Biology_of_Mustelids_Vol_1.pdf

18.
the Caucasus.
In 1911, Satunin axpressed the opinion that the weasel
from that area belonged to the Central Black Sea species Mustela boccamela
Bechstein, and considered that the weasels from the steppes and foothill
regions of the Northern Caucasus (the type from Stavropol) were the special
sub-species Mustela nivalis dinniki.
In 1935, 5.1. Ognev thought that the
weasels from the Northern Caucasus and from beyond the Caucasus were
identical, and that they both belonged to the sub-species Mustela nivalis
dinniki.
The relative wealth of material (48 specimens) available of the
weasel from beyond the Caucasus convinced me that these weasels differ
from those on the Northern slopes of the main range and from the' neighbour-
hood of the Caucasus.
The weasels from beyond the Caucasus differ from the
latter type, and have longer tails.
In the cranium they differ less in
size (though the skulls of weasels from beyond the Caucasus are slightly
larger) than from the point of view of structure.
The postorbital constriction
is much greater in 'the case of the weasel from beyond the Caucasus (M. 19.1%
,
of the condylo-basal length) than in the case of the weasels from the
Northern slopes of the Caucasus (M. 22.1%);
in the mastoid region the
width is much greater in the skull of the Northern Caucasus weasel (48.2%,
as against 43.3% for the weasel from beyond the Caucasus).
As to its
morphological particulars, the weasel from beyond the Caucasus is very
similar to the South European Mustela nivalis boccamela, and the weasels
from Asia Minor are eVidently also of that species.
The description of the South European weasel given by Miller in
1914 agrees entirely with our data on the weasel from beyond the Caucasus.
Animals from Malta and Sardinia (5-2227, 2228 and 13030 in the Moscow State
University Zoological Museum collection and no.8790 in the Academy of
Sciences ZIN collection) were very similar to the weasels found beyond the
Caucasus.
The only actual difference between them lies in the brownish
spots on the chest and stomach of the Mediterranean specimens, these spots
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