MAMMALIA. 99 
although I saw many hunters’ skins. The Saskatchewan river is the northern 
limit of its range. Its burrows are formed in the open part of the plains, 
at a distance from the woody country. According to Mr. Say, it excels even 
the antelope in fleetness ; and Lewis and Clark inform us that it is extremely 
vigilant, and betakes itself, on the slightest alarm, to its burrows, which are very 
deep. It seems to be the American representative of the corsac, inhabiting 
similar districts ; and possibly like the corsac its fur changes its colours with the 
seasons. 
DEscRIPTION 
OF A HUNTER’S SKIN :— 
The nose is considerably shorter, and the face broader than in other foxes. The upper part 
of the nose is covered by very short hairs of a pale yellowish, or wood, brown colour, on each 
side of which there is an oval patch of brownish fur, rendered hoary by many of its hairs being 
tipped with white. ‘The whiskers are strong, and of a black colour, fading into brown at their 
tips. The portion of the lip anterior to them is brownish white; and the whole upper lip is 
margined by a stripe of white hairs about half an inch wide. There is, however, a narrow 
blackish-brown line between the white and the posterior angle of the mouth, which is prolonged 
round the margin of the lower lip. The upper part of the head, including the cheeks and 
orbits, the superior surface of the neck, the back and hips, are covered with fur of a pleasant 
grizzled colour, produced by an intermixture of hairs tipped with brown, black, and white. 
On the crown of the head, the yellowish-brown predominates, the white is equally diffused 
through it, there is no dark central line, and the grizzled colour unites gradually before the 
eyes with the unmixed fawn colour of the nose. The white hairs prevail immediately round 
the orbits, and there is much white on the cheeks. On the neck, where the fur lies smooth, 
the white, with a slight intermixture of black, is the colour of the surface, the yellowish-brown 
being seen only through the interstices of the longer hairs. Towards the rump less of the brown 
is seen, and more of the black hairs, but the white tips still predominate. The fur on the parts 
just enumerated appears, when blown aside, of a deep clove-brown, or brownish-gray colour 
from the roots for three-fourths of its length upwards ; it is then yellowish-brown, followed by a 
very narrow ring of black, a larger ring of pure white, and generally a minute black tip. There 
are also, particularly towards the posterior part of the back, many interspersed hairs con- 
siderably longer than the others, which are black from the root to the tip. The breadth of the 
grizzled colours on the neck does not exceed the distance between the ears, but it gradually 
widens from the shoulders backwards. The sides of the neck, the shoulders and flanks, are of 
a dull reddish-orange, or very pale tile-red colour. The fur on these parts is longer but not so 
dense as that on the back, and is bluish-gray one half of its length, and reddish the remainder. 
On the flanks there are a few intermixed black hairs. The lower jaw is white, with a tinge 
of blackish-brown on its margins and towards its extremity. The chest exhibits the same 
reddish-orange colour with the sides ; the throat and belly and inner surfaces of the extremities 
O02 
