RODENTIA-SCIURINAE—ARCTOMYS PRUINOSUS. 
345 
The following species of Arctomys I have not had an opportunity of examining: 
ARCTOMYS PRUINOSUS, Gmelin. 
oary Marmot, Whistler. 
Arctomys pruinosus, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 144. 
Shaw, Gen. Zool. II, 1801, 121. 
Sabine, Trans. Linn. Soc. XIII, 1822, 586. 
Harlan, Fauna Americana, 1825, 169. 
Richardson, Zool. Jour. Ill, 1828, 518.—Ib. F. Bor. Amer. 1,1829, 150. 
Fischer, Synopsis, 1829, 343. 
Aud. & Bach. N. Am. Quad. Ill, 1853, 17; pi. ciii. 
? Arctomys caligalus, Eschscholtz, Zoolog. Atlas, II, 1829, 1; pi. vi. 
Rich. Zool. Blossom, 1839, 7. 
Wagner, Suppl. Schreber, III, 1843, 260. 
? Arctomys okanaganus, King, Narrative Back’s Jour. II, 1836, 257; plate ii, vol. I. 
Arctomys sibila, Wolf, Linne’s Natursystem, II, 1808, 481. (Made to embrace both A. empelra and pruinoea, 
supposed to be the same.) 
Hoary Marmot, Pennant, Hist. Quad. II, 1781, 130.— Ib. Arctic Zoology, I, 1784, 112. 
? Arctomys monax, Middendorff, Sibirische Reise, II, n, 1853, 85. 
The whistler appears to he about the size of the common woodchuck, which it resembles in a 
great many respects; nor, indeed, have the precise differences been fully pointed out. The 
animal was first described by Pennant, as the hoary marmot, in the following terms : 
“Tip of the nose black; ears short and oval; cheeks whitish; crown dusky and tawny; hair on all parts rude and long; on 
the back, sides, and belly, cinereous at the bottom, black in the middle, and tipped with white, so as to spread a hoariness over 
the whole; legs black; claws dusky; tail full of hair and ferruginous. Size of the Maryland marmot.” (From F. B. A.) 
To this Richardson adds the testimony of some gentlemen of the fur countries, who state 
that it is the size of the badger, or smaller, with much the same appearance; covered with 
beautiful long silver gray hair, and having a long bushy tail. Another account says that the 
breast and shoulders to the middle of the body are of a silver gray color ; the rest of the body 
and the brush (or tail) of a dirty yellowish or brown. 
The first satisfactory account of the supposed whistler is by Dr. King, in his “Narrative of 
a Journey to the Shores of the Arctic Ocean, in 1833-’35, under command of Captain Back,” 
2 vols. 12mo. Bentley, London, 1836. He describes a living specimen brought from Fort 
Okanagan, and, as furnishing a better means of comparison with the woodchuck, I here intro¬ 
duce it entire. 
“Arctomys okanaganus, King. Okanagan marmot, with the head somewhat oval and flattened; nose short, obtuse, and 
covered with very minute hairs ; incisor teeth slightly curved, upper ones anteriorly of a pale yellow, lower ones whitish; 
whiskers few, black, and of various lengths, but none exceeding two inches ; ears semi-oval, shorter than the fur on the neck, 
but, from the arrangement of the hair covering the cheeks, perfectly distinct, and thickly covered on both sides with short 
appressed hairs; extremities short and strong; forefeet shaped for grasping, having four toes well divided, and armed with 
strong claws, which are compressed, curved, and rather sharp-pointed, well adapted for digging ; third toe is the longest, then 
the second, next the inner one, and lastly the outer one ; in place of a thumb there appears a rounded projection of the palm, 
having a small but well defined claw ; palm black and bare ; five hind toes, of which the middle is the longest, the one on the 
right next, and afterwards that on the left, then the outer one, and lastly the inner one ; claws resembling those of the fore 
feet; sole bare and black. 
“ Fur around the nose and margins of the mouth grey ; crown inclined to black, with a few long and irregularly scattered 
grey hairs ; tip of the nose brown ; from either side of the dorsal aspect of the head a blackish band extends in an arched form 
down to the fore shoulders, somewhat resembling a ram with his horns laid back ; and a slight bar of the same color is spread 
