256 Natural History of the 



common. At the Indian Village on the Rouge, 16th Lot, 7th 

 Range, Arundel, several half-grown puppies were pointed out to us 

 as the offspring of a fox and dog. They very much resembled the 

 fox, and were remarkably gentle and docile in manner, being 

 much petted by the kind-hearted Squaws. 



9. Castor fiber, Linn. (Beaver). — Though ancient dams made 

 by Beavers were frequently met wilh in the lakes we visited in 

 Wentworth, Montcalm, Arundel, and De Salabeny, they appear to 

 be nearly extinct in those townships. In a small lake near the Lake 

 of Three Mountains, however, we found fresh branches of the 

 yellow birch, the aromatic bark of which constitutes their winter 

 food, showing the marks of their teeth. The Indians reported 

 them as numerous about forty miles above Hamilton's Farm, and 

 had many skins in proof of their assertion. I was informed that 

 the price of these skins was from five to nine shillings per lb. 



10. Fiber Zibethicus, Cuvier, ( Muskrat). — Very numerous 

 throughout the district. Their food consists of the roots of water- 

 plants and the fresh-water mussels (Uhio complanatus and Ano- 

 donta), of which they collect large quantities about their holes in 

 clayey banks of the lakes and rivers, where they leave them in 

 the sun till the shell opens, when they can easily extract the ani- 

 mal. At the beginning of October they commence constructing, 

 on some sunken log or in a shallow place a few yards from the 

 shore their winter-nests, which are composed of the roots of Equi- 

 seti and other water-plants torn up from the bottom, and placed 

 in a cirular heap, in the centre of which they form a cavity 

 and pass the winter within it in a torpid state. The Indians 

 trap great numbers at the end of September and beginning of 

 October, and the skins turned inside out, are stretched on bent 



sticks. 



11. Arctomys Monax, Linn. (Woodchuck). — Said to be com- 

 mon about the clearings in Grenville, and a specimen was given 

 to me which had just been killed in the 6th Range of that town- 

 ship, May 14th. 



12. Tamias Listeri, Ray, (Chipmunk). — A few only were seen 

 in the woods of Montcalm, and about Hamilton's Farm. 



13. Sciurus Hudsonius, Pennant, (Red Squirrel). — Very nu- 

 merous in the woods throughout the district, and sometimes so 

 tame as to ru i between our legs. The seeds of the white cedar 

 (Thuja occidentalis) are its favourite food, and large heaps of 

 the scales, stripped by it from the cones, may be seen in every 



