46 NORTH AMERICAN MUSTELID.E. 



as those of Klein, Ellis, Dobbs, Edwards, and Brisson. Ursiis 

 liiscus of Linuiieus arose in a way already narrated, and the 

 species may be considered to have been well known from this 

 period, although it was for a long time very generally supposed 

 to be different from the Glutton of Europe and Asia. 



The various American biographies of this animal are without 

 exception more or less incomplete and unsatisfactory; even 

 those which are shorn of obvious exaggeration are, in large 

 part, a compilation of earlier statements. They have, however, 

 steadily improved, the latest, that of Audubon and Bachman, 

 being by far the best, although Sir John Kichardson's was an 

 ^excellent contribution. The account which Pennant gave in 

 ' 178J: ( Arct. Zool. pp. CG-68) is purged of some of the fables, yet 

 curiously shows how their effects will linger. He scouts the 

 I idea of such excessive gluttony as had been attributed, yet 

 \ relates the moss-throwing story, and represents the Wolverene 

 ^ as " a beast of uncommon fierceness, the terror of the Wolf and 

 V Bear; the former, which will devour any carrion, will not touch 

 the carcase of this animal, which smells more foetid than that 

 of the Pole-cat ''. Pennant traces its distribution as far north 

 as Copper Eiver, to the countries on the west and south of Hud- 

 son's Bay, Canada, and the tract between Lakes Huron and 

 Superior. He gives a fair description, and adds : — " It hath 

 much the action of a Bear ; not only in the form of its back, 

 and the hanging down of its head, but also in resting on the 

 I hind part of the first joint of its legs." *' The Kamtschatkans ", 

 ' he naively continues, " value them so highly as to say, that the 

 heavenly beings wear no other furs." Richardson gives some 

 interesting particulars, among them none, so far as I am aware, 

 , that are not accurate. In a passage he quotes from Graham's 

 ; MSS., we see a probable basis for the fabulous accounts 

 that the Fox is the Wolverene's provider or abettor in the 

 ? chase — for it is the well-nigh universal rule that fable is founded 

 • on facts exaggerated, distorted, or perverted. Alluding to the 

 Wolverene's notorious habit of following Marten roads, Mr. 

 Oraham remarks that the animal tears the captured Martens to 

 pieces or buries them at a distance in the snow. *' Drifts of snow 

 often conceal the repositories thus made of the martens from 

 I the hunter, in which case they furnish a regale to the hungry 

 fox, whose sagacious nostril guides him unerringly to the spot. 

 •Two or three foxes are often seen following the Wolverene for 

 • this purpose.'' Eichardson discredits the accounts which had 



