[53.] 9.' A r c t o m y s ( S p e r m o p h i l u s ) F r a n k l i n i i . (Sabine.)
Franklins Marmot.
Arctomys Franklinii. Sabine,. £m. Trans., vol. xiii.,p. 19. Franklin 's Joumi, p< 662. Harlan, Fauna, p. 167*
Franklin's Marmot. Godman, Nat. Hist., vol. xi. p. 109.
A. Spermophilus (Franklinii) corpore super cervino ferrugineove creberrime nigro maculato subter albido, vultu eat
nigro canescenti, caudu elongatd cylindricd pilis albis nigro ter quaterve torquatis vestitd.
Franklin’s Marmot, with cheek pouches ; the upper surface of the body spotted thickly with blacky on a yellowish-brown
ground, under surface grayish-white ; face black and white, intimately and equally mixed; tail long, cylindrical,
and clothed with hairs which are ringed alternately with black and white.
P late x h . .
This animal was seen only in the neighbourhood of Carlton-house, where it lives
in burrows dug in the sandy soil, amongst the little thickets of brushwood that
skirt the plains. It is about three weeks later in its appearance in the spring than
the Arctomys Ricliardsonii, probably from the snow lying longer on the shady
places it inhabits than on the open plains frequented by the latter. It runs on
the ground with considerable rapidity, and never, as far as I could learn, ascends
trees.. It has a louder and harsher voice than the A. Richardsonii, more resembling
that of the Sciurus Hudsonius when terrified. Its food consists principally of the
seeds of leguminous plants, which it can procure in considerable quantity as soon
as the snow melts and exposes the crop of the preceding year.
DESCRIPTION.
Franklin’s Marmot has somewhat the shape of the Hudson’s Bay Squirrel, but is larger.
I t is more slender than the Arctomys Richardsonii. Its nose, is not so obtuse as that of the
latter, but the difference is not great. The septum, naked, margins of the nostrils, and margins
of the lips are of a light flesh-colour. In the Arctomys Richardsonii these parts are dark,
approaching to black. The ears are longer than those of the A . Richardsonii, having a
more conspicuous erect rounded flap, covered with hairs similar to those on the crown of the
head; they resemble in form the ears of the. Hudson’s Bay Squirrel, but are not so large.
E y e larger than that of Sciurus Hudsonius. Cheek-pouches of a moderate, size. Whiskers.
mostly black.
The f u r is. coarser than that of A . Richardsonii ; it is about four or five lines long. The
colour of the back is pale reddish-brown, minutely and regularly speckled with black. The
tips of all the hairs are brown; the black forms a ring beneath the brown ; below the black
P u b lish ed by. John, Murray Ja ru u n y 18ZS.