FAUNA AMERICANA. 161 



Mountains, v. i. p. 451. Arctomys missouriensis^ 

 Warden's descrip. of the United States, vol. v. p. 

 627, 1820. Prairie dog, Lewis and Clark's Ex- 

 ped. up the Missouri. (A well prepared speci- 

 men in the Philadelphia Museum, presented by 

 Lewis and Clark.) 



Char. Essent Colour a light dirty reddish- 

 brown above, intermixed with some gray, also a 

 few black hairs, this hair is of a dark lead colour 

 next the skin, then bluish-white, then light red- 

 dish, then gray at tip ; the lower parts of the body 

 are of a dirty white colour. 



Dimensions. Total length sixteen inches; of 

 the tail two and three quarter inches ; hair at its 

 tip three quarters of an inch. 



Description. Head wide and depressed above ; 

 eyes large ; iris dark brown ; ears short and trun- 

 cated ; whiskers of moderate length, and black ; a 

 few bristles projecting from the anterior portion 

 of the superior orbit of the eye, and also from a 

 wart on the cheek ; nose rather sharp and com- 

 pressed ; all the feet five-toed, covered with very 

 short hair, and armed with rather long black nails, 

 of which the anterior one of the fore foot nearly 

 attains the base of the next, and the middle one 

 is half an inch in length ; the thumb is armed with 

 a conical nail, three-tenths of an inch in length ; 

 the tail is rather short, banded with brown near 



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