SCIURID.E— ARCTOMYS MONAX. 917 



and Forster.* While the "Quebec Marmot" of the latter is also certainly 

 referable to Spermophilus parryi, the "Quebec Marmot" of Pennant is in all 

 probability to be assigned to Arctomys monax, although the only really tangi- 

 ble character given is, "rather larger than a Rabbet". The Arctomys empetra 

 of Schreber is strictly the Mus empetra of Pallas, Schreber not only quoting 

 Pallas's diagnosis and references, but also giving a figure of Pallas's Mus em- 

 petra, furnished him by Pallas himself, and he based his account of the animal 

 mainly on Pallas's description. He, however, eked out the history of the spe- 

 cies by a summary of Pennant and Forster's descriptions of their "Quebec 

 Marmot". Thus, with the exception of the reference to Pennant, the Mus 

 empetra of Pallas is the Spermophilus parryi of later writers. Sabine, however, 

 in 1822, described a specimen of Arctomys monax, from Hudson's Bay, under 

 the name Arctomys empetra, to which he referred the Quebec Marmot of Pen- 

 nant and Forster, and the several names based thereon, together with the Mus 

 empetra of Pallas. The Arctomys empetra of Sabine is properly the A. empetra 

 of most subsequent authors down to Audubon and Bachman, who correctly 

 referred the A. empetra, as at that time understood, to A. monax, after having 

 seen Hudson's Bay specimens of the former in England, and becoming con- 

 vinced that they were identical. As already stated (see antea, p. 843), Sabine 

 noticed the discrepancies between the various accounts of the Arctomys 

 empetra of authors, both among themselves and with his specimen, especially 

 the shortness of the tail, as described by Pallas and figured by Schreber. 

 These discrepancies were also referred to by Richardson in 1825.f 



The Glis canadensis of Erxleben (1777) is based wholly on the Quebec 

 Marmot of Pennant and Forster, and thus certainly refers mainly to the Arc- 

 tomys parryi of Richardson, and (through the reference to Pennant) in part 

 also to the A. empetra of Sabine. The Arctomys ine.lanopus of Kuhl was 

 based on a specimen of A. monax, and is thus strictly and exclusively a 

 synonym of that species. The " Marmota quebekana Pennant", cited by 

 Pallas, is merely a citation in Latin of Pennant's English name. 



* "Marmota quebekana Pennant Syn. p. 270. Sp. 199. tab. 24. f. 2. bona. Forster Act. aDgl. vol. 

 LXII. p. 378." 



t Parry's Second Voy. App. p. 315. 



