much compressed. They have a yellow colour. The crowns of the grinders as th6y wear
acquire an even surface,
. Fur.—The upper-lip is covered with short hair of a dull yellowish-brown colour; The
cheeks and forehead are clothed with liver-brown hair, moderately long, interspersed with
a very few black and white hairs. The hair on the.body,.both above and below, is long,
and of a dull liver-brown colour, intermixed on all the upper parts and on the hips with still
longer hairs, some of which are entirely black, others entirely white, and a third set black at
the roots and white at the tips. The white hairs are most numerous on the posterior part
of the body. There are also many round spindle-shaped, sharp-pointed spines or quills
fixed amongst the hair which covers the upper parts. The spines commence on the crown
bt the head, and are there short, thick, very sharp-pointed, and very numerous. There are a
good many longer and more slender ones on the shoulders and fore-part of the back. There are
also many on the sides and middle of the back, but these are still more slender and flexible as
well as less conspicuous. The buttocks and thighs are thickly set with long, Very strong, and
sharp spines. Some of the spines are entirely white, others brown at the tips. The ihroal
and belly are covered with brown hair, not so long as that on the back, lying more smoothly,
and unmixed with either white hairs or spines. The tail is covered tvith brown hair above
and below, and soiled white hair on its margin and tip. There are many small spines
amongst the hair on its upper surface.
The legs are covered with brown hairs, mixed on their exterior surfaces with some white
ones. .The palms are nearly oval, or rather egg-shaped, being semicircular before and
narrower behind. There are four very short toes on the fore-feet, which are armed with long,
compressed, curved, blackish claws, grooved underneath their whole length. Their points are
not acute. The middle or second fore-toe is rather the longest, the one on each side of it
is scarcely inferior in length, and the outer one is a little smaller and somewhat further back.
The hind-soles are oval, approaching to circular, larger than the palms, destitute of hair and
covered with a rough skin like shagreen. There are five toes on the hind-foot, which do not
differ much from each other in length, but their roots and consequently their extremities are
arranged in a curved line, corresponding with that of the anterior margin of the soles. The
hind-claws resemble the fore-ones. The hair which covers the upper surface of the feet curves
down by the sides of the soles, and being worn even, as if clipped off, it forms a thick marginal
brush, which considerably increases the diameter of the soles, and fits them for walking on
the snow.
The Canada porcupines vary in the depth of their colours. Pennant informs Us that Sir
Ashton Lever had a white one.
D i m e n s i o n s .
Length of the head and body » . 30 0 Diameter of the eye »
Inches. Lines
« 0 2
„ tail » » « 8 0 Breadth of the nose * . * 1 0
Height of the centre of the back i h 0 Length of the longest claw « 1 6
Length of hair on the body {• - * 3 9
£68.] fig L e pu s A m e r i c a .n u s . (Erxlebein.) The American Hare.
G e n u s . Lepus. L i n n .
Lièvre, (Queutonmalisià.) Sagard-Theodat, Canada, p. 747. An. 1636.
Hare, Hedge-coney. Lawson, p. 122. Catesby, App., xxviii.
Rabbit. S m i t h , Voy., vol., i. p. 156. An. 1748.
American Hare. K a l m , Travels, vol. i. p. 105 ; vol. ii. p. 45.
Lepus Americanus. E r x l e b e in , Syst.,' An. 1777-
Lepus Hudsonius. P a l l a s , Glires, p. 30. An. 1778.
American Hare. Forster, Phil. Trans., vol. lxii. p. 376. Pennant, Arct.\ Zool., vol. i. p. 90. Hearne,
Journ., p. 384. •
Lepus Americanus. Sabine, Franklin's Journ., p. 664. Richardson, Append. Parry's Second Voy., p. 324.
Harlan, Fauna, p. 193.
The American Hare. G o d m a n , Nat. Hist., vol. ii. p. 157-
Wawpoos. C r e e I n d ia n s . Kali. C h e p e w y a n s .
Rabbit. European Residents at Hudson’s Bay.
Le lapin. French Canadians.
This is a common animal, in the woody districts of North America, from one
extremity of the continent to the other. It abounds in Mackenzie’s River as high
as the sixty-eighth parallel of latitude*; but on the barren grounds to the eastward
of the Coppermine, and on the extensive plains or prairies through which the
Missouri and Saskatchewan flow, it is replaced by other and larger species.
The American Hare does not burrow. In the northern districts it resides
mostly in willow thickets, or in woods where willows or dwarf birch constitute
much of the underwood. The bark of the willow forms a great part of its food
in the winter, but in the summer it eats grass and other vegetables. It is reported
to do much damage in cultivated districts, to fields of cabbage or turnips. In the
fur countries, few are killed in the summer, because the natives can then procure
abundance of water-fowl and game of various kinds. In the winter, however,
thev are more sought after, and in the Hare-Indian country, on the banks of the
Mackenzie, where larger animals are scarce during that season, they constitute
the chief food of the natives. They are principally taken in snares set in the paths
that they make through the snow, and fixed to a pole which springs up when the
noose is drawn, care being taken to obstruct their passage on one side of the
noose by a small hedge of branches. To prevent them from cutting the snare
* From a clerical error in tbe appendix to Capt. Franklin’s Narrative, it is stated that the American hare does not
exist “ further north than Carlton-house.” It should have been “ further north than Fort Enterprise.”^
2 F