[189] I. Vespertilio pruinosus.—Ears large, short, not so long as the head, hairy on the exterior side more than half their length; tragus very obtuse at tip, arcuated; canine teeth large, prominent; incisors, only one distinct one on each side, placed very near the canine, conic, almost on a line with it, and furnished with a small tubercle on its exterior base; nostrils distant; fur of the back, long, black brown at base, then pale brownish-yellow, then blackish, then white; towards the rump dark ferruginous takes the place of the brownish-yellow on the fur; beneath the colours are similar to those of the back; but on the anterior portion of the breast the fur is not tipped with white, and on the throat it is dull yellowish-white dusky at base; the brachial membrane is densely hairy on the anterior margin beneath; interfemoral membrane covered with fur: length nearly 4½ inches.

This bat is common in this region, and was observed by Mr. Thomas Nuttall at Council Bluffs. It is a fine large species, and remarkable for its many-coloured fur. It has much affinity with the New York bat, (V. novaboracensis,) but is more than double its size, and is distinguished from it by many minor characters.

The late professor Barton, presented a specimen of this bat to the Philadelphia museum, that had been captured in Philadelphia.

2. Vespertilio arquatus.—Head large, ears rather shorter than the head, wide, and at tip, rounded, hairy at base, posterior edge with two slight and very obtuse emarginations; the anterior base distant from the eye; tragus arquated, obtuse at tip; interfemoral membrane naked, including the tail to one half of the penultimate joint.

Total length 5 inches: tail 1½ inches.

Expansion more than 13 inches.

This bat might be readily mistaken for the Carolina bat, (V. carolinensis, Geoff.) which it resembles in colour, but differs from it in being of a larger size, the ears broader and proportionally shorter, and an arquated tragus, curving in an almost luniform manner towards the anterior portion of the ear, like that of the V. serotinus, Daub. Geoff., though not so broad. The upper incisor teeth, like those of several of our species of bats, are not prominent; they are very much inclined forward, and do not rise at their tips above the level of the intermediate callosity.—James.

[190] 1. Canis latrans.—Cinereous or gray, varied with black above, and dull fulvous, or cinnamon; hair at base dusky plumbeous, in the middle of its length dull cinnamon, and at tip gray or black, longer on the vertebral line; ears erect, rounded at tip, cinnamon behind, the hair dark plumbeous at base, inside lined with gray hair; eyelids edged with black, superior eyelashes black beneath, and at tip above; supplemental lid margined with black-brown before, and edged with black-brown behind; iris yellow; pupil black-blue; spot upon the lachrymal sac black-brown; rostrum cinnamon, tinctured with grayish on the nose; lips white, edged with black, three series of black seta; head between the ears intermixed with gray, and dull cinnamon, hairs dusky plumbeous at base; sides paler than the back, obsoletely fasciate with black above the legs; legs cinnamon on the outer side, more distinct on the posterior hair: a dilated black abbreviated line on the anterior ones near the wrist; tail bushy, fusiform, straight, varied with gray and cinnamon, a spot near the base above, and tip black: the tip of the trunk of the tail, attains the tip of the os calcis, when the leg is extended; beneath white, immaculate; tail cinnamon towards the tip, tip black; posterior feet four-toed, anterior five-toed.

	ft.	in.
Total length (excepting the hair at tip of tail)	3	9½
Trunk of the tail	1	0½
Hind foot os calcis to tip of claw	0	71⁄5
Fore foot elbow to tip of claw	1	0¾
Ears from top of head	0	4
Rostrum from anterior can thus of the eye	0	3¾

Taken in a trap, baited with the body of a wild cat.

The line on the anterior side of the anterior feet, near the wrist, is wanting in a second specimen.

This species varies very much in size; another specimen measured—

	ft.	in.
In total length (excepting the hair at tip of tail)	3	2½
Tail (excepting the hair at tip of tail)	0	11¾
Ear from top of head to tip	0	35⁄8

The snout was narrower than in the preceding specimens, but in colour similar.

Another specimen was destitute of the cinnamon colour, excepting on the snout, where it was but slightly apparent; the general colour was, therefore, gray with an intermixture of black, in remote spots and lines, varying in position and figure with the direction of the hair.

2. Canis nubilus.—Dusky, the hair cinereous at base, then brownish-black, then gray, then black; the proportion of black upon the hair is so considerable as to give to the whole animal a much darker colour than the darkest of the latrans; but the gray of the hairs combining with the black tips, in the general effect, produce a mottled appearance; the gray colour, predominates on the lower part of the sides; ears short, deep brownish-black, with a patch of gray hair on the anterior side within; muzzle blackish above; superior lips, anterior to the canine teeth, gray; inferior jaw at tip, and extending in a narrowed line backwards, nearly to the origin of the neck, gray; beneath dusky ferruginous, greyish, with long hair between the hind thighs, and with a large white spot on the breast; the ferruginous colour is very much narrowed on the neck, but is dilated on the lower part of the cheeks; legs brownish-black, with but a slight admixture of gray hairs, excepting on the anterior edge of the hind thighs, and the lower edgings of the toes, where the gray predominates; the tail is short, fusiform, a little tinged with ferruginous black above, near the base and at tip, the tip of the trunk hardly attaining to the os calcis; the longer hairs of the back, particularly over the shoulders, resemble a short sparse mane.

	ft.	in.
Length from the tip of the nose to the origin of the tail	4	3¾
Length of the trunk of the tail	1	1
Ear, from anterior angle to the tip	0	3¾
From the anterior angle of the ear, to the posterior canthus of the eye,	0	4¾
From anterior canthus of the eye, to the middle of the tip of the nose,	0	5½
Between the anterior angles of the ears, rather more than	0	3

The aspect of this animal is far more fierce and formidable than either the common red wolf, or the prairie wolf, and is of a more robust form. The length of the ears and tail distinguish it at once from the former, and its greatly superior size, besides the minor characters of colour, &c., separate it from the prairie wolf. As the black wolf (C. lycaon,) is described to be of a deep and uniform black colour, and his physiognomy is represented to be nearly the same as that of the common wolf, it is beyond a doubt different from this species. It has the mane of the mexicanus. It diffuses a strong and disagreeable odour, which scented the clothing of Messrs. Peale and Dougherty, who transported the animal several miles from where they killed it to the cantonment.

1. Sylvia celatus.—Above dull greenish-olive; rump and tail coverts purer greenish-olive; primaries and tail feathers blackish-brown, olive-green on the exterior margins, and white on the interior margin; head very slightly and inconspicuously crested; crest with the feathers orange at base; bill horn colour, slender, base of the inferior mandible whitish beneath; beneath olivaceous yellow; inferior tail coverts pure yellow; legs dusky.

Length 5¼ inches.

Shot at Engineer Cantonment early in May. This bird is distinguished by the colour of the feathers on the crown of the head, which are of a fulvous colour, tipped with the same colour as that of the neck and back, so that the fulvous colour does not appear at first sight. The wings are destitute of any white band, and the margins of the six exterior primaries are much paler than those of the others. We cannot find any description of this bird; it seems, however, to approach nearest to the S. leucogastra, Steph., Nashville warbler of Wilson; but in our specimen the belly is not white, neither does Wilson's description of the colour of the head of his Nashville warbler agree at all with that of our bird.

2. Sylvia bifasciata.—Above bluish; all beneath white; head highly varied with darker; between the eyes and bill blackish; bill black; interscapulars lineate with blackish; wings blackish; shoulders bluish; wing coverts with two white bands; primaries margined with white on the inner side, and with plumbeous on the exterior side; tail black; feathers blackish, white on the inner margin, and plumbeous on the exterior margin; and, excepting the two middle ones, with a white spot on the inner side, near the tip; flanks spotted with plumbeous; feet black.

Length rather more than 4¾ inches.

Shot in May, near Engineer Cantonment. This species seems to approach very closely to S. cærulea.

Genus Limosa, Cuv.

Limosa scolopacea.—Dusky cinereous; bill, straight; upper mandible a little longer, and very slightly arquated towards the tip; the grooves continue to near the tip, about as long again as the head, yellowish green; tip black, dilated, rugose, with a dorsal groove; palate with reflected, cartilaginous spines; head with a line from the upper mandible, passing over the eye and inferior orbit; white cheeks, chin, throat, and origin of the breast, cinereous; the plumage margined with dull whitish; back beneath the interscapulars, white; rump, plumage white, fasciate with black; tail coverts, and tail white fasciate with black, which latter colour is more abundant; lesser wing coverts margined with whitish; greater wing coverts black, terminal margin white: secondaries black, margin and submargin white; primaries black, interior ones very slightly edged with white; outer shaft white, a little longer than the second; breast and belly white; sides spotted or undulated with blackish cinereous; inferior tail coverts with black abbreviated bands, the white prevailing; feet dirty greenish; toes webbed at base, the exterior one reaching the first joint of outer toe, the interior one very short; hind toe rather long.

	inches.
Length from tip of bill to that of the tail,	11¾
Length of bill,	2¾
Length of feet,	5¾
Length from the knee to the origin of the feathers,	11⁄10

Tail projecting more than one inch beyond the tip of the wing.

Several specimens were shot in a pond near the Bowyer creek. Corresponds with the genus scolopax, Cuv. in having the dorsal grooves at the tip of the upper mandible, and in having this part dilated and rugose; but the eye is not large, nor is it placed far back upon the head; which two latter characters, combined with its more elevated and slender figure, and the circumstance of the thighs being denudated of feathers high above the knee, and the exterior toe being united to the middle toe by a membrane, which extends as far as the first joint, and the toes being also margined, combine to distinguish this species from those of the genus to which the form and characters of its bill would refer it, and approach it more closely to limosa. In one specimen the two exterior primaries on each wing were light brown, but the quills were white. It may perhaps with propriety be considered as the type of a new genus, and under the following characters, be placed between the genera scolopax and limosa.

Bill longer than the head, dilated and rugose at tip: tip slightly curved downwards, and with a dorsal groove: nasal groove elongated; feet long, an extensive naked space above the knee; toes slightly margined, a membrane connecting the basal joints of the exterior toes; first of the primaries rather longest.

Genus Pelidna, Cuv.

1. Pelidna pectoralis.—Bill black, reddish-yellow at base; upper mandible with a few indented punctures near the tip; head above black, plumage margined with ferruginous, a distinct brown line from the eye to the upper mandible; cheeks and neck beneath cinereous very slightly tinged with rufous, and lineate with blackish; orbits and line over the eye white; chin white; neck above dusky, plumage margined with cinereous, scapulars, interscapulars, and wing coverts black, margined with ferruginous, and near the exterior tips with whitish; primaries dusky, slightly edged with whitish, outer quill shaft white; back, (beneath the interscapulars, rump) and tail coverts black, immaculate; tail feathers dusky, margined with white at tip, two intermediate ones longest, acute, attaining the tip of the wings, black, edged with ferruginous: breast, venter, vent and inferior tail coverts white, plumage blackish at base; sides white, the plumage towards the tail slightly lineate with dusky; feet greenish-yellow; toes divided to the base.

Length nearly	9 inches.
Bill	11⁄8 inches

This bird in many respects resembles cinclus, but as the average size of that bird is stated at seven inches and one or two lines, ours is doubtless a distinct species. Many flocks of them were seen at Engineer Cantonment, both in the spring and autumn, the individuals of which corresponded in point of magnitude: we add a description for the information of ornithologists. It is described from a specimen in the autumnal plumage. In the spring dress, the colour of the superior part of the bird is much paler, almost destitute of black, and the feathers are brownish, margined with pale cinereous; the superior part of the head is always darker than any part of the neck, and margined with ferruginous; the plumage of the neck beneath, and the breast, does not appear to be subject to so much change, as that of the superior part of the body.

2. Pelidna cinclus. Var.—Above blackish-brown, plumage edged with cinereous, or whitish; head and neck above cinereous with dilated fuscous lines; eyebrows white; a brown line between the eye and corner of the mouth, above which the front is white; cheeks, sides of the neck, and throat, cinereous, lineate with blackish-brown; bill short, straight, black; chin, breast, belly, vent, and inferior tail coverts pure white, plumage plumbeous at base; scapulars and lesser wing coverts margined with white; greater wing coverts with a broad white tip; primaries surpassing the tip of the tail, blackish, slightly edged with whitish, exterior shaft white, shafts whitish on the middle of their length; rump blackish, plumage margined at tip with cinereous tinctured with rufous; tail coverts white, submargins black; tail feathers cinereous margined with white, two middle ones slightly longer, black, margined with white; legs blackish. A male.

Length to tip of tail	7 inches.
Bill	7⁄8 of an inch.

This bird was shot in November, near Engineer Cantonment, and it is probably a variety of the very variable cinclus in its winter plumage.—James.

[191] A sketch of Big Elk is given in Bradbury's Travels, volume v of our series, note 52.—Ed.

[192] Some reminiscences of White Cow (or White Buffalo), will be found in Nebraska Historical Society Transactions, i, p. 79 et seq.—Ed.

[193] Joshua Pilcher was a Virginian who came to St. Louis when a young man, during the War of 1812-15, and there plied his trade of hatter. He became a director of the bank of St. Louis, and entered the Missouri Fur Company upon its organization, succeeding Manuel Lisa as president upon the latter's death. Upon the dissolution of this company, he was for a time at Council Bluffs in charge of the American Fur Company's interests. He succeeded William Clark as superintendent of Indian affairs (1838), holding the position until his death, in 1847.—Ed.

[194] Coluber flaviventris.—Olivaceous, beneath yellow; inferior jaw beneath white; scales destitute of carina.

Description. Body above, olivaceous; tinged with brown on the vertebræ; scales impunctured at tip, posterior edges and basal edge black; skin black, beneath yellow, rather paler behind; inferior jaw beneath white to the origin of the plates; head with nine plates above, two longitudinal series, of about four large scales each, intervening on each side between the two posterior plates and the three posterior supermaxillary plates; intermaxillary plate somewhat heptagonal, dilated, emarginate at the mouth, superior angle obtusely pointed; eye black-brown, pupil deep black, surrounded by a whitish line, posterior canthus with two plates.

Plates 176, scales 84

Plates 174, scales —

	ft.	in.
Total length	3	4½
Tail		85⁄8
Head, to the tip of the maxillary bones		13⁄20
Another specimen, plates 130, scales 91.
Total length	3	113⁄8
Tail		11½

Three specimens were found. The inferior surface of one was immaculate, but that of the smaller one had on each side of the plates an obsolete double series of reddish-brown spots, irregularly alternate on each side; these were so indistinct as not to be noticed at the first glance of the eye. The tip of the tail in this last is deficient.

2. Coluber parietalis.—Above blackish, with three yellowish fillets, and about eighty red concealed spots; beneath bluish; a series of black dots each side.

Description. Body above black-brown, a vertebral greenish yellow vitta, and a lateral pale yellow one, beneath which is a fuliginous shade; between the dorsal and lateral vitta are about eighty concealed red spots or semifasciæ, formed upon the skin and lateral margins of the scales, obsolete towards the cloaca, at which the series terminates; scales elongated, all carinate, and slightly reflexed at the lateral edges; head dark olive, beneath white, parietal plates with a double white spot at the middle of the suture; intermaxillary plate subhexagonal, emarginate at the mouth, and at tip hardly angulated, almost rounded in that part, transverse diameter nearly double the longitudinal; superior maxillary plates white, intermediate sutures blackish; eye yellowish, pupil black, posterior canthus two-scaled, beneath bluish green, a longitudinal series of black dots each side at the base of the scuta, terminating at the cloaca.

Plates 165, scales 88.

	ft.	in.
Total length	1	33⁄10
Tail		49⁄10

This is a common serpent in this section of country. In order to render the lateral red spots very apparent, it is necessary to dilate the skin, when they exhibit a very striking character, being of a vermilion red. It varies in having the lateral series of red spots alternating with a series of smaller red spots nearer to the dorsal line.

In common with ordinatus it has a double common white spot on the parietal plates, and a series of black spots on each side of the interior surface of the body; but in addition to the proportions of plates, and scales, and length of tail, the red colour of the lateral concealed spots very sufficiently denotes its specific dissimilarity from that most common of the serpents of the United States.

3. Coluber proximus.—Body above black, trilineate, vertebral line ocraceous, lateral one yellowish, a double white spot on the parietal plates.

Description. Body above black, with three vittæ; vertebral vitta ocraceous, occupying the dorsal series of scales and a moiety of each one of the second series each side; lateral vitta greenish-yellow, occupying more than the moiety of the seven and eight series of scales: beneath the lateral vitta the black is tinged with greenish-blue; head with seven olivaceous plates above; parietal ones with a double, white, longitudinal spot: intermaxillary plate pentangular, the superior termination obtusely rounded; posterior canthus of the eye three-scaled, of which the two inferior ones are white; anterior canthus white; supermaxillary plates bluish-green; maxillary angles with a small black dot; inferior maxilla white beneath; beneath pale greenish-blue.

Plates 178, scales 86.

Total length	2 ft.	7¼ in.
Tail		7¾ in.

Resembles Coluber saurita, ordinatus and parietalis. Numerous longitudinal, abbreviated white lines, may be observed by dilating the black portion of the skin as in ordinatus; these lines or spots are obsolete upon the neck and upon the posterior portion of the body. The extreme tip of the tail is wanting in this specimen.

It differs from saurita in the numerical proportion which its subcaudal scales bear to its plates; from ordinatus it may be distinguished by being destitute of the two series of black points beneath; it is a much more slender serpent than parietalis, and the tail is proportionally longer.—James.

[195] The name of this dance is apparently a derivative of the Canadian-French gingue (se mettre en), meaning to engage in the gaiety of a lively company. The verb ginguer means to run or jump hither and thither; it is a derivative of the Norman giguer, which has the same meaning.—Ed.

[196] Lucien Fontenelle, born in New Orleans of French parents, fled from his home when fifteen years of age, and engaged in the fur-trade at St. Louis. Later he became a leader in the mountain explorations of the American Fur Company. His wife was an Omaha woman, and some of his descendants were prominent in the history of Nebraska; a son, Logan Fontenelle, became a chief of the Omaha tribe. Fontenelle is supposed by some to have committed suicide at Fort Laramie, about 1836, but the manner of his death is uncertain.—Ed.

[197] The Gens des Feuilles (People of the Leaves) were the Assiniboin tribe of the Siouan family. Lewis and Clark reported their numbers at two hundred and fifty men. At that time they lived on White River, in South Dakota.—Ed.

[198] In Dickinson County, Iowa.—Ed.

[199] Sha-mon-e-kus-se.—James.

[200] Loup (Wolf) River is a large northern tributary of the Platte, which empties into the latter a few miles below Columbus, Platte County. It rises in the arid sand hills of northwestern Nebraska, and flows southeast for three hundred miles to the confluence. It is sometimes called the Pawnee Loup River, from the dominant Indian tribe on its waters.—Ed.

[201] One of the ladies was Madam Lisa; the name of the other is not known. They are supposed to have been the first white women to ascend the Missouri to this point.—Ed.

[202] Daniel Ketchum owed his title of major to a brevet awarded for distinguished services at the battle of Niagara Falls. He entered the army early in the war as second lieutenant in the 25th Infantry, and rose through a first lieutenancy to a captaincy in 1813. He died in 1828.—Ed.

[203] Little is recorded concerning this individual. His name was probably Michael, and he had been a United States army officer. The circumstances of his death are better known than the incidents of his life, he having been killed by the Indians (1823) on the Yellowstone.—Ed.

[204] Compare the astonishment of the Indians at the appearance of Captain Clark's negro servant York, in Thwaites, Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, index.—Ed.

[205] The succeeding chapters [the last in this volume, and the first five in the next], which relate to the manners and customs of the Indians, chiefly the Omawhaws, are from the notes of Mr. Say.—James.

Comment by Ed. With the account of the Omaha here given, compare Dorsey, "Omaha Sociology," in Bureau of Ethnology Report, 1881-82, p. 205.

[206] See No. 43 in Language of Signs, Appendix B, volume xvii.—Ed.

[207] In corroboration of the remarks given in the text, we add the following account of an interview which Major O'Fallon had with Indians of the Mississippi,[B] whose agent has been hitherto unable to restrain them from carrying on warlike operations against the Missouri Indians.

In St. Louis, on the 3d April, 1821, B. O'Fallon, agent for Indian affairs on Missouri, met a deputation from the Saukee nation of Indians, on the subject of a most destructive war, carried on by them against the Otoes, Missouries, and Omawhaws of his agency, and spoke to them as follows:—

[B] Of the Sauk nation; they call themselves Sauke-waw-ke.

[208] For a sketch of Blackbird, see Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, note 48.—Ed.

[209] On the custom of giving medals to chiefs in recognition of their leadership, see Thwaites, Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, index.—Ed.