HUDSON’S BAY LEMMING. 
83 
DIMENSIONS. 
Inches. Lines. 
Length of head and body, - 
5 4 
1 4 
head, - 
tail, - 
middle fore claw, 
5 
44 
HABIT, 3, 
Our only acquaintance with this species is through the works of the old 
writers and the Fauna Boreali Americana, we having failed to meet with 
it at Labrador. The first specimen we saw of'it was in the museum of the 
Royal College of Surgeons at Edinburgh. Our drawing was made. from 
specimens in the British Museum. Dr. Richardson did not meet with 
this Lemming in the interior of America, and thinks it has hitherto been 
found only near the sea. 
“Its habits are still imperfectly known. In summer, according to 
Hearne, it burrows under stones in dry ridges,- and Captain Sabine 
informs us that in winter it resides in a nest of moss on the surface of the 
ground, rarely going abroad .”- — Fauna Boreali Americana , p. 182. 
IIearne states that this little species is very inoffensive, and so easily 
tamed that if taken even when full grown it will in a day or two be per- 
fectly reconciled, very fond of being handled, and will creep of its own 
accord into its master’s neck or bosom. 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, 
This species inhabits Labrador, Hudson’s straits, and the coast from 
Churchill to the extremity of Melville peninsula, as well as the islands of 
the Polar seas visited by Captain Parry. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
This singular animal was originally described by Forster in the Philo- 
sophical Transactions. Pallas received a number of skins from Labrador, 
one of which he sent to Pennant, who described it in his History of the 
Quadrupeds and also in his Arctic Zoology. It was observed by both 
Parry and Franklin, and was described by Richardson. A specimen 
was preserved in the Museum du Roi at Paris, and described in the Diet, 
des Sciences, and there is an excellent specimen in the British Museum. 
