130 
ZOOLOGY. 
Extreme span of hind and foi'e feet.. 8.50 inches. 
From heel to end of most projecting toe-nail. 1.12 do. 
From wrist to end of most projecting toe-nail... .56 do. 
Ears hidden by the long fur of the head; they are quite large and nearly naked; whiskers 
very short; eyes small; teeth yellow. 
Note.— The note published in my partial report, chapter 2, of part 2, this volume, was 
inserted by mistake; it was intended to apply to the other species of field and meadow mice.—S. 
FIBER ZIBETHICUS, C u v. 
Muskrat. 
Baird, Gen. Rep. Mammals, 1857, 561. 
I have obtained several specimens of the common muskrat from the lakes and fresh waters 
near Fort Steilacoom, Puget Sound. Two skins of these were sent to Washington, and are now 
in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. * I have seen some of their stack-like houses 
on lakes near Fort S. The Indians of the interior carry many muskrat skins to the Hudson 
Bay trading establishments, where they obtain one charge of powder and ball for each. They 
take the animal in traps, ammunition being too valuable to expend for them. 
Indian women on the Cowlitz river use the skin of a muskrat in childbed, as a sort of “smel¬ 
ling salt” to assist labor.—S. 
LEPUS WASHINGTONII, Baird. 
Western Red Hare. 
[For synonymy and description of this species, see chap. 2, p. 103.] 
This species seems to replace the Lejpus sylvaticus in the forest regions bordering the coasts 
of northern Oregon and Washington. One specimen (No. 142) obtained by me from British 
America, near the fifty-fifth parallel of north latitude, shows that this hare has a considerable 
range north and south. I doubt very much whether the species turns white in winter. The 
Indian from whom I obtained No. 142 assured me positively that it never turns white, and 
seemed to think with me that the other two skins, which were white , purchased at the same 
time, belonged to a different species. I have obtained the Lejpus Washingtonii at Puget Sound 
at all seasons; those killed in mid-winter showing no trace of a white winter coat. It may be 
that some hares have the property of changing the color only during very severe cold weather, 
such as is rarely experienced in the vicinity of Puget Sound—the degree of cold , perhaps, regu¬ 
lating the change. 
I preserved a specimen in June, 1856, which was killed on White river, near Puget Sound. 
No. 104.— Measurements. 
Head to root of tail. 16.50 inches. 
Tail vertebras, about. 1.60 do. 
Tail to hairy tip. 2.50 do. 
Head to tip of nose. 4.00 do. 
Height of ears from plane of occiput. 3.87 do. 
Outstretched ears, from tip to tip. 8.25 do. 
Folded ears project beyond nose. .50 do. 
Easy girth of head in front of ears. 5.75 do. 
