950 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



As will be seen later, I have evidence of the Siberian Wolverine, 

 supposed to be identical with ours, producing young in April. 



The little ones number 2 or 3, rarely 4, but MacFarlane 

 says sometimes as high as 5. The very low numbers are usu- 

 ally offspring of a very young or a very old mother. 



In early life they have been little observed, because the 

 mosquitoes are such an insufferable torment in their haunts 

 during summer that no man goes there except under dire 

 compulsion. The half-breeds and Indians of the far North- 

 west have often assured me that the young are white at birth, 

 but they could not produce the skin of one. I was glad, there- 

 fore, to find in the American Museum of Natural History 2 

 young ones taken by N. C. Buxton in north-eastern Siberia, on 

 May 7, 1 901, which, judging from their size, must have been 

 three or four weeks old. They are male and female. 



The male, as measured in the dry skin, is: Length, 16J 

 inches (419 mm.); tail, about 3^ inches (82 mm.); hind-foot, 

 2J inches (53 mm.). 



It is clad in a dense wool which is yellowish-white tinged 

 with brownish-gray, on crown, legs, back, under parts, and tail; 

 the face bears a mask of brown. Thus it has all the adult 

 marking expressed in very faint colours. 



The female is precisely similar. 



On one point all my Indian friends and all the books are 

 agreed — that it is as safe to enter the den of a mother Bear as 

 to face a Wolverine when she is with her young. She is a 

 tigress of ferocity, absolutely fearless, and so strong and quick 

 that a man, even armed with a gun, is taking risks if he 

 come near. The young are suckled for eight or nine weeks 

 and fed at home by their mother till quite late in summer. 

 D. T. Hanbury says'" that August 13, on the Dease River, near 

 Great Bear Lake, he "shot a female Wolverine as she was 

 swimming across the river. She carried a Ground-squirrel in 

 her mouth, which she evidently had intended for her family." 



" Northland of Canada, 1904, p. 232. 



