This specimen, which is a male, closely resembles _S. parvus_, but it is much larger; the head is proportionably much larger and more elongated; the tail more robust, and the inferior anterior pair of incisores are similar to those of S. _constrictus_, fig. 7. pl. 15. of the Mem. du Mus. by Mr. Geoffroy St. Hilaire. The incisors of the superior jaw are twelve in number, in a cranium belonging to this species, five on each side in addition the two larger anterior ones; the posterior tooth of the lateral ones is smallest.
May not this be the animal mentioned by the late professor Barton in his Medical and Physical Journal, for March, 1816, which, he says, "may be called the black shrew?" I do not know that the black shrew has ever received any further notice, unless it is the same species to which Mr. Ord has applied the name of _Sorex niger_.--JAMES.
[188] See Thwaites, _Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition_, Appendix, vol. vii, doc. xviii.--ED.
Animals--Sioux and Omawhaw Indians--Winter Residence at Engineer Cantonment
The subsequent account of the transactions at and near Council Bluff, and of the observations made there, we copy from the journal of Mr. Say.
Descriptions of some of the animals which occurred, are given in the notes below.[189]
The prairie wolves[190] roam over the plains in considerable numbers, and during the night, the principal season of their hunts, they venture very near to the encampment of the traveller. They are by far the most numerous of our wolves, and often unite in packs for the purpose of chasing deer, which they very frequently succeed in running down, and killing. This, however, is an achievement attended with much difficulty to them, and in which the exertion of their utmost swiftness and cunning are so often unavailing, that they are sometimes reduced to the necessity of eating wild plums, and other fruits, to them almost indigestible, in order to distend the stomach, and appease, in a degree, the cravings of hunger.
Their bark is much more distinctly like that of the domestic dog, than of any other animal; in fact the first two or three notes could not be distinguished from the bark of a small terrier, but these notes are succeeded by a lengthened scream.