130 ZOOLOGY. 



Extreme span of hind and fore feet 8.50 inches. 



From heel to end of most projecting toe-nail 1.12 do. 



From wrist to end of most projecting toe-nail .56 do. 



Ears hidden by the long fur of the head; they are quite large and nearly naked; whiskers 

 very short; eyes small; teeth yellow. 



Note. — The note published in my partial report, chapter 2, of part 2, this volume, was inserted 

 by mistake; it was intended to apply to the other species of field and meadow mice. — S. 



FIBER ZIBETHICUS, C u v . 



muskrat. 



Baikd, Gen. Rep, Mammals, 1857, 561. 



I have obtained several specimens of the common muskrat from the lakes and fresh waters 

 near Fort Steilacoom, Puget Sound. Two skins of these were sent to Washington, and are 

 now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. I have seen some of their stack-like 

 houses on lakes near Fort S. The Indians of the interior carry many muskrat skins to the 

 Hudson Bay trading establishments, where they obtain one charge of powder and ball for each. 

 They take the animal in traps, ammunition being too valuable to exjiend for them. 



Indian women on the Cowlitz river use the skin of a muskrat in childbed, as a sort of " smelling 

 salt" to assist labor. — S. 



LEPUS WASHINGTONII. Baird. 



Western Red Hare. 



[For synonymy and description of this species, see chap. 2, p. 103.] 



This species seems to replace the LepiMS sylvaticus in the forest regions bordering the coasts of 

 northern Oregon and Washington. One specimen (No. 142) obtained by me from British 

 America, near the fifty-fifth parallel of north latitude, shows that this hare has a considerable 

 range north and south. I doubt very much whether the species turns white in winter. The 

 Indian from whom I obtained No. 142 assured me positively that it never turns white, and 

 seemed to think with me that the other two skins, which were ivJiite, purchased at the same 

 time, belonged to a difi'erent species. I have obtained the Lepus Washingtonii at Puget Sound 

 at all seasons; those killed in mid-winter showing no trace of a white winter coat. It may be 

 that some hares have the property of changing the color only during very severe cold weather, 

 such as is rarely experienced in the vicinity of Puget Sound — the degree of cold, perhaps, 

 regulating the change. 



I preserved a specimen in June, 1856, which was killed on White river, near Puget Sound. 



No. 104. — Measurements. 



Head to root of tail 16. 50 inches. 



Tail vertebra3, about 1. 60 " 



Tail to hairy tip 2.50 



Head to tip of nose 4.00 " 



Height of ears from plane of occiput 3.87 " 



Outstretched ears, from tip to tip 8.25 " 



Folded ears project beyond nose .50 ' 



Easy girth of head in front of ears 5.75 " 



