Inches.
Dimensions.
Lines. B . Inches. Lines
Length of head and body . . 11 0 Height of the ear . . . . -Q 6
,, head . . , . . 2 • 3 Width of ditto at its base , . . 0 6
,, body . . . . 8 9 Length of middle fore-claw 0 6
,, ' tail (vertebra) , . . 5 0 „ from heel to tip of middle hind-daw 2 2
,, tail, including fur . 6 6 ,, of middle hind-toe and daw 1 0
,, whiskers . . . 2 0 „ middle hind-daw . 0 34
The foUomng anatomical notices were furnished by Mr. Collie:—This spermophile has an
epiglottis ; a firm, bony clavicle; a large, simple stomach, resembling that of man in form>
and equalling, in bulk, the whole stomach and liver. The intestinal canal is five times the
length of the body, and it is not furnished within with valoulce conniventes. The ccecum is a
large, curved, membranous pouch, three inches and a half long. The liver is of a dark-red
colour, and has a large lobulus spigelii, but its left lobe is small. The gall-bladder is deeply
imbedded in the liver. The spleen is oblong and purplish. There is no well-marked pancreas.
The kidneys are situated close to the liver ; and there are no vestiges of capsules renales#.
[54.] 11. A r c t o m y s ? ( S p e r m o p h il u s ?) D o u g l a s i i . Douglass Marmot.
A. Spermophilixs ? (Douglasii), auriculis conspicuis, corpore super antice pruinoso lined interscapulari nigrescenti-
postice pallide brunnescenti maculis fuligneis interstincto; subler sordide albescenti, caudd elongatd
cylindricd pilis albis nigro torquatis vestitu.
Douglas’s Marmot, with cheek-pouches, conspicuous ears, upper surface of the body hoary anteriorly, with a black
stripe betwixt the shoulders; pale-brown posteriorly, with many indistinct transverse dark marks; tail
long? cylindrical, and clothed with hairs, which are ringed alternately with black and white,
Through the kindness of Mr. David Douglas, I have received from the banks
of the Columbia, a hunter’s skin of an animal, which very much resembles the
preceding one. The skull and teeth are wanting, neither is it possible now to
ascertain whether cheek-pouches existed or not, so that, until more perfect specimens
are procured, some doubt must remain as to its place in the system. The *
* Fernandez gives the following account of the Coztiocotequallin :— “ Quauhtecallotl-quapachtli, aut Coztiocote-
quallin à luteo alvi colore dictus, in duplam ferè crescit magnitudinem (Sciuri Mexicani) alboque, nigro et fusco colore
promiscuè tegitur, si ventrem excipias qui pallens est, aut fulvus quemadmodum attigimus, et caudam gerit prælongam,
pilosamque quâ se interdum operit ; vivit in terræ foraminibus, et antris inclusus, in quibus quoque educat prolem :
vescitur indico frumenti, quod raptum ab arvis in hyemem recondit. Versutus est velut et reliqui, nec unquam'
cicuratur, aut congenitam deponit feritatem.”
form of its claws, however, the second fore-toe being the longest, together with
the shortness of its tail and ears, and the quality and colours of its fur, induce me
to think that it is a true spermophile, nearly allied to A. Franlclinii and A. Beecheyi.
It agrees with these two, in the length, form, and colours of its tail; and the
colours exhibited by its fur have such a general resemblance, that, although they
can be readily distinguished by any one who has compared them, it is not easy to
convey a distinct idea of the differences by description. The A. Douglasii is
larger than either of the other two referred to ; and its claws are shorter. Its ears
are less than those of A. Beecheyi; but considerably larger in proportion than
those of A. Fran/clinii.
D E S C R I P T IO N .
The fur, as in the other marmots, is of two kinds,—a short down, and longer and coarser
hairs. Thu longer hairs are slender at their roots, become thicker upwards, and then taper
suddenly near the points, which are acute. They are not so long, nor do they produce so
fine and clo?e a covering as the fur of any of the North American squirrels which have come
under my notice. On the back the down has a blackish-brown colour, deepening into black
over the spine; on the sides, and also on the belly, it has a clove-brown colour; but the skin
being apparently a summer one, there is very little down on the belly. The longer hairs are,
for about two-thirds of their length, of a brownish-black colour, then brownish-white for a
space, and lastly, terminated by fine black tips of various lengths. On the shoulders the
hairs near their tips are pure white, instead of brownish-white, and the black tips are slender,
and not conspicuous, except in the hairs covering the spine.
Colours o f the surface o f the fu r.—The sides of the mouth, and a narrow space round the
eyes, are of a soiled, white hue. The tip of the nose is covered with very short, brownish
hairs. The upper surface of the head is hoary, with a slight tinge of brown ; the hairs
covering this part are short, and their black tips are much less conspicuous than their
brownish-white parts. The ears are clove-brown posteriorly, deepening into blackish-brown
at their margins ; they are of a paler brown anteriorly. The superior surface of the neck and
anterior part of the back appear hoary from an intimate mixture of pure white and blackish-
brown, in which the former greatly predominates except over the spine, where there is a stripe
of blackish-brown, varied by a very few of the hairs being ringed with white. The predominating
colour of the surface of the fur on the posterior part of the back, is brownish-white,
on which there are many small, transverse, blackish specks, not distinctly marked. The
whole under parts are of a soiled white colour, with a brownish tinge on the throat, on the
inside of the thighs, and close to the tail. The extremities are whitish, with more or less
of a brownish tinge.
The tail is’-long for an animal of this genus, and exactly resembles in form and colour that
of A. Franlclinii. It is clothed with long hairs, white or brownish-white at the roots, then