662 



APPENDIX. 



[No. V. 



ARCTOMYS. 



In the collection which arrived at the end of the year 1820, from Captain Franklin, 

 specimens of three new species of this genus were received. An account of them 

 with figures of each was presented to the Linnaean Society, and subsequently pub- 

 lished in the thirteenth volume of its Transactions, to which a reference for the 

 specific characters and detailed descriptions may be made. We are very imperfectly 

 acquainted with the other species of this genus, which are natives of America, 

 although described in the publications of naturalists ; and there is good reason to 

 expect that several other undescribed Marmots are still to be found in the plains of 

 that extended country. The Marmots are generally called Ground Squirrels, by the 

 inhabitants of the districts where they are native. 



Arctomys Empetra. Quebec Marmot. 



A hunter's skin only of this animal was received, but is a very interesting specimen, 

 because it exactly agrees with that described by Forster in the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions in 1772, except that it is about two inches longer in the body and with some- 

 what a longer tail. The accounts of all the writers, who have mentioned the Quebec 

 Marmot, vary much from each other, and it is probable that more than one species 

 will be found to be at present ranged under the head of Arctomys Empetra. Four 

 different specimens have been noticed and examined by naturalists. The first, by 

 Pennant, was a living animal ; the second, by Forster as above mentioned; the 

 third, by Pallas, from a specimen in the Leyden Museum, and the last in the paper 

 on the genus in the thirteenth Volume of the Transactions of the Linnman Society, 

 from a specimen presented to the British Museum by the Hudson's Bay Company. 



Arctomys Franklinii. Grey American Marmot. 



This animal, rather larger than a rat, was obtained in the neighbourhood of 

 Cumberland-House, and was afterwards seen at Fort Enterprise. Its general colours 

 are dark variegated yellowish grey on the upper parts, and dingy white below ; the 

 tail is four inches long, banded with black and white, appearing indistinctly striped. 

 The name was given to the specimen in compliment to the commander of the Expedition. 



Arctomys Richardsonii. Tawny American Marmot. 



This animal is somewhat smaller than the preceding, and more slender, tawny 

 light brown above, and pale underneath, with a tail three inches and a half long 

 thickly covered with hairs. The specimen was obtained at Carlton-House, where, 

 like others of its genus, it inhabited holes in the ground ; it was subsequently found 



