_Color._--Winter pelage all white except tip of tail. Summer
pelage with upper parts uniform in color and Raw Umber or darker
(16_n_) of Ridgway and about tones 2 to 3 of Chocolate of Oberthür
and Dauthenay, pl. 343, but in autumn some specimens have more
light red than tones 2 or 3. Underparts Sulphur Yellow, Colonial
Buff, or Primrose Yellow, often white on chin and insides of
forelegs; color of underparts extends narrowly over upper lips,
distally on posterior sides of forelegs onto antipalmar surface of
forefeet, onto proximal two-thirds or three-fourths of underside
of tail as length of tail is measured along tail-vertebrae, on
medial sides of hind legs to a point between knee and ankle but
reappears on antiplantar faces of toes and in some individuals is
narrowly continuous onto toes; rim of ear in some specimens with
short, white or pale hairs giving ears distinct whitish border;
least width of color of underparts averaging, in adult males from
Alaska, 65 (46-93) per cent of greatest width of color of upper
parts. Black tip of tail in 5 males in winter pelage from Tanana
averaging 84 (70-93) mm. which is 91 (75-107) per cent of length
of tail-vertebrae.
_Skull._--Male (based on 5 adult topotypes): See measurements and
plates 2-4. As described in _Mustela erminea richardsonii_ except
that: Weight, 3.5 (3.1-3.9) grams; basilar length 42.5
(41.8-43.3); length of tooth-rows more than length of tympanic
bulla; breadth of rostrum measured across lacrimal processes
averaging more than a third of basilar length; interorbital
breadth more than distance between glenoid fossa and posterior
border of external auditory meatus; zygomatic breadth more than
distance between last upper molar and jugular foramen.
Female (based on 2 adult topotypes and 2 adults and 4 subadults
from central Alaska): See measurements and plates 9-11. As
described in _Mustela erminea richardsonii_ except that: Weight,
1.5 (1.2-2.0) grams; basilar length, 35.7 (34.5-37.0); length of
tooth-rows more than length of tympanic bulla; breadth of rostrum
more than 30 per cent of basilar length; interorbital breadth more
than distance between glenoid fossa and posterior border of
external auditory meatus; zygomatic breadth more than distance
between last upper molar and jugular foramen (except in specimens
from Ellesmere Island where two distances are approximately
equal).
Cranial differences from _Mustela erminea kaneii_ (which occurs on the
Asiatic side of Bering Strait), in both males and females, are: larger
size relatively as well as actually, broader except in mastoidal region
where relatively (to basilar length) the width is less; preorbital part
of skull broader as well as longer.
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