pelage, five, described below, show marked abnormalities in color.
Two of these five are partly albinistic. One is an adult male, no.
223880, U. S. Nat. Mus., from Billy's Island, Okefinokee Swamp,
Georgia, which has the nose as well as the area between the eyes white.
Also there is a tuft of white hairs at the anterodorsal margin of each
ear, scattering white hairs suggesting a postorbital bar on each side
of the head, and a patch of white hairs on the mid-dorsal line behind
the ears. Markings of this kind are not abnormal in _M. f. peninsulae_,
the subspecies adjoining on the south, except for the white nose which
clearly is an instance of partial albinism. The second specimen is a
subadult male, of _M. f. noveboracensis_, no. 177679, U. S. Nat. Mus.,
in process of acquiring the brown winter coat, taken on November 27,
1911, at Gaylordsville, Connecticut. It has white markings on the nose,
on the right side of the neck, on the right hind foot and right
forefoot, and on the tip of the tail. The white area of the nose on the
left side extends back to the eye, but on the right side barely
encircles the nose-pad. On the right side of the neck, all that area
between the foreleg and ear is white from the mid-dorsal line
(including 7 or 8 millimeters to the left of the mid-dorsal line) down
to the throat, which is white as it is also in normal individuals. The
toes of the right hind foot are more extensively white than in normal
specimens of _noveboracensis_, and all of the right forefoot as well as
the wrist is white. The tail is of striking appearance because of its
tricolor pattern. The proximal part is of the normal brown color. The
black terminal part commences proximally at the usual place, but the
distal 11 millimeters of the fleshy part of the tail bear only pure
white hairs producing a terminal white pencil 35 millimeters long.
The three other specimens abnormally colored are erythristic
individuals. An adult male of _M. f. latirostra_, no. 7574, coll. D. R.
Dickey, taken on April 14, 1918, at Covina, Los Angeles County,
California, has the color of the upper parts greatly restricted, and,
in addition, has spots and blotches of the color of the underparts
distributed over the back and rump. A spot of this same color occurs
above each ear. Incidentally, this and other subspecies of _Mustela
frenata_ from the Pacific Coast of North America obviously have the
factor for erythrism operating over a larger part of the body than it
does in _M. erminea_ or than in _M. f. noveboracensis_, where the
underparts sometimes are white. In _M. f. latirostra_ and in other
subspecies from the Pacific Coast the light color of the underparts
always is tinged with this reddish color.
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