7782 Quadrupeds. 



run several miles with ihe same dose arranged in like manner : 

 this I attribute to several causes ; to their fatness and to the quantity 

 of food in their stomachs, as lean and hungry foxes die much more 

 quickly than others. The medium in which the poison is given also 

 causes a great difference : when put up in fresh meat a very long time 

 elapses before it operates. Wishing to preserve a specimen of the 

 Hare-Indian dog for the Smithsonian Institution, I resolved to kill the 

 animal by poison : two grains of strychnia of the first strength were 

 administered in a piece of fresh meat ; at the end of two hours the 

 animal was as well as ever : I then administered one grain more, 

 mixed with grease ; in two minutes the spasms began, and in five the 

 animal was dead. The first symptoms were a restlessness and con- 

 traction of the pupil of the eye, and a flow of saliva from the mouth ; 

 violent cramps then ensued, the head shook violently, like a paralytic 

 person, the legs were drawn up, and the spine took a circular shape ; 

 a lull of a iew seconds then ensued, when, after an attack of great 

 violence, the animal died. On dissection the blood-vessels of the head 

 and neck were found very full of black and clotted blood, such as I 

 have seen in the jugular vein of a person who had died of apoplexy ; 

 there was no inflammation of the stomach, and the fatal bait was found 

 in the throat entire. Once seen the symptoms of poisoning by strychnia 

 are easily recognised, and I could be certain now of passing a correct 

 opinion on a case of the kind. Dogs take a longer time to expire 

 than either wolves or foxes, the latter dying most quickly ; in fact, 

 according to the ratio of the wild nature of the animal who eats it will 

 be the quickness and violence of its death. 



Arctic Fox [Fiilpes lagopus): White Fox (var. lagopus). — Smaller 

 than the American red fox. Tail very full and bushy. Soles of feet 

 densely furred. Tip of nose black. 



This diminutive fox, which is about as large as a small terrier, in- 

 habits the ban-en grounds and sea-coast of this district. On only two 

 occasions have 1 known it to be caught on the south side of Slave 

 Lake, once at Resolution, and once at Big Island. Its fur is thick, 

 about two inches long, white in colour, with the under fur a lead tint. 

 In winter the animal is while all over, excepting the tip of the nose, 

 which is black ; a light shade of lead is, however, visible on the shanks 

 and feet; these are densely furred, and the nails are brown. In sum- 

 mer the fur is about an inch in length, white beneath the belly, but 

 owing to the falling off of the long hairs a stripe of plumbeous gray, 

 annulated with white, and about three inches broad, extends from the 



