Part 8

Audubon and Bachman in their "Quadrupeds of North America," which appeared in parts from 1845 to 1853, recognized 5 species. Actually they were dealing with only 3 taxonomically valid kinds. For one of these, _Mustela frenata noveboracensis_, they were misled by the difference in size between males and females, and in the males by the presence of a brown coat in some and a white coat in others. The male that was white in winter they regarded as _Putorius ermineus_ of the Old World; the male that was brown in winter they designated by their earlier proposed name _P. fuscus_, and the female they named _P. agilis_. The ermine, subspecies _M. erminea cicognanii_, they called _P. pusillus_. Their fifth name, _P. frenatus_, included at least some animals that today are assigned to the subspecies _M. frenata frenata_. Each of three and perhaps four of the five names employed by Audubon and Bachman embraced individuals of more than one species and in that sense the names were composite.

Only five years later, in 1858, Professor Spencer Fullerton Baird's great work, "The Mammals of North America," made it clear that no American weasel was identical (in the modern subspecific sense) with any Old World weasel, and he applied most of his names in a correct zoölogical sense. It is true that he thought that the female weasel of the eastern United States was specifically different from the male, misapplied to it the name _richardsonii_, and did not correctly allocate every one of the few poor specimens available to him of the little ermine (_M. e. streatori_) of the Pacific Coast; but he did recognize that the least weasel was a distinct kind and his treatment in general was excellent.

After Baird came a period of great confusion in which most writers did no better than had Audubon and Bachman, ordinarily confusing the two sexes as different species, and, in 1877 in his "Fur-bearing Animals," Elliot Coues went rather to the other extreme and allowed only 4 kinds to all of the Americas, regarding two of these, for purposes of zoölogical nomenclature, as identical with the European species.

But, in 1896 Outram Bangs published "A Review of the Weasels of Eastern North America" in which he correctly recognized eight kinds. Although some of these were treated by him as full species, whereas the material accumulated since 1896 has shown that subspecific status is in order, his names, still in use, were correctly applied in every instance, save probably one. This was his use of _Putorius richardsonii_ for the animal now known as _M. e. arctica_. Unlike the earlier, excellent treatment by Baird, this accurate one by Bangs was heeded and followed by subsequent writers. For example, Dr. C. Hart Merriam in the same year, 1896, accepted Bangs' conclusions except for correcting the application of the name _richardsonii_. The principal contributions of Merriam's paper "Synopsis of the Weasels of North America" were first, the wider geographic scope and second, the naming as new of several kinds outside the geographic area studied by Bangs. Otherwise the work was not up to Dr. Merriam's usual standard and the internal evidence of haste in its preparation and the superficial study of some of the material at his disposal explain why the weasels of North America since that time have been but little better understood than in 1896. Baird and Bangs, then, unquestionably did the best systematic work on the American weasels.

In 1916 Dr. Joseph A. Allen published a valuable paper on the South American weasels. The material available to him was inadequate and prevented a thoroughly satisfactory treatment. There are too few specimens even today to permit of a thorough treatment of the South American weasels in the present paper; nevertheless the material today is more nearly adequate than it was in 1916 and it is hoped that the systematic arrangement is correspondingly improved.

Chronological List (annotated) of Specific and Subspecific Names Applied to American Weasels

At least eighty-seven specific and subspecific names have been proposed for American weasels. Of these sixty-nine are now regarded as valid designations of recognizable subspecies. The average is 1.2 names per subspecies. Some names in the following chronological list were a second time applied wholly or in part to some other kind of weasel. In general, mention of the second or any other later application is omitted from the following list but two usages of _agilis_ (1844 and 1853) and of _americana_ (1865) are recorded.

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.

1896. =alascensis= (_Putorius richardsonii_) Merriam [= _Mustela erminea alascensis_], N. Amer. Fauna, 11:12, June 30, 1896, with type locality at Juneau, Alaska, has been used for the ermine of southeastern Alaska ever since it was proposed. In 1944 separate subspecific rank was accorded ermines on several of the islands of southeastern Alaska which proportionately restricted the range assigned to _alascensis_.

1896. =streatori= (_Putorius_) Merriam [= _Mustela erminea streatori_], N. Amer. Fauna, 11:13, June 30, 1896, applies to the ermine of the Pacific Coast from Puget Sound, Washington, south nearly to the Golden Gate of California.

1896. =arcticus= (_Putorius_) Merriam [= _Mustela erminea arctica_], N. Amer. Fauna, 11:15, June 30, 1896. Ever since it was proposed, this name has been applied to the subspecies of ermine of Alaska and the northern parts of Canada.

1896. =kadiacensis= ([_Putorius arcticus_]) Merriam [= _Mustela erminea kadiacensis_], N. Amer. Fauna, 11:16, June 30, 1896, is a valid name applied to the ermine of Kodiak Island, Alaska.

1896. =washingtoni= (_Putorius_) Merriam [= _Mustela frenata washingtoni_], N. Amer. Fauna 11:18, June 30, 1896, applies to the long-tailed weasel of the southern Cascades of Washington and the northern Cascades of Oregon.

1896. =saturatus= (_Putorius_) Merriam [= _Mustela frenata saturata_], N. Amer. Fauna, 11:21, June 30, 1896, was little used until 1936 but applies to long-tailed weasel of limited region in northern California and southern Oregon.

1896. =alleni= (_Putorius_) Merriam [= _Mustela frenata alleni_], N. Amer. Fauna, 11:24, June 30, 1896, applies to weasel of Black Hills region.

1896. =oregonensis= (_Putorius xanthogenys_) Merriam [= _Mustela frenata oregonensis_], N. Amer. Fauna, 11:25, June 30, 1896, applies to long-tailed weasel of parts of western Oregon and northern California.

1896. =goldmani= (_Putorius frenatus_) Merriam [= _Mustela frenata goldmani_], N. Amer. Fauna, 11:28, June 30, 1896, applies to the long-tailed weasel of Chiapas, and parts of Guatemala and Salvador.

1896. =leucoparia= (_Putorius frenatus_) Merriam [= _Mustela frenata leucoparia_], N. Amer. Fauna, 11:29, June 30, 1896, applies to the long-tailed weasel of Michoacán and Nayarit.

1896. =tropicalis= (_Putorius_) Merriam [= _Mustela frenata tropicalis_], N. Amer. Fauna, 11:30, June 30, 1896, applies to the long-tailed weasel of the Tropical Life-zone of Veracruz.

1896. =spadix= (_Putorius longicaudus_) Bangs [= _Mustela frenata spadix_], Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 10:8, February 25, 1896, applies to the long-tailed weasel of Minnesota and adjoining areas.

1896. =rixosus= (_Putorius_) Bangs [= _Mustela rixosa rixosa_], Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 10:21, February 25, 1896, applies to the least weasel of Saskatchewan and adjoining areas and as the first available name for the species has been used as the specific name for the species in America since 1896.

1897. =paraensis= (_Putorius (Mustela) braziliensis_) Goeldi [= _Mustela africana africana_], Zool. Jahrb., abt. f. systematik, geogr. u. biol., 10:560, pl. 21, September 15, 1897, a synonym for the weasel of the lower Amazon area.

1898. =neomexicanus= (_Putorius frenatus_) Barber and Cockerell [= _Mustela frenata neomexicana_], Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, p. 188, May 3, 1898, applies to the long-tailed weasel of New Mexico, Arizona, Durango and adjoining areas.

1898. =haidarum= (_Putorius_) Preble [= _Mustela erminea haidarum_], Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 12:169, August 10, 1898, applies to the ermine of the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia.

1899. =notius= (_Putorius noveboracensis_) Bangs [= _Mustela frenata noveboracensis_], Proc. New England Zoöl. Club, 1:53, June 9, 1899, was applied to the long-tailed weasel of the Carolinas until 1936 since which time it has been regarded as a synonym of _noveboracensis_.

1899. =occisor= (_Putorius_) Bangs [= _Mustela frenata occisor_], Proc. New England Zoöl. Club, 1:54, June 9, 1899, applies to the long-tailed weasel of central and northern Maine. Until 1936, occisor was ordinarily used as the name of a full species but since then has been arranged as a subspecific name under _Mustela frenata_.

1899. =mundus= (_Putorius xanthogenys_) Bangs [= _Mustela frenata munda_], Proc. New England Zoöl. Club, 1:56, June 9, 1899, is now applied, and generally has been since 1899, to the long-tailed weasel of the coastal district of California north of San Francisco Bay.

1899. =muricus= (_Putorius (Arctogale)_) Bangs [= _Mustela erminea muricus_], Proc. New England Zoöl. Club, 1:71, July 31, 1899, applies to the diminutive ermine, often erroneously designated least weasel, of the western United States.

1899. =oribasus= (_Putorius (Arctogale) longicauda_) Bangs [= _Mustela frenata oribasus_], Proc. New England Zoöl. Club, 1:81, December 27, 1899, applies to the long-tailed weasel of the Rocky Mountains northward from Yellowstone National Park.