_Color._--Winter and summer pelages indistinguishable; upper parts
uniform and ranging from Raw Umber to slightly darker (16_n_), and
about tones 1 to 3 of Dark Chocolate of Oberthür and Dauthenay,
pl. 342; underparts white, in summer rarely with a faint buffy
suffusion in pectoral region; color of underparts extends from
chin, and often lower lips, posteriorly to inguinal region,
distally on posterior sides of forelegs onto antipalmar faces of
toes (sometimes interrupted at and above wrist) and on medial
sides of hind legs hardly to knee. Least width of color of
underparts averaging, in twelve adults from Blaine and Tillamook,
10 (0-47) per cent of greatest width of color of upper parts.
Black tip of tail, in same series, averaging 28 (24-33) mm. which
is 40 (34-47) per cent of length of tail-vertebrae.
_Skull._--Male (based on 12 adults): See measurements and plates
5-7. As described in _Mustela erminea richardsonii_ except that:
Weight, 1.1 (1.0-1.2) grams; basilar length, 33.2 (32.5-33.8);
length of tooth-rows more or less than (about same as) length of
tympanic bulla.
Female (based on 7 adults): See measurements and plates 12-14. As
described in _Mustela erminea richardsonii_ except that: Weight,
0.64 (0.60-0.67) grams; basilar length, 28.5 (27.6-29.5); breadth
of rostrum more than 30 per cent of basilar length.
Comparison with _anguinae_, _fallenda_, _olympica_, _gulosa_ and
_muricus_ is made in accounts of those subspecies.
_Remarks._--This weasel is rare in collections and the best material of
it was obtained by Alex Walker in Tillamook County, Oregon, where he
resides. The almost ideal series of 30 specimens showed the range of
secondary sexual, age, and individual variation expectable in the small
ermines of the Pacific Coast of the United States and was the means of
allowing satisfactory decision on questions of classification in the
related subspecies in which individuals are of comparable size.
Intergradation with each of the geographically adjoining subspecies,
_olympica_, _fallenda_, _invicta_, _gulosa_ and _muricus_ is shown by
specimens examined. With the last mentioned subspecies, intergradation
is shown by two specimens from as far south as Siskiyou County,
California, assigned to _muricus_.
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