28 NEW- YORK FAUNA. 



Characteristics. Color dark brown, passing into black, with a lighter broad band on the flanks 

 and thighs. Tail with long pendulous hairs. 



Description. Body stout and compactly made, with an arched back, and little elevated from 

 the ground. Head small, broad, rounded, suddenly diminishing to the nose. Ears small, 

 rounded, and nearly concealed among the fur. Eyes small. Fur loose and shaggy. The 

 tail, which scarcely exceeds six inches, is very bushy, and covered on its sides and extremity 

 with long pendulous hairs. Legs short and thick ; toes distinct, and armed with five hooked 

 claws. Soles of the fore feet with five, and hind feet with four tubercles. 



Color. There is a great variety in the general color of this animal, varying from light cream 

 to a deep blackish brown. Its usual color is as follows : Blackish brown, becoming deeper 

 on the sides of the face, on the back and extremities ; more or less white on the chin and 

 between the fore legs. Hair on the tail, deep black ; on the legs, brownish black. A pale 

 crescent-shaped band over the head, between the ears and the eyes. A broad band of light 

 chesnut along the flanks, becoming dilated on the thigh, and ascending over the rump, where 

 it meets with a similar band from the other side. The young have a uniform downy cream- 

 colored fur. Head and body, 24' ; tail (vertebra), 6'0 ; including fur, 9'0. 



Although we have not met with this animal, yet hunters who have killed them repeatedly, 

 and knew them well, have assured us that they are still found in the districts north of Raquet 

 lake. It is, however, every where a rare species. Prof. Emmons states that they still exist 

 in the Hoosac mountains, Massachusetts. 



The Wolverene is a very troublesome and destructive animal. Like the Fisher, it has 

 been known to follow " a sable line" of 40 - 50 miles, destroying every trap for the purpose 

 of obtaining the bait. Much of the fictitious history of this animal is founded on the circum- 

 stance that the name of Wolverene is also applied to the Felis rufa, o^Bay Lynx ; and in this 

 we are to account for its habit of cUmbing trees, etc. attributed to it by Lawson, BufTon and 

 others. It destroys great numbers of the smaller quadrupeds. The celebrated half breed, 

 John Hunter, informed me that it was called gwing'gwah-gay by the Indians of his tribe, 

 which he interpreted " a tough thing," or as he afterwards explained it, " a hard character," 

 in allusion to its mischievous disposition. He assured me that he had known it to be domes- 

 ticated, and employed by the Indians to catch beaver. 



The Wolverene was formerly found as far south as Carolina, but its southern limits at pre- 

 sent do not extend south of the forty-second degree. To the north, it extends to the polar 

 seas, as high as the seventy-fifth degree of north latitude. 



