_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.
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