GILPIN — ON THE MAMMALIA OF NOVA SCOTIA. 53 



In this specimen, is a short crop of white hair, new long white 

 ones, and many long black ones, both in the changed and unchan- 

 ged parts. The light rusty streak on the fore arm, fore and hind 

 toes, is not I fancy a new colour gained, but caused by the absence 

 of the numerous small black hairs which in summer sprinkled upon 

 these pnrts give a sepia brown to them, but being absent a light 

 rust}^ colour pervades them. 



27/^A J^ovemher. — In this specimen the long winter coat had 

 pervaded the whole animal : pure white below, soiled or rusty white 

 above, especially upon the dorsal ridge. The nose and about the 

 eyes rusty ; the ears hoary rust ; the front folds deeper rust. The 

 tip of the hairs white, the middle rusty, the base plumbeous. The 

 back had still a soiled black look, which under a strong glass, was 

 caused by numerous black hairs about tv^'O inches long and black to 

 the roots. The whiskers are some black, others black at root, and 

 white at tip, others all white. The pads hind and fore are of a 

 deeper rust, and longer and thicker; the toes both hind and fore, 

 light rust. Under the glass the short black hairs which in the 

 summer specimens are numerous in these parts and causing the 

 brown sepia tints, are very few. The same cause is making the 

 fronts of the ear rusty. Though this specimen which was a large 

 buck had so nearly completed his winter change, yet I had .to 

 search some fifty specimens, all in the earliest state of change, 

 before I could obtain it — the mildness to this date, of the winter, 

 causing them to change slowly. In a specimen taken aboot 21st 

 January, that is mid-winter, there was a little rusty colour on the 

 nose, about the eyes, on the front folds of the ears,, nape, chin, 

 fronts of legs and toes both hind and fore, and heels, the rest more 

 or less, white ; the belly, fronts of thighs, and rump, had long loose 

 hairs, plumbeous at base, white at tip ; the dorsal parts had shorter 

 hair, plumbeous at base, rusty in middle and white at tip ; this 

 middle rusty, continually showing through the Vv4iite tips gave the 

 animal a soiled rusty white appearance. All the long black hairs 

 of summer have disappeared; the bright rust of the legs, far 

 brighter than any summer tints, is produced by the absence of the 

 short black hairs, which in summer toned these parts down to a 

 sepia brown ; the whiskers are black. I think the change in this 



