126 



NOKTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[NO. 27. 



special value from the standpoint of geographic distribution, breed- 

 ing, migration, or some other phase of life-history. Occasionally, 

 when deemed advisable, notes from outside these geographic bound- 

 aries have been utilized. 



The present report may be considered as complementary to the 

 previous report on the Hudson Bay region.*^ 



MAMMALS OF THE ATHABASKA-MACKENZIE REGION. 



The following list is intended to include all the species of mam- 

 mals which are known to occur in the region now under review. 

 Most of the species came under our observations, and many were 

 added to the list of those previously known. Owing to the uni- 

 formity of climatic and physiographic conditions in the north 

 many species range over large areas without differentiation into 

 races; consequently feAv new forms have been detected. It has been 

 necessary to describe only one, a northern form of Evotomys gapperi; 

 in the case of one or two other forms, old names have been revived. 

 All measurements, unless otherwise stated, are in millimeters. 



Balaena mysticetus Linn. Greenland Whale. 



This species is of regular occurrence in the Arctic Ocean north of 

 the Mackenzie region, and has been recorded a number of times. It 

 is probably most abundant in the open ocean north of the mouth of 

 the Mackenzie, and it is there that most of the whaling is carried on. 

 The animal occurs also in the straits among the large islands to the 

 eastward, and I find a few records showing that occasionally it enters 

 the comparatively narrow inlets between Wollaston Land and the 

 mainland. Its numbers, however, are now everywhere very much 

 diminished. 



During Parry's first voyage, whales were observed near Melville 

 Island in August, 1820 ; ^ and other individuals, as well as remains, 

 were seen in that region on several other occasions. J. C. Ross stated 

 that the species was found in considerable numbers in Prince Regent 

 Inlet, and that one was killed at Port Bowen in June, 1825.^ He 

 later recorded it as occurring in the inlet down to latitude 71° on the 

 west shore, and stated that a few were noted about the Isthmus of 

 Boothia.^ Richardson mentions that whales have sometimes drifted 

 to the vicinity of the mouth of Coppermine River.*' During Frank- 

 lin's and Richardson's journeys along the Arctic coast in the sum- 

 mers of 1826 and 1827, black whales were noted at the mouth of the 



^ A Biological Investigation of the Hudson Bay Region, by Edward A. Preble. 

 North American Fauna, No. 22, October, 1902. 

 ^ Fisher, Journal Voyage of Discovery, p. 249, 1821. 

 ^ Appendix to Parry's Third Voyage, p. 94, 1826. 

 <^ Appendix to Ross's Second Voyage, p. xxiii, 1835. 

 ^ Appendix Parry's Second Voyage, p. 338, 1827^ 



