298 NORTH AMERICAN MUSTELID^. 



sis, with wiiicli ouis used to be confounded, the nose-pad isde- 

 scribed as divided by a lints of liair coniinji^ down from above.) 



The iii)per border of tbe nostrils is in L. canadensis repre- 

 sented by a prominent overhanging bulb. The whiskers are 

 short, stout, stiff bristles, arranged in numerous series ; others 

 equally long and stiff grow from the sides of the chin near the 

 angle of the mouth, and in front of the ears; others again 

 spring over the eyes, and at the point of the chin. The eyes 

 are small, far forward, nearer to the muzzle than to the ear. The 

 ears are comparatively minute, with a thin, obtusely pointed 

 couch, about as long as the surrounded fur, though they project 

 somewhat, since the hairs lie flat; the entrance of the meatus 

 is completely occluded with fur. 



The tail is about half as long (more or less) as the head and 

 body ; regularly tapering from base to tip, elliptical in trans- 

 verse section. 



The short for6 limb is succeeded by a stout wrist and broad 

 flat hand. The fingers are very short, and when divaricated 

 their tips describe nearly a semicircle around the centre of the 

 palm. The toes are almost completely w^ebbed by membranes 

 reaching out to about the middle of the conspicuous digital 

 bulbs — the median digit is a little freer than the rest, the lateral 

 ones most completely united. The hand is entirely hairy above; 

 below, the bulbs of the digits are perfectly bald, but the con- 

 necting membranes are more or less completely hairy, separat- 

 ing the naked bulbs from each other and from the main palmar 

 surface. After this hairy membranous surface comes the single 

 large palmar pad, naked for the most part, but having poste- 

 riorly a scant patch of hair, either isolated or connected by a 

 hairy isthmus with the fur upon the wrist. In life, this main 

 pad has no decided subdivision, though it sometimes shows cer- 

 tain lines of impression which in the dried state may be exag- 

 gerated into partitions. All the bald parts of the palm and the 

 digital bulbs are tessellated with minute i)apilla3. 



The soles, in general, resemble the pabns in the webbing of 

 the toes by a hairy membrane, and encroachment from behind 

 of hairs upon the main plantar pad ; but the shape of the hind 

 foot is quite different. The 4th digit is much elongated, the 

 3d a little shorter, the 2d and 1st rapidly much graduated, with 

 the 5th intermediate between the 3d and 2d. The terminal 

 bulbs of the toes are naked and papillate, and completely iso- 

 lated, by the hairiness of the intervening membr.inij, b)th from 



