94 NORTHERN HARK. 



margins of the orbits project considerably, having a distinct depression 

 in the frontal bone ; this is more conspicuous in the old than in the younger 

 animals. Head rather short ; nose blunt ; eyes large and prominent ; ears 

 placed far back, and near each other ; whiskers, long and numerous ; 

 body, elongated, thickly clothed with long loose hair, with a soft downy 

 fur beneath ; legs, long ; hind-legs, nearly twice the length of the fore- 

 legs; feet, thickly clothed with hair, completely concealing the nails, 

 which are long, thin, very sharp, and slightly arched. So thickly are the 

 soles covered with hair, that an impression by the nails, is not generally 

 visible in their tracks made while passing over the snow, unless when 

 running very fast. Tail, very short, covered with fur, but not very 

 bushy. The form of this species is on the whole not very elegant ; its 

 long hind legs, although remarkably well adapted for rapid locomotion, 

 and its diminutive tail, would lead the spectator at first sight to pro- 

 nounce it an awkward animal ; which is, nevertheless, far from being the 

 fact. Its fur never lies smooth and compact, either in vi'inter or summer, 

 as does that of many other species, but seems to hang loosely on its back 

 and sides, giving it a somewhat shaggy appearance. The hair on the 

 body, is in summer about an inch and a half long, and in winter, a little 

 longer. 



In summer, the whole of the upper surface is reddish-brown, formed by 

 hairs that are at their roots and for two-thirds of their length, of a blue- 

 ish ash colour, then, reddish-yellow, succeeded by a narrow line of dark- 

 brown, the part next the tips or points, reddish-broT,vn, but nearly all 

 the hairs tipped with black — this colour predominating toward the 

 rump. Whiskers, mostly black, a few white, the longest reaching be- 

 yond the head ; ears, brown, with a narrow black border on the outer 

 margin, and a slight fringe of white hairs on the inner. In some speci- 

 mens, there is a fawn, and in others a light coloured, edge, around the eyes, 

 and a few white hairs on the forehead. The pupil of the eye is dark, the 

 iris, light silvery-yellow ; point of nose, chin, and under the throat, white ; 

 neck, yellowish-brown. Inner surface of legs, and under surface of body, 

 white ; between the hind-legs, to the insertion of the tail, white ; upper 

 surface of the tail, brown, under surface white. The summer dress of this 

 species is assumed in April, and remains without much change till about 

 the beginning of November in the latitude of Quebec, and till the middle of 

 the same month, in the State of New York and the western parts of Penn- 

 sylvania ; after which season the animal gains its winter pelage. During 

 winter, in high Northern latitudes, it becomes nearly pure white, with the 



