In the northern part of the range of the species, the winter pelage is
white and the summer pelage is brown. In the southern part of the
range, that is in the range of the subspecies _allegheniensis_, the
winter pelage is either brown or white and the time of the molt into
winter pelage is irregular; each of eleven individuals from
Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio, taken in December, January, February
and March is mostly white but retains some considerable part of the
brown pelage of the previous coat on top of the head and usually also
along the midline of the entire dorsum. These eleven animals include
individuals of each sex. Of each sex, some are adults and some are
subadults. Therefore, the delayed or incomplete fall molt, at present,
cannot be correlated with either sex or with any particular age. No
wild-taken specimens of _M. erminea_ or of _M. frenata_ of the same
region show this delayed or incomplete molt.
Possibly this delay or incompleteness of molt is the result of the same
cause that lies behind the birth of some _M. rixosa_ in midwinter. As
listed below, several litters of young have been found in midwinter. In
fact it appears that in the United States, young may be born in every
month of the year although, according to existing information, more
litters are produced in spring and in winter than in summer and autumn.
Many juveniles and young of _allegheniensis_ examined in study
collections clearly were born in spring but about as many seem to have
been born in midwinter as at any other time (in the light of present
knowledge) and this is in contrast to what we know of the two other
species of American weasels since their young, so far as known, are
born in spring.
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