734 I'llocKKDIXCS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxvin. 



Mountains. Mr. Moberly stnlcs that a wood mouse or rat, rolor light 

 brow II iiidiiicd to gray, Jiiid about 5 inches long-, was repeatedly seen liy 

 him at Fort ^h-Murray, )»ut nowhere els(> on this side, although not 

 uncommon in New Caledonia, British Columbia, where the people 

 speak of it as the "small wood rat.'' 



WHITE-FOOTED OR DEER MOUSE. 



Pi rdiiu/.^ciis (ir<-tiivis (MeariiH). 



Although we failed to secure an^^ specimens of this mouse at Fort 

 Anderson, it may still be discovered in the countr}' to the northward 

 of Forts Liard, Simpson, Resolution, Rae, and Big Island, from which 

 points munerousexamples wereobtained l)y Messrs. Rossand Kennicott, 

 and forwarded to the Smithsonian Institution in the years 1800tolS62. 

 Mr. Moberly mentions the existence in the region of Athabasca and 

 Peace rivers of a l>rown wood mouse, which destroys martens and 

 other fur animals caught in dead-fall traps. 



I incline to think that this mouse ranges farther north than the sev- 

 eral Mackenzie River District ])()sts (Forts Simpson, Liard, Big Island, 

 Rae, and Resolution), from Avhich specimens were forwarded to Wash- 

 ington by Messrs. Kennicott, Ross, Kirkby, Clarke, Reid, Brass, and 

 Mackenzie in the early sixties of the last century. From the descrip- 

 tion given, I think Mr. P. Deschand)ault met with this species, both at 

 Isle a la Crosse and at Lac du Brochet post, situated at the northeast- 

 ern end of Reindeer Lake. 



RED-BACKED MOUSE. 



Ecotoint/s sp. 



A fairly large number of examples of this species was collected 

 by the Eskimos on the polar shores of Liverpool and Franklin ba^'s, 

 and in the adjacent country of the lower Andeison and Mackenzie 

 rivers. Some were also taken in the vicinity of Fort Anderson and 

 from the eastern Barren Lands. At nearly all of the company's posts 

 in the Mackenzie River District likewise a number of skins were 

 obtained for the Smithsonian Institution, and the gentlemen of the 

 service above named were the contributors, together with Messrs. 

 Hardisty, Wilson, Lockhart, A. Flett, J. Flett, W. Thomson, Smith, 

 Gaudet, Taylor, Sibbiston, McDougall, Camsell, and ]MacFarlane. 



Among the many northern Mackenzie Eiver collectors of those distant days, to 

 whom reference was made in my paper on birds breeding in Arctic America, as well 

 as those specially referred to in these notes, but few besides the writer are now 

 living. I think they are Chief Factors James iMeDougall and J. S. Camsell, Chief 

 Traders C. P. Gaudet, W. J. McLean, and William C. King, and Messrs. Murdo 

 McLeod and John Edward Harriott. Archdeacon W. W. Kirkby, D. D., now of 

 Eye, N. Y., and Archdeacon Robert McDonald, D. D., of Peel River, also ranked 

 among the number of successful Smithsonian oollectovsof the early sixties of the last 



