190S.] 



MAMINIALS. 



227 



Eskimo, and that he sent three specimens, taken on Liverpool Bay 

 and near the mouth of Wihnot Horton River, to Washington." 



Mephitis hudsonica Richardson. Xorthern Phiins Skunk. 



The skunk is rather common in the rolling country between Edmon- 

 ton and Athabaska Landing, and occurs less abundantly northward to 

 tlie vicinity of Fort Smith. Of its presence in central Alberta we 

 obtained abundant evidence in 1901. Farther north J. S. Edmonton 

 informed me that three were killed near the mouth of Peace River in 

 1898, and that he had seen the skins of two which were taken near 

 Fort Smith. Mr. Brabant, of that post, told me that the animal was 

 occasionally killed in the vicinity, and a specimen is included in a col- 

 lection of skulls since received from there. 



During our second trip to the region, in 1903, my brother and 

 Cary saAv two skins at Fort Smith, and a live individual on Slave 

 River near the mouth of the Peace. While ascending the Athabaska 

 above Fort McMurray, and while on the road between Athabaska 

 Landing and Edmonton, they often saw tracks. Skins were seen at 

 Athabaska Landing and near Lily Lake. 



During my outward trip in the autumn of 1904 I saw the body of 

 a skunk in the possession of some natives on the Athabaska below 

 Grand Rapid, and obtained a himter's skin from W. E. Whiteley at 

 Sandy Creek, 20 miles south of Athabaska Landing. He reported 

 the animal fairly common there. 



A. F. Camsell writes me that two skunks were killed near Fort 

 Simpson in the autumn of 1905. One of these was taken near the 

 Mackenzie about 25 miles above Fort Simpson; the other near Liard 

 River 10 miles from its mouth. The skins of both animals were 

 traded at Fort Simpson. 



King records a skunk killed beyond the sixty-first parallel on the 

 route between Athabaska and Great Slave lakes.'^ Ross mentions 

 finding the bones and part of the skin of one a short distance from 

 the shores of Great Slave Lake.^ 



J. Alden Loring took a specimen at Jasper House, August 25, 

 1895, but reported the animal as not common. He saw another at 

 Henry House, October 9, 1896. The Jasper House specimen and a 

 skull from Great Slave Lake have been recorded by Howell.'^ 



MacFarlane gives data showing that this animal is fairly abun- 

 dant in the Lesser Slave Lake and Isle a la Crosse regions. In 1889 

 Lesser Slave Lake sent out 62 skins ; Sturgeon Lake, 3 ; Trout Lake, 

 2; Whitefish Lake, 20; and Portage la Loche, 11. English River 



« Proc. U. S. Nat. Miis., XXVIII, p. 723, 1905. 



* Narrative of Journey to Arctic Ocean, II, p. 127, 1836. 



<^ Can. Nat. and Geol., YII, p. 139, 1862. 



^ N. A. Fauna, No. 20, p. 25, 1901, 



