of masseteric fossa below anterior half of m2.

Skulls of males of _M. f. aureoventris_, and _Mustela frenata macrura_ from the vicinity of Quito so closely resemble one another as not to be distinguished with the material now available, although the teeth of _aureoventris_ are larger. Comparisons of the skulls of males with those of _M. f. meridana_ and _affinis_, which are readily distinguishable from those of _aureoventris_, have been made in the accounts of those subspecies.

Female: Skull of adult unknown.

_Remarks._--This subspecies of the Tropical Life-zone, or at least the Subtropical Life-zone, of Ecuador, in certain cranial characters resembles _Mustela frenata macrura_ of the Temperate Life-zone. The two differ markedly in color. Nevertheless, a large number of the specimens collected in Ecuador are intermediate in color as well as in zonal distribution.

The type specimen is young or a juvenile. The measurements of no. 34677 from Gualea indicate an animal similar in size to _M. f. affinis_. Gray (1864:55) states that the type specimen measures "Length of body and head 6 inches, of tail 4-1/2 inches." The plate (pl. 8) accompanying Gray's original description (_loc. cit._) is marked one-half natural size and represents the animal as having a head and body length of eight and one-half inches. One year later Gray (1865:115) gives the measurements of this species as "Length of body and head 12, tail 8 inches." Since he had at this time another specimen, larger than the type specimen (which specimen later, probably, became the type of _Mustela affinis_ Gray), the larger measurements probably were taken from it.

Geographically, and as regards cranial characters, _Mustela frenata aureoventris_ is most closely related to _M. f. affinis_ and to the northern section of _M. f. macrura_, but in color to _M. f. panamensis_. _M. f. aureoventris_ and _M. f. panamensis_ are the two darkest-colored subspecies and each occurs in a region of extremely heavy rainfall. There is a skin only, no. 32620, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., from Munchique, obtained on June 1, 1911, which is appreciably darker than specimens of _M. f. affinis_ in corresponding pelage and is intermediate between _M. f. affinis_ and _M. f. aureoventris_ in color as it is geographically. The specimen measures 495, 202, 52.

The name _Mustela aureoventris_ Gray has been regarded by most authors as preoccupied by _Mustela auriventer_ Hodgson (1841:909). However, the writer is not of this opinion and agrees with Thomas (1920:224) that "The name _aureoventris_ is not invalidated by the _auriventer_ of Hodgson, as, apart from 'one-letterist' differences, its first half comes from the adjective _aureus_, while Hodgson's name is based on the substantive _aurum_, so that not only the spellings but the derivations are different." The spelling of Gray's name should be _aureoventris_ for this is the spelling in the original description which in pagination precedes the colored plate of the animal that is labeled _Mustela aureoventris_. _Putorius brasiliensis_ var. _aequatorialis_ Coues (1877:142) is the only name known to the writer that has been proposed as a substitute for _Mustela aureoventris_ Gray.

Thomas (1920:224) treats _Mustela macrura_ Taczanowski as a synonym of _Mustela aureoventris_ Gray. Allen (1916:101) also treats the two names as applying to the same kind of weasel but regards _aureoventris_ as preoccupied and therefore uses the name _macrura_. Taczanowski's original description (1874:311) and plate of _Mustela macrura_ indicate an animal that is lighter colored than _M. f. affinis_. Gray's original description (1864:55) and plate of _aureoventris_ indicate an animal that is darker colored than _M. f. affinis_. Indeed Gray (1865:115) in speaking of the type of _aureoventris_ as compared with an adult from New Granada [= Colombia] that probably later became the type specimen of _Mustela affinis_, states: "The young from Quito is much darker than the adult;. . . ." Comparison of the plates accompanying the original descriptions of _aureoventris_ and _macrura_ well illustrate the difference stated in the written descriptions. My examination of the type specimens of _M. macrura_ and _M. f. aureoventris_ shows them to have been fairly accurately portrayed in the plates accompanying the original descriptions. Accordingly the two names are used for the two kinds of animals which appear, however, to be only subspecifically distinct.

Comparison of Gray's plate (1864, pl. 8) with the available specimens from South America indicates that the name _aureoventris_ is based on an individual that is lighter colored than no. 34677 Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., from Gualea, Ecuador, but on one which resembles no. 34677 more than it does the lighter-colored specimens from the Temperate Zone of Ecuador and northern Perú. Because Quito, Ecuador, is in the Temperate Life-zone and because the available specimens from this zone in Ecuador and northern Perú are distinctly lighter colored than Gray's plate representing the type of _aureoventris_ shows this specimen to be, it is judged to have come from an altitude lower than that of Quito (9350 feet, according to Chapman, 1926:717); probably it came from the Subtropical Life-zone of Ecuador. Indeed Gray (1864:55) did not say that the specimen was collected or obtained at Quito but that it was ". . . received from Quito. . . ." Chapman (1926:717) has pointed out that Quito, since 1846 has been the distributing point for bird skins which specimens ". . . come from the vicinity of the city, from the 'Napo' region on the Amazonian slopes of the Andes, and from Nanegal, Gualea, and other localities on the Pacific side rarely below the Subtropical Zone." It is also pointed out that only some of the specimens are labeled with their approximate place of capture and that even then these localities cannot be accepted as definite; they indicate mainly whether the specimen is from the eastern or western side of the Andes.

The above mentioned considerations and information gained by study of the specimens cause me to think that the type is an intergrade tending toward the lighter-colored _Mustela f. macrura_ of the Temperate Zone although sufficiently dark to be referred to the dark subspecies represented by no. 34677 Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., from Gualea, Ecuador.

The skull of no. 34677 shows no infestation of the frontal sinuses by parasites.

_Specimens examined._--Total number, 3, as follows:

=Ecuador=: Gualea, 1, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.

=Colombia=: 8325 ft., Munchique, 1, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. In the British Museum of Natural History, the type, (1).

=Mustela frenata helleri= Hall

Long-tailed Weasel

Plates 27, 28 and 29

_Mustela frenata helleri_ Hall, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 48:143, August 22, 1935; Hall, Carnegie Instit. Washington Publ. 473:110, November 20, 1936; Hall, Physis, 16:175, 1939.

_Type._--Male, adult, skull and skin; no. 24133, Field Mus. Nat. Hist.; 3000 feet, Hacienda San Antonio, Río Chinchao, Perú; August 22, 1922. Obtained by Edmund Heller. Original no. 6589.

The skull (plates 27-29) is complete and unbroken. The teeth all are present, entire and but slightly worn. The skin is well made, unfaded, and in good condition.

_Range._--Three thousand feet (type locality) to 6700 feet (Ambo), Tropical and Subtropical life-zones of eastern Perú. See figure 29 on page 221.

_Characters for ready recognition._--Differs from _Mustela africana stolzmanni_ by absence of median, longitudinal, abdominal stripe of same color as upper parts, presence of p2 and two roots rather than one root on P2; from _Mustela frenata macrura_ by darker color (Carbon Brown, tone 3, pl. 342 rather than Chocolate, tone 3, pl. 343, Oberthür and Dauthenay) of upper parts.

_Description._--_Size._--Male: Measurements of the type specimen and topotype, no. 24132, are, respectively, as follows: Total length, 382, 418; length of tail, 152, 164; length of hind foot, 52, 48. Tail 66 and 65 per cent as long as head and body. Hind foot more than basal length.

Female: Measurements of two referred females, no. 24134 from Ambo and no. 24136 from Huanuco, are, respectively, as follows: Total length, 328 and 303; length of tail, 118 and 103; length of hind foot, 39 and 38.5. Tail 56 and 51 per cent as long as head and body. Hind foot shorter than basal length.

The average differences in external measurements of the two sexes are: Total length, 85; length of tail, 49; length of hind foot, 11.

_Externals._--Longest facial vibrissae black and extending beyond ear; carpal vibrissae same color as upper parts and extending to apical pad of fifth digit; hairiness of foot-soles as shown in figure 20.