_Remarks._--The name _Mustela xanthogenys_ Gray was long applied to all
the weasels of the interior valleys of California and of the coast of
that state south of San Francisco Bay. Gray, when he named the species
and when referring to it in later accounts, never defined the locality
whence the specimen came more definitely than "California." In 1896,
Merriam (1896:25) gave the type locality as "Southern California,
probably vicinity of San Diego" and later writers have not contradicted
him. The type specimen was obtained in the course of the voyage of the
British ship Sulphur, under command of Sir Edward Belcher. Examination
of Belcher's (1843, vol. 1, p. 129) narrative of the voyage indicates
the following places in California at which the specimen of weasel,
described by Gray, could have been obtained: Fort Ross, Bodega,
vicinity of San Francisco Bay and up Sacramento River to the mouth of
the Feather River, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Buenaventura, San Pedro,
San Juan, and San Diego.
Reginald I. Pocock has kindly compared the type specimen in the British
Museum with several specimens sent for that purpose. In the first
place, comparison of skulls shows that the type specimen is a member of
one of the races north of San Diego. In the second place, comparison of
skins shows that the inside of the ears are not blackish but similar in
color to the back. In fact, Pocock writes under date of February 12,
1929, regarding the type specimen, that "It is practically uniformly
colored from the snout to the base of the tail, there being scarcely a
trace of the darkening of the head, or muzzle, observable in your
specimens [those sent for comparison]." This character of coloration of
the ear excludes all the weasels of the Coast region of California from
San Francisco Bay southward, namely, _M. f. latirostra_ and _M. f.
nigriauris_. My own examination of this type specimen at a date later
than that on which Pocock compared it satisfies me as to the accuracy
of his statement above.
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