CHAPTER SIXTH. QUADRUPEDS OF THE UNITED STATES. 1. BAT.-New York bat, Vespertilio noveberacensis, Gmel.; described by Pennant and by Shaw, is two inches and a half from the nose to the tail; the tail one eight-tenth inches; the extent of its wings ten one-half inches; the head shaped like that of a mouse; the top of the nose a little bifid; the ear short, broad, and round; the tail long, and inclosed in a membrane, which is of a conical shape; and there is a white spot at the base of each wing. 2. Carolina bat, Rhinopome of Carolina, described by Geoffroy, has ten upper incisive teeth, and four under, two canine in each jaw, four molar, or grinders above, and five below, on each side; nose long, conical, and of a square form at the extremity; ears large, tail long, and connected with the membrane at the insertion only. It differs in many respects from the Rhinopome microphylle described by the same naturalist in the great work upon Egypt. 3. Red bat, (described by Wilson in his Ornithology, Vol. VI., pl. 50, fig. 4.) seen in Pennsyl vania suspended to the branches of trees in the forest, and very numerous near Carlyle. The tail about the length of the body; the membrane twelve inches broad; ears half an inch in length; eyes very small; six incisive inferior teeth; no crest; the general colour a reddish grey; the membrane brownish; the nose encircled with white. It is devoured by the Strix flammea owl. Mr Des Marets has found, from this description, a great resemblance between the Vespertilio and the Pipistrella of Europe. 4. The Brown mole, Talpa fusca of Shaw; brown mole, with white feet and tail; the fore feet very broad. Sorex aquaticus of Linnæus. Scalops of Cuvier. 5. The Red mole of Seba, Talpa rubra Americana. Talpa rufa of Shaw; and which doubtless belongs to the genus chrysochloris of Lacepede according to Cuvier. Rufous mole, with short tail, fore feet tridactylous; hinder tetradactylous. 6. Radiated mole. Talpa radiata. Sorex cristatus of Linnæus. Black mole, with white feet, and nose radiated with papillæ; belonging essentially to the genus Talpa, or mole. * The long * Purple mole of Virginia, first described by Seba under the name of Talpa Virginianus niger, and by Shaw under that of Talpe purpurascens. Black mole, with a gloss of purple, and white tail, feet pentadactylous. Brown tailed mole, Talpa longicauda, Shaw. mole, with tail of middling length, and pentadactylous feet; the hinder ones scaly. The length from the nose to the tail four one-half inches nearly; the tail two inches. 7. Black Bear, Ursus Americanus, Pallas, Spic. Zool. 14, p. 6, 26. Black bear, with ferruginous cheeks and throat, and sometimes wholly ferruginous; resembles the black bear of Europe, except in the forehead, which is flat. His legs are short; his form clumsy, and generally very fat. He feeds on acorns, nuts, berries, grapes, on sweet-apples, and the fruit of the date plum tree, of which he is fond, as well as of maize in an unripe state. He is not carnivorous, and discovers a timid disposition except when wounded, in which case he will attack an armed man. The female, in defence of her young, will also turn furiously upon her pursuer. In the state of New York there are two kinds of Black Bear, where they are distinguished by the name of long-legged and short-legged bear. The latter is stouter, heavier, and fatter than the former, the largest in the state of New York weighing 400 pounds; its motion is also slower, and it is of a shyer disposition. The Black Bear is an inhabitant of the continent, from the province of Maine to the Pacific Ocean. It was seen by Lewis and Clarke on the Rocky Mountains, and on the borders of the Columbia Plains. 8. Brown Bear, known also by the name of Ranging Bear; resembles the former in the general shape, but it is not so fat, and the body and legs are longer. It differs also, in being sometimes carnivorous, and much more ferocious when hungry, or wounded. In winter it migrates towards the south, and, like the former, retires at the first appearance of snow, to the cavity of some rock, or hollow tree, where it remains till the close of winter, in a state of seeming inanimation. 9. Grizzly Bear. This bear, the largest and most ferocious of his kind, inhabits the upper parts of the Missouri country, the covered borders of the Yellow and the Little Missouri rivers, and the chain of Rocky Mountains. So great in his mus cular strength, that he destroys with ease the largest buffalo. His weight is from 800 to 900 pounds. The fur is employed for muffs and tippets, and the skin brings from twenty to fifty dollars. This bear is of a greyish or grizzly colour, sometimes brownish and whitish. It is much larger, stronger, and swifter than the largest Brown Bear. One shot by the party of Lewis and Clarke weighed between 500 and 600 pounds; its length from the nose to the extremity of the hind feet was eight feet seven inches and a half; round the breast five feet ten inches; round the neck three feet eleven inches; round the middle of the fore leg one foot inches, five in each foot. eleven inches; talons four On the back of the neck there is a large tuft of hair; the tail is shorter than that of the common bear; the hair is longer, finer, and more abundant; the testicles are pendent from the belly, in separate pouches, two or three inches asunder. * Among the American hunters and travellers it has been long a general opinion, that the young were produced in a shapeless state, and licked by the tongue of the mother into form and life; and Lawson, enthusiastically fond of natural history, remarks, “that no man, either Christian or Indian, ❝ had ever killed a she bear with young;" but since his time, Mr Bingham of Salisbury, in the state of Connecticut, in December 1799, killed the female in her den, where he found three young ones, of regular shape, and as large as a kitten of two months old. In February 1818, the American Black Bear of the Menagerie of the Garden of Plants at Paris, brought forth a young one, about the size of a rat, and of a grey colour. It is now known that the female seeks for parturition the most retired and inaccessible places, apart from the male, and that the period of gestation is about six months, which accounts for the ignorance that *The yellow bear of Carolina, in Catton's figures of quadru peds, referred to by Shaw, is unknown in the United States. The figure is said to be from a living one kept in the Tower, the colour of which was no doubt accidental. |