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MINUTES OE PROCEEDINGS OF 
trail is beaten like a road; make nests of long dry grass stalks in hollow places in 
the ground. When the Sumass prairie floods in the spring, many of these mice get 
drowned in attempting to escape to the high land. I have seen them swimming; in 
all directions, striving for any bit of dry ground visible. 
Erethizon epixanthus, — (Brand.) 
Yellow-haired Porcupine. I collected only three specimens of this curious 
animal, and all three from the western slope of the Pocky Mountains. I have but 
little doubt that it exists on the Cascade range, although as far as I could learn it 
was never seen by any of our working parties. 
I know but very little of its habits, it lives entirely in the dark gloomy pine 
forests, and feeds principally on the bark of the young pine trees, and its long 
sharp incisors, are instruments admirably adapted for chiseling it off. I suspect 
they burrow into the ground and hibernate during winter. 
Lepus washingtonii. — (Baird.) 
Ped Hare. I met with this hare along the entire length of the Boundary Line, 
also at Port Rupert, at the northern end of Vancouver Island. It lurks among the 
underbrush in the forest, hides under logs, and is but rarely seen in the day 
light, and when taken is snared in the night; the Indians trap the greater number 
in the winter, the snow enabling them to easily track the hare. 
In the winter they become quite white, but in summer months they are a rich 
brown like our European hare. They subsist in the cold months almost entirely on 
the ends of young twigs, and the bark of trees; and the nibbled spots become a 
capital guide in the spring, as to the depth of snow, the height at which the 
bark is gouged off, shewing where the hare stood on the snow. 
An immense number of these skins are annually traded by the Hudson’s Bay 
Company. 
Lepus artemisia .— (Bach.) 
. Sage Rabbit. I procured specimens of this beautiful little rabbit at the Balls 
and at Cow Creek, the latter a small stream crossing the trail between Walla Walla 
and Colville; its favourite haunts are the narrow belts of scrub that fringe the 
banks of the streams, hiding in the day in crevices of the rocks or among the talus 
at the base of a cliff, failing these places of concealment it makes burrows in the 
sand banks ; breeds early. I obtained a doe in March, heavy with young; and 
am disposed to think it is only found east of the Cascades. 
Lagomys minimus .— (Lord, sp. nov.) 
Sp. char. Differs from Lepus {Lagomys)princeps of Sir J. Richardson (F. B. A., 
i. p. 227, pi. 19) in being much smaller. Predominant colour of back dark grey, 
tinged faintly with umber-yellow, more vivid about the shoulders, but gradually 
shading off on the sides and belly to dirty white; feet white, washed over with 
yellowish brown; ears large, black inside, the outer rounded margin edged with 
white; eye very small and intensely black ; whiskers long, and composed of about 
an equal number of white and black hairs. 
Measurement: Head and body 6^ inches; head 2 inches; nose to auditory 
opening li inch; height of ear from behind 1 inch. 
The skull differs in being generally smaller; the cranial portion of the skull in its 
superior outline is much narrower and smoother. The nasal bones are shorter and 
broader, and rounded at their posterior articulation, instead of being deeply notched 
as in L. princeps. Distance from anterior molar to incisors much less; auditory 
bullae much smaller. Incisors shorter and straighter, and very deeply grooved on 
