594. MONOGRAPHS OF NORTH AMERICAN. RODENTIA. 
indicated by some of the later authors, as quoted beyond. From the time of 
Richardson’s account, I am not aware that other notices of the species, based 
upon original observation or any new material, appeared until 1848, when Mr. 
T. R. Peale, a naturalist of the United States Exploring Expedition, gave 
another contribution to the history of the animal, based on his own experi- 
ences and collections. We may therefore pass over various compiled accounts 
as not material to the present history, and take up Mr. Peale’s article, above 
cited in the synonymatic list. This consists of a description and measure- 
ments, with remarks on the abunaance of the species at Puget’s Sound, and on 
the peculiar form of the skull, which is figured on page 57. This figure, 
though only a slight woodcut showing little detail, well represents the general 
contour of the skull, and is notable as being the first representation of the 
whole cranium, Richardson’s specimen figured having been very defective. 
Shortly afterward, in 1853, appeared the general account of the genus 
and species, by Audubon and Bachman, as above cited. Their figure of the 
species was the first colored illustration of the animal, and it may he the 
only one extant, though the skull and teeth have been figured by Rich- 
ardson, Peale, and Baird. The drawing was made by his son, J. W. 
Audubon, ‘from a fine specimen in London”, presumedly one of Richard- 
son’s types. These authors’ notice consisted of a copy direct of Richardson’s 
characterization of the genus, an elaborate description of the species, a 
quotation of Lewis and Clarke’s account, a summary notice of the robe 
described by Richardson, and a few general remarks, chiefly historical. They 
alluded to ¢wo specimens then or lately extant in the Patent Office at Wash- 
ington, being those collected by Peale, and which, they say, they were ‘po- 
litely refused” permission to examine.* The collection to which the authors 
referred was shortly afterward (1858) removed to the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion, where it now (1877) forms part of the National Museum. One of Peale’s 
specimens (that catalogued by Baird in 1857) remains at this date, and has 
been examined in the preparation of the present article; the other} I have 
never seen, nor was more than one of them noticed by Baird. 
* Hence Professor Baird’s staternent, made in 1857, requires qualification. ‘This animal,’ he says, 
“though not rare in the vicinity of Puget’s Sound, is yet very little known to naturalists, though the 
materials at our command are richer now than a few years ago, when Audubon and Bachman were una- 
ble to find a specimen in any museum of the United States.”—(Mamm. N. Amer, 1857, 353.) 
t Peale (op. cit. supra) speaks of his “specimens”, leaving the impression that he procured more 
than one. ‘Two of his skulls are in the Smithsonian. On speaking to this venerable naturalist about it, 
the other day, Mr. Peale told me he did not remember that he secured more than two specimens; these, 
however, he recollected perfectly, and he gave me some delightful gossip about the grievance which so 
ruffed Audubon’s temper. 
