The preserved parts of the skin of the type specimen show it to have been generally large. The part of the tail preserved measures 226 millimeters and the skin of the head and neck is correspondingly large. The skin alone, no. 427, from near Waco, Texas, has, as now stuffed, a body 365 millimeters long. Individuals of this race attain larger size than those of any other American member of the subgenus Mustela with the possible exception of Mustela frenata macrophonius from Veracruz, México. In addition to large size, texensis and macrophonius are analogous in that each has a small geographic range at the northern end of an extensive range of its similarly colored southern relative from which it differs mainly in size. Each of the two groups, goldmani and macrophonius on the one hand and perotae, frenata and texensis on the other, has relatively uniform color, color pattern and body proportions over a large region but at its northern extremity develops a "giant" population, M. f. macrophonius and M. f. texensis, respectively. The skull of the type specimen of M. f. texensis is the largest one seen of any American weasel. The type specimen of M. f. macrophonius has a basilar length that is greater by one-tenth of a millimeter but in every other measurement taken the skull of M. f. texensis is the larger. Its weight, 8 grams, also shows it to be larger.
The broad, white bands in front of the ears are confluent with the white patch between the eyes on both sides in two specimens and on one side only in one other specimen. A white patch between the ears is present in four specimens. The dark spot at each angle of the mouth is absent on both sides in four specimens and on one side only in one other specimen. Thus out of a possible twelve cases, the broad bands in front of the ears are confluent with the spot between the eyes in five cases. Four of the six specimens have a white spot between the ears. The dark spot at each angle of the mouth is present three out of a possible twelve times.
The skull of no. 2017, from five miles north of Waco, is smaller than either of the two skulls seen from Kerr County and in this respect approaches M. f. frenata. There is no actual evidence of intergradation with any other subspecies but intergradation probably does take place with M. f. neomexicana and possibly with M. f. arthuri and M. f. primulina.
Strecker (1924:14) remarks that of the two specimens obtained near Waco, one was taken in a trap baited for mink and the other was shot in a hen house. None of the four skulls had the frontal sinuses infested with parasites.
Specimens examined.—Total number, 7, arranged by counties from north to south.
Texas. McLennan County: 5 mi. N Waco, 1[3]; Erath, 1[3]. Gillespie County: Fredericksburg, 1[90]. Kerr County: 4[75]; 1[2]; and 2[90] trade skins.
Mustela frenata frenata Lichtenstein
Long-tailed Weasel
Plates [1], [22], [23], [24], [36], [37], [38] and [40]
Mustela frenata Lichtenstein, Darstellung neuer oder wenig bekannter Säugethier, 1832, pl. 42, and corresponding text, unpaged; Seton, Lives of game animals, 2:576, 1929.
Mustela brasiliensis Sevastianoff, Mem. de l'Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Petersburg, 4:356-363, tab. 4, 1813, name on plate only, the description being in the text (not of Gmelin, 1788); Gray, Proc. Zoöl. Soc. London, 1865:114.
Putorius frenatus, Baird Mamms. N. Amer., p. 173, 1858; Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna, 11:26, pl. 3, figs. 1, 1a, 1b, June 30, 1896; Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, 25:198, October 24, 1905.
Putorius (Gale) brasiliensis aequatorialis Coues, Fur-bearing animals, p. 142, 1877, part? ("merely as a substitute for Gray's [supposedly] preoccupied name" that is, aureoventris).
Putorius (Gale) brasiliensis frenatus, Coues, Fur-bearing animals, p. 142, 1877 (part).
Putorius mexicanus Coues, Fur-bearing animals, p. 142, 1877, [nomen nudum, cited by Coues in synonymy as "Putorius mexicanus, Berlandier, MSS. ic. ined. 4 (Tamaulipas and Matamoros)">[.
Putorius brasiliensis frenata, Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 3:219, April 17, 1891.
Putorius brasiliensis frenatus, Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 6:197, May 31, 1894; Bangs, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 10:9, February 25, 1896; Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 8:74, April 22, 1896.
Mustela frenata frenata, Strecker, The Baylor Bull., 27:12, August, 1926; Hall, Carnegie Instit. Washington Publ. 473:108, November 20, 1936.