45 



PART I. 



On the Mammals of Middle and Western Kansas. 



The observations which serve as the basis of the following list 

 were made chiefly in the vicinity of Fort Hays, Kansas, in the summer 

 of 1871, supplemented, however, by others made during two weeks 

 spent in the field in northwestern Kansas during the following win- 

 ter. All the larger and more common species are probably duly 

 chronicled, while not a few of the rarer or more obscure species es- 

 caped notice, as I am unable to include in the list a single insectivore. 

 The general character of the locality has been already indicated.* 



1. Lynx riifus. "Wild Cat." Bay Lynx. Rather frequent. 

 Occasionally met with on the prairies remote from timber. 



2. Cailis lupus. Gray Wolf. "Buffalo Wolf." Formerly very 

 abundant, but during the last few years their numbers have greatly 

 diminished, thousands having been killed for their skins every winter 

 by means of strychnine. Comparatively few now remain. % 



3. Cailis flatrans. Prairie Wolf. "Coyote." Still quite 

 common, but far less so than they were a few years ago. While their 

 dismal cries are still familiar sounds on the plains of the western part 

 of the state, especially in winter, hunters with their destructive 

 poisons have reduced their numbers till comparatively few remain. 



4. Vulpes velox. Kit Fox. " Swift." These graceful little 

 animals are still more or less abundant. 



1* AS* AH i IK*:. 



5. Rassaris astuta. Texas Civet Cat. Of occasional oc- 

 currence. Although I did not meet with it, an animal was described 

 to me by different persons that so accurately agrees with the Texas 

 civet cat that I have no doubt of its being this species. It is appar- 

 ently rather rare, however, as none of my informants had seen more 

 than two or three individuals in the region under consideration. The 

 northern boundary of Kansas probably forms its ordinary northern 

 limit of distribution on the plains. 



* See Bull. Mus. Com. Zool., vol. iii, pp. 122, 123. July, 1872. 



