168 Expedition to the 



The prairie wolves* roam over the plains in considerable 

 numbers, and during the night, the principal season of their 

 hunts, they venture very near to the encampment of the travel- 

 ler. They are by far the most numerous of our wolves, and of- 



This bat might be readily mistaken for the Caroliaa bat, (V. Carohnen- 

 bis. Geoff.,) which it resembles in colour, but differs from it in being of a 

 larger size, the ears broader and proportionally -borter, and an arquated 

 tragus, curving in an almost luniform manner towards the anterior por- 

 tion of the ear, like that of the V. serotinus. Daub. Geoff though not so 

 broad. The upper incisor teeth, like those of several of our species of 

 bats, are not prominent, they are very much inclined forward, and do not 

 rise at their tips above the level of the intermediate callosity. 



* Canis latrans. Cinereous or gray, varied with black above, and dull 

 fulvous, or cinnamon; hair at base dusky plumbeous, in the middle of its 

 length dull cinnamon, and at tip gray or black, longer on the vertehral 

 line; ears erect, rounded at tip, cinnamon behind, the hair dark plum- 

 beous at base, inside lined with gray hair; eyelids edged with black, supe- 

 rior eyelashes black beneath, and at tip above; supplemental lid margined 

 with black-brown before, and edged with black brown behind; iris yel- 

 low; pupil black-blue; spot upon the lachrymal sac black-brown; ros- 

 trum cinnamon, tinctured with grayish on the nose; lips white, edged with 

 black, three series of black seta; head between the ears intermixed with 

 grav, and dull cinnamon, hairs duskv plumbeous at base; sides paler than 

 the back, obsoletely fasciate with black above the legs; legs cinnamon 

 on the outer side, more distinct on the posterior hair: a dilated black ab- 

 breviated line on the anterior ones near the wrist; tail bushy, fusiform, 

 straight, varied with gray and cinnamon, a spot near the base above, and 

 tip black; the tip of the trunk of the tail, attains the tip of the os calcis, 

 when the leg is extended; beneath white, immaculate, tail cinnamon to- 

 wards the tip, tip black; posterior feet four toed, anterior five toed. 

 Total length, (excepting the hair at tip of tail) 3 feet 9 1 -2 inches. 

 Trunk of the tail ... 1 1-2 



Hind foot os calcis to tip of claw, . 7 1-5 



Four foot, elbow to tip of claw, . 1 3-4 



Ears from top of head, . . 4 



Rostrum from anterior cantnus of the eye, 3 3-4 



Taken in a trap, baited with the body of a wild cat. 

 The line on the anterior side of the anterior feet, near the wrfet, is want- 

 ing in a second specimen. 



This species varies very much in size, another specimen measured 

 In total length, excepting the hair at tip of tail, 3 feet 2 1-2 inches. 

 Tail do do 11 3-4 



Ear from top of head to tip 3 5-8 



The snout was narrower than in the preceding specimens, but in colour 

 similar. 



Another specimenwas destitute of the cinnamon colour, excepting on 

 the snout, where it was but slightly apparent; the general colour >vas, 

 therefore, gray with an intermixture of bluck, in remote spots and lines, 

 varying in position and figure with the direction of the hair. 



