316 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1897. 



Sciuropterus from nearer the type locality of alpinus than Stuart 

 Lake, B. C, lying just west of the Pacific- Arctic watershed sepa- 

 rating the affluents of the Peace River and the Frazer River, ahout 

 150 miles west of the type locality, of the "Elk River" specimen 

 and 100 miles west of the head of the Smoky River branch of the 

 Peace River, 5 all about at the same latitude of 54°. An excellently 

 preserved skin of an adult male Sciuropterus from Stuart Lake with 

 separated skull belonging thereto, and careful flesh measurements 

 and data made by Mr. W. E. Traill, sent by him to the Provincial 

 Museum of Victoria, B. C, and donated to the writer by Mr. John 

 Fannin, is considered in this study as typical of the essential spe- 

 cific characters of Richardson's alpinus. From its faunal position, 

 however, in a region less elevated and more humid than that which 

 forms the type locality of alpinus, it is, as would be expected, darker 

 colored. Richardson's description in the Fauna Boreali Americana, 

 as well as Audubon and Bachman's plate of alpinus, indicate an 

 animal lighter colored (yellowish-brown above) than the reddish- 

 brown sabrinus, conditions which our knowledge of other mammals 

 from the more arid eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains would 

 lead us to expect. The Stuart Lake specimen, though too dark to 

 answer for a type of the color characters of alpinus is, nevertheless, 

 in size and proportions as contrasted with sabrinus, specifically the 

 same as alpinus, and will be so considered in the absence of speci- 

 mens from nearer the type locality of that species. 



Confirming these premises, but in themselves so lacking the re- 

 quirements of modern research as to be of little value, are two speci- 

 mens of probably typical alpinus from Fort Liard, in the northeast- 

 ern corner of British Columbia. These are labelled under numbers 

 5,655, 5,656 of the catalogue of the Smithsonian Institution, and 

 were collected by W. L. Hardisty and Bernard R. Ross. One of 

 them is a badly mounted specimen and the other a flat skin lacking 

 all but the basal portion of tail. Their skulls are missing, the up- 

 per incisors of No. 5,656 alone being present. The pelage of both 

 is short and rather harsh, evidently that of summer. The mounted 

 specimen has undoubtedly been faded by exposure to light. It is a 

 duller, more slaty wood-brown than Canadian sabrinus above and 

 differs from the Stuart Lake specimen in having scarcely any trace 



5 Prof. J. Maconn, of the Geological Survey of Canada, in a recent letter 

 states that Drumrnond did not collect in British Columbia, and that his Peace 

 River rambles were confined to Smoky Kiver. 



