RACCOONS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 37 



PROCYON LOTOR HIRTUS Nelson and Goldman 

 Upper Mississippi Valley Raccoon 



Procyon lotor hirtus Nelson and Goldinan, Jour. Mammal. 11 (4): 455, Nov. 11, 

 1930. 



Type locality. — Elk River, Sherburne Count}^ Minn. 



Type. — No. 187926, male adult, skin and skull, United States 

 National Museum (Merriam collection) ; collected by Vernon Bailey, 

 March 4, 1886. 



Distribution. — Upper Mississippi and Missouri River drainage areas 

 from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains east to Lake Michi- 

 gan, and from southern Manitoba and probably southwestern 

 Ontario and southeastern Alberta south to southern Oklahoma and 

 Arkansas. Overlapping divisions of Upper Austral and Transition 

 Zones; entering Canadian Zone to a limited extent near Lake Superior. 



General characters. — A large, dark subspecies with long, full, soft 

 pelage, usually suffused with ochraceous buff; skull with high, narrow 

 frontal region, and weak or obsolescent postorbital processes. Similar 

 to P. I. lotor of the eastern United States, but much larger; pelage 

 longer and usually more suffused with ochraceous buff. Size about 

 as in P. I. fuscipes of Texas, but color darker, the pelage much longer 

 and denser, more suffused with buff instead of grayish, the light 

 subapical zone of hairs over upper parts less extensive and permitting 

 the under color to show through; skull differing in slight details. 



Color. — Similar to P. I. lotor but usually more suffused with 

 ochraceous buff. 



Cranial characters. — Skull very similar to that of P. I. lotor in general 

 form, l)ut much larger, more massive; brain case usually more tapering 

 anteriorly, the sides of frontals diagonally below and behind post- 

 orbital processes less deeply indented or constricted; postorbital 

 processes of frontals weakly developed, or obsolescent, as in lotor. 

 A])out the same in size and in most important details as P. I. fuscipes, 

 but interorbital and postorbital regions usually narrower; frontal area 

 similarly high, but usually less flattened, with a narrower, more 

 distinct, V-shaped median depression. 



Measurements. — An adult male from Fargo, N. Dak.: Total length, 880 mm.; 

 tail vertebrae, 265: hind foot, 125. Skull: Type: Greatest length, 127.1; 

 condylobasal length, 122.2; zygomatic breadth, 80.5; interorbital breadth, 25.8; 

 least width of palatal shelf, 15.8; maxillary tooth row (alveoli), 45.8; upper 

 carnassial, crown length, 8.8, crown width, 9. 



Remarks. — The raccoon of the upper part of the Mississippi Valley 

 is readily distinguished from its eastern relative, P. I. lotor, by much 

 larger size, especially of the skulls. It is less easily separated from 

 P. I. fuscipes of Texas, which is of about the same size, but typical 

 specimens differ in color and in cranial details as pointed out. Inter- 



