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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account