Mustela nivalis Linnaeus, 1766 . Syst. Nat., 12th ed., 1:69.

TYPE LOCALITY: " Westrobothnia " [Sweden].

DISTRIBUTION: The Palearctic (excl. Ireland, the Arabian Peninsula, and Arctic Isis); Japan; the Nearctic in Alaska (USA), Canada, and USA, south to Wyoming and North Carolina. Introduced to New Zealand; see Corbet and Hill (1980).

SYNONYMS: africana Gray, 1865; albipes Mina Palumbo, 1868; allegheniensis Rhoads, 1901; alpinus Burg, 1920; atlas Barrett-Hamilton, 1904; boccamela Bechstein, 1800; campestris Jackson, 1913; caraftensis Kishida, 1936; caucasicus Barrett-Hamilton, 1900; corsicanus Cavazza, 1908; dinniki Satunin, 1907; dombrowskii Matschie, 1901; eskimo Stone, 1900; fulva Mina Palumbo, 1868; gale Pallas, 1811; galinthias Bate, 1906; italicus BarrettHamilton, 1900; kamtschatica Dybowski, 1922; major Fatio, 1905; meridionalis Costa, 1869; minor Nilsson, 1820; minutus Pomel, 1853; monticola Cavazza, 1908; mosanensis Mori, 1927; namiyei Kuroda, 1921; nikolskii Smirnov, 1899; numidicus Pucheran, 1855; pallidus Barrett-Hamilton, 1900; punctata Domaniewski, 1926; pusillus Fatio, 1869; pygmaeus J. A. Allen, 1903; rixosus Bangs, 1896; russelliana Thomas, 1911; siculus Barrett-Hamilton, 1900; stoliczkana Blanford, 1877; subpalmata Hemprich and Ehrenberg, 1833; tonkinensis Björkegren, 1942; trettaui Kleinschmidt, 1937; typicus Barrett-Hamilton, 1900; vulgaris Erxleben, 1777; yesoidsuna Kishida, 1936.

COMMENTS: Reviewed by Reichstein (1957) and van Zyll de Jong (1992), who considered Putorius rixosus and Mustela nivalis conspecific. Youngman (1982) placed nivalis in the subgenus Mustela .