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Show 40 MR. OLDFIELD THOMAS ON THE [Feb. 5 I can offer no opinion as to whether this animal is a real Wild- Cat or not. A specimen in Don Eiutort's collection looked as if of rather doubtful ancestry, but was not examined very closely. 14. GENETTA GENETTA L. Majorca and Iviza (Barcelo; also in D on Eiutort's collection). Does not occur in Minorca. The Genet is common in Majorca, but unfortunately, owing to the bad weather, we were unable to procure any specimens of it. 15. MUSTELA MARTES L. a. 2 • San Cristobal, Minorca. The M.arten is said to be by no means rare either in Majorca or Minorca. At San Cristobal a hunting-party of three men and eight dogs was organized iu our interests, and succeeded in getting the specimen mentioned above. It does not appear to differ in any way from ordinary Southern specimens of M. martes. Barcelo records M. foina from Majorca, but I should hesitate to believe that both species occur in so small a country. Three Martens in D o n Miguel Eiutort's collection were, like ours, referable to M. martes. Barcelo also states that Eamis records the Polecat (Putorius putorius) from Minorca. In the wild condition, however, it is not known to the natives, although ferrets are used for rabbit-catching, and it may have been these that were referred to by Eamis. 16. PUTORIUS NIVALIS BOCCAMELA Bechst. a-b. Inca, Majorca. The " Mostel" is common both in Majorca and Minorca, although in the latter island we failed to secure specimens. It is highly interesting to find that the Balearic Weasel is quite distinct from that of Spain or at least Seville (P. n. ibericus B.-Ham.), which has a sharp Ermine-like division of the brown and white colours, and that it belongs instead to the group with this line vague and wavyl. To this group beloug the AVeasels of Sardinia, Italy, Malta, and Egypt, while those of Sicily and Spain are of the other type. In the present group, which comprises P. n. boccamela, italicus, and africanus, the differences are rather baffling, and it seems to me that the Balearic Weasel might be almost as well referred to one as the other. But boccamela is the earliest name within the group, and its locality, Sardinia, is the nearest to the Balearics, and I therefore use that uame. The occurrence of a Weasel of this type withiu the Spanish domiuions is a fact which should be borne in mind in connection 1 Although much smaller than P. africanus, a Weasel from Oporto, received since the above was written, also proves to be of the same group ; so that both wavy-lined and straight-lined Weasels occur in the Iberian Peninsula. |