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U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA

ISTo. 31

[Actual date of publication, October 19, 1910]

-y

REVISION OF THE WOOD RATS OF THE
GENUS NEOTOMA

EDWARD A. GOLDMAN

FIELD NATURALIST, BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

Prepared under the direction of

HENRY W. HENSHAW

CHIEF OF BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

1910

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA

No. 31

[Actual date of publication. October 19, 1910]

t

REVISION OF THE WOOD RATS OF THE
GENUS NEOTOMA

EDWARD A. GOLDMAN

FIELD NATURALIST, BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

Prepared under the direction of

HENRY W. HENSHAW

CHIEF OF BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

19 10

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

U. S. Department of Agriculture,

Bureau of Biological Survey,

Washington, D. C, June 22, 1910.
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith for publication as
North American Fauna No. 31, Revision of the Wood Rats of the
Genus Neotoma, by Edward A. Goldman, field naturalist of the
Biological Survey. The wood rats are restricted to North America,
where they are widely distributed, especially in the United States, in
the southern part of which they range from the Atlantic to the
Pacific coasts. They are especially numerous in the arid West,
where they do some injury to crops and especially to stored grain.
As the West becomes more densely populated they are likely to inflict
still greater injuries. In view of this, and especially of the fact that
in California the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service has
recently discovered that these rats may serve as carriers of the plague,
the definite information concerning the numerous species and their
distribution contained in this report is important and timely.
Respectfully,

H. W. Henshaw,

Chief, Biological Survey.
Hon. James Wilson,

Secretary of Agriculture.

CONTENTS

Page.

Introduction 7

History and material 7

Distribution .' 8

Habits and economic status 10

General characters 11

Explanation of measurements 12

Subfamily Neotominse 13

Genus Neotoma 13

Subgenera and minor groups 13

List of species and subspecies, with type localities 14

Key to subgenera 15

Key to species and subspecies 16

Subgenus Neotoma 20

Subgenus Homodontomys 86

Subgenus Teonoma 94

Index 123

5

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATES.

Page.
Plate I. Skulls of Neotoma Jloridana, N.f. rubida, N.f. baileyi, N. micropus,

N. m. planiceps, N. pennsylvanica 108

II. Skulls of Neotoma albigula, N. a. venusta, N. a. melanura, N. a.

leucodon, N. latifrons, N. nelsoni 110

III. Skulls of Neotoma palatina, N. montezumse, N. intermedia, N. i.

pretiosa, N. i. arenacea, N. bryanti 112

IV. Skulls of Neotoma anthonyi, N. martinensis, N. mexicana, N. m.

fallax, N. m. pinetorum, N. m. bullata 114

V. Skulls of Neotoma navus, N. torquata, N. distincta, N. ferruginea

chamula, N. f. solitaria, N. f. isthmica 116

VI. Skulls of Neotoma ferruginea picta, N. parvidens, N. tropicalis, N.

desertorum, N. I. stephensi, N. goldmani 118

VII. Skulls of Neotoma (Homodontomys) fuscipes, N. (II.) f. macrotis, N.

(H.)f.annectens. Upper molars of N. Jloridana, N. (H.) fuscipes. 120
VIII. Skulls of Neotoma (Teonoma) cinerea, N. (T.) c. saxamans, N. (T.)

c. orolestes, N. (T.) c. rupicola, N. (T.) c. arizonse 122

TEXT FIGURES.

Fig. 1. Distribution of the genus Neotoma 9

2. Distribution of Neotoma floridana and subspecies 21

3. Distribution of Neotoma micropus and subspecies 27

4. Distribution of the Neotoma albigula group 32

5. Distribution of the Neotoma intermedia group 43

6. Distribution of Neotoma mexicana and subspecies 55

7. Distribution of Neotoma navus, N. torquata, N. distincta, N. tropicalis,

and N. parvidens 62

8. Distribution of Neotoma ferruginea and subspecies 68

9. Distribution of Neotoma chrysomelas 75

10. Distribution of Neotoma desertorum, N. lepida, and subspecies 77

11. Distribution of Neotoma goldmani 82

12. Distribution of Neotoma pennsylvanica 84

13. Distribution of the subgenus Homodontomys (Neotoma fuscipes and

subspecies) 88

14. Distribution of the subgenus Teonoma (Neotoma cinerea and sub-

species) 96

6

No. 31. NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. October, 1910.

EEYISION OF THE WOOD RATS OF THE GENUS NEOTOMA.

By Edward A. Goldman.

INTRODUCTION.
HISTORY AND MATERIAL.

The earliest reference in literature to a native American wood rat
of the genus Neotoma was by Peter Kalm,a who in 1749 cited John
Bartram, of Philadelphia, as authority for the statement that he saw
a "great number" of rats which lived among the rocks in the "Blue
Mountains" of Pennsylvania, came out only at night, and made a
"terrible noise." The animals seen by Bartram probably were of
the species now known as Neotoma pennsylvanica, which was des-
tined to remain without a tenable name until so recently as 1893.
A bushy-tailed species, based on the description of Lewis and Glark,6
was named Mus cinereus by Ordc in 1815, under the assumption that
the animal was Congeneric with the rats of the Old World. In 1818
Ord sent a short description and a figure of a wood rat from eastern
Florida to the Philomatique Society of Paris. The description was
published in the bulletin of the society for December of the same
year under the name Mus jioridanus. De Blainville, who prepared
the account for publication, questioned the applicability of the ge-
neric name Mus, and in 1825 Say and Ord,d who meanwhile had dis-
covered the peculiar dental characters of the species, published a
diagnosis of the genus Neotoma, with Mus jioridanus as type.

The bushy-tailed wood rats were separated from the round-tailed
species as the genus Teonoma by Gray* in 1843, but this name has

«Kalm's Travels (English edition), II, pp. 47-48, 1749.

b Lewis and Clark (Paul Allen edition), I, pp. 289-290, 1814.

c Guthrie's Geog., 2d Amer. ed., II, p. 292, 1815.

dJourn. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., IV, pt. 2, pp. 345-346, 1825.

eList Spec. Mamm., British Museum, p. 117, 1843.

8 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

been regarded by most later authors as of not more than subgeneric
rank. Previous to 1894 seventeen species and subspecies were de-
scribed by various authors, but of their relationships little was known.
Preliminary revision of the genus was begun by Merriam in 1894.
The first of two papers published by him during the year contained
an abstract of a study of the group, and added 14 new names;0 the
second a diagnosis of the subfamily 'Neotominse, and a synopsis of
the then known members of the genus Neotoma.b As a result of the
recent exploration of many previously little -known regions, many
new species and subspecies have been discovered, and since 1894 the
total number of known forms has more than doubled. The large
collections now available have rendered it possible to determine the
validity of names and the status and relationships of the species.

The present revision is mainly the result of a study of the wood
rats in the collection of the Biological Survey, numbering over 3,000
specimens, including topotypes of most of the species. These were
supplemented by those in the United States National Museum, the
private collection of Dr. C. Hart Merriam, and a few loaned or submit-
ted for identification by the American Museum of Natural History,
the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, the Field Museum of Natural
History, and the private collections of E. P. Warren, Joseph Grin-
nell, and F. Stephens, making a total of over 4,000 specimens. I am
especially indebted to Dr. C. Hart Merriam for the privilege of using
his private collection. Acknowledgments are due also for the use of
the collection of the United States National Museum; to Dr. J. A.
Allen, American Museum of Natural History, to Witmer Stone and
James A. G. Rehn, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, to
Dr. D. G. Elliot, Field Museum of Natural History, and to Prof. A.
L. Herrera, City of Mexico, for the loan of types and topotypes, and
to Oldfield Thomas and others.

DISTRIBUTION.

The genus Neotoma is restricted to North America. It reaches
from ocean to ocean in the latitude of the lower Mississippi, but the
species are most numerous along the backbone of the continent from
Nicaragua and Guatemala northward through Mexico and the south-
western United States. The bushy-tailed wood rats (subgenus Teo-
noma) are confined chiefly to the boreal zones in the Sierra Nevada
and Rocky Mountain regions, and reach their northern limit near lat-
itude 60°. No representative of the genus is known from the Hud-
son Bay region or the upper part of the Mississippi Valley. Species
and subspecies are usually limited to one or two life zones, but groups

aProc. Biol. Soc. Wash., IX, pp. 117-128, July 2, 1894.
&Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., pp. 225-254, Sept. 24, 1894.

1010.]

DISTRIBUTION.

comprising closely related forms may extend through several zones.
The vertical range of the members of the mexicana group in southern
Mexico includes every zone from the tropical coastal plains to the

Fig. 1.— Distribution of the genus Neotoma.

lower edge of the Alpine Zone on the high volcanoes. On the south-
west slope of Mount Orizaba Neotoma torquata ranges to timberline
at 13,800 feet, an altitude attained by few mammals in North
America.

10 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

HABITS AND ECONOMIC STATUS.

The habits of all species of wood rats are in general very similar,
but they differ in many details even in the same species according to
the varying conditions of local environment. As a rule the members
of the genus prefer rocky or mountainous areas, where they live com-
monly in cliffs or caves. Cliffs are especially favored because of the
protection from enemies afforded by the deep crevices and over-
hanging shelves. Some species, however, live on level plains or
brushy hillsides in large conical nests composed chiefly of sticks ; but
thorny vegetation, bits of cactus, bones, stones, leaves, and almost
anything else they can carry enter into the construction of their
homes. The habit of building nests of sticks and of accumulating
more or less such material about the entrances to their burrows, even
when in rocky places, is common to most of the species. Many bush-
els of trash are often piled against a rock or the trunk of a tree or in
a small cave. These nests, or burrows, have from one to half a dozen
or more entrances to chambers, both above and below the surface
of the ground. More or less well-defined runways usually radiate in
several directions from the entrances into the surrounding vegeta-
tion or may connect nests many yards apart. Occupied nests may
be known at a glance by their well-kept appearance. Slight addi-
tions and repairs are made frequently, and the runways are cleared
of sticks and leaves. Sure signs of occupation are a few freshly cut
twigs or leaves laid on or stuck into the upper walls. On desert
plains a thick clump of cactus or other thorny vegetation is frequently
chosen as the nest site, and here pieces of cactus are the chief material
used in construction. Often the entire nest is a bristling mass of
thorns, and as a further protection some especially spiny sections are
placed about the openings and along the smoothly worn runways.
When it is remembered that many of the spines have barbed points
sharper than needles, which enter the flesh at the slightest touch, it
is difficult to understand how the builders transport such material
or are themselves able to reach their dwellings without being pierced.

Wood rats are expert climbers, and some species, especially mem-
bers of the fuscipes group, in addition to building surface nests 3
to 5 feet in height, often place dwellings 20 feet or more from the
ground among the upper branches of trees. None of the species are
known to enter water voluntarily, but in Mexico, near the borders of
lagoons, at least one of the species occasionally builds nests in the
tops of mangroves, from which a single well-worn route always leads
through the thick branches out to feeding grounds on the shore, per-
haps 50 or 75 yards away. Wood rats do not frequent towns, but
often live in the vicinity of farmhouses, and have been known to
carry off spoons, knives, forks, pieces of cloth, and many other small
articles, and add them to the general mass of nest material.

1910.] GENERAL CHARACTERS. 11

Wood rats are chiefly nocturnal in habits, but some are partly
diurnal. Their food is largely determined by varying local conditions,
but consists mainly of a great variety of green vegetation, including
grass, leaves, fresh fruit, small bulbs, bark, and cactus stems. Dry
seeds, nuts, and fungi are also eaten. During successive seasons of
drought in the Rio Grande Valley, when ordinary food is scarce and
in consequence most small mammals are greatly reduced in numbers,
wood rats maintain their usual abundance by recourse to the large,
soft, juicy cactuses.

Wood rats have numerous deadly enemies such as owls, hawks,
snakes, wild cats, civet cats, coyotes, foxes, and probably weasels,
which serve to keep their numbers in check. Some of the desert
species are sufficiently numerous to inflict appreciable damage on
growing crops in fields and gardens and to carry off considerable
grain stored on farms, but they have not thus far proven as injurious
as some other rodents. In the arid regions of the Southwest they
girdle and kill many native shrubs and severely injure cactuses,
especially during the long dry season when other food is scarce. When
they attack flat-jointed cactuses they eat the pulp out from one edge
until only thorny semicircular fragments of the rims are left. Some
of the smaller, columnar species of Echinocereus have large holes
gnawed in their bases below or near the surface of the ground, and
the thorny protection of their exposed upper parts is thus avoided.
These holes usually result in the death of the plants. Extensive
injuries to the larger growing plants appear to be connected with local
fluctuations in numbers of wood rats. Some species of Neotoma,
especially N. albigula and N. micropus, may sometimes become
exceedingly abundant in local colonies marked by hundreds of nests
which may later be found abandoned, and in the vicinity almost all
shrubs, including such common species as Fouquiera splendent and
Rhus microphylla, are partly or entirely girdled and killed, the
injuries all old and evidently dating from the time the nests were
occupied.

On the table-land of Mexico wood rats of the albigula group are
regularly hunted for their flesh, and considerable numbers are sold
in the markets of San Luis Potosi and other cities to certain classes
of the native population.

GENERAL CHARACTERS.

Externally the wood rats as a group rather closely resemble and
are often confounded with the Old World rats of the genus Mus,
which were early introduced into America and now almost universally
infest the structures of man. In general coloration of upperparts
the range of variation in the genus Neotoma is from pale shades of
buff or gray to rich orange buff or ferruginous, always more or less

12 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

mixed with black. The underparts are mainly white or pale buff.
Desert forms are usually paler than those inhabiting more humid or
heavily forested areas. In the subgenus Teonoma the tail is flattened
and bushy, like that of a squirrel; in the other subgenera it is round
and rather scantily haired.

The molting season is somewhat irregular, especially in the southern
part of the range of the group. The northern species molt once a
year, toward the end of summer or fall. The southern forms usually
molt in early winter, but individuals in worn and in fresh pelage may
often be seen together. The new coat is generally grayer and brighter
than the old one, and becomes duller and browner in advanced stages
of wear. Very old individuals are apt to become rusty brownish in
worn pelage, and on this account to differ considerably in appearance
from younger ones of breeding age.

In tracing the relationships of the species, color and size are of
much less importance than cranial modifications. Besides the gen-
eral form of the skull, the chief characters of taxonomic value are
the following: Comparative size of anterior and posterior molars;
depth and arrangement of reentrant angles in molar crowns; length
of molariform toothrows; length and posterior form of palatal bridge;
form of frontals, nasals, and interpterygoid fossa; and size and form
of audital bulla?. Every large series of skulls from any given locality
shows considerable individual variation, but always within definite
limits. The differences separating species are well marked and
constant.

EXPLANATION OF MEASUREMENTS.

All measurements, unless otherwise stated, are in millimeters, taken
as follows:

Total length (measured before skinning). — Nose to tip of tail verte-
bra?, the body extended.

Tail vertehrx (measured before skinning). — Base of upper side of
tail when bent at right angles to body, to end of tail vertebra3.

Hind foot (measured before skinning).- — Heel to end of longest claw.

Basilar length. — Basion to either incisor at posterior alveolar border.
- Zygomatic breadth. — Greatest breadth across zygomata.

Interorbital breadth. — Breadth of interorbital constriction.

Length of nasals. — Greatest length of nasals.

Length of incisive foramina. — Greatest length of large palatal
foramina.

Length of palatal bridge. — Excavated posterior border of palate to
posterior end of either incisive foramen.

Alveolar length of upper molar series. — Greatest length of maxillary
toothrow at alveolar border.

1010.] SUBFAMILY NEOTOMINiE— NEOTOMA. 13

Subfamily NEOTOMINffl Merriam.a

Characters. — Braincase narrowing gradually anteriorly. Molars
rooted or semirooted; the crowns prismatic and flat, enamel folds
not closely crowded; reentrant angles very long, extending below
alveolar border except in the adult state. Outer walls of antorbital
vacuities without spines; palate excavated mesially between pos-
terior molars.

Remarks. — The subfamily Neotominse as originally restricted
includes the living genera Neotoma, Xenomys, Hodomys, Nelsonia,
and Teanopus, and the extinct genera Tretomys and Ptyssophorus.
The genus Neotomodon, which has been included here by some recent
authors, is clearly too aberrant and belongs nearer the Cricetinx.
From the Neotominse it differs chiefly in having the molar crowns half
tuberculate in early life; in the shortness of the reentrant angles,
which even in quite young individuals do not reach the alveoli; and
in the extension of the palatal bridge to the posterior plane of last
molars. On the other hand, Neotomodon differs in important respects
from all the other Cricetinse and may be regarded as a somewhat
annectent genus.

Genus NEOTOMA Say and Ord.

Neotoma Say and Ord, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., IV, pt. 2, pp. 345-349, pis.
XXI-XXII, 1825. Type Mus fioridanus Ord.

Generic characters. — Molar crowns flat; first and second upper
molars with middle enamel loops undivided; third lower molar with
two transverse enamel loops (not S-shaped as in all the other genera
of the subfamiry); bullae oblique, tapering anteriorly.

SUBGENERA AND MINOR GROUPS.

The genus Neotoma is here divided into three subgenera: Neotoma,
Homodontomys, and Teonoma, under which 70 species and subspecies
are recognized. The subgenus Homodontomys is characterized for the
first time.

The subgenus Neotoma, containing 56 species and subspecies, is
readily divisible into six rather well-marked, yet closely related*
groups. The subgenera Homodontomys and Teonoma each include a
single group of very closely related forms, of which six belong to the
former and eight to the latter. The arrangement of the list of spe-
cies and subspecies (see pp. 14-15) with their type localities will in a
measure show the affinities of the various forms, and to a less extent
those of the groups to which they belong.

a Neotominse Merriam, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 228, Sept. 24, 1894.

14 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

List of Species and Subspecies, with Type Localities.

Subgenus NEOTOMA.

Florida na group:

Neotomafloridana (Orel) St. Johns River, Fla.

floridana rubida Bangs Gibson, Terrebonne Parish, La.

Jloridana illinoensis Howell Wolf Lake, 111.

floridana baileyi Merriam Valentine, Cherry County, Nebr.

floridana attivateri Mearns Turtle Creek, Kerr County, Tex.

micropus Baird Charco Escondido, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

micropus canescens Allen North Beaver River, Okla.

micropus littoralis Goldman Alta Mira, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

micropus planiceps Goldman. . . .Rio Verde, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
Albigula group:

Neotoma albigula Hartley Near Fort Lowell, Pima County, Ariz.

albigula venusta True Carriso Creek, San Diego County, Cal.

albigula warreni Merriam Gaume's Ranch, Baca County, Colo.

albigula melanura Merriam Ortiz, Sonora, Mexico.

albigula leucodon Merriam San Luis Potosi, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

albigula durangx Allen San Gabriel, Durango, Mexico.

albigula zacatecse Goldman Plateado, Zacatecas, Mexico.

latifrons Merriam Querendaro, Michoacan, Mexico.

nelsoni Goldman Perote, Veracruz, Mexico.

palatina Goldman Bolaiios, Jalisco, Mexico.

montezumse Goldman Zimapan, Hidalgo, Mexico.

Intermedia group:

Neotoma intermedia Rhoads Dulzura, San Diego County, Cal.

intermedia gilva Rhoads Banning, Riverside County, Cal.

intermedia pretiosa Goldman Matancita, Lower California, Mexico.

intermedia arenacea Allen. San Jose del Cabo, Lower California, Mexico.

intermedia vicina Goldman Espiritu Santo Island, Lower California,

Mexico.

intermedia perpallida Goldman. .San Jose Island, Lower California, Mexico.

abbreviata Goldman San Francisco Island, Lower California,

Mexico.

nudicauda Goldman Carmen Island, Lower California, Mexico.

bryanti Merriam Cedros Island, Lower California, Mexico.

anthonyi Allen Todos Santos Island, Lower California,

Mexico.

martinensis Goldman San Martin Island, Lower California, Mexico.

Mexicana group:

Neotoma mexicana Baird Near Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico.

mexicana fallax Merriam Gold Hill, Boulder County, Colo.

mexicana pinetorum Merriam. . . .San Francisco Mountain, Ariz.

mexicana bullata Merriam Santa Catalina Mountains, Ariz.

mexicana madrensis Goldman Near Guadalupe y Calvo, Chihuahua,

Mexico.

mexicana sinalose Allen Tatameles, Sinaloa, Mexico.

navus Merriam Sierra Guadalupe, Coahuila, Mexico.

torquata Ward Between Tetela del Volcan and Zacualpam

Amilpas, Morelos, Mexico.

distincta Bangs Texolo, Veracruz, Mexico.

tropicalis Goldman Totontepec, Oaxaca, Mexico.

1910.] LIST OF SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES KEY. 15

M< xicana group — Continued .

Xeotoma parvidens Goldman Juquila, Oaxaca, Mexico.

ferruginea Tomes Duenas, Guatemala.

ferruginea chamula Goldman. . . .Near San Cristobal, Chiapas, Mexico.

ferruginea solitaria Goldman Nenton, Guatemala.

ferruginea isthmica Goldman Iluilotepec, Oaxaca, Mexico.

ferruginea picta Goldman Near Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Mexico.

ferruginea tenuicauda Merriam.. .Sierra Nevada de Colima, Jalisco, Mexico;

ferruginea ochracea Goldman Atemajac, Oaxaca, Mexico.

chrysomelas Allen '. .Matagalpa, Nicaragua.

Desertorum group:

Neotoma desertorum Merriam Furnace Creek, Death Valley, Cal.

lepida Thomas Type locality unknown.

lepida slephensi Goldman ITualpai Mountains, Ariz.

goldmani Merriam Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico.

Pennsylvanica group:

Neotoma magister Baird Bone caves near Carlisle, Pa.

pennsylvanica Stone South Mountain, Cumberland County, Pa.

Subgenus HOMODONTOMYS.

Fuscipes group:

Neotoma fuscipes Baird Petaluma, Sonoma County, Cal.

fuscipes streatori Merriam Carbondale, Amador County, Cal.

fuscipes annectens Elliot Portola, San Mateo County, Cal.

fuscipes simplex True Fort Tejon, Cal.

fuscipes mohavensis Elliot Oro Grande, Mohave Desert, Cal.

fuscipes macrotis Thomas San Diego, San Diego County, Cal.

Subgenus TEONOMA.

Cinerea group :

Neotoma cinerea (Ord) Great Falls, Cascade County, Mont.

cinerea drummondi (Richardson).'' Rocky Mountains in latitude 57°," Al-
berta, Canada.

cinerea saxamans Osgood Bennett, British Columbia, Canada.

cinerea occidentalis Baird Shoalwater Bay, Pacific County, Wash.

cinerea fusca True Fort Umpqua, Douglas County, Oreg.

cinerea orolestes Merriam Saguache Valley, Saguache County, Colo.

cinerea arizonse Merriam Keam Canyon, Apache County, Ariz.

cinerea rupicola Allen Corral Draw, southeastern base of Black

Hills, S. Dak.

Key to Subgenera.
a. Tail terete, not bushy.

b. Maxillary tooth row much narrower posteriorly than anteriorly; middle lobe of

last upper molar not divided by inner reentrant angle Neotoma (p. 20)

b'. Maxillary tooth row slightly narrower posteriorly than anteriorly; middle
lobe of last upper molar partially or completely divided by inner reentrant

angle Homodontomys (p. 86)

of , Tail flattened and bushy Teonoma (p. 94)

16 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [xo. 31.

Key to Species and Subspecies.

[Based on typical adults.]

I. Subgenus NEOTOMA.

a. First upper molar with anterointernal reentrant angle shallow or absent, reaching
not more than half way across anterior lobe.
b. Smaller (total length less than 320, or tail slightly bushy).
c. Pelage long, soft, and silky (mainland forms).
d. Tail normally haired, sharply bicolor.
e. Bulla? larger. (West and north of Colorado River. )...N. desertorum (p. 76)

ef . Bulla? smaller. (Northeastern Mexico.) N. goldmani (p. 81)

d' '. Tail slightly bushy, nearly unicolor.
e. Color paler, more yellowish. (Northeastern Arizona; northwestern New

Mexico.) N. lepida (p. 79)

ef. Color darker, more brownish. (Central Arizona; central-western and

southwestern New Mexico.) N. I. stephensi (p. 80)

cf. Pelage short and coarse. (San Francisco Island, Gulf of California.)

N. abbreviata (p. 49)
b' . Larger (total length more than 320).
c. Interpterygoid fossa wider (about 4 or more), broadly excavated near posterior
plane of molars; bulla? relatively smaller.
d. Palate concave or emarginate posteriorly.
e. Tail unicolor or nearly so.
/. Color duller, more cinnamon. (Eastern Florida; Georgia; South Caro-
lina.) N.floridana (p. 21)

//. Color brighter, more ochraceous. (Louisiana; Mississippi; Alabama;

eastern Texas; southern Arkansas.) N.f. rubida (p. 22)

ef. Tail sharply bicolor.
/. Tail less than 175.

g. Maxillary tooth row averaging more than 9. (Nebraska; Colorado;

Kansas.) N.f. baileyi (p. 24)

g' . Maxillary tooth row averaging less than 9. (Texas; Oklahoma.)

N.f. attwateri (p. 26)

//. Tail more than 175. (Illinois.) N.f. illinoensis (p. 23)

d' '. Palate with posterior median projection, or color slaty grayish.
e. Color slaty grayish.
/. Frontals upturned along sides.

g. Larger (hind foot averaging about 40); color darker. (Lower Rio
Grande Valley and north through central Texas to southern Kan-
sas.) N. micropus (p. 26)

g' . Smaller (hind foot averaging about 37); color paler. (New Mexico;
western Texas; western Oklahoma; south to Jaral, Coahuila.)

N. in. canescens (p. 28)
J'. Frontals not upturned along sides. (San Luis Potosi.)

N. m. planiceps (p. 30)

ef. Color brownish. (Southern Tamaulipas.) N. m. littoralis (p. 29)

cf . Interpterygoid fossa narrower (about 3.2 or less), not broadly excavated near
posterior plane of molars; bulla? relatively larger.
d. Rostrum shorter, heavier. (Mohave Desert, Colorado River Valley, and
eastward to Texas; south over plateau region of Mexico.)
e. Sphenopalatine vacuities present.
/. Frontals moderately broad posteriorly, the sides projecting only slightly.

1910.] KEY TO SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES. 17

g. Tail sharply bicolor.
h. Fur on throat and chest pure white to roots.
i. Smaller (hind foot averaging about 32). (Arizona, except western
part; New Mexico, except northeastern part; western Texas;
south through eastern Chihuahua and western Coahuila to

Jimulco.) N. albigula (p. 31)

i . Larger (hind foot averaging more than 32).
j. Paler. (Ranges in United States, except lower Colorado River
Valley.)
k. Upper parts pinkish buffy. (Lower Colorado River Valley;

Mohave Desert.) N. a. venusta (p. 33)

¥ . Upper parts vinaceous buffy. (Southeastern Colorado;

northeastern New Mexico.) N. a. warreni (p. 34)

y . Darker. (Ranges wholly in Mexico.)

k. Frontals nearly flat above, lateral margins not decidedly up-
turned nor convex posteriorly. (Western Durango; south-
ern Chihuahua.) N. a. durangx (p. 37)

¥ . Frontalswith lateral margins decidedly upturned and convex
posteriorly.
I. Paler. (High plateau region from Hidalgo to northwestern

Nuevo Leon N. a. leucodon (p. 36)

V . Darker. (Mountains of western Zacatecas.)

N. a. zacatecse (p. 38)
h/. Fur on throat and chest more or less plumbeous basally.

i. Paler. (Sonora.) N. a. melanura (p. 35)

V. Darker. (Zimapan, Hidalgo.) N. montezumse (p. 41)

g/. Tail unicolor. (Perote, Veracruz.) N. nelsoni (p. 39)

/'. Frontals very broad posteriorly, the sides strongly projecting as supra-
orbital shelves. (Querendaro, Michoacan.) N. latifrons (p. 38)

e/. Sphenopalatine vacuities absent. (Bolanos, Jalisco.) .N. palatina (p. 40)
df . Rostrum longer, more slender. (Pacific coast region west of Mohave Des-
ert and Colorado River Valley, from near Monterey, Cal., to Cape San
Lucas, including islands along coasts of Lower California.)
e. Outer sides of hind legs not conspicuously blackish.
/. Hind foot not more than 37.

g. Hind foot averaging less than 35. (Mainland forms.)
h. Upper parts darker, more grayish. (Pacific coast region, except
most arid portions, from near Monterey, Cal., to Sierra de la

Laguna, Lower California.) N. intermedia (p. 42)

¥. Upper parts paler, more buffy. (Desert regions from southwestern

California to central Lower California.) N. i. gilva (p. 44)

g' . Hind foot averaging more than 35. (Insular forms.)
h. Darker. (Espiritu Santo Island, Lower California.)

N. i. vicina (p. 48)
h/. Paler. (San Jose Island, Lower California.). V. i. perpallida (p. 48)
/'. Hind foot more than 37.

g. Frontals less abruptly broadening between lachrymals.
h. Tail averaging less than 180; bullae large.
i. Interpterygoid fossa narrower. (Carmen Island, Lower Califor-
nia.) N. nudicauda (p. 51)

i' . Interpterygoid fossa wider. (Margarita Island, Magdalena Island,
and adjacent coast of Lower California.)... N. i. pretiosa (p. 46)

52668°— 10 2

18 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

h'. Tail averaging more than 180; bullae small. (Cape region of Lower

California, except high mountains.) N. i. arenacea (p. 47)

g' '. Frontals more abruptly broadening between lachrymals. (Cedros

Island, Lower California.) TV. bryanti (p. 51)

e/. Outer sides of hind legs conspicuously blackish.
/. Nasals reaching posteriorly beyond plane of lachrymals. (San Martin

Island, Lower California.) N. martinensis (p. 53)

/'. Nasals not reaching posteriorly to plane of lachrymals. (Todos Santos

Island, Lower California.) N. anthonyi (p. 52)

a'. First upper molar with anterointernal reentrant angle deep, reaching more than
half way across anterior lobe.
b. Smaller (hind foot 40 or less).
c. Ground color above plainer, mainly grayish. (North of latitude 22° 30'.)
d. Frontals without convex projecting supraorbital shelves.
e. Bullae larger.
/. Bullae more rounded.

g. Averaging smaller. (Mexico; western Texas; southern New Mexico;
southern Arizona.)
h. Paler. (Eastern basal slopes of Sierra Madre and desert ranges from

northern Durango to southern Arizona.) TV. mexicana (p. 54)

hf . Darker. (Higher parts of Sierra Madre from northern Chihuahua

and Sonora to Zacatecas.) JV. m. madrensis (p. 60)

g/. Averaging larger. (Ranges wholly in United States.)
h. Paler. (Colorado; New Mexico, except western part.)

JV. m.fallax (p. 56)

h' '. Darker. (Arizona; western New Mexico). . JV. m. pinetorum (p. 58)

//. Bullae more elongated, narrower anteriorly. (Santa Catalina Mountains,

Arizona.) JV. m. bullata (p. 59)

e' '. Bullae smaller. (Western basal slopes of Sierra Madre from southern Sina-

loa to Sonora.) JV. m. sinalose (p. 60)

d' . Frontals with convex projecting supraorbital shelves. (Coahuila.)

JV. navus (p. 61)
& '. Ground color above richer, mainly bright, ochraceous buff y, or rufous. (South
of latitude 22° 30'.)
d. Hind foot less than 40.

e. Color of sides not encroaching on underparts.
f. Upper parts orange buffy or rufous.
g. Upper parts orange buffy.
h. Nasals truncate or bluntly pointed posteriorly.
i. Hind foot more than 32.
j. Nasals moderately broad posteriorly.
k. Hind foot 36 or more.

I. Zygomata decidedly narrower anteriorly than posteriorly.

(Nicaragua.) JV. chrysomelas (p. 74)

V . Zygomata not decidedly narrower anteriorly than poste-
riorly. (Arid coastal plains and interior valleys of
Oaxaca and west-central Chiapas.). JV./. isthmica (p. 71)
k'. Hind foot less than 36. (Sierra Madre in Guerrero and

Oaxaca.) N.f. picta (p. 72)

j'. Nasals attenuate posteriorly. (N en ton, Guatemala.)

N.f. solitaria (p. 70)

i' '. Hind foot 32 or less. (Juquila, Oaxaca.) TV. parvidens (p. 66)

h/. Nasals deeply emarginate posteriorly. (Duenas, Guatemala.)

N.ferruginea (p. 67)

1910.] KEY TO SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES. 19

g/. Upper parts cinnamon rufous.
h. Larger (hind foot 37 or more). (Mountains of central Chiapas and

southwestern Guatemala.) N. f. chamula (p. 69)

h'. Smaller (hind foot less than 37). (Colima; Jalisco; Michoacan.)

N.f. tenuicauda (p. 73)
/'. Upper parts ochraceous buffy.

g. Paler. (Atemajac, Jalisco.) N.f. ochracea (p. 74)

g' . Darker. (High mountains of Mexico [state]; Morelos; Hidalgo;

Puebla; Tlascala.) N. torquata (p. 63)

e/. Color of sides encroaching on underparts. (Toton tepee, Oaxaca.)

N. tropicalis (p. 65)

d/. Hind foot about 40. (Texolo, Veracruz.) N. distincta (p. 64)

b'. Larger (hind foot more than 40). (Appalachian Mountain region.)

c. Mandibular tooth row less than 9.6 N. pennsylvanica (p. 84)

</. Mandibular tooth row 9.6 or more (extinct) N. magister (p. 82)

H. Subgenus HOMODONTOMYS.

a. Larger (hind foot usually more than 40).

b. Bullae smaller; palate concave or emarginate posteriorly. (Coast region north of

San Francisco.) N. fuscipes (p. 87)

b'. Bullae larger; palate convex or with blunt posterior median projection. (Coast

region immediately south of San Francisco.) N.f. annectens (p. 90)

a! ' . Smaller (hind foot usually less than 40).
b. Upper parts darker (mainly brownish).
c. Hind foot clouded with dusky. (Coast region from Salinas, California, to north-
ern Lower California.) N.f. macrotis (p. 93)

</. Hind foot pure white. (West slope Sierra Nevada, California, from Tehama

County to Milo, Tulare County.) N.f. streatori (p. 89)

6'. Upper parts paler (mainly ochraceous buff or grayish),
c. Upper parts ochraceous buff. (Southern part of Sierra Nevada.)

N.f. simplex (p. 91)
(/. Upper parts brownish gray. (Mohave Desert.) N.f. mohavensis (p. 92)

m. Subgenus TEONOMA.

a. Sphenopalatine vacuities absent or very small.
b. Underside of tail not dusky,
c. Nasals broad, truncate or blunt posteriorly.
d. Longest hairs in tail usually less than 30.
e. Upper parts paler, grayish buff to ochraceous buff. (Mountains of Mon-
tana, Idaho, southeastern Wyoming, and of western Utah ; northern Ari-
zona; central Nevada and east-central California.). . . . N. cinerea (p. 95)
e/. Upper parts darker, the buff more obscured by dusky hairs; outer sides of
ankles more dusky, contrasting more strongly with white of feet.
(Pacific coast region west of range of cinerea.) . N. c. occidentalis (p. 101)
d' '. Longest hairs in tail usually more than 30. (Rocky Mountains north of

United States.) N. c. drummondi (p. 99)

(f . Nasals attenuate and acutely pointed posteriorly N. c. saxamans (p. 100)

V. Underside of tail dusky N. c. fusca (p. 103)

a'. Sphenopalatine vacuities large and widely open.
b. Upper parts ochracecfus buff,
c. Larger (hind foot usually more than 40); tail more bushy; color darker.
(Chiefly mountains in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico.)

N. c. orolestes (p. 104)
&. Smaller (hind foot usually less than 40); tail less bushy; color paler. (Ari-
zona; southern Utah; northwestern New Mexico.) N. c. arizonse (p. 106)

V. Upper parts cream buff N. c. rupicola (p. 107)

20 NOKTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

Subgenus NEOTOMA Say and Ord.
(Pis. I-VI; PI. VII, fig. 4.)
Type. — Mus floridanus Ord, from eastern Florida.

Distribution. — Southern half of North America, from the northern
part of the United States, except the upper Mississippi Valley, to
Nicaragua.

Subgeneric characters. — Maxillary toothrow decidedly broader
anteriorly than posteriorly; first upper molar with anterointemal
reentrant angle varying from deep to shallow or obsolete; third
upper molar with middle loop undivided by deepening of reentrant
angles; interpterygoid fossa varying from wide to narrow; bullae
variable in size; frontals constricted near or anterior to middle; tail
terete, tapering, and short haired; hind foot naked below along outer
side at least to tarsometatarsal joint.

Remarks. — The subgenus Neotoma is composed of several minor
groups, most of which are rather closely related, but not all are of
equal rank. Neotoma pennsylvanica, whose peculiar characters
have been pointed out by Merriam,0 presents a departure from the
type species. It shows no tendency to subdivide and may be the
survivor of a group now approaching extinction. Neotoma mexicana
is a characteristic member of a highly plastic group occupying the
backbone of the continent from northern Colorado to Nicaragua.
All the members of this group agree with Hodomys and Xenomys
in the retention of a long and deep anterointemal reentrant angle
in the first upper molar. The primitive nature of this character is
suggested by its presence in Tretomys, the earliest member of the
subfamily whose upper molars are known. The small group typified
by Neotoma lepida shows differentiation in the direction of Teanopus —
perhaps a more modern offshoot, notably in the shortness of the
anterointemal reentrant angle in the first upper molar (entirely
absent through wear in adults), the length and slenderness of the
angle of the mandible, and in the remarkable inflation of the audital
bullae. Between these three somewhat divergent branches are the
closely related albigula and intermedia groups, which are nearer the
type species and tend to bridge the gaps. In the more essential
characters all the groups agree so closely that further subgeneric
division seems undesirable.

oProc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., pp. 240-241, Sept. 24, 1894.

1910.]

FLORID AN A GROUP FLORIDANA.

21

NEOTOMA FLORIDANA (Ord).
Florida Wood Rat.
(PI. I, figs. 1, la; PI. VII, fig. 4.)

Mus floridanus Ord, Bull. Soc. Philom. Paris, pp. 181-182, December, 1818.

N[eotoma] floridana Say and Ord, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., IV, pt. 2, p. 346,
1825. Type from St. Johns River, Fla, probably near Jacksonville, Duval
County. (See Bangs, Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., XXVIII, p. 184, Mar., 1898.)
No type specimen designated.

Distribution. — Atlantic coast region from South Carolina to Sebas-
tian, Fla. Austroriparian Zone.

A/SOrOMA FLOW DANA.
QIIIIl " f- POB/DA.

- F. BA/IM.

- F. ATTWATFPt.
F. IU/NOENS/S.

Fig. 2. — Distribution of Neoto ma floridana and subspecies.

General characters. — Size large; ears medium; tail long, nearly
concolor, scantily haired; color dark. Related to N. micropus, but
differing in color and cranial characters.

Color. — Winter pelage : General color above pale cinnamon, bright-
est along sides, becoming broccoli brown or brownish drab on head
and outer sides of legs, much darkened over top of head and back by
blackish hairs; feet white; under parts creamy white, the fur basally
plumbeous along sides of belly; tail dusky above, slightly paler below.

22 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

Skull. — Skull large and rather elongated; ascending branches of
premaxillae very long, reaching posteriorly far beyond nasals ; f rontals
broad, interorbital constriction anterior to middle; palatal bridge
shorter than incisive foramina; sphenopalatine vacuities rather
small; interpterygoid fossa very large, broadly excavated, rounded
anteriorly; presphenoid deeply constricted; bullae small, short, and
rounded; first upper molar with anterointernal reentrant angle
moderately developed. Compared with N. micropus, the skull is
more elongated; rostrum longer; nasals narrower posteriorly; palate
without posterior median projection (present in micropus); bullae
more rounded.

Measurements. — Average of 3 adults from Enterprise, Fla. : Total
length, 409; tail vertebrae, 189; hind foot, 38.5. Skull (average of
same): Basilar length, 40.4; zygomatic breadth, 25.7; interorbital
breadth, 6.4; length of nasals, 19.5; length of incisive foramina, 11;
length of palatal bridge, 6.8 ; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.9.

Remarks. — Neotoma Jloridana is the type species of the genus.
Aside from its subspecies it requires comparison with only N. micro-
pus, from which it differs decidedly in color. No specimens from
western Florida have been examined, but the essential differences
separating typical N. Jloridana from AT. /. rubida are so slight that
intergradation may be expected to occur in that general region.

Specimens examined. — Total number 52, from localities as follows:

Florida: Enterprise, 5; Fort Gardner, Kissimmee River, 4; Kissimmee, 1;
Lake Harney, 15; Lake Kissimmee, 1; Miceo, 1; San Mateo, 1; Sebas-
tian, 1.

Georgia: Riceboro(Leconte Plantation), 17; St. Simon Island, 1; Savannah, 2.

South. Carolina: Frogmore, 3.

NEOTOMA FLORIDANA RUBIDA Bangs.

Ruddy Wood Rat.

(PI. I, figs. 2, 2a.)

Neotoma Jloridana rubida Bangs, Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., XVIII, No. 7, pp. 185-
186, March, 1898. Type from Gibson, Terrebonne Parish, La.; No. 2872, $ ad.,
collection of E. A. and 0. Bangs; collected by F. L. Small, April 4, 1895.

Distribution. — Lower Mississippi Valley and Gulf coast, from
southwestern Alabama to eastern Texas, north to eastern Arkansas.
Austroriparian Zone.

General characters. — Size averaging slightly larger than N . jloridana;
color redder; differing also in slight cranial characters.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts vary from cinnamon to dark
ochraceous buff, purest along cheeks and sides, becoming brownish
drab on middle of face and outer sides of legs, moderately darkened
over top of head and back by dusky hairs ; feet white ; under parts

1910.] FLORIDANA GROUP ILLINOENSIS. 23

creamy white; tail nearly unicolor, blackish above, in some speci-
mens slightly paler beloAv.

Skull. — Closely resembling that of N.jloridana, but slightly larger;
nasals broader posteriorly; incisive foramina usually shorter; palatal
bridge averaging longer; presphenoid less constricted.

Measurements. — Average of 6 adults from Houma, La.: Total
length, 404; tail vertebrae, 195; hind foot, 41. Skull (average of
same): Basilar length, 42.7; zygomatic breadth, 26.9; interorbital
breadth, 6.8; length of nasals, 20.1; length of incisive foramina,
10.1; length of palatal bridge, 8.9; alveolar length of upper molar
series, 9.4.

Remarks. — N. j. rubida is a slightly differentiated form, probably
intergrading with jloridana in western Florida; with attwateri in east-
ern Texas; and with baileyi in northeastern Texas and southern Ar-
kansas. Its rich coloration readily separates it from the two latter
subspecies.

Specimens from Tallulah, in northeastern Louisiana, are less red-
dish in color than the typical form from farther down the Mississippi,
and their more distinctly bicolor tails suggest gradation toward
illinoensis.

Specimens examined. — Total number 87, from the following locali-
ties:

Louisiana: Franklin, 2; Houma (near type locality), 15; Tallulah, 3.

Alabama: Castleberry, 1; Mobile Bay, 8.

Arkansas: McGeb.ee, 3.

Mississippi: Bay St. Louis, 20; Hancock County, 6; Washington, 6.

Texas: Sour Lake, 22; Texarkana, 1.

NEOTOMA FLORIDANA ILLINOENSIS Howell.

Illinois Wood Rat.

Neotoma Jloridana illinoensis Howell, Froc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXII, pp. 28-29, March
23, 1910. Type from Wolf Lake, Illinois; No. 167752, ? ad., U. S. National
Museum (Biological Survey Collection) ; collected by John Johnson, January 12,
1910.

Distribution. — Swamp region of southern Illinois, and southward
to northeastern Arkansas. Austroriparian division of Lower Austral
Zone.

General characters. — Most like N. f. rubida; size and proportions
about the same; color grayer; tail bicolor instead of dark all round.
In color rather closely resembling N.f. baileyi in worn summer pelage,
decidedly darker than baileyi in winter coat; tail darker above and
longer.

Color. — Upper parts dull buffy mixed with black, the black hairs
more numerous over top of head and back; face grayish; outer sides
of hind legs brownish; under parts white, the fur pure white to roots

24 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

except that it is plumbeous basally along flanks and in some speci-
mens across belly; feet white; tail blackish above, dull white below.

Cranial characters.— Skull most like that of N. f rubida in general
form, but zygomata more squarely spreading anteriorly, the sides
more nearly parallel; posterior border of palate emarginate, instead
of evenly concave as in the other forms of the florid-ana group ; spheno-
palatine vacuities reduced to very narrow slits. Compared with that
of N. f. baileyi the skull has longer rostrum and differs otherwise in
the same characters as from rubida.

Measurements. — Average of 8 adult topotypes: Total length, 403
(390-412) ; tail vertebras, 195 (187-203) ; hind foot, 38 (36-40). SJcull:
Average of 5 adults: Basilar length, 40.8; zygomatic breadth, 25.3;
interorbital breadth, 6.8; length of nasals, 19.9; length of incisive
foramina, 10; length of palatal bridge, 8.7; alveolar length of upper
molar series, 9.3.

Remarks. — Although a well-marked subspecies, N. f. illinoensis
seems more nearly related to N.f. rubida than to any other form, and
the ranges of the two may meet on the swampy bottom lands border-
ing the Mississippi River. Gradation of N.f. rubida toward illinoensis
is suggested by less reddish color of upper parts and more distinctly
bicolor tails of specimens from Tallulah, in northeastern Louisiana,
and from McGehee, in southeastern Arkansas, when compared with
typical rubida from farther down the Mississippi. In general color
illinoensis approaches N.floridana but is distinguished by grayer face
and more sharply bicolored tail.

Specimens examined. — Total number 22, from the following locali-
ties:

Illinois: Wolf Lake (type locality), 15.
Arkansas: Big Creek (Turrell P. O.), 7.

NEOTOMA FLORIDANA BAILEYI Merriam.

Bailey Wood Rat.

(PI. I, figs. 3, 3a.)

Neotoma baileyi Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., IX, p. 123, July 2, 1894. Type from
Valentine, Cherry County, Nebr. ; No. £$}£, 9 ad., Merriam Collection; collected
by Vernon Bailey, June 16, 1888.

Neotoma campestris Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., VI, pp. 322-323 [author's sepa-
rates issued November 7], 1894. Type from Pendennis, Lane County, Kans.;
No. |Jf|, $ ad., American Museum Natural History, New York; collected by
W. W. Granger, May 8, 1894.

Neotoma floridana baileyi Bailey, North American Fauna, No. 25, pp. 109-110, October
24, 1905.

Distribution. — Upper Sonoran and Carolinian divisions of Upper
Austral Zone from southwestern South Dakota to southern Kansas,
west to Pueblo, Colo.

1910.] FLORIDANA GROUP BAILEYI. 25

General characters. — Similar to A7, jloridana, but pelage longer and
fuller; color grayer; tail shorter, longer haired, bicolored; cranial
characters also different. In summer pelage closely resembling N. f.
attwateri.

Color. — Fresh winter pelage: Upper parts creamy buff, varying to
buffy gray, clearest along sides, thinly overlaid dorsally with dusky
hairs; feet and under parts white, the fur basally plumbeous along
sides of belly; tail sharply bicolor, brownish gray above, white below.
Worn pelage (spring, summer, and fall) : Above, varying shades of
dark rusty brown.

SJcull. — In general form similar to that of N. Jloridana, but nasals
shorter, broader posteriorly; ascending branches of premaxillse
shorter; zygomata more widely spreading posteriorly; incisive fo-
ramina shorter; palatal bridge longer. Compared with N. f. rubida
the rostrum is shorter; nasals shorter, narrowing more abruptly pos-
teriorly. From N. f. attwateri the skull differs chiefly in heavier
dentition.

Measurements. — Average of 5 adult topotypes: Total length, 369;
tail vertebrae, 160; hind foot, 39.7. Skull (average of same) : Basilar
length, 40.4; zygomatic breadth, 26; interorbital breadth, 6.7; length
of nasals, 18.7; length of incisive foramina, 9.2; length of palatal
bridge, 8.6; alveolar length of upper molar series, 9.2.

Remarks. — Color variations due to seasonal differences in pelage
are perhaps greater in baileyi than in any other round-tailed member
of the genus. The pale winter pelage contrasts strongly with the
dark rusty brownish summer coat. Although differing remarkably
in proportions, color, and cranial characters horn. Jloridana, complete
intergradation through attwateri and rubida seems certain. In essen-
tial characters baileyi and attwateri are much alike and in summer
pelage often difficult to separate. Specimens from Oklahoma and
Arkansas are intermediate.

Topotypes of N. campestris and specimens from other localities in
western Kansas and eastern Colorado are paler than typical baileyi
and represent a slightly differing geographic race, which seems
scarcely worthy of recognition by name. Specimens from eastern
Kansas are somewhat darker than typical baileyi.

Specimens examined. — Total number 76, from the following locali-
ties:

Nebraska: Cody (10 miles south), 5; Haigler, 1; Valentine (type locality), 12.
Colorado: Olney, 12; Pueblo, 1; Tuttle, 2; Wray, 1.

Kansas: Cedarvale,9; Fort Riley, 1; Hays, 7; Pendennis, 23; Trego County, 1.
South Dakota: Spring Creek (18 miles southeast of Rapid City), 1.

26 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

NEOTOMA FLORIDANA ATTWATERI Mearns.
Attwater Wood Rat.

Neotoma attwateri Mearns, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XIX, pp. 721-723, July 30, 1897.

Type from Lacey's Ranch, Turtle Creek, Kerr County, Tex.; No. HIM. ? ad->

American Museum Natural History, New York; collected by H. P. Attwater,

December 10. 1895.
Neotoma floridana attwateri Elliot, Syn. Mamm. North Amer., Zool. Ser., II, p. 157,

1901.

Distribution.— Mainly Lower Sonoran and Austroriparian divisions
of Lower Austral Zone in central Texas, passing into N. f. baileyi in
Oklahoma and northern Arkansas.

General characters. — Same as N. f. baileyi, but winter pelage darker
and teeth smaller.

Color. — Winter pelage: General color of upper parts pale vinaceous
buff, purest along sides, moderately overlaid with blackish; face and
outer sides of legs grayish; feet and under parts white, the fur along
sides of belly basally plumbeous; tail brownish black above, white
below. Summer pelage: Varying above from ochraceous buff to dark
rusty brown.

Skull. — As in N. f. baileyi, but teeth smaller.

Measurements. — Average of 2 adults from the type locality: Total
length, 366; tail vertebrae, 167; hind foot, 39. Slcull (average of
same): Basilar length, 39.7; zygomatic breadth, 25.4; interorbital
breadth, 6.8; length of nasals, 19.3; length of incisive foramina, 9.5;
length of palatal bridge, 8.1 ; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.9.

Remarks. — This form differs from baileyi mainly in color of winter
pelage and size of teeth. Specimens from Oklahoma, northern
Arkansas, and Missouri have the dark winter colors of attwateri, but
approach baileyi in dentition. Intergradation with rubida probably
occurs in eastern Texas and southern Arkansas.

Specimens examined. — Total number 71, from the following locali-
ties:

Texas: Cooke County, 1; Gainesville, 1; Ingram, 8; Kountze,2; Lacey's Ranch,
Kerr County (type locality), 11; Navasota, 3; Rock Springs, 2; Victoria, 1.

Arkansas: Batesville, 2; Cotter, 2; Pettigrew, 2; Rich Mountain, 8; Womble 1.

Missouri: Marble Cave, Stone County, 5.

Oklahoma: Chattanooga, 1; Mount Scott, Wichita Mountains, 6; Ponca
Agency, 1; Red Fork, 4; Red Oak, 1; Savanna, 1; Stillwell, 8.

NEOTOMA MICROPUS Baird.

Baird Wood Rat.

(PI. I, figs. 4, 4a.)

Neotoma micropus Baird, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., VII, p. 333, April, 1855. Type
from Charco Escondido, Tamaulipas, Mexico;0 No. Wr (skin now lost), $ , U. S.
National Museum; collected by Lieutenant Couch.

o See Merriam, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 244, Sept. 24, 1894.

1910.]

FLORIDANA GROUP MTCROPUS.

27

Neotoma macropus surberi Elliot, Pub. Field Columb. Mus., Zool. Ser., I, No. 14, pp.
279-280, May 9, 1899. Type from canyon 3 miles west of Alva, Okla.; No. 6755,
$ ad., Field Columb. Mus., Chicago; collected by Thaddeus Surber, February 20,
1899.

Distribution. — Southeastern Colorado and southern Kansas, south
through Oklahoma and central Texas to southern Tamaulipas,
mainly in Lower
Sonoran Zone.

General charac-
ters.— Size large;
fur short and rather
harsh; color pale;
tail rather short,
thinly haired, bicol-
ored. Related to
N. floridana, but
color paler; cranial
characters dis-
tinctive.

Color . — Winter
pelage: Ground col-
or above pale ecru
drab, purest along
cheeks and sides,
moderately ob-
scured by overlying
dusky hairs ; feet
and under parts
white, the fur white
to roots on pectoral
and inguinal re-
gions; tail black-
ish above, grayish
below.

Skull. — Simil ar
in general form to
that of N.jloridana,
but more angular;
rostrum heavier;
nasals narrower
posteriorly; outer

sides of frontals *"IG' 3-— Distribution of Neotoma micro-pus and subspecies.

more upturned, forming prominent, slightly projecting supra-orbital
ridges; zygomata more widely spreading posteriorly; interptery-
goid fossa very broad, as in N.jloridana, but usually encroached upon
anteriorly by median projection from palate (absent in floridana) .

28 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

From N. in. littoralis and N. m. canescens the skull differs chiefly
in larger size. Compared with that of N. m. planiceps the skull is
larger, with frontal region arched and upturned along sides (nearly
flat in planiceps) and nasals broader posteriorly.

Measurements. — Average of 4 adults from Nueces Bay, Tex.:
Total length, 351; tail vertebra1, 163; hind foot, 41. Skull (average
of same) : Basilar length, 40.3; zygomatic breadth, 26.1; interorbital
breadth, 5.9; length of nasals, 19; length of incisive foramina, 10.4;
length of palatal bridge, 8.1 ; alveolar length of upper molar series, 9.4.

Remarks. — The specimen from Santa Rosalia, Chihuahua, men-
tioned by Baird in his original description of N. micropus, now a
much faded skin without skull, is probably N. albigula, the species
common in that locality. In northern and western Texas and eastern
Coahuila this form passes into canescens and in extreme southern
Tamaulipas into littoralis. Its larger size, slightly darker color, and
shorter fur at all seasons serve to separate it from canescens. From
littoralis it may be known externally by its grayer, less brownish
color. Topotypes of N. m. surberi are inseparable from typical
micropus.

Specimens examined. — Total number 203, from the following
localities :

Tamaulipas: Bagdad, 2; Camargo, 11; Charco Escondido, 1 (type); Forlon, 1;
Matamoros, 2; Mier, 5; Nuevo Laredo, 12; Soto la Marina, 7.

Coahuila: Las Vacas, 1; Sabinas, 2; Saltillo, 1.

Nuevo Leon: China (16 miles south), 1; Doctor Cos, 1; Linares, 1; Rodri-
guez, 5.

Texas: Alice, 4; Beeville, 4; Blocker Ranch, Dimmit County, 2; Brazos, 6;
Brownsville, 11; Comstock, 2; Concho County, 1; Corpus Christi, 6; Co-
tulla, 2; Del Rio, 11; Devils River (mouth), 11; Dos Hermanos, Webb
County, 1; Eagle Pass, 18; Fort Clark, 5; Henrietta, 1; Laredo, 10; Las
Moras Creek, Maverick County, 1; Newlin, 3; Nueces Bay, 6; Pinto Creek,
Maverick County, 1; Rio Grande City, 2; Rockport, 4; Roma, 4; San
Angelo, 4; San Antonio, 7; San Diego, 2; Santo Tomas, Webb County, 3;
Sauz Ranch, Cameron County, 2; Sycamore Creek (mouth), 3; Tebo, Tay-
lor County, 1; Vernon, 1.

Oklahoma: Alva, G; Woodward, 3.

Kansas: Sun, 1.

Colorado: Monon, Baca Count}-, 1.

NEOTOMA MICROPUS CANESCENS Allen.

Hoary Wood Rat.

Neotoma micropus canescens Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., III., pp. 285-287,
June 30, 1891. Type from "North Beaver River, Indian Territory [now Okla-
homa], near the boundary line between the Indian Territory and New Mexico;"
No. f§|}, 9 , American Museum of Natural History, New York; collected by
Richardson and Rowley, October, 1889.

Distribution. — From southeastern Colorado, northwestern Okla-
homa, and northern and western Texas, west in New Mexico to the

1910.] FLORIDANA GROUP LITTORALIS. 29

Rio Grande Valley and south to southern Coahuila, mainly in Lower
Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Closely related to N. micropus, but averaging
smaller; fur longer and softer; color still paler.

Color. — Fresh winter pelage: Ground color above pale ashy gray,
clearest along cheeks and sides, thinly overlaid with blackish; feet
and under parts white, the fur pure white to roots on throat and on
pectoral and inguinal regions; tail varying from grayish brown to
blackish above, white below.

Skull. — Averaging smaller than that of N. micropus, but not
otherwise different.

Measurements. — Average of 4 adults from Capitan Mountains, New
Mexico: Total length, 330; tail vertebras, 137; hind foot, 36. Skull
(average of same): Basilar length, 37.4; zygomatic breadth, 24.3;
interorbital breadth, 5.8; length of nasals, 17.3; length of incisive
foramina, 9.9; length of palatal bridge, 7.2; alveolar length of upper
molar series, 8.3.

Remarks. — N. m. canescens is closely related to N. micropus and by
recent authors has not been considered separable; but the characters
given, although rather slight, are so constant over the higher area
west of the range of typical micropus that it seems to merit recogni-
tion. Intergradation with micropus occurs in western Texas and
eastern Coahuila.

Specimens examined. — Total number 165, from the following
localities:

Oklahoma: North Beaver River, 3 (including type).

Colorado: La Junta (18 miles south), 1.

New Mexico: Ancho, 5; Capitan Mountains, 15; Carlsbad, 7; Corona, 3;
Cuervo, 2; Deming (8 miles east), 1; Fort Sumner, 11; Jiearilla Moun-
tains, 2; Magdalena (10 miles southeast), 1; Manzano Mountains, 1; Rin-
conada, 2; Roswell, 3; Sandia Mountains, 1; Santa Rosa, 8; Socorro (10
miles northeast), 2; Tularosa, 7; Tucumcari, 1.

Texas: Adams, 6; Alpine, 4; Altuda, 12; Big Spring, 3; Chisos Mountains, 5;
Colorado, 4; Dryden, 1; El Paso, 1; Fort Hancock, 1; Kent, 4; Lips-
comb, 2; Lozier, 1; Marathon, 1; Miami, 1; Mobeetie, 1; Monahans, 22;
Presidio County, 1; Samuels, 1; Sierra Blanca, 1; Stanton, 6; Toyah, 1;
Toyahvale, 3; Valentine, 1.

Coahuila: Jaral, 1; Monclova, 7.

NEOTOMA MICROPUS LITTORALIS Goldman.

Coast Wood Rat.

Neotoma micropus littoralis Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVIII, pp. 31-32, Feb-
ruary 2, 1905. Type from Alta Mira, Tamaulipas, Mexico; No. 92952, $ ad.,
U. S. National Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by E. A. Gold-
man, April 10, 1898.

Distribution. — Arid Tropical Zone in southern Tamaulipas, Mexico.
General characters. — Similar to N. micropus, but differing in some-

30 WORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

what smaller size, decidedly brownish color, and slight cranial
characters.

Color. — Slightly worn pelage: Upper parts nearly uniform grayish
brown, moderately darkened on middle of face, top of head, and
along back by blackish hairs; under parts white, the fur plumbeous
basally except on throat and on pectoral and inguinal regions, where
the hairs are pure white to roots; nose dusky; feet white; tail sharply
bicolor, blackish above, whitish below. Young (half-grown) : Upper
parts much browner than in N. micropus of same age.

Skull. — In general form the skull agrees with that of N. micropus,
but averages smaller; dentition usually less heavy; interpterygoid
fossa narrower, encroached upon anteriorly by a short but more or
less spinous projection from palate, as in N. micropus.

Measurements. — Average of 3 adults from the type locality: Total
length, 358; tail vertebrae, 167; hind foot, 38.2. Skull (type):
Basilar length, 37.5; zygomatic breadth, 24.2; interorbital breadth,
5.8; length of nasals, 17.4; length of incisive foramina, 10.2; length
of palatal bridge, 7.6; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.8.

Remarks. — This subspecies is an Arid Tropical form of micropus,
at all ages easily recognizable externally by its browner, less gray
coloration. Along the coast north of Alta Mira its range probably
merges into that of micropus.

Specimens examined. — Five, all from the type locality.

NEOTOMA MICROPUS PLANICEPS Goldman.

Rio Verde Wood Rat.

(PI. I, figs. 5, 5a.)

Neotoma micropus planiceps Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVIII, p. 32, February
2, 1905. Type from Rio Verde, San Luis Potosi, Mexico; No. 82105, $ ad., U. S.
National Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by E. W. Nelson
and E. A. Goldman, January 16, 1897.

Distribution. — Plains of southern San Luis Potosi. Lower Sonoran
Zone.

General characters. — Size slightly smaller than N. micropus; color
more buffy ; skull flatter and less angular.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts pale buffy gray, somewhat
obscured by dusky hairs, which are most abundant along median
line of back; under parts white, the fur pale plumbeous basally
along sides of belly and inner surface of hind legs; nose, eyelids, and
ankles dusky; feet white; tail brownish black above, grayish below.

Skull. — Similar in general to that of N. micropus, but smaller and
less arched; frontals flatter above, the sides not upturned nor pro-
jecting as supraorbital shelves; braincase more smoothly rounded,
bulging posteriorly below lambdoid crest; nasals attenuate pos-

1910.] ALBIGULA GROUP ALBIGULA. 31

teriorly, the ends pointed and deeply emarginate ; ascending branches
of premaxillse very long, reaching posteriorly beyond nasals nearly
to interorbital constriction; interpterygoid fossa very broad, as in
N. micropus.

Measurements.— Type: Total length, 351; tail vertebrae, 167;
hind foot, 38. Skull (type): Basilar length, 38; zygomatic breadth,
23.5; interorbital breadth, 5.6; length of nasals, 17.1; length of
incisive foramina, 9.5; length of palatal bridge, 9.1; alveolar length
of upper molar series, 9.

Remarks. — This apparently well-marked form inhabits the eastern
terraces of the Mexican plateau region in southern San Luis Potosi.
Intergradation with micropus is not satisfactorily shown by present
material but no doubt occurs in southwestern Tamaulipas.

Specimens examined. — One, the type.

NEOTOMA ALBIGULA Hartley.

White-throated Wood Rat.

(PI. II, figs. 1, la.)

Neotoma albigula Hartley, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2 Ser., IV, pp. 157-159, pi. XII

May 9, 1894. Type from vicinity of Fort Lowell, Pima County, Ariz.; No.

1336, 9 ad., Museum of Stanford University; collected by W. W. Price and

R. L. Wilbur, June 14, 1893.
Neotoma intermedia angusticeps Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., IX, 127, July 2

1894. Type from southwestern corner of Grant County, N. Mex., 4 miles north

of Mexican boundary; No. ffff, $ ad., Merriam Collection; collected by A. W.

Anthony, April 12, 1886.
Neotoma intermedia albigula Merriam, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 248, September

24, 1894.

Distribution. — Northern New Mexico to southern Coahuila, Mexico,
and from central Texas to western Arizona. Upper and Lower
Sonoran zones.

General characters. — Size medium ; throat and pectoral region pure
white to roots of hairs; tail bicolor. Similar in general to N. inter-
media, but differing in important characters.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts dull pinkish buff, brightest along
sides, varying in some specimens to clear pinkish buff, thinly overlaid
with blackish ; outer sides of legs tinged with vinaceous ; under parts
and feet white ; tail grayish brown above, white below. Worn pelage:
Upper parts more or less ochraceous buffy or rusty.

Skull. — Similar to that of N. intermedia, but larger; rostrum much
heavier; palate concave posteriorly (convex in intermedia); bullae
larger; first upper molar with anterointernal reentrant angle shallow,
as in N. intermedia.

Measurements. — Average of four adults from the region of the type
locality: Total length, 328; tail vertebras, 152; hind foot, 33.5.

32

NOKTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[no. 31.

Skull (average of same): Basilar length, 36.3; zygomatic breadth,
22.0; interorbital breadth, 5.8; length of nasals, 16.5; length of
incisive foramina, 8.8; length of palatal bridge, 7.8; alveolar length
of upper molar series, 8.

Remarks. — In extreme western Arizona N. albigula passes into a
larger form, N. a. venusta. It intergrades in central Sonora, Mexico,
with N. a. melanura, a subspecies ranging to the southward along the

Fig. 4.— Distribution of the Neotoma albigula group.

western basal slopes of the Sierra Madre. Specimens from Rio
Puerco and San Rafael, X. Mex., are dichromatic. In addition to
normally colored individuals are darker ones in winch the pinkish
buff of sides spreads entirely across the belly. In specimens showing
the dark phase the throat and chest are pure white, as in the normal
individuals, and contrast strongly with the intensified color of the
areas over which the fur is always basally dark. Externally albigula
closely resembles N. m. fallax, and the two often range together.

1910.] ALBIGULA GROUP VENUSTA. 33

N. albigula may be known by the pure white, instead of plumbeous,
basal color of fur on throat and chest.

Neotoma intermedia angusticeps was based on a rather abnormal
specimen of N. albigula.

Specimens examined. — Total number 491, from localities as follows:

Arizona: Big Sandy Creek, Mohave County, 1; Bisbee, 1; Camp Verde, 1;
Carrizalillo Spring, 2; Dos Cabezas, 1; Eagle Mountain (latitude 31° 47',
longitude 30° 150, 10; Fort Bowie, 1; Fort Grant, 1; Fort Huachuca, 9;
Fort Whipple, 1; Granite Mountains, 1; Holbrook, 1; Huachuca Moun-
tains, 19; Hualpai, 8; La Osa, Pima County, 4; Little Meadows, Mohave
County, 1; New River (30 miles northwest of Phoenix), 1; Oracle, 2;
Phoenix, 2; Pinal Mountains, 1; San Bernardino Springs, 1; Santa Rita
Mountains, 2, Tinajas Altas, Yuma County, 1; Tombstone, 1; Tucson, 3;
Tucson (75 miles southwest), 1; Tule Well, 2.

New Mexico: Abiquiu, 2; Alma, 2; Ancho, 2; Animas Mountains, 4; Ani-
mas Valley (Lang Ranch), 1; Bear Spring Mountains, Socorro County, 5;
Big Hatchet Mountains, 5; Burley, 4; Cabezon, 1; Cabra Spring, San
Miguel County, 2; Cactus Flat (20 miles north of Cliff), 7; Canyon de
Chelly, 2; Capitan Mountains, 18; Carlsbad, 3; Chama Canyon, 1; Ciene-
guilla (near Rinconada), 3; Corona, Lincoln County, 2; Cuchillo, 3; Cuervo,
Guadalupe County, 1; Datil Mountains, 1; Deining, 5; Dog Spring, Grant
County, 3; Espanola, 1; Fairview, 1; Faywood, 1; Florida Mountains, 6;
Fort Wingate, 2; Gallina Mountains, 1; Gallup, 3; Garfield, 1; Glenwood,
San Francisco River, 3; Grant, 16; Grant County (southwest corner),
9; Gila, 1; Hachita, 5; international boundary, 100 miles west of El
Paso, 15; Isleta, 1; Jarilla, 4; Jicarilla Mountains, 16; Kingston, 2; La-
guna, 12; Lake Valley, 1; Lamy, 2; Las Cruces, 1; Las Palomas, 1;
Magdalena Mountains, 2; Malpais Spring, Otero County, 1; Mangos Valley
(near Tyrone), 4; Manzano Mountains, 14; Mesa Jumanes, 1; Organ Moun-
tains, 4; Playas Valley, 4; Pleasanton, 1; Redrock, 5; Ribera, 1; Riley,
1; Rinconada, 5; Rio Alamosa, 2; Rio Puerco, 8; Roswell (40 miles west)
1; San Andres Mountains, 15; Sandia Mountains, 1; San Mateo Mountains
(Indian Butte), 1; San Pedro, 2; San Rafael, 2; Santa Clara Canyon,
Santa Fe County, 4; Santa Rosa, 10; Silver City, 7; Socorro, 6; Stinking
Spring Lakes, 6; Tucumcari (25 miles southwest), 1; Tularosa, 5; Weed,
2; Wingate, 1.

Texas: El Paso, 6; Franklin Mountains, 20; Guadalupe Mountains, 2; Kent,
1; Llano, 1; Marfa, 1; Paisano, 1; Sierra Blanca, 1; Stanton, 1; Toyah, 1.

Chihuahua: Chihuahua, 21; Ciudad Juarez, 2; Colonia Diaz, 8; Escalon, 3;
Guzman, 4; San Luis Mountains, 1; Santa Eulalia, 1; Santa Rosalia, 11.

Coahuila: Jaral, 2; Jimulco, 1; Monclova, 1.

Durango: Mapimi, 2.

Sonora: Hermosillo, 2; Magdalena, 2; Nogales, 1; Patagonia Mountains, 1;
Pozo de Luis, 4; San Bernardino River (near international boundary),
1; San Jose Mountains, 4; Santa Cruz, 2; Sonoyta, 4.

NEOTOMA ALBIGULA VENUSTA True.

Colorado Valley Wood Rat.

(PI. II, figs. 2, 2a.)

Neotoma venusta True, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XVII, p. 354, November 15, 1S94
[author's separates issued June 27, 1894]. Type from Carrizo Creek, San Diego
County, Cal.; No. fjfff, $ yg., U. S. National Museum ; collected by F. Stephens.

52668°— 10 3

34 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [ho. 31.

Neotoma cumulator Mearns, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XX, p. 503, January 19, 1898
[author's separates issued March' 5, 1897]. Type from Fort Yuma, Cal. ; No. 60348,
$ ad., U. S. National Museum; collected by Dr. E. A. Mearns, April 2, 1894.

Neotoma desertorum grandis Elliot, Pub. Field Columb. Mus., Chicago, Zool. Ser., Ill,
No. 14, p. 247, January, 1904. Type from Cameron Lake, Sierra Nevada, Kern
County, Cal.; in Field Museum of Natural History; collected by Edmund Heller.

Distribution. — Colorado River Valley from northwestern Arizona
to Gulf of California and west through southern California to eastern
basal slopes of southern Sierra Nevada, San Bernardino, and San
Jacinto Mountains. Lower Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Closely related to N. albigula, but larger;
differing also in slight cranial characters.

Color. — Same as N. albigula. -

Skull. — Skull similar to that of N. albigula, but usually larger,
more angular, and in adults more arched across anterior roots of
zygomata; nasals narrower posteriorly.

Measurements. — Average of 5 adults from Fort Yuma, Cal. : Total
length, 396; tail vertebra, 182; hind foot, 38. Skull (average of
same): Basilar length, 38.5; zygomatic breadth, 24.1; interorbital
breadth, 6; length of nasals, 17.3; length of incisive foramina, 9.9;
length of palatal bridge, 7.6; alveolar length of upper molar series,
8.4.

Remarks. — This subspecies is a large western offshoot of the
albigula group, grading into typical albigula east of the Colorado
River in western Arizona and northern Sonora.

The type of venusta is a very young individual whose characters
are not very apparent unless comparison is made with specimens of
similar age. This fact may have led to the publication of N. cumu-
lator and N. d. grandis, which were based on fully adult specimens of
the same species.

Specimens examined. — Total number 103, from localities as follows:

California: Borrego Spring, San Diego County, 5; Cameron Lake, 2; Carriso

Creek (type locality), 3; Carriso Creek (20 miles east), 1; Colorado River,

at monument 204, 6; Fort Yuma, 26; New River, 1; Pilot Knob, 7.
Arizona: Adonde, 1; Beale Spring, 50 miles west of Prescott, 2; Brawley, 4;

Colorado River, opposite Needles, 2; Dolans Spring, Mohave County, 3;

Ehrenberg (15 miles southwest), 4; Fort Mohave, 2; Mineral Park, 2;

Mud Spring, Mohave County, 2; Nortons, Yuma County, 1; Yuma, 14.
Lower California: Cocopah Mountains (east base), 3; Colonia Lerdo, 1;

Gardners Lagoon, 2; head of Hardy River, 2; Seven Wells, Salton River,

2; Volcano Lake, 5.

NEOTOMA ALBIGULA WARRENI Merriam.

Warren Wood Rat.

Neotoma albigula warreni Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXI, pp. 143-144, June 9,
1908. Type from Gaume's Ranch, Baca County (northwest corner), Colo, (alti-
tude 4,600 feet); No. 151051, $ ad., U. S. National Museum (Biological Survey
Collection); collected by Merritt Cary, November 28, 1907.

1910.] ALBIGULA GROUP — MELANUEA. 35

Distribution. — Plains region of southeastern Colorado and north-
eastern New Mexico. Upper Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Similar in general to N. albigula, but color
decidedly grayer; hind foot larger; audital bullae smaller.

Color. — Fresh pelage (November) : Upper parts pale buffy gray,
lightest along cheeks and sides, slightly darkened on top of head and
back by dusky-tipped hairs, the buffy element becoming purer in a
pale, but rather distinct, lateral line along sides of belly; feet and
under parts white; the fur basally pure white on throat and on pec-
toral and inguinal regions, as in albigula; outer sides of hind legs
slate-grayish, faintly tinged with buffy; tail brownish above, white
below. Worn pelage (May) : Upper parts strongly suffused with
vinaceous buffy quite different from albigula in corresponding stages
of wear.

Skull. — Closely resembling that of typical albigula, but audital
bullae decidedly smaller, less inflated.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 324; tail vertebrae, 137;
hind foot, 37. Average of 6 adult topotypes: 313; 133; 36. SJcull
(average of 7 adults): Basilar length, 36.3; zygomatic breadth, 23.5;
interorbital breadth, 5.8; length of nasals, 16.5; length of incisive
foramina, 8.5; length of palatal bridge, 8; alveolar length of upper
molar series, 8.5.

Remarks. — This subspecies is based in part on a fine series of 8
specimens, all topotypes, kindly loaned by E. R. Warren. In
grayer, vinaceous instead of pinkish buffy coloration, it differs con-
spicuously from N. albigula, the only form with which close compari-
son is necessary. Externally it resembles a geographical neighbor,
N. m. canescens, but well-marked cranial characters place it in the
albigula group. Specimens from Clayton, N. Mex., are not quite
typical and appear to be grading toward albigula.

Specimens examined. — Total number 13, as follows:

Colorado: Gaume's Ranch, Baca County (type locality), 10.
New Mexico: Clayton, 3.

NEOTOMA ALBIGULA MELANURA Merriam.

Sonora Wood Rat.

(PI. II, tigs. 3, 3a.)

Neotoma intermedia melanura Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., IX, pp. 126-127, July
2, 1894. Type from Ortiz, Sonora, Mexico; No. J|fH» <? yg- ad., U. S. National
Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by Vernon Bailey, November
13, 1889.

Distribution. — Western basal slopes of Sierra Madre in southern
Sonora and southwestern Chihuahua. Lower Sonoran and upper part
of Arid Tropical zones.

36 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

General characters. — Color darker than N. albigula; tail black
above; skull less massive, with decidedly smaller audital bullae.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts between dark buff and dull pink-
ish buff, lightest along sides, darkened over back by dusky hairs;
middle of face and outer sides of legs pale drab; underparts dull
white; feet pure white; tail black above, whitish below.

Skull. — Similar to that of N. albigula, but lighter; rostrum more
slender; teeth slightly smaller; bullae much smaller.

Measurements. — Average of 2 adults from Alamos, Sonora. Total
length, 347; tail vertebrae, 160; hind foot, 37.5. Skull (average of
same): Basilar length, 37.5; zygomatic breadth, 23.2; interorbital
breadth, 6.1; length of nasals, 17.9; length of incisive foramina, 9.6;
length of palatal bridge, 7.9; alveolar length of upper molar series,
8.3.

Remarks.— Specimens from the type region, Ortiz (type locality),
and Batamotal, are not t}Tpical, but show intergradation in both color
and cranial characters between albigula and a more differentiated form
ranging farther southward along the west slope of the Sierra Madre.

Specimens examined. — Total number 39, from localities as follows:

Sonora: Alamos, 7; Batamotal, 2; Camoa, 3; Guaymas, 16; Ortiz, 1 (type);

Presidio, 8.
Chihuahua: Batopilas, 2.

NEOTOMA ALBIGULA LEUCODON Merriam.

White-toothed Wood Rat.

(PI. II. figs. 4, 4a.)

Neotoma leucodon Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., IX, pp. 120-121, July 2, 1894.
Type from San Luis Potosi, San Luis Potosi, Mexico; No. 50137, $ ad., U. S.
National Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by E. W. Nelson,
August 4, 1892.

Distribution. — Mexican plateau region from western Nuevo Leon
south to the northern part of the State of Mexico. Upper and Lower
Sonoran zones.

General characters. — Larger than X. albigula; color darker; cranial
characters distinctive.

Color. — Upperparts creamy buff, clearest along sides, becoming
dark pinkish buff in worn pelage, moderately darkened dorsally by
blackish hairs; nose and middle of face grayish; outer sides of
forearms and hind legs varying from gray to drab gray; feet and
underparts white, the fur on pectoral and inguinal regions pure white
to roots; tail blackish above, white below.

Skull. — Larger than that of N. albigula; rostrum and dentition
heavier; supraorbital ridges more developed, forming slightly pro-
jecting frontal shelves. Compared with N. a. venusia the skull is

1910.] ALB1GULA GROUP DURANG.E. 37

less arched across anterior roots of zygomata; supraorbital ridges
more developed and projecting.

Measurements. — Average of 6 adult topotypes: Total length, 358;
tail vertebra3, 157; hind foot, 38.5. Skull (average of same) : Basilar
length, 40.5; zygomatic breadth, 26.2; interorbitai breadth, 6.1;
length of nasals, 17.3; length of incisive foramina, 9.9; length of
palatal bridge, 8.6; alveolar length of tipper molar series, 9.

Remarks. — In southern Coahuila and western Nuevo Leon leucodon
intergrades with albigula, the form ranging thence to the northward.
Although widely separated geographically, leucodon is rather closely
related to venusta, but differs in color and in the cranial characters
already noted.

Specimens examined. — Total number 75, from the following localities :

San Luis Potosi: San Luis Potosi (type locality), 9; Hacienda La Parada, 9.

Aguas Calientes: Chicalote, 13.

Coahuila: Carneros, 1; La Ventura, 2; Saltillo, 2; Sierra Encarnacion, 10.

Guanajuato: La Quemada, 3.

Mexico: Marques, 2.

Jalisco: Lagos, 2.

Nuevo Leon: Santa Catarina, 3.

Queretaro: Tequisquiapan, 1.

Tamaulipas: Jaumave, 3; Miquihuana, 5.

Zacatecas: Berriozabel, 9; Zacatecas, 1.

NEOTOMA ALBIGULA DURANGO Allen.

Durango Wood Rat.

Neotoma intermedia durangse. Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., XIX, pp. 602-603,
November 12, 1903. Type from San Gabriel, northwestern Durango, Mexico;
No. 21185, $ ad., American Museum of Natural History, New York; collected
by J. H. Batty, February 20, 1903.

Distribution. — Eastern basal slopes of the Sierra Madre west of
and above the range of N. albigula, from central Durango to south-
western Chihuahua, Mexico. Upper Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Similar in external appearance to N. albigula,
but slightly larger; skull larger; dentition much heavier.

Color. — General color above mixed buff and black, varying in
some specimens to pale cream buff and black, palest on face, becom-
ing more or less rusty brown in worn pelage; underparts and feet
white, the hairs white to roots on breast and throat; tail brownish
black above, white below.

Skull. — Very similar to that of N. albigula, but larger; frontal
region somewhat narrower posteriorly; dentition much heavier.

Measurements. — Average of 5 adults from the type locality (from
original description). Total length, 350; tail vertebrae, 157.7; hind
foot (without claw), 32. Skull (an adult topotype) : Basilar length,

38 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

37.6; zygomatic breadth, 23.3; interorbital breadth, 5.8; length of
nasals, 16.7; length of incisive foramina, 9; length of palatal bridge,
7.7; alveolar length of upper molar series, 9.1.

Remarks. — This form is very closely related to N. albigula, from
which it differs chiefly in slightly larger size and heavier dentition.
Specimens examined. — Total number 9, from localities as follows:
Durango: Durango, 1; Inde, 1 ; Rancho Bailon and Rancho Santuario (north-
western Durango), 4; San Gabriel (type locality), 2.
Chihuahua: Parral, 1.

NEOTOMA ALBIGULA ZACATEC2E Goldman.

Zacatecas Wood Rat.

Neotoma leucodon zacatecse Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVIII, p. 30, February
2,1905. Type from Plateado, Zacatecas, Mexico; No. 90957, £ ad., U.S. National
Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by E. W. Nelson and E. A.
Goldman, September 4, 1897.

Distribution. — Sierra Madre in western Zacatecas, Mexico. Transi-
tion Zone.

General characters. — Size much larger and color decidedly darker
than N. albigula. Nearly related to N. a. leucodon, but darker;
upper lip dusky instead of grayish or whitish ; skull more arched and
otherwise peculiar. ,

Color. — Partly worn pelage: Upper parts pale cinnamon, lightest
along cheeks and sides, becoming redder on rump, well darkened along
median dorsal area by black-tipped hairs; chest and inguinal region
pure white; belly dull creamy white; upper lip dusky; feet white;
tail well haired, sharply bicolor, brownish black above, white below.

SJcull. — Similar to that of N. a. leucodon, but more arched across
anterior roots of zygomata; rostrum more decurved; frontals
longer ; maxillary arm of zygoma heavier ; upper incisors smaller.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 358; tail vertebrae, 162;
hind foot, 37. Skull (type): Basilar length, 39.1; interorbital
breadth, 6.3; length of nasals, 16.9; length of incisive foramina, 9.8;
length of palatal bridge, 8.8 ; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.6.

Remarks. — This subspecies is a dark, mountain representative of
the albigula group. Specimens from Valparaiso, Zacatecas, are
grading toward leucodon.

Specimens examined. — Five, all from Zacatecas, as follows;

Plateado (type locality), 1; Valparaiso, 4.

NEOTOMA LATIFRONS Merriam.

QUERENDARO WOOD RAT.

(PI. II, figs. 5, 5a.)

Neotoma latifrons Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., IX, p. 121, July 2, 1894. Type
from Querendaro, Michoacan, Mexico; No. 50135, $ ad., U. S. National Museum
(Biological Survey Collection); collected by E. W. Nelson, August 8, 1892.

1910.1 ALBIGULA GROUP NELSONI. 39

Distribution. — Known only from type locality. Lower part of
Lower Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Similar to N. a. leucodon, but smaller; color
darker, more ocliraceous; skull with projecting supraorbital shelves.

Color. — Partly worn pelage: Upper parts ochraceous buffy, purest
along cheeks and sides, moderately darkened dorsally by dusky
hairs ; middle of face grayish ; nose and upper lip dusky ; feet white ;
under parts dull white, the fur on pectoral and inguinal regions only,
pure white to roots; tail dusky above, dull white below.

Skull. — Similar to that of N. a. leucodon, but smaller, shorter, and
relatively broader; frontal region relatively broader and flatter pos-
teriorly, with lateral margins still more developed, forming strongly
projecting supraorbital shelves.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 350; tail vertebrae, 149;
hind foot (dry skin), 34.5. Skull (type): Basilar length, 36.9;
zygomatic breadth, 24.6; interorbital breadth, 5.9; length of nasals,
16.6; length of incisive foramina, 9.5; length of palatal bridge, 8.3;
alveolar length of upper molar series, 9.1.

Remarks. — This form is rather closely related to N. a. leucodon and
may intergrade with it in southern Guanajuato.

Specimens examined. — One, the type.

NEOTOMA NELSONI Goldman.

Nelson Wood Rat.

(PI. II, figs. 6, 6a.)

Neotomanelsoni Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVIII, pp. 29-30, February 2, 1905.
Type from Perote, Veracruz, Mexico; No. 54320, 9 ad., U. S. National Museum
(Biological Survey Collection); collected by E. W. Nelson, June 3, 1893.

Distribution. — High plains along the eastern edge of the Mexican
plateau region in eastern Puebla and extreme west-central Veracruz.
Upper Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Size large; tail stout, well haired, rather
short; ears large; coloration dark.' Related to N. a. leucodon, but
differing in darker color and important cranial characters.

Color. — Partly worn pelage: Upper parts pale cinnamon, heavily
overlaid with smoky brown or Prout brown, this color predominating
on top of head and along back, becoming grayish brown on cheeks
and middle of face; under parts dull white, the deep plumbeous basal
color showing through everywhere except on a small pectoral area
where the fur is pure white; nose and upper lip blackish; feet white;
tail indistinctly bicolor (nearly concolor toward tip), smoky brown
above, slightly paler and grayer below. Young (about half grown) :
Above grayish brown tinged with smoky brown.

Skull. — General outline of skull similar to that of N. a. leucodon but
nasals more wedge-shaped, pointed posteriorly; with a narrow emar-

40 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

gination between the ends; palatal bridge decidedly shorter than
incisive foramina (in leucodon about equal), and with a short pos-
terior median projection (absent in leucodon) ; ascending branches of
premaxillae very long, the ends reaching posteriorly beyond nasals in
approaching parallel lines to interorbital constriction; dentition as in
N. a. leucodon.

Measurements. — Average of 5 adult topotypes: Total length, 349;
total vertebrae, 154; hind foot, 38. Skull (average of same): Basilar
length, 39; zygomatic breadth, 25.3; interorbital breadth, 5.7;
length of nasals, 17 ; length of incisive foramina, 9.7 ; length of palatal
bridge, 8.4; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.9.

Remarks. — This species is a member of the albigula group. Its
darker color at all ages readily separates it externally from leucodon, its
nearest known relative.

Specimens examined. — Total number 11, all from the type locality.

NEOTOMA PALATINA Goldman.

Bolanos Wood Rat.

(PI. Ill, figs. 1, la.)

Neotoma palatina Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVIII, pp. 27-28, February 2,
1905. Type from Bolanos, Jalisco, Mexico; No. 90959, $ ad., U. S. National
Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by E. W. Nelson and E. A.
Goldman, September 12, 1897.

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality in the canyon
of the Bolanos River. Arid Tropical Zone.

General characters. — Size large ; ears small ; pelage short and coarse ;
skull heavy; sphenopalatine vacuities absent; vomer peculiar.

Color. — Worn pelage (September) : Upper parts pale cinnamon,
suffused with buffy along cheeks and sides, becoming much darker on
dorsal region from abundant admixture of black hairs; under parts
dull white, the basal color plumbeous except on throat, breast, and
inguinal region; muzzle brownish gray; feet white; tail scantily
haired, bicolor, blackish above, soiled whitish below.

Skull. — Skull large and massive, rather smoothly rounded, well
arched across anterior roots of zygomata; rostrum short and heavy;
nasals wedge-shaped, reaching posteriorly to plane of orbits; frontals
long and broad, the sides very slightly upturned ; brain case some-
what truncate posteriorly; interparietal large and rectangular, with-
out trace of a posterior angle; mastoids small; interpterygoid fossa
very broad, evenly rounded anteriorly, slightly constricted poste-
riorly by curvature inward of pterygoids; hamular process of ptery-
goids short and heavy; sphenopalatine vacuities completely closed
by palatines; vomer prolonged posteriorly as a thin vertical plate

1910.] ALBIGULA GROUP — MONTEZUMiE. 41

along median line of presphenoid, partially dividing posterior nares,
and ending in a point at suture between presphenoid and basisphe-
noid; bullae small and heavy, somewhat pear-shaped and pointed
anteriorly; dentition of the albigula type.

Measurements. — Type: Head and body, 187; hind foot, 37. Skull
(type): Basilar length, 38.5; zygomatic breadth, 24.4; interorbital
breadth, 5.8; length of nasals, 18; length of incisive foramina, 9;
length of palatal bridge, 7.6 ; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.8.

Remarks. — This remarkable animal appears to be an aberrant mem-
ber of the albigula group. In general form the skull somewhat
resembles that of N. a. melanura, but differs too widely in important
details to require close comparison with any known form. The pos-
terior prolongation of the vomer to the anterior border of the basi-
sphenoid is a unique character, and the complete closure of the spheno-
palatine vacuities has been observed elsewhere in the subfamily only
in some of the members of the subgenus Teonoma. In developing
upward and backward the palatines have left small irregular vacuities
along the palatopterygoid suture, which open outward into the exter-
nal pterygoid fossse.

Specimens examined. — One, the type.

NEOTOMA MONTEZUMA Goldman.

Montezuma Wood Rat.

(PI. Ill, figs. 2, 2a.)

Neotoma montezumx Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVIII, p. 29, Feb. 2, 1905.
Type from Zimapan, Hidalgo, Mexico; No. 81426, $ ad., U.S. National Museum
(Biological Survey Collection); collected by E. W. Nelson and E. A. Goldman,
October 17, 1896.

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality on the high
plains of western Hidalgo. Upper Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Size medium; tail rather short, scantily haired,
bicolored. Somewhat resembling N. a. melanura, but differing in
darker color and in marked cranial characters.

Color. — Partly worn pelage: Upper parts dull ochraceous buff,
palest on head and along sides, everywhere evenly and abundantly
darkened by brownish or blackish hairs; under parts dull white, the
under color of fur plumbeous, except on throat, chest, and inguinal
region, where it is pure white ; nose, upper sides of forearms, and outer
sides of hind legs, grayish brown; feet white; tail blackish above,
whitish below.

Skull. — In general form similar to N. a. melanura, but larger and
heavier; maxillary arm of zygoma decidedly heavier; nasals narrower
posteriorly; dentition much heavier; first upper molar with antero-

42 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

internal reentrant angle deeper, but not so deep as in N. mexicana;
bullae small, as in N. a. melanura, but more pointed anteriorly;
ascending branches of premaxillse very long, reaching or nearly
reaching posteriorly to interorbital constriction and somewhat
broadening toward ends; frontals constricted well forward, the sides
slightly upturned.

Measurements. — Type: Head and body, 181; hind foot, 39. Skull
(type): Basilar length, 38; zygomatic breadth, 24; interorbital
breadth, 5.9; length of nasals, 17.1; length of incisive foramina, 9.6;
length of palatal bridge, 7.9; alveolar length of upper molar series, 9.

Remarks. — Neotoma montezumse, is a member of the albigula group
with distinctive characters, showing no close affinity with any neigh-
boring species; its general resemblance to melanura is somewhat
superficial. The skull shows a slight departure from the albigula
type in the depth of the anterointernal reentrant angle of the first
upper molar. Unfortunately the end of the type specimen's tail is
missing, having been lost before the animal was captured, as shown
by the healed-over end.

Specimens examined. — Total number five, all from Hidalgo, as
follows :

Zimapan (type locality), 4; Ixmiquilpan, 1.

NEOTOMA INTERMEDIA Rhoads.
Rhoads Wood Rat.
(PL III, figs. 3, 3a.)

Neotoma intermedia Rhoads, Amer. Nat., XXVIII, pp. 69-70, January, 1894. Type
from Dulzura, San Diego County, Cal.; No. 1343, <?ad., collection of S. N. Rhoads;
collected by C. H. Marsh, August 21, 1893.

Neotoma californica Price, Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., 2 Ser., IV, pp. 154-156* pi. XI, May
9, 1894. Type from Bear Valley, San Benito County, Cal.; No. 335, $ ad., Museum
Stanford University; collected by C. H. Gilbert and W. W. Price, April 2, 1893.

Distribution. — Lower slopes of southern part of Sierra Nevada and
coast region of California from Monterey Bay southward and through-
out the mountains of Lower California to near Cape San Lucas. Upper
and Lower Sonoran zones.

General characters. — Size medium; ears large; tail moderately long,
bicolor. Somewhat similar to N. albigula, but color darker; fur on
throat and breast basally plumbeous instead of white; cranial
characters distinctive.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts grayish brown, more or less suf-
fused with pale buff, darkest on dorsal region from more abundant
admixture of black-tipped hairs; under parts white or creamy white,
the fur basahV plumbeous; breast usually crossed by a faint buffy
band; sides of ankles usually dusky; feet white; tail black above, dull

1910.]

INTERMEDIA GROUP INTERMEDIA.

43

white below. Winter pelage: Upper parts darker, the black-tipped
hairs more conspicuous than in summer pelage.

STcuU. — Rather small and light, brain case large and smoothly
rounded; temporal ridges faint and widely separated. General out-
line similar to that of N. albigula, but rostrum much more slender;
nasals broader and more evenly rounded posteriorly; palate convex
instead of concave posteriorly; bullae smaller, more tapering, and

Fig. 5. — Distribution of the Neotoma intermedia group.

turned inward anteriorly; first upper molar with anterointernal
reentrant angle shallow as in N. albigula.

Measurements. — Average of 3 adult topotypes: Total length, 325;
tail vertebrae, 160; hind foot, 31.5. Skull (average of same) : Basilar
length, 34.6; zygomatic breadth, 21.4; interorbital breadth, 5.5;
length of nasals, 15.3 ; length of incisive foramina, 8.7 ; length of palatal
bridge, 7.2; alveolar length of upper molar series, 7.5.

44 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. SI.

Remarks. — The abundant material examined shows that N. inter-
media and N. albigula belong to rather nearly related but quite dis-
tinct groups. Their ranges meet or overlap in southern California
without trace of intergradation. Typical intermedia inhabits the
more humid or higher areas, passing into a paler form, gilva, along
the basal slopes of the mountains and on sandy deserts. Specimens
from the upper slopes of the Sierra la Laguna in the Cape Region
of Lower California average more brownish in color than typical
intermedia; the skulls are very similar, but have rather more broadly
spreading zygomata and slightly wider interpterygoid fossae than is
usual in intermedia. But these differences seem too slight for sub-
specific recognition, although the specimens appear to represent an
isolated colony, cut off from the main distribution area of inter-
media by an interposed arm of the range of the larger and paler form,
arenacea. Specimens of intermedia in fresh winter pelage are usually
darker than those in the worn summer coat.

N. californica does not differ appreciably from typical intermedia.

Specimens examined. — Total number 252, from localities as follows:

California: Arroyo Seco Canyon (near Pasadena), 1; Bear Valley, San Benito
County, 4; Bear Basin, Monterey County, 2; Bell Station, 1; Bergman, 6;
Capistrano, 3; Chihuahua Mountains, 1; Cone Peak, 5; Dulzura (type local-
ity), 9; El Nido, 2; Fremont Peak, Gabilan Range, 3; Jamul, 1; Pacheco
Pass, 4; Piute Mountains, 1; Porterville (8 miles east), 2; Posts, 1; Poway,
1; Priest Valley, Monterey County, 1; Reche Canyon (near San Bernar-
dino), 13; Redlands, 1; Riverside, 14; San Benito Valley, 3; San Bernar-
dino, 2; San Bernardino Mountains, 8; San Diego, 1; San Fernando, 4; San
Francisquito Canyon, Los Angeles County, 1; San Jacinto Valley, 1; San
Luis Obispo, 3; San Pedro, 1; San Rafael Mountains, 2; Santa Inez, 1; Santa
Isabel, 4; Santa Lucia Peak, 6; Temescal, 1; Tassajara Creek, Monterey
County, 3; Tijuana River (mouth), 1; Wildomar, 1; Winchester, 1; Witch
Creek, 2; Zaca Lake, Santa Barbara County, 2.

Lower California: Calmalli, 1; Comondu, 15; El Potrero (near Mulege), 2;
Ensenada, 9; Ensenada (20 miles east), 2; La Grulla, San Pedro Martir
Mountains, 1; Palomar, San Pedro Martir Mountains, 1; Paso Hondo (16
miles north of La Purisima), 1; Rancho San Antonio (west base San Pedro
Martir Mountains), 9; Rancho Viejo (15 miles east of Alamo), 4; Rosario, 5;
San Andres, 6; San Bruno, 5; San Fernando, 3; San Ignacio, 7; San Isidro, 8;
San Quintin, 24; Santana, 1; San Telmo, 1; Santa Rosalia Bay, 1; Santo
Domingo, 2; Sierra la Giganta, 1; Sierra la Laguna, 10; Tecate River, 1;
Tijuana, 2; Trinidad Valley (northwest base San Pedro Martir Mountains),
3; Vallecitos, San Pedro Martir Mountains, 3.

NEOTOMA INTERMEDIA GILVA Rhoads.

Yellow Wood Rat.

Neotoma intermedia gilva Rhoads, Amer. Nat., XXVIII, p. 70, January, 1894. Type
from Banning, San Bernardino County, Cal.; No. 1665, $, Academy of Natural
Sciences, Philadelphia; collected October 26, 1893.

Neotoma descrtorum sola Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., IX, p. 126, July 2, 1894.
Type from San Emigdio, Kern County, Cal.; No. f^fH- <? ad-> n- S. National

1910.] INTEEMEDIA GEOUP GILVA. 45

Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by E. W. Nelson, October 24,
1891.
Neotoma bellafelipensis Elliot, Pub. Field Columb. Mus., Zool. Ser., Ill, pp. 217-218,
June, 1903. Type from San Felipe, Lower California, Mexico; type in Field
Museum of Natural History; collected by Edmund Heller in March or April, 1902.

Distribution. — Arid plains and basal slopes of mountains mainly
along the eastern border of the range of N. intermedia, from Stanley
in Fresno County, Cal., south through northeastern Lower California
to the Santa Clara Mountains on the west side of the Peninsula.
Lower Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Same as N. intermedia, but color paler, upper-
parts more buffy or yellowish, less obscured by blackish hairs.

Color. — Fresh winter pelage: Upperparts varying from creamy buff
to pale ochraceous buff, purest along sides, thinly overlaid with black-
ish hairs ; underparts and feet white; ankles less dusky than in N. inter-
media, the inner sides often pure white; tail brownish gray above,
white below.

Skull. — As in N. intermedia.

Measurements. — An adult from Cabezon, Cal. : Total length, 330 ;
tail vertebra?, 160; hind foot, 34. Skull (of same): Basilar length,
33.2; zygomatic breadth, 20.9; interorbital breadth, 5.5; length of
nasals, 15.9; length of incisive foramina, 8.6; length of palatal bridge,
6.8; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.1.

Remarks.— N. i. gilva is a desert form differing from typical N. inter-
media only in paler, more yellowish coloration of upperparts. It
intergrades with intermedia along the slopes of the mountains or
wherever the climate becomes more humid. In color gilva sometimes
closely resembles lepida, but the pelage is shorter and coarser.

Large series of specimens show considerable range of variation in
color and from some localities average somewhat yellower than from
others, but there are no characters by which felipensis can be satis-
factorily separated from typical gilva. Through transposition, prob-
ably while in the hands of the skull cleaner, the skull of a southern
member of the fuscipes group was numbered to correspond with a skin
of gilva, and the composite specimen later became the type of sola.
This mismatched skull belongs either to macrotis or simplex, both of
which had already been described, but it can not be definitely assigned
to either, owing to their close agreement in skull characters. The
skin, however, of the type of sola is certainly gilva, as is a topotype
taken at the same time. Hence the name seems to belong in synonymy
under the latter form.

Specimens examined. — Total number 118, from localities as follows:

California: Banning, 1 (type); Big Pine Mountain, 1; Cabezon, 2; Carriso
Plains, 2; Cuyama Valley, 1; east base of Coast Range Mountains, San
Diego County, 1; Fort Tejon, 17; Frazier Mountain, 1; Jacumba, 7; Kern
River (south fork), 4; Kern River (15 miles northeast of Bakersfield), 1;

46 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

Milpitas Ranch, Monterey County, 1; Mount Pinos, 2; Mountain Spring,
San Diego County, 4; Mount Waterman, San Gabriel Mountains, 1; Palm
Springs, 1; Paraiso Springs, 1; San Emigdio, Kern County, 2; San Gorgonio
Pass, 8; San Jacinto Lake, 1; San Jacinto Mountains (San Andres Canyon),
2; Seven Oaks, San Bernardino Mountains, 1; Stanley, 6; Tehachapi, 2;
Tejon Pass, 2; Vallecitos, 2; White Water, 3.
Lower California: Aguaje de la Natividad, 1; Calamahue, 3; Canyon Vicente,
1; Esperanza Canyon, east base San Pedro Martir Mountains, 1; Nachoguero
Valley, 1; Pozo San Augustin (20 miles east of San Fernando), 2; San Angel
(20 miles west of San Ignacio), 2; San Felipe Bay, 20; San Francisquito, 6;
Tinaja Santa Clara, Santa Clara Mountains, 2; Yubay, 2.

NEOTOMA INTERMEDIA PRETIOSA Goldman.

Matancita Wood Rat.

(PI. Ill, figs. 4, 4a.)

Neotoma intermedia pretiosa Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXII, p. 139, June 25,
1909. Type from Matancita (also called Soledad), 50 miles north of Magdalena
Bay, Lower California, Mexico (altitude 100 feet); No. 146123, $ ad., U. S.
National Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by E. W. Nelson and
E. A. Goldman, November 17, 1905.

Distribution. — West coast and islands of Lower California, from San
Jorge (southwest of Comondu) south to Margarita Island. Lower
Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Size much larger and color paler than N. inter-
media. Similar in size to N. i. arenacea, but color paler; tail shorter;
audital bullae larger.

Color. — Worn pelage: Upperparts very pale drab gray, purest
along cheeks and sides, overlaid on top of head and back by dusky
or rusty hairs; feet and underparts white; tail blackish above, grayish
below.

SJcull. — Similar in general to that of N. intermedia, but very much
larger and more angular; nasals narrower posteriorly; supraorbital
ridges more prominent. In size the skull is similar to that of N. i.
arenacea, but dentition heavier; bullae much larger.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 370; tail vertebrae, 165; hind
foot, 41. Average of 6 adult topotypes : Total length, 374; 166; 39.3.
Skull (average of same): Basilar length, 39.4; zygomatic breadth,
24.6; interorbital breadth, 5.8; length of nasals, 18.2; length of
incisive foramina, 10.5; length of palatal bridge, 7.6; alveolar length
of upper molar series, 9.3.

Remarks. — This large form occupies a position between intermedia
and arenacea and probably intergrades with both. In cranial char-
acters it approaches N. bryanti, but differs markedly in color. Adult
specimens taken in November are undergoing the change from worn
to fresh pelage.

1910.] INTERMEDIA GROUP ARENACEA. 47

Specimens examined. — Total number 41, from localities in Lower
California, as follows:

Magdalena Island, 12; Margarita Island, 10; Matancita (type locality), 12;
San Jorge, 7.

NEOTOMA INTERMEDIA ARENACEA Allen.

Cape Wood Rat.

(PI. Ill, figs. 5, 5a.)

Neotoma arenacea Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., X, pp. 150-151, April 12, 1898.
Type from San Jose del Cabo, Lower California, Mexico; No. 98, 3,112, $ , British
Museum; collected by Dane Coolidge, August 6, 1896.

Distribution. — Coastal plains and basal mountain slopes in the
Cape region of Lower California, north at least to La Paz. Mainly
overlapping portions of Lower Sonoran and Arid Tropical zones.

General characters. — Size much larger than N. intermedia. Related
to N. i. cursoria, but color darker; tail longer; audit al bullae much
smaller.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts between buff and ochraceous
buff, clearest along cheeks and sides, moderately darkened over top
of head and back by overlying dusky hairs; feet and under parts
white; ankles brownish or dusky; tail indistinctly bicolor, brownish
above, grayish brown below.

Measurements. — Average of 5 adult topotypes: Total length, 383;
tail vertebrae, 188; hind foot, 38.5. Skull (average of same): Basilar
length, 38.8; zygomatic breadth, 23.7; interorbital breadth, 5.9;
length of nasals, 17.4; length of . incisive foramina, 10.2; length of
palatal bridge, 7.2; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.2.

Skull. — Similar in general form to that of N. intermedia, but larger
and more angular; supraorbital ridges more prominent; bullae rela-
tively much smaller. In size the skull is similar to that of N. i.
cursoria, but dentition much lighter and bulla? much smaller.

Remarks. — This large form inhabits the subtropical coastal plains
and valleys and the Lower Sonoran basal slopes of the Sierra la
Laguna in the Cape region of Lower California from La Paz to Cape
San Lucas. Complete intergradation with intermedia probably occurs
to the northward of La Paz and on the slopes of the Sierra la Laguna.
Some of the specimens taken early in January are in fresh pelage,
while others are much worn.

Specimens examined. — Total number 36, all from the Cape region
of Lower California, as follows :

Cape San Lucas, 8; El Sauz, 1; La Paz, 11; San Jose del Cabo (type locality),
14; Santa Anita, 2.

48 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

NEOTOMA INTERMEDIA VICINA Goldman.

Espiritu Santo Wood Rat.

Neotoma intermedia vicina Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXII, p. 140, June 25,
1909. Type from Espiritu Santo Island, off east coast of Lower California, Mex-
ico; No. 146803, $ ad., U. S. National Museum (Biological Survey Collection);
collected by E. W. Nelson and E. A. Goldman, February 9, 1906.

Distribution. — Espiritu Santo Island, Gulf of California, Mexico.
Lower Sonoran Zone and upper border of Arid Tropical Zone.

General characters. — Most nearly related to N. i. perpallida, but
color darker and tail averaging slightly shorter. Size slightly larger
than N. intermedia; color above more grayish; under parts purer
white; tail more scantily haired; skull differing in various details.
Somewhat similar to N. i. arenacea, but smaller; color paler; audital
bullae relatively larger.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts dull grayish or brownish drab,
lighter along cheeks and sides, moderately darkened over top of
head and back by overlying dusky hairs; feet and under parts white;
tail blackish above, grayish below.

SJcull. — About as in N. i. perpallida; averaging larger and more
angular than in N. intermedia; nasals narrower posteriorly; inter-
pterygoid fossa wider; dentition heavier; bullae slightly smaller. The
skull differs from that of N. i. arenacea in smaller size, relatively
heavier dentition, and relatively larger bullae.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 335; tail vertebrae, 156; hind
foot, 37. Average of 5 adult topotypes: 344; 162; 34.5.

Skull (average of 4 adults): Basilar length, 35.6; zygomatic
breadth, 22.8; interorbital breadth, 5.6; length of nasals, 16.4; length
of incisive foramina, 9.3 ; length of palatal bridge, 7.2 ; alveolar length
of upper molar series, 8.1.

Remarks. — This island form differs from N. i. perpallida mainly in
darker color. The close agreement of vicina and perpallida in gen-
eral characters seems rather remarkable in view of the fact that the
island of San Francisco, lying between their insular ranges, is inhab-
ited by the very distinct species N. abbreviata.

Specimens examined. — Thirteen, all from Espiritu Santo Island,
Lower California.

NEOTOMA INTERMEDIA PERPALLIDA Goldman.

San Jose Island Wood Rat.

Neotoma intermedia perpallida Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXII, pp. 139-140,
June 25, 1909. Type from San Jose Island, off east coast of Lower California, Mex-
ico; No. 79061, $ yg. ad., U. S. National Museum (Biological Survey Collection);
collected by J. E. McLellan, August 4, 1895.

1910.] INTERMEDIA GEOUP ABBREVIATA. 49

Distribution. — San Jose Island, Gulf of California, Mexico. Lower
Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Most nearly related to N. i. vicina, but color
still paler and tail averaging slightly longer; skull about the same.
Similar in color to N. i. gilva, but under parts purer white and tail
not basally buffy; tail longer, more scantily haired; skull differing in
details.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts dull grayish or brownish drab,
lighter along cheeks and sides, moderately darkened over top of head
and back by overlying dusky hairs; feet and under parts white; tail
blackish above, grayish below. Worn pelage: Upper parts becoming
browner or more rusty, mainly through fading of dark hairs.

Skull. — About like that of N. i. vicina. Much as in N. intermedia
and N. i. gilva, but somewhat larger; bulla? slightly smaller. Dif-
fering from that of N. nudicauda in much smaller bullae.

Measurements. — Average of six adults: Total length, 359 (345-375).
STcull ( average of four adults) : Basilar length, 31 ; zygomatic breadth,
22; interorbital breadth, 5.7; length of nasals, 16.8; length of incisive
foramina, 9.4; length of palatal bridge, 7.2; alveolar length of upper
molar series, 8.6.

Remarks. — The San Jose Island wood rat differs from N. i. vicina of
Espiritu Santo Island mainly in paler color. This difference in color
is within the range of variation in some mainland forms, and but for
their insularity perpallida and vicina might be included under one
name. The small island of San Francisco, lying only a short distance
off the southern end of San Jose Island, is inhabited by N. abbreviata, a
distinct species with which perpallida requires no close comparison.

The Biological Survey collection contains two specimens of this
form. Outram Bangs has kindly furnished for examination a fine
series of additional specimens — 11 skins and skulls collected on San
Jose Island by W. W. Brown, jr., for John E. Thayer.

Specimens examined. — Thirteen, all from San Jose Island, Lower
California.

NEOTOMA ABBREVIATA Goldman.

Short-tailed Wood Rat.

Neotoma abbreviata Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXII, pp. 140-141, June 25, 1909.
Type from San Francisco Island (near southern end of San Jose Island), Gulf of
California; No. 12260, $ ad., Museum of Comparative Zoology; collected by
W. W. Brown, jr., February 22, 1909. (John E. Thayer expedition.)

Distribution. — Known only from San Francisco Island, in the Gulf
of California. Lower Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Size small; color very pale; tail decidedly
shorter than head and body— shorter than in any other known mem-
ber of the intermedia group. Somewhat like N. intermedia, but size
52668°— 10 4

50 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

smaller, color very much paler, tail relatively shorter and skull very
different. Similar in color to N. i. perpallida of the neighboring island
of San Jose, but not very nearly related; size smaller; tail relatively
shorter; skull differing in numerous details.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts pale drab gray, palest along
cheeks and sides, the dark hairs over top of head and back scarcely
numerous enough to alter the general color, but producing a grizzled
effect; posterior part of back suffused with cinnamon or pale rusty;
under parts dull white, the fur basally plumbeous; feet white; tail
pale grayish above, white below.

Slcull. — Somewhat like that of intermedia, but smaller, more angu-
lar; nasals broader posteriorly, the ends more rounded; frontals nar-
rower posteriorly, the constriction nearer middle, upper surface more
deeply channeled along median line; bullae shorter, more rounded;
posterior border of palate slightly emarginate (evenly convex in inter-
media) ; mastoid process of squamosal less spatulate at tip, or less
developed upward, leaving mastoid more exposed below lateral exten-
sion of supraoccipital ; supraoccipital more angular, sharply ridged
posterior to union with interparietal; outer surface of squamosal with
a distinct eminence or ridge descending obliquely toward orbit. Com-
pared with that of perpallida the skull of abbreviata is decidedly
smaller; nasals broader and more rounded posteriorly; frontals rela-
tively narrower posteriorly, the constriction nearer middle, broad
anteriorly between lachrymals, and tapering more abruptly between
maxillae and premaxillae owing to crowding by nasals; incisive
foramina more decidedly longer than palatal bridge; bullae shorter,
more rounded.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 305; tail vertebrae, 130; hind
foot, 33. Average of six adult topotypes, 304 (295-310); 130
(125-135); 33 (30-35). Skull (average of five adults): Basilar
length, 34.1; zygomatic breadth, 21.6; interorbital breadth, 5.3;
length of nasals, 15.4; length of incisive foramina, 8.4; length of pal-
atal bridge, 7.5; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.4.

Remarks. — Although clearly a member of the intermedia group, this
small insular wood rat is a distinct species, separable from its nearer
relatives by small size and abbreviated tail. It is known only from
the small island of San Francisco, situated a short distance from the
southern extremity of the larger island of San Jose. When the slight
geographic separation of these two islands is considered, the wide
difference between the wood rats inhabiting them seems remarkable.

I was indebted to Outram Bangs for the opportunity to describe the
present species, which is based on a fine series of specimens collected
for John E. Thayer.

Specimens examined. — Ten, all from San Franeisco Island.

1910.] INTERMEDIA GROUP BRYAN TI. 51

NEOTOMA NUDICAUDA Goldman.

Carmen Island Wood Rat.

Neotoma nudicauda Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVIII, pp. 28-29, February 2,
1905. Type from Carmen Island, Lower California, Mexico; No. 79073, 9 yg.
ad., U. S. National Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by J. E.
McLellan, October 14, 1895.

Distribution. — Known only from Carmen Island, in the Gulf of Cali-
fornia, Mexico. Lower Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Size medium; ears large; tail moderately long
and nearly naked. Similar in general to N. i. arenacea, but color
paler; audital bullae decidedly larger; interpterygoid fossa much
narrower.

Color. — Type (worn pelage) : Upper parts pale grayish buff, tinged
with brownish along cheeks and sides, the back slightly darkened by
black-tipped hairs; under parts white, the fur basally along sides of
belly pale plumbeous; ears grayish brown; feet white; tail bicolor,
brownish above, dull whitish below.

Skull. — Similar to that of N. arenacea, but bullae much larger; inter-
pterygoid fossa much narrower; maxillary arm of zygoma heavier;
antorbital foramina larger; nasals truncate posteriorly, reaching
plane of orbits; jugal rather long; dentition of the intermedia type,
but rather light; supraorbital ridges well developed and sharp, as in
N. i. arenacea.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 330; tail vertebra?, 155; hind
foot, 40. Skull (type): Basilar length, 36; zygomatic breadth, 22.6;
length of nasals, 16.3; length of incisive foramina, 9.3; length of
palatal bridge, 7.1; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.9.

Remarks. — In external appearance nudicauda closely resembles
perpallida, which inhabits the neighboring island of San Jose. In
combination of cranial characters, however, it differs from all the other
members of the intermedia group, and compares about as well with
cursoria or vicina as with arenacea.

Specimens examined. — One, the type.

NEOTOMA BRYANTI Merriam.

Bryant Wood Rat.

(PI. Ill, figs. 6, 6a.)

Neotoma bryanti Merriam, Amer. Nat., XXI, No. 2, pp. 191-193, February, 1887.
Type from Cedros Island (also called Cerros Island), Lower California, Mexico;
No. ffll) <? » Merriam Collection; collected by Walter E. Bryant.

Distribution. — Cedros Island, off west coast of Lower California,
Mexico. Upper Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Size very large; ears large; tail moderately
long, bicolored. Related to N. i. cursoria, but color much darker
and cranial characters different.

52 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

Color. — Slightly worn pelage: Ground color of upper parts rich
creamy buff, clearest along cheeks and sides, becoming much darkened
over top of head and back by admixture of black-tipped hairs ; under
parts creamy white, suffused in some specimens with pinkish buff;
ankles more or less conspicuously dusky; feet white; tail brownish
above, grayish below.

Skull. — Similar to that of N. i. cursoria, but averaging larger and
more angular; frontals broadening more abruptly anteriorly between
lachrymals, upper surface deeply channeled, lateral margins strongly
upturned in nearly straight posteriorly diverging lines ; interpterygoid
fossa narrower ; dentition heavier.

Measurements. — Average of 8 adult topotypes : Total length, 377 ;
tail vertebrae, 168; hind foot, 38.1. Skull (average of 5 adults):
Basilar length, 40; zygomatic breadth, 24.5; interorbital breadth,
5.4; length of nasals, 18; length of incisive foramina, 9.9; length of
palatal bridge, 8; alveolar length of upper molar series, 9.8.

Remarks. — This large insular species is more nearly related to N. i.
cursoria, which inhabits the coast and islands farther south, than to
the form found on the adjacent mainland. The skulls of bryanti and
cursoria indicate rather close relationship, but the darker color of the
former readily distinguishes it. The fine series of topotypes in the
Biological Survey collection shows that the species has whitish under-
parts. The concolor back, sides, and belly in the type specimen are
due to the burning off of the tips of the hairs, thus exposing the
plumbeous basal color above and below.

Specimens examined. — Total number 27, all from Cedros Island,
Lower California.

NEOTOMA ANTHONYI Allen.

Anthony Wood Rat.

(PI. IV, figs. 1, la.)

Neotoma anlhonyi Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., X, pp. 151-152, April 12, 1898.
Type from Todos Santos Island, Lower California, Mexico; No. xMffi $ acl->
American Museum of Natural History, N. Y.; collected by A. W. Anthony, May
11, 1897.

Distribution. — Todos Santos Island, off west coast of Lower Cali-
fornia, Mexico. Upper Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Size medium; tail rather short, well haired,
sharply bicolor; outer surface of hind legs conspicuously blackish;
nasals not reaching plane of lachrymals. Related to N. intermedia,
but differing both in color and cranial characters.

Color. — Worn pelage: Above grayish brown, palest along sides,
becoming much darker over top of head and back by admixture of
dusky hairs; under parts dull whitish, faintly suffused across throat

1910.] INTERMEDIA GEOUP — MARTINENSIS. 53

and belly with pale pinkish buff; upper surface of forearms dusky
brown ; outer surface of hind legs and inner surface of ankles blackish ;
feet white; tail bicolor, brownish black above, soiled whitish below.

Skull. — Similar in general to that of N. intermedia, but larger and
heavier; nasals broader; maxillary arm of zygoma heavier, less
squarely spreading; frontals more elevated near lachrymals, deeply
channeled along median line; incisive foramina longer, slightly con-
stricted near maxillopremaxillary suture; interpterygoid fossa wider;
basisphenoid broader anteriorly; presphenoid broader posteriorly at
point of union with basisphenoid; dentition of the intermedia type,
but heavier.

Measurements. — Average of 10 adult topotypes : Total length, 338;
tail vertebrae, 149; hind foot, 36.3. Skull (average of 8 adults):
Basilar length, 37.3; zygomatic breadth, 23.6; interorbital breadth,
5.6; length of nasals, 17.1; length of incisive foramina, 10.1; length
of palatal bridge, 7.5; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.2.

Remarks. — In color this species closely resembles N. martinensis,
but the skull shows nearer relationship to N. intermedia, the animal
inhabiting the adjacent mainland. The conspicuous black markings
on the outer sides of the hind legs, as in anthonyi and martinensis,
have not been observed elsewhere in the genus.

Specimens examined. — Total number 50, all from Todos Santos
Island, Lower California.

NEOTOMA MARTINENSIS Goldman.

San Martin Island Wood Rat.

(PI. IV, figs. 2, 2a.)

Neotoma martinensis Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVIII, p. 28, February 2, 1905.
Type from San Martin Island, Lower California, Mexico; No. 81074, 9 ad. U. S.
National Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by A. W. Anthony,
July 17, 1896.

Distribution. — San Martin Island, off west coast of Lower Cali-
fornia, Mexico. Upper Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Size medium; tail moderately long, thinly
covered with short hairs ; ears large ; outer sides of hind legs conspicu-
ously blackish. In color closely resembling N. anthonyi, but
underparts purer white; ears larger; tail more scantily haired; cranial
characters very different.

Color. — Rather worn pelage: Ground color of upper parts creamy
buff, purest along lower parts of sides, heavily darkened on head and
over back by overlying dusky hairs; under parts creamy white, the
fur everywhere deep plumbeous basally; upper sides of forearms
dusky brown; outer sides of hind legs and inner sides of ankles con-
spicuously blackish; feet, including the sides of the soles to point well

54 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 81.

above heels on hind feet pure white; tail brownish black above,
grayish below.

Skull. — Size medium, rather smoothly rounded, high and well
arched across anterior roots of zygomata; temporal ridges faintly
developed and widely separated; nasals very long, abruptly narrow-
ing posteriorly, and reaching well beyond plane of lachrymals;
ascending branches of premaxillse reaching posteriorly beyond nasals
nearly to interorbital constriction, the ends beveled internally and
somewhat divaricating; frontals narrowly constricted between orbits,
broadening posteriorly, the upper surface nearly flat and without
well-developed lateral ridges; zygomata narrower anteriorly than
posteriorly; palate truncate or slightly convex posteriorly ; interptery-
goid fossa narrow and further constricted posteriorly by curvature
inward of pterygoids; bullae rather small, somewhat pear-shaped,
the meatus very large and widely open, with upper posterior border
projecting laterally beyond upper anterior border; dentition of the
intermedia type.

Measurements. — Average of 4 adult topo types: Total length, 352;
tail vertebrae, 165; hind foot, 37.6. Skull (average of same): Basilar
length, 37.4; zygomatic breadth, 23.2; interorbital breadth, 5.5;
length of nasals, 17.9; length of incisive foramina, 9.7; length of
palatal bridge, 7.4 ; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.3.

Remarks. — This species, a member of the intermedia group, closely
approaches anthnnyi in external appearance, but the skull indicates
no very near relationship to any known form. The remarkable pro-
longation of the nasals posteriorly beyond the plane of the lachry-
mals, while in anthonyi they end decidedly in front of this plane, is
one of numerous cranial characters which separate the two species.
The conspicuously black hind legs distinguish both species externally
from all the other known members of the genus.

Specimens examined. — Total number 24, all from San Martin

Island.

NEOTOMA MEXICANA Baird.

Mexican Wood Rat.

(PI. IV, figs. 3, 3a.)

Neotoma mexicana Baird, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., VII, p. 333, April, 1855. Type
from near Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico. Skull No. 1674 (skin No. 289 lost),
U. S. National Museum; collected by John Potts.

Distribution. — Desert ranges along the eastern side of the Sierra
Madre in Chihuahua and northwestern Durango, and thence north-
ward in the mountains to western Texas, southwestern New Mexico,
and southeastern Arizona. Upper Sonoran and Transition zones.

General characters. — Size medium, tail moderately long, bicolor;
upper parts grayish ; first upper molar with anterointernal reentrant
angle deeper than in N. floridana; frontals constricted near middle.

1910.]

MEXICANA GROUP — MEXICANA.

55

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts grayish burl' or buff gray, palest
on head, moderately darkened over back by overlying blackish hairs,
becoming in worn pelage of old adults somewhat rusty brown;
underparts dull white, the fur everywhere deep plumbeous basally;
feet white; tail brownish above, white below. Young (nearly full
grown): Above varying shades of buffy gray thinly mixed with
black.

Skull. — Rather small and light; rostrum relatively longer and
more slender than in N. Jloridana or N. albigula; zygomata more

Fig. 6.— Distribution of Neotoma mexicana and subspecies.

squarely spreading; the sides nearly parallel; nasals ending poste-
riorly near anterior plane of orbits, only slightly exceeded by pre-
maxillae (nasals and premaxillse reaching farther posteriorly in fallax) ;
frontals narrower posteriorly than in fallax, constricted near middle;
interparietal rectangular; palate truncate or slightly convex pos-
teriorly; interpterygoid fossa narrow; bullae of medium size, short
and well rounded ; dentition much as in N. jloridana and N. albigula,

56 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

but first upper molar with anterointernal reentrant angle deeper,
cutting more than half way across anterior lobe.

Measurements. — An adult from Santa Eulalia (near type locality),
Chihuahua: Total length, 327; tail vertebrae, 149; hind foot, 34.
Skull (of same): Basilar length, 35.6; zygomatic breadth, 23.3;
interorbital breadth, 5.3; length of nasals, 16.6; length of incisive
foramina, 9.1; length of palatal bridge, 8.2; alveolar length of upper
molar series, 8.3.

Remarks. — N. mexicana is a typical member of a large group, the
differentiation of which into a number of closely related species and
subspecies has been determined by the varying conditions of envi-
ronment along the principal mountain ranges of the continent from
Colorado to Nicaragua. From N. ferruginea of Guatemala it dif-
fers widely in color (ferruginea is bright orange buff), but rather
near relationship is shown by agreement in many important cranial
characters, and the two species almost meet in Zacatecas and Tepic
through the intergradation of intervening forms. N. mexicana grades
into fallax in southern New Mexico and into madrensis along the
eastern slopes of the Sierra Madre in western Chihuahua and Du-
rango. Externally mexicana and albigula are much alike, but the
former may be known by the plumbeous instead of pure white basal
color of fur on throat and breast. In the last lower molar a small
accessory anteroexternal reentrant angle is sometimes present.
This character occurs sporadically in nearly all of the members of
the mexicana group.

Specimens examined. — Total number 24, from the following local-
ities :

Chihuahua: Chihuahua, 1; Santa Eulalia (near Chihuahua), 3.

Durango: La Cienega de las Vacas (northwestern Durango), 1.

Texas: Fort Davis, 2; Guadalupe Mountains, 3; Paisano, 1; Valentine, 1.

Arizona: Chiricahua Mountains, 3; Rincon Mountains, 1.

New Mexico: Animas Peak, 8.

NEOTOMA MEXICANA FALLAX Merriam.

Colorado Wood Rat.

(PI. IV, figs. 4, 4a.)

Neotoma fallax Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., IX, pp. 123-124, July 2, 1894. Type
from Gold Hill, Boulder County, Colo.; No. ffjf, $ ad., Merriam Collection;
collected by Denis Gale, November 1, 1889.

Distribution. — Mountains of Colorado and northern and central
New Mexico. Upper Sonoran and Transition zones.

General characters. — Size averaging larger than N. mexicana; color
similar; closely related to N. m. pinetorum, but grayer and differing
slightly in cranial characters.

1910.] MEXICAN A GROUP FALLAX. 57

Color. — Fresh pelage (October): Upperparts creamy buff or pale
grayish (becoming more or less rusty brown in worn pelage), clearest
along sides, darkened over top of head and back by black-tipped
hairs; feet white; underparts white, the fur everywhere basally
plumbeous; tail grayish or brownish above, white below. Young
(one-third grown) : Above grayer than in pinetorum of similar age.

SJcull. — Larger than that of N. mexicana; nasals and premaxillae
reaching farther posteriorly beyond anterior plane of orbits; frontals
broader posteriorly. Closely resembling that of N. m. pinetorum,
but slightly smaller; nasals averaging broader posteriorly and reach-
ing farther beyond anterior plane of orbits; frontals broader poste-
riorly ; third lower molar in many (but not all) skulls with two outer
reentrant angles, the anterior very small and disappearing with
advancing age.

Measurements. — Average of 3 adult topotypes: Total length, 331;
tail vertebrae, 150; hind foot, 33. Average of 9 adults from Love-
land, Colo.: 334, 144, 33.5. SJcull (an adult topotype): Basilar
length, 35.8; zygomatic breadth, 22.2; interorbital breadth, 5.2;
length of nasals, 17.3; length of incisive foramina, 9.5; length of
palatal bridge, 7.7; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.9.

Remarks.— This is a variable form approaching mexicana in south-
ern New Mexico and grading into pinetorum in western New Mexico.
Specimens from Copperton, Mount Taylor, and Grant, N. Mex., are
dichromatic, some being of the usual color, while others are much
darker, with a pinkish buffy band across the chest, and the belly
more or less distinctly washed with this color. A young adult indi-
vidual from Grant is dark slaty above with a pinkish buffy wash
overspreading entire underparts. The additional outer reentrant
angle often present in the third lower molar occurs irregularly in
nearly all of the members of the mexicana group. Externally fallax
may be known from albigula, which often occurs at the same local-
ities, by the plumbeous basal color of the fur on the throat and breast.

Specimens examined. — Total number 278, from localities as follows :

Colorado: Arboles, 2; Arkins, 2; Ashbaugh Ranch, Montezuma County, 1;
Boulder, 4; Canyon City, 5; Colorado Springs, 1; Coventry, 2; Fisher
Peak, 1; Fort Collins (5 miles southwest), 1; Gold Hill (type locality), 21;
Grand Junction, 2; Loveland, 16; Martinsen, 1; Trinidad, 5.

New Mexico: Arroyo Seco, 1; Beal (Upper Vermejo River), 1; Boulder Lake,
1; Burley, 1; Capitan Mountains, 3; Catskill (7 miles southwest), 7;
Chama River (25 miles southwest of Tierra Amarilla), 1; Chusca Moun-
tains, 7; Clayton, 9; Copperton, 15; Coyote Creek (8 miles north of Gua-
dalupita), 1; Datil Mountains, 5; Folsom, 13; Fruitland, 2; Gallina, Rio
Arriba County, 1; Gallina Mountains, Socorro County, 3; Gallinas Moun-
tains, Rio Arriba County, 2; Gallo Canyon (35 miles southwest of Corona),
1; Gallup, 2; Glorieta, 3; Gran Quivera, 1; Grant, 2; Halls Peak, 7; Horse
Lake, 5; Hoskin's Ranch, Colfax County, 1; Jicarilla Mountains, 3; Lamy,
1; Manzano Mountains, 52; Monica Canyon, San Mateo Mountains, 5;

58 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

Mora, 1; Mount Sedgwick, 1; Mount Taylor, 10; Pecos (10 miles north),
1; Pecos River (8 miles north of Pecos), 2; Rio Puerco, 1; Sandia Moun-
tains, 5; San Mateo Peak, 1; Santa Rosa, 3; Sierra Grande, 9; Stinking
Spring Lakes, 9; Tres Piedras, 1; Twining, 1; Vermojo Park (near Beal),
1; White Mountains, Lincoln County, 1; Willis, 9; Zuni Mountains (Bear
Ridge), 2.

NEOTOMA MEXICAN A PINETORUM Merriam.

San Francisco Mountain Wood Rat.

(PI. IV, figs. 5, 5a.)

Neotoma pinetorum Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., VIII, pp. 111-112, July 31,
1893. Type from San Francisco Mountain, Arizona (altitude 8,000 feet); No.
Illlf, 9 ad., U. S. National Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by
Vernon Bailey, August 16, 1889.

Distribution. — Plateau region from San Francisco Mountain,
Arizona, north to the Grand Canyon and southeastward along the
Mogollon Mesa to the Mogollon and Mimbres Mountains in western
New Mexico. Transition Zone.

General characters. — Size larger than N. mexicana; color less gray,
more ochraceous buff. Closely related to N. m. fallax, but color
darker, more ochraceous buff, and cranial characters slightly dif-
ferent.

Color. — Fresh pelage (October) : Upper parts pale ochraceous buff
(becoming dull ochraceous buff in worn pelage), clearest along
cheeks and sides, darkened over top of head and back by black-
tipped hairs; feet white; under parts white; the fur everywhere
plumbeous basally; tail brownish or blackish above, white below.
Young (one- third grown) : Above more buffy than in fallax of cor-
responding age.

Skull. — Skull decidedly larger than that of N. mexicana; nasals
relatively narrower posteriorly. Closely resembling that of N. m.
fallax, but slightly larger; nasals usually narrower posteriorly, end-
ing near anterior plane of orbits (usually passing well beyond this
plane in N. m. fallax) ; frontals relatively narrower posteriorly.

Measurements. — Average of 4 adult topotypes: Total length, 357;
tail vertebrae, 164; hind foot, 36.5. Skull (average of same): Basi-
lar length, 38.8; zygomatic breadth, 24.7; interorbital breadth, 5.4;
length of nasals, 18.9; length of incisive foramina, 9.3; length of
palatal bridge, 8.6; alveolar length of upper molar series, 9.4.

Remarks. — Typical pinetorum seems to be confined to San Francisco
Mountain, but specimens from the Mogollon plateau region and east-
ward to the Mogollon and Mimbres Mountains of western New Mexico
agree closely in color and are referable to it. The cranial characters
distinguishing pinetorum and fallax are, except near the type locali-

1910.1 MEXICANA GROUP BULLATA. 59

ties, variable and somewhat unreliable. This is especially true in
central western New Mexico, where the two seem to merge and are
separable only by color, pinetorum being somewhat darker, less pale
grayish than fallax. Topotypes taken in August are in worn summer
pelage; those taken in October are in the fresh fall coat.
Specimens examined. — Total number 72, from:

Arizona: Escudilla Mountains, 1; Flagstaff, 1; Grand Canyon, 5; San Francisco
Mountain (type locality), 8; Springerville, 12; Walnut, 1; White Moun-
tains, 5.

New Mexico: Beaver Lake, 2; Chloride (10 miles west), 3; Diamond Creek,
Gila National Forest, 2; Kingston, 2; Luna, Gila National Forest, 3;
Mimbres Mountains (Big Rocky Creek), 1; Mimbres River (head), 5;
Mogollon Mountains, 15; Quemado (10 miles southwest), 2; San Francisco
Mountains, 4.

NEOTOMA MEXICANA BULLATA Merriam.

Santa Catalina Mountain Wood Rat.

(PI. IV, figs. 6, 6a.)

Neotoma mexicana bullata Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., IX, pp. 122-123, July
2, 1894. Type from Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona; No. 16863, $ ad., U. S.
National Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by Vernon Bailey,
June 1, 1889.

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality. Transition
Zone.

General characters. — Similar to N. mexicana, but color more ochra-
ceous buffy; bullae peculiar.

Color. — Slightly worn pelage: Upper parts pale ochraceous buff,
brightest along cheeks, shoulders, and sides, rather well darkened by
admixture of dusky hairs, which are most abundant over top of head
and back; under parts white, the fur basally plumbeous; axillae
ochraceous buff; pectoral region crossed by faint buffy band; feet
white, tail grayish brown above, whitish below.

Skull. — Closely resembling that of N. mexicana, but bullae slightly
smaller, more tapering anteriorly, and curving inward; dentition as
in N. mexicana.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 335; tail vertebrae, 151; hind
foot, 34. Skull (type): Basilar length, 35.3; zygomatic breadth, 23;
interorbital breadth, 5.5; length of nasals, 17.1; length of incisive
foramina, 9.3; length of palatal bridge, 8; alveolar length of upper
molar series, 9.1.

Remarks. — This form is evidently closely related to N. mexicana and
probably intergrades with it.

Specimens examined. — One, the type.

60 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

NEOTOMA MEXICANA MADRENSIS Goldman

Sierra Madre Wood Rat.

Neotoma mexicana madrensis Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVIII, p. 31, Febru-
ary 2, 1905. Type from Sierra Madre, near Guadalupe y Calvo, Chihuahua,
Mexico; No. 95244, 9 ad., U. S. National Museum (Biological Survey Collection);
collected August 26, 1898, by E. W. Nelson and E. A. Goldman.

Distribution. — The Sierra Madre from northwestern Chihuahua
and northeastern Sonora southward to western Zacatecas. Tran-
sition Zone.

General characters. — Size smaller than N. mexicana; color much
darker, cinnamon instead of grayish; tail long, slender, and thinly
haired; ears rather large.

Color. — Worn pelage (August) : Above pale cinnamon, purest
along sides, strongly darkened dorsally by black- tipped hairs; under-
parts dull white, the hairs everywhere plumbeous basally; axilla?
ochraceous buff; feet white; ears brownish; tail distinctly bicolor,
brownish above, whitish or grayish below. Young (about half
grown) : Much darker and more fulvous than in N. mexicana.

Skull. — Similar to that of N. mexicana, but smaller; bulla? slightly
smaller; first upper molar with anterointernal reentrant angle deep,
as in N. mexicana.

Measurements. — Average of 2 adult topotypes: Total length, 314;
tail vertebra?, 144; hind foot, 33. SJcull (average of same): Basilar
length, 34.8; zygomatic breadth, 21.7; interorbital breadth, 5.4;
length of nasals, 17.2; length of incisive foramina, 8.6; length of
palatal bridge, 8.2; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.5.

Remarks. — The range of this subspecies includes all the higher parts
of the Sierra Madre from Sonora and Chihuahua to Zacatecas. Along
the east slope of the mountains it probably grades into typical mex-
icana, and along the west slope into sinalose. From the former it
may readily be separated by its decidedly darker color at all ages
and conditions of pelage, and from the latter by the much larger size
of the audital bulla?.

Specimens examined. — Total number 31, from localities as follows:

Chihuahua: Colonia Garcia, 3; Pacheco, 4; near Parral, 2; Sierra Madre, near

Guadalupe y Calvo (type locality), 8.
Durango: Cerro Prieto, 1; Coyotes, 7; El Salto, 3; Sierra Madre, near

Guanacevi, 1.
Zacatecas: Valparaiso Mountains, 2.

NEOTOMA MEXICANA SINALOA Allen.

Sinaloa Wood Rat.

Neatoma sinalose Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., X, pp. 149-150, April 12, 1898.
Type from Tatameles, Sinaloa, Mexico; No. 98.3.2.88, 9 ad., British Museum ;
collected by P. 0. Simons, May 14, 1897.

1910.] MEXICAN A GROUP NAVUS. 61

Distribution. — Western slope of the Sierra Madre from southern
Sinaloa northward to Sonora. Lower Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Size smaller than N. mexicana; color darker;
audital bullae very small.

Color. — Rather worn pelage: General color above pale cinnamon,
moderately mixed with black, in worn pelage becoming russet in
patches; face and sides paler, somewhat buffy; under parts dull whit-
ish, the plumbeous basal color showing through strongly; feet white;
ears brownish; tail bicolor, brownish black above, paler below.

SJcull. — Similar to that of N. mexicana, but smaller; bulla? much
smaller; tooth row shorter.

Measurements. — Average of 2 adult topotypes: Total length, 316;
tail vertebra?, 155; hind foot, 31. Skull (an adult topotype) :
Basilar length, 33.9; zygomatic breadth, 21.8; interorbital breadth,
5.7; length of nasals, 16.4; length of incisive foramina, 8.2; length of
palatal bridge, 8.2; alveolar length of upper molar series, 7.8.

Remarks. — This form differs markedly from N. mexicana, and is
most closely related to subspecies madrensis, with which it probably
intergrades along the higher of the western slopes of the Sierra Madre.
Its very small bulla? serve to distinguish it from all the other sub-
species of mexicana.

Specimens examined. — Total number 8, from localities as follows:

Sinaloa: Mazatlan, 1; Tatameles (type locality), 2.
Durango: Chacala, 1.
Sonora: Alamos, 4.

NEOTOMA NAVUS Merriam.

Coahuila Wood Rat.

(PI. V, figs. 1, la.)

Neotoma navus Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVI, pp. 47-48, March 19, 1903.
Type from Sierra Guadalupe, Coahuila, Mexico; No. 116895, 9 ad., U.S. National
Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by E. W. Nelson and E. A.
Goldman, April 26, 1902.

Distribution. — High mountains of southern Coahuila, Mexico.
Transition Zone.

General characters. — Size medium, tail rather long and slender.
Similar to N. mexicana, but color more ochraceous buff; lateral
borders of frontal platform projecting as supraorbital shelves; den-
tition as in N. mexicana.

Color. — Slightly worn pelage: Upper parts pale ochraceous buff,
brightest along cheeks, shoulders, and sides; moderately darkened
by blackish hairs, which are most abundant on middle of face, top of
head, and along back; under parts white, the plumbeous basal color
becoming very pale on throat and chest; axilla? ochraceous buff;
feet white; tail dusky above, white below.

62

NORTH AMEEICAN FAUNA.

[no. 3t.

Skull. — Similar in general to that of N. mexicana, but frontal plat-
form narrower anteriorly, the lateral borders bent inward, leaving
the frontals bulging below them, broadening abruptly posteriorly,
the borders forming convex, projecting supraorbital shelves; nasals

FIG. 7. — Distribution of Neotoma navus, N. torquata, N. distincta, N. tropicalis, and N. parvidens.

rounded or bluntly pointed instead of truncate posteriorly; inter-
pterygoid fossa narrower, more rounded anteriorly (in mexicana trun-
cate or encroached upon by blunt projection from palate); bullae
more tapering anteriorly; dentition as in N. mexicana.

1910.] MEXICANA GROUP TORQUATA. 63

Measurements. — Average of 2 adults from the type locality: Total
length, 340; tail vertebrae, 158; hind foot, 35. Skull (average of
same): Basilar length, 34.8; zygomatic breadth, 21.3; interorbital
breadth, 5.4; length of nasals, 16.2; length of incisive foramina, 9;
length of palatal bridge, 8.1; alveolar length of upper molar series,
8.6.

Remarks. — Skulls of N. navus differ markedly from those of all the
other members of the mexicana group in the peculiar shelf-like devel-
opment of the frontal region. The species is known only from the
Sierra Guadalupe, but probably includes in its range other high
mountains of northeastern Mexico.

Specimens examined. — Two, from the type locality.

NEOTOMA TORQUATA Ward.
Ward Wood Rat.
(PI. V, figs. 2, 2a.)

Neotoma torquata Ward, Amer. Nat., XXV, pp. 160-161, February, 1891. Type from
tunnel of abandoned mine between Tetela del Volcan and Zacualpam Amilpas,
Morelos, Mexico; No. 380, Museum of Comision Geografica Exploradora, Tacu-
baya, Mexico; collected by H. L. Ward, October 26, 1890.

Neotoma fulviventer Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., IX, pp. 121-122, July 2, 1894.
Type from Toluca Valley, Mexico, Mexico; No. 50165, 9 ad., U. S. National
Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by E. W. Nelson, November
5, 1892.

Neotoma orizabx Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., IX, p. 122, July 2, 1894. Type
from Mount Orizaba, Puebla, Mexico; No. 53653, $ ad., U.S. National Museum
(Biological Survey Collection); collected by E. W. Nelson, April 20, 1893.

Distribution. — High mountains of south-central Mexico, from
northern Hidalgo to eastern Puebla and Morelos. Upper Sonoran,
Transition, and Boreal zones.

General characters. — Size medium; ears small; fur of under parts
basally plumbeous everywhere; tail sharply bicolor. Member of
ferruginea section of mexicana group, nearest to N. f. tenuicauda, but
larger; color more buffy ochraceous.

Color. — Fresh pelage (February) : Ground color of upper parts
ochraceous buff, brightest along sides, becoming grayish buff on head,
heavily darkened, especially along back, by admixture of blackish;
outer sides of legs drab, tinged with vinaceous buff; under parts dull
white, more or less suffused in some specimens with ochraceous buff;
axillae ochraceous buff, this color sometimes forming a pectoral band ;
orbital rings black; forefeet white; hind feet usually white, but
sometimes clouded with dusky to toes; tail brownish or blackish
above, whitish below. Worn pelage (November) : Upper parts
varying shades of pale cinnamon or rusty brown, mixed with black.
Young (half grown) : Upper parts broccoli brown, tinged with buff,
and much mixed with black.

64 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

Skull. — In general form similar to that of N. f. tenuicauda, but
larger; nasals longer, reaching plane of orbits; bullae larger; denti-
tion of the mexicana type; first upper molar with anterointernal
reentrant angle deep, as in N. mexicana and N. ferruginea.

Measurements. — Type (from original description): Total length,
338; tail vertebras, 160; hind foot, 35. Average of 5 adults from
Salazar, Mexico (state): 349; 162; 34.5. Skull (type): Basilar
length, 35.7; zygomatic breadth, 22.8; interorbital breadth, 6.1;
length of nasals, 17.4; length of incisive foramina, 8; length of
palatal bridge, 8; alveolar length of upper molar series, 9.

Remarks. — -N. torquata is rather closely related to N. f. tenuicauda
and may intergrade with it in eastern Michoacan. The skull of the
type has broader frontals, shorter rostrum, and shorter incisive fora-
mina than is usual in specimens from the same general region, but
agrees closely with skulls from Tlalpam and Salazar. Specimens
taken from December to April are in fresh pelage, and those from
August to November show varying degrees of wear.

Individual variation is greater in this species than in most members
of the genus. The underparts are usually white, but may sometimes
be ochraceous buffy in specimens taken at the same time and place.
Among cranial variations the size of the molariform teeth is perhaps
most notable. N. fulviventer was based on a specimen with ochra-
ceous buffy underparts and small teeth, and N. orizabx on one with
white underparts and unusually heavy dentition. Recently accu-
mulated material shows that these remarkable differences are within
the range of variation of N. torquata, and neither supposed species can
be satisfactorily separated from it.

Specimens examined. — Total number 57, as follows;

Morelos: Between Tetela del Volcan and Zacualpam Amilpas, 1 (type).

Federal District: Ajusco, 5; Tlalpam, 6.

Hidalgo: Encarnacion, 7; Tulancingo, 1.

Mexico: Amecameca, 1; Mount Popocatapetl, 2; Salazar, 13; Toluca Valley

(near Lerma), 2; Volcano of Toluca (north slope), 2.
Puebla: Chalchicomula, 2.
Tlaxcala: Mount Malinche, 4.
Veracruz: Cofre de Perote, 2; Mount Orizaba, 3; Xuchil, 6.

NEOTOMA DISTINCTA Bangs.

Veracruz Wood Rat.

(PI. V, figs. 3, 3a.)

Neotoma distincta Bangs, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVI, pp. 89-90, June 25, 1903. Type
from Texolo (near Jalapa), Veracruz, Mexico; No. 9819, $ ad., Bangs Collection
(Museum of Comparative Zoology); collected by S. N. Rhoads, March 8, 1899.

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality. Humid Trop-
ical Zone.

1910.] MEXICANA GKOUP — TKOPICALIS. 65

General characters. — Size large; ears small; tail long, unicolor; color
very dark. Member of mexicana group related to N. torquata, but
differing markedly in size, color, and cranial characters.

Color. — Worn pelage: Ground color of upperparts rich russet, some-
what suffused with Vandyke brown or burnt umber, clearest along
cheeks and sides, becoming much darkened over top of head and
back by longer blackish hairs; russet of sides encroaching on under-
pays posteriorly, leaving a narrow yellowish white area along median
line of belly; lower pectoral region dull gray; throat white; axillae
and broad pectoral band ochraceous buff ; outer sides of forelegs hair
brown, passing into grayish white of forefeet without sharp line of
separation; nose, lips, and ankles dusky; hind feet to toes grayish
brown, toes white; tail entirely black.

Skull. — Similar in general to that of N. torquata, but larger and
more massive; rostrum much heavier; interorbital region narrower;
frontals excavated along median line above, the supraorbital margins
convex posteriorly ; zygomata broadly spreading posteriorly, narrow-
ing anteriorly (nearly parallel in torquata) ; interpterygoid fossa nar-
rower; palate with short, median, posterior projection; bullae smaller:
dentition heavier (incisors remarkably heavy).

Measurements. — Average of 3 adult topotypes (from original descrip-
tion): Total length, 394; tail vertebra?, 185; hind foot, 41. Skull
(an adult topotype): Basilar length, 40.2; zygomatic breadth, 25.5;
interorbital breadth, 5.5; length of nasals, 18.4; length of incisive
foramina, 10.7; length of palatal bridge, 9.3; alveolar length of upper
molar series, 10.2.

Remarks. — This is a well-marked form most closely related to its
near geographical neighbor, N. torquata. It lives in the humid trop-
ical forests on the steep eastern slopes of the plateau region in Vera-
cruz, while torquata occupies the mountain tops above and only a few
miles away. The dark color of distincta harmonizes well with its dark
forest environment. On the higher slopes along the eastern edge of
the plateau intergradation with torquata may occur, but until this can
be shown distincta must be accorded full specific rank.

Specimens examined. — One, from the type locality.

NEOTOMA TROPICALIS Goldman.

Totontepec Wood Rat.

(PI. VI, figs. 3, 3a.)

Neotoma tropicalis Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVII, pp. 81-82, March 21, 1904.
Type from Totontepec, Oaxaca, Mexico; No. 68593, $ ad., U. S. National Muse-
um (Biological Survey Collection); collected by E. W. Nelson and E. A. Goldman,
July 17, 1894.

52668°— 10 5

66 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 81.

Distribution. — Mountains of northeastern Oaxaca, Mexico. Humid
Tropical Zone.

General characters. — Size small, tail rather short, slender, thinly
haired, nearly unicolor; ears small. Member of ferruginea section of
mexicana group, in color similar to N. f. tenuicauda, but cinnamon
rufous of upperparts encroaching on underparts, and skull differing
in important characters.

Color. — Slightly worn pelage: Upperparts light cinnamon rufous,
clearest along sides, well darkened by black-tipped hairs, which are
most abundant on middle of face, top of head, and along back; outer
sides of legs brownish ; cinnamon rufous of sides encroaching on under-
parts posteriorly, leaving a narrow, whitish area along median line of
belly; axillae ochraceous buff, this color forming a more or less well-
defined pectoral band ; rest of underparts dull whitish, the fur basally
plumbeous except on throat, where it is pure white to roots; nose
and ankles dusky; feet irregularly clouded with dusky, the toes of
hind feet whitish ; tail dusky above, slightly paler below.

Skull. — Somewhat like that of N.f. tenuicauda, but nasals more
wedge-shaped, much narrower and longer, reaching or passing plane
of lachrymals; ascending branches of premaxillae very long, reaching
beyond plane of lachrymals nearly to interorbital constriction;
frontals broader and flatter posteriorly; teeth smaller (molars of the
mexicana type) ; bullae smaller. Compared with that of N. parvidens
the skull is larger and flatter; brain case larger and more smoothly
rounded; nasals and ascending branches of premaxillae longer; teeth
larger.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 325; tail vertebrae, 156; hind
foot, 34. Skull (type): Basilar length, 33.6; zygomatic breadth,
22.3; interorbital breadth, 5.9; length of nasals, 16.7; length of
incisive foramina, 8.7; length of palatal bridge, 7.9; alveolar length
of upper molar series, 8.5.

Remarks. — N. tropicalis is a small, dark species inhabiting the moist,
tropical, heavily forested mountain slopes in northeastern Oaxaca.
It differs too markedly from the other members of the ferruginea
section of the mexicana group to require close comparison with any of
them.

Specimens examined. — Two, from the type locality.

NEOTOMA PARVIDENS Goldman.

Small-toothed Wood Rat.

(PI. VI, figs. 2, 2a.)

Neotoma parvidens Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVII, p. 81, March 21, 1904.
Type from Juquila, Oaxaca, Mexico; No. 71586, 9 ad., U. S. National Museum
(Biological Survey Collection); collected by E. W. Nelson and E. A. Goldman,
February 27, 1895.

1910.] MEXICANA GEOUP — FERRUGINEA. 67

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality in the mountains
of southwestern Oaxaca. Humid Tropical Zone.

General characters. — Size smallest of the ferruginea section of the
mexicana group; color cinnamon rufous to orange buff; tail rather
short and slender. Closely resembling N. f. picta in color, but very
much smaller; differing also in cranial characters.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts varying from cinnamon rufous
to rich orange buff, brightest along sides, becoming duller on outer
sides of legs, moderately darkened by black-tipped hairs, which are
most abundant on face, top of head, and along back; under parts
including upper lip and part of cheeks white, the fur usually pure
white to roots on throat, inner sides of forelegs, pectoral, and inguinal
regions; axillae varying from orange buff to ochraceous buff; forefeet
and toes of hind feet white; hind feet to toes irregularly clouded with
dusky (in two out of five specimens pure white) ; tail faintly bicolor,
dusky above, paler below.

Skull. — Similar in general form to that of N. f. picta, but smaller,
lighter, and usually more arched; interorbital width relatively
greater; rostrum usually more decurved; nasals narrower and more
wedge-shaped; molars of the mexicana type, but very small.

Measurements. — Average of 5 adult topotypes: Total length, 306;
tail vertebrae, 149; hind foot, 32. Skull (average of 2 adults) : Basilar
length, 316; zygomatic breadth, 20.4; interorbital breadth, 5.2; length
of nasals, 15.4; length of incisive foramina, 8.6; length of palatal
bridge, 7.1; alveolar length of upper molar series, 7.8.

Remarks. — This small richly colored species belongs clearly in the
ferruginea section of the mexicana group. It is more nearly related
to N.f. picta than to any other known form, but its small size and
well-marked cranial differences, together with absence of any hint of
intergradation, seem to entitle it to full specific rank.

Specimens examined. — Five, all from the type locality.

NEOTOMA FERRUGINEA Tomes.
Guatemala Wood Rat.

Neotoma ferruginea Tomes, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, pp. 282-284, 1861. Type from
Duefias, Guatemala; No. 7.1.1.124., 9, British Museum (Tomes Collection);
collected by Osbert Salvin.

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality.

General characters. — Size large; color orange rufous; fur white to
roots on throat and middle of breast. Related to N. mexicana,
although differing widely in color. Like N. f picta in color, but
differing in size and cranial characters.

Color. — (From original description) : "All the upper parts are of
bright rufous colour, and all the under parts pure white, the line of
separation being very clear and distinct. The fur of the back is

68

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[no. 31.

mixed with black hairs, giving that part a much darker colour than
the sides of the body, where these hairs are less abundant. Fur of the
outer surface of the legs strongly tinged with dusky, inner surface of
the forelegs whitish, of the hind ones dusky grey. From the chin to
the space between the forelegs is an elongated patch of fur, which is
pure white from root to tip * * *. The tail is deep dusky above,
paler below * * *."

Skull. — About like that of N.f chamula. Similar in general form
to that of N. mexicana, but larger; frontals broader posteriorly; nasals
emarginate (in mexicana truncate) posteriorly; bullae smaller; denti-
tion as in N. mexicana, but heavier.

Measurements. — Type (from original description) : Head and body,
6" 6'" (about 165 mm.); tail vertebra?, 6" (about 152 mm.). SJcull

Fig. 8.— Distribution of Neotoma ferruginea and subspecies.

(typea): Basilar length, 36; zygomatic breadth, 22.6; interorbital
breadth, 6; length of nasals, 18 ; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.
Remarks.— N. mexicana and N. ferruginea differ widely in external
appearance, but their cranial characters indicate rather close relation-
ship, so close that complete intergradation through the intervening
forms may occur, though not shown by the material examined.
Gerrit S. Miller, jr., has kindly compared for me specimens of the
nearly related forms in the Biological Survey Collection, with, the
type of ferruginea in the British Museum, and found the latter to agree
in color almost exactly with a specimen of picta from Omilteme,
Guerrero, while its skull is most like one from Volcan Santa Maria,
Guatemala, here referred to chamula.

"Measured by G. S. Miller, jr.

1910.] MEXICANA GBOUP CHAMULA. 69

NEOTOMA FERRUGINEA CHAMULA Goldman.

Chiapas Wood Rat.

(PI. V, figs. 4, 4a.)

Neotoma ferruginea chamula Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXII, p. 141, June 25,
1909. Type from mountains near San Cristobal, Chiapas, Mexico (altitude 8,400
feet), No. 76061, $ ad., U. S. National Museum (Biological Survey Collection);
collected by E. W. Nelson and E. A. Goldman, September 29, 1895.

Distribution. — High mountains of central Chiapas, Mexico, and
southwestern Guatemala. Transition and Canadian zones.

General characters. — Size large; closely related to N.ferruginea, but
color much darker; fur of under parts basally plumbeous everywhere.
Similar in size to N.f. isthmica, but color decidedly darker.

Color. — Slightly worn pelage: Upper parts tawny cinnamon rufous,
purest along sides, rather heavily darkened by black-tipped hairs,
which are most abundant over back; outer sides of legs dark hair
brown, hind legs tinged with brownish buff; under parts dull white,
the fur everywhere basally plumbeous; nose, lips, and ankles dusky;
axillse dark orange buff; forefeet white; hind feet clouded with dusky
to toes, toes white; tail indistinctly bicolor, blackish above, grayish
brown below.

SkuU. — Closely resembling that of N.ferruginea. Similar to that
of N. f. isthmica, but less massive and less arched across anterior
roots of zygomata ; nasals narrower posteriorly.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 363; tail vertebrae, 178; hind
foot, 39. Skull (type): Basilar length, 37.1; zygomatic breadth, 23;
interorbital breadth, 5.9; length of nasals, 18.3; length of incisive
foramina, 10; length of palatal bridge, 8.3; alveolar length of upper
molar series, 9.3.

Remarks. — This is a high mountain form differing from ferruginea
chiefly in color and probably intergrading with it in southern Guate-
mala. Specimens from Volcan Santa Maria, Guatemala, formerly
assumed to be nearly typical ferruginea,0- prove on comparison with
the type6 to differ considerably in color and belong nearer the new
form here described. On this volcano the wood rats appeared to be
confined to the pine-covered upper slopes, and the destructive
eruption of October, 1902, probably extinguished the local colony.

Specimens examined. — Total number 7, as follows:

Chiapas: San Cristobal (type locality), 3.

Guatemala: Hacienda Chancol (about 13 miles north of Huehuetenango),
1; Volcan Santa Maria, 3.

a Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVII, p. 79, March 21, 1904.
b Compared by Gerrit S. Miller, jr.

70 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

NEOTOMA FERRUGINEA SOLITARIA Goldman.

Nenton Wood Rat.

(PI. V, figs. 5, 5a.)

Neotoma ferruginea solitaria Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVIII, p. 31, February
2, 1905. Type from Nenton, Guatemala; No. 76908, $ ad., U. S. National Museum
(Biological Survey Collection); collected by E. W. Nelson and E. A. Goldman,
December 17, 1895.

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality, near the upper
end of the Chiapas Valley. Arid Tropical Zone.

General characters. — Similar in general to N. ferruginea, but less
richly colored; skull relatively longer and narrower. Closely related
to N.f. isthmica, but smaller; skull much less massive and differing in
important details.

Color. — Partly worn pelage: Upper parts tawny ochraceous, brightest
along sides, becoming ochraceous buff on head, outer sides of fore-
arms and hind legs, well mixed with brownish black over top of head
and back; under parts dull white, owing to plumbeous basal color of
fur, except a small area on chin and throat, which is pure white;
nose dusky; forefeet white; hind feet to toes irregularly clouded with
dusky; toes white; tail faintly bicolor, brownish black above, dull
gray below, becoming brownish toward tip.

SJcull. — Generally similar to that of N. ferruginea, but relatively
longer and narrower; rostrum more slender; nasals longer, more
attenuate posteriorly, the ends not emarginate; ascending branches
of premaxillse longer, reaching posteriorly nearly to interorbital con-
striction. Compared with N.f. isthmica, the skull is smaller, lighter,
less arched across anterior roots of zygomata; rostrum more slender;
nasals longer, more attenuate posteriorly.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 338; tail vertebrae, 156; hind
foot, 35. Skull (type) : Basilar length, 35.5; zygomatic breadth, 22.4;
interorbital breadth, 5.5; length of nasals, 18.2; length of incisive
foramina, 9.2; length of palatal bridge, 8.3; alveolar length of upper
molar series, 8.4.

Remarks. — In the original description solitaria was compared with
specimens then assumed to be typical ferruginea, but now known to
represent a distinct form; hence the disagreement with the present
description. The only known specimens are from the hot dry canyons
near the upper end of the Chiapas Valley. In the lower part of the
valley it probably passes into isthmica. On the slopes of the high
mountains to the north and east of its range, solitaria probably inter-
grades with chamula, which inhabits the cool, heavily forested moun-
tain tops.

Specimens examined. — Three, from the type locality.

1910. j MEXICAN A GROUP — ISTHMICA. 71

NEOTOMA FERRUGINEA ISTHMICA Goldman.

Isthmian Wood Rat.

(PI. V, figs. 6, 6a.)

Neotoma isthmica Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVII, pp. 80-81, March 21, 1904.
Type from Huilotepec, 8 miles south of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico; No.
73187, 9 ad., U. S. National Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected
by E. W. Nelson and E. A. Goldman, May 5, 1895.

Distribution. — From Pacific coast region on south side of Isthmus
of Tehuantepec, eastward into valley of Chiapas River and northwest-
ward to Coixtlahuaca, Oaxaca. Arid Tropical and Lower Sonoran
zones.

General characters. — Size large, about equaling N. ferruginea; color
similar; skull much heavier and more arched; tail very long and
coarsely scaly. Similar in color to N. f. picta; size much larger;
pelage coarser; skull more massive and higher arched.

Color. — Worn pelage: Upper parts varying from orange rufous to
ferruginous, clearest along sides, rather thinly overlaid with dusky-
tipped hairs, which are most abundant along back; outer sides of
legs buffy brownish gray; under parts, including upper lip, whitish,
the fur usually pure white to roots on throat, breast, inner sides of
forelegs, and inguinal region; forefeet white; hind feet to toes pure
white or irregularly clouded with dusky; toes white; tail indistinctly
bicolor, brownish above, paler below.

Skull. — Skull massive; similar in general form to that of ferruginea
and chamula but much heavier and more arched across anterior roots
of zygomata; frontals broader and flatter posteriorly; brain case less
inflated, more angular. Somewhat like that of N. f. solitaria, but
larger, heavier, and differing in details.

Measurements. — Average of 9 adults from the type locality: Total
length, 371; tail vertebrae, 184; hind foot, 37.3. Skull (average of
6 adult topotypes): Basilar length, 36.8; zygomatic breadth, 23;
interorbital breadth, 6.1; length of nasals, 17.4; length of incisive
foramina, 9.4; length of palatal bridge, 8; alveolar length of upper
molar series, 8.3.

Remarks. — In color this subspecies agrees closely with chrysomelas
ferruginea, picta, solitaria, and parvidens, but differs from all in rather
well-marked cranial characters. The typical form appears to be con-
fined to the excessively arid coastal region on the south side of the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Specimens from the interior plateau region
of western Oaxaca (Oaxaca and Coixtlahuaca) grade toward picta.
Those from the mountain slopes north of the Chiapas River Valley
show an approach to chamula, the dark, high mountain form. Along
the Pacific coast in southern Chiapas and Guatemala, isthmica may
intergrade directly with ferruginea.

72 NOKTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

Specimens examined. — Total number 47, as follows:

Oaxaca: Coixtlahuaca, 1; Huilotepec (type locality), 17; Juchitan, 3; Oaxaca,

9; Puerto Angel, 1.
Chiapas: Canjob, 3; San Bartolome, 2; Teopisca (20 miles southeast), 11.

NEOTOMA FERRUGINEA PICTA Goldman.

Painted Wood Rat.

(PI. VI, figs. 1, la.)

Neotoma picta Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVII, pp. 79-80, 1904. Type from
mountains near Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Mexico; No. 70050, $ ad., U. S. National
Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by E. W. Nelson and E. A.
Goldman, December 20, 1894.

Distribution. — Sierra Madre of Oaxaca and Guerrero, Mexico.
Transition and Canadian zones.

General characters. — Size smaller than N. ferruginea; color about
the same; cranial characters distinctive. Similar in color to N. f
isthmica, but smaller; skull lighter and less arched. Closely related
to N.f. tenuicauda, but color brighter.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts varying from rich orange buff
to ferruginous, brightest along cheeks, shoulders, and sides, moderately
darkened by black-tipped hairs, which are most abundant over top
of head and back; under parts white (in some specimens suffused
with pinkish buff), the fur usually pure white to roots on throat, and
sometimes middle of breast and inner sides of forelegs; forefeet yel-
lowish white; hind feet to toes irregularly clouded with dusky; toes
white; tail indistinctly bicolor (occasionally concolor), dusky above,
paler below.

Skull. — Much smaller than in N. ferruginea; nasals truncate
instead of emarginate posteriorly; frontals relatively narrower pos-
teriorly, the sides more upturned. Similar in general to that of N.f.
isthmica, but smaller, lighter, and less arched across anterior roots
of zygomata. From that of N. f tenuicauda the skull differs chiefly
in slightly larger size and longer nasals.

Measurements. — Average of 10 adults from the type locality: Total
length, 347; tail vertebra?, 172; hind foot, 34.5. STcull (average of
6 adult topotypes): Basilar length, 346; zygomatic breadth, 22.4;
interorbital breadth, 5.5; length of nasals, 16.8; length of incisive
foramina, 9.3; length of palatal bridge, 7.7; alveolar length of upper
molar series, 8.6.

Remarks. — This mountain form agrees with ferruginea in richness
of color, but differs markedly in size and cranial characters. Speci-
mens from mountains near Ozolotepec, Oaxaca, show intergradation
with isthmica. The range of picta seems to be separated from that of
tenuicauda by the arid valley of the Balsas Kiver, but the two forms

1010.] MEXICANA GROUP TENUICAUDA. 73

are evidently closely related, and intergradation is probable in the
mountains of western Michoacan. Specimens taken in December
are in fresh pelage. Those taken in May are slightly worn, but do
not differ in color.

Specimens examined. — Total number 33, as follows:

Guerrero: Mountains near Chilpancingo (type locality), 16; Omilteme, 15.
Oaxaca: Mountains near Ozolotepec, 2.

NEOTOMA FERRUGINEA TENUICAUDA Merriam.

Slender-Tailed Wood Rat.

Neotoma tenuicauda Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., VII, pp. 169-170, September
29, 1892. Type from north slope of Sierra Nevada de Colima, Jalisco, Mexico;
No. fjHjff, £ad., U. S. National Museum (Biological Survey Collection) ; collected
by E. W. Nelson, April 13, 1892.

Distribution. — Plateau region of western Mexico from southern
Zacatecas to Mount Tancitaro, Michoacan. Lower Sonoran to Boreal
zones.

General characters. — Size smaller than N. ferruginea; color duller,
more brownish, under parts dull white, the fur everywhere basally
plumbeous. Closely related to N. f. picta, but color more brownish.

Color. — Slightly worn pelage: General color of upper parts buffy
cinnamon rufous, varying in some specimens to dark ochraceous buff,
clearest along sides, darkened by black-tipped hairs, which are most
abundant along back; outer sides of legs brownish, more or less
tinged with ochraceous; under parts dull white, the fur everywhere
basally plumbeous; axillae rich ochraceous buff, this color usually
forming a pectoral band; forefeet white; hind feet to toes more or
less distinctly clouded with dusky, toes white; lips dusky; tail
indistinctly bicolor (in most specimens nearly unicolor), blackish
above, slightly paler below.

Skull. — Much smaller than that of N. ferruginea; nasals shorter.
Closely resembling that of N. f. picta, but nasals shorter.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 340; tail vertebras, 160; hind
foot, 31. Shall (type): Basilar length, 33.6; interorbital breadth,
5.3; length of nasals, 15.3; length of incisive foramina, 8.9; length
of palatal bridge, 7.5; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.8.

Remarks. — N.f. tenuicauda is the most northerly form of the ferru-
ginea section of the mexicana group. Although differing rather
decidedly in size and color, it probably intergrades with ferruginea
through picta and isthmica. On the north the range of tenuicauda
approaches that of N. m. madrensis, but the two forms do not appear
to intergrade. Specimens from the lower parts of its vertical range
are not quite typical, but do not differ sufficiently to require
separation.

74 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

Specimens examined. — Total number 29, as follows:

Jalisco: Bolafios (mountains about 10 miles north), 1; La Laguna, 2; San
Sebastian, 7; Sierra Nevada de Colima, 1 (type); Talpa, 1; Zapotlan, 5.
Michoacan: Los Reyes, 3; Mount Patamban, 2; Mount Tancitaro, 2; Zamora, 1.
Zacatecas: Plateado, 4.

NEOTOMA FERRUGINEA OCHRACEA Goldman.

Ochraceous Wood Rat.

Neotoma ferruginea ochracea Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVIII, pp. 30-31,
February 2, 1905. Type from Atemajac, near Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico; No.
IIHIj <?ad-, U. S. National Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by
E. W. Nelson, May 21, 1892.

Distribution. — Vicinity of the type locality. Lower Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Size smaller than N. ferruginea; coloration
pale; feet pure white; tail sharply bicolor; skull small, light, and
elongated.

Color. — Slightly worn pelage: Entire upper parts light ochraceous
buff, purest and brightest along cheeks and sides, darkened over dorsal
region, especially posterior half, by black-tipped hairs; under parts
dingy white, washed with buffy, becoming clear, strong, ochraceous
buff on pectoral region; nose and upper lip grayish white; feet pure
white; tail brownish above, whitish below.

Skull. — Similar in general to that of N. ferruginea, but smaller and
more arched across anterior roots of zygomata, nasals more slender,
reaching posteriorly to plane of lachrymals, the ends pointed instead
of emarginate; ascending branches of premaxillse relatively longer,
reaching posteriorly nearly to interorbital constriction; frontals
longer and much narrower, the sides slightly upturned. Compared
with that of N. f tenuicauda the skull is longer and narrower, with
much longer and narrower nasals and longer ascending branches of
premaxillse.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 348; tail vertebras, 161; hind
foot, 38. Skull (type): Basilar length, 35.5; zygomatic breadth,
22.9; interorbital breadth, 5.3; length of nasals, 17.9; length of
incisive foramina, 9.3; length of palatal bridge, 8.4; alveolar length
of upper molar series, 9.2.

Remarks. — This subspecies differs considerably in color and cranial
characters from N. ferruginea, but specimens examined show nearly
complete intergradation through tenuicauda, picta, and isihmica.

Specimens examined. — Two, from the type locality.

NEOTOMA CHRYSOMELAS Allen.

Nicaragua Wood Rat.

Neotoma chrysomelas Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXIV, pp. 653-654, Octo-
ber 13, 1908. Type from Matagalpa, Nicaragua; No. 28372, J ad., American
Museum of Natural History, N. Y.; collected by W. B. Richardson, September
17, 1907.

11110.1

MEXICANA GROUP — CHRYSOMELAS.

75

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality, at about 3,000
feet altitude, in central Nicaragua.

General characters. — Closely related to N. ferruginea, but appar-
ently larger; type and topotypes in rather worn pelage are paler, less
rich orange rufous than the type of ferruginea.

Color. — Partly worn pelage: Upper parts light orange rufous (paler
and less intense than in the type of ferruginea) , purest along sides,
darkened on top of head and back by overlying black-tipped hairs;
outer sides of legs buffy grayish brown; under parts white, the fur
plumbeous basally except small areas, mainly on throat and on pec-
toral and inguinal regions, where it is pure white to roots; forefeet
white; hind feet white clouded with dusky to toes; toes pure white;
tail brownish or blackish above, grayish below.

Skull. — Much like that of N. ferruginea, but larger than the type.
Compared with chamula, one of the larger forms of the ferruginea
group, the skull of
chrysomelas has
zygomata more
squarely spreading
posteriorly, narrow-
ing anteriorly, the
sides less nearly par-
allel than in cham-
ula; squamosal arm
of zygoma heavier;
f rontals broader pos-
teriorly, the lateral
border slightly con-
vex and overhanging
orbits.

Measurements
(from original de-
scription).— Type:
Total length 380;
tail vertebrae, 170; hind foot (dry skin), 36. Average of four adult
topotypes: Total length, 375; tail vertebrae, 160. Skull (average
of four adults): Basilar length, 37.3; zygomatic breadth, 24.2;
interorbital breadth, 6.2; length of nasals, 18.2; length of incisive
foramina, 9.8; length of palatal bridge, 8.5; alveolar length of upper
molar series, 9.1.

Remarks. — The recent discovery of A7, chrysomelas in central Nica-
ragua materially extends the known range of the genus southward in
Central America. The evident close affinity of chrysomelas with
other members of the widely distributed ferruginea group points to
the probable occurrence of wood rats in San Salvador and Honduras
and the continuous range of the genus from Nicaragua northward.

Fig. 9.— Distribution of Neotoma chrysomelas.

76 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no.81,

The type and topotypes of chrysomelas in somewhat worn pelage are
paler, less intense orange rufous than a specimen in the Biological
Survey Collection, which Mr. Miller compared for me and found
exactly like the type oiferruginea in color.

Specimens examined. — Total number 4, the type and three
topotypes.

NEOTOMA DESERTORUM Merriam.

Desert Wood Rat.

(PI. VI, figs. 4, 4«.)

Neotoma desertorum Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., IX, pp. 125-126, July 2, 1894.
Type from Furnace Creek, Death Valley, Inyo County, Cal.; No. |ftft> $ ad>
U. S. National Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by T. S. Palmer,
January 31, 1891.

Neotoma bella Bangs, Proc. New Eng. Zool. Club, I, pp. 66-67, July 31, 1899. Type
from Palm Springs, Riverside County, Cal.; No. 5308, $ old ad., collection of
E. A. and O. Bangs; collected by E. C. Thurber, April 12, 1896.

Neotoma nevadensis Taylor, Univ. Cal. Pub. Zool., V, pp. 289-296, pis. 27-29, Feb-
ruary 12, 1910. Type from Virgin Valley, Humboldt County, Nev. ; No. 8282, ? ,
University of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology; collected by Annie M.
Alexander, May 17, 1909.

Distribution. — Desert regions in southeastern and northeastern
California, Nevada, eastern Oregon, northern and western Utah, east
to northwestern Colorado, and south along the west side of the Colo-
rado River to northeastern Lower California. Upper and Lower
Sonoran zones.

General characters. — Size small; tail rather short; ears large; fur
long, soft, and silky; skull small; bulla? very large. Similar to N.
lepida, tail shorter haired and sharply bicolored. In general appear-
ance closely resembling N. i. gilva, but not nearly related.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts pale pinkish buffy, purest on
cheeks and sides, becoming creamy buff on middle of face, moderately
darkened dorsally by blackish hairs; feet and underparts white, the
belly in some specimens more or less suffused with pinkish buff; sides
of neck pinkish buff, this color sometimes spreading across throat;
tail varying from grayish brown to blackish above, white below.

SJcull. — Similar to that of N. lepida, but more angular; braincase
less smoothly rounded; nasals narrower posteriorly; zygomata less
squarely spreading, broadest posteriorly; frontal region narrower,
with edges more upturned; bullae very large and rounded; first upper
molar with anterointernal reentrant angle faint or absent.

Measurements. — Average of 18 adult topotypes: Total length,
293 (265-313); tail vertebrae, 131 (120-142); hind foot, 30.1 (28-31).
Skull (average of 6 adult topotypes): Basilar length, 33.4; zygo-
matic breadth, 20.6; interorbital breadth, 4.9; length of nasals, 15.3;
length of incisive foramina, 8.3; length of palatal bridge, 6.6; alveolar
length of upper molar series, 7.6.

UtlO.l

DESERTORUM GROUP DESERTORUM.

77

Remarks. — The desertorum group includes the four smallest forms
in the genus, desertorum, lepida, stephensi, and goldmani, ranging as a
group from the desert region of northeastern California, eastern
Oregon, and northwestern Colorado to Lower California and north-
eastern Mexico. The species are characterized externally by small
size, large ears, and long, soft, silky fur. Although individuals vary
considerably, the general characters of desertorum remain rather
remarkably constant throughout its geographic range.

/V£V7VM4 OESERTOtWM.
L£P/M.
L. Sr£*¥/£A&/.

Fig. 10.— Distribution of Neotuma desertorum, N. lepida, and subspecies.

Specimens taken in lava beds are usually darker than those inhab-
iting lighter-colored rock formations, and at some localities show the
dichromatic condition noted also in N. albigula and other species.
Most specimens from St. George, Utah, are dark colored above and
have the under parts strongly suffused with pinkish buff, but along
with these is a normally colored one. Specimens from Marysvale,
Utah, include light and dark colored individuals; one has white under

78 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

parts, while others are pinkish buffy across throat and belly. In
these the tail also varies from blackish to pale grayish above. The
small number available from Utah and Colorado have tails which
average somewhat shorter than those from Nevada, California, and
Lower California, but are within the wide range of variation shown
in nearly every large series. The tail varies in length from 120 to
140, reaching beyond these limits in a few extreme individuals.

The type of N. bella in the richly colored pelage common in old
adults is yellower than usual in typical desertorum; the skull is more
massive, with heavier rostrum and anteriorly broader nasals. These
differences appear to be mainly due to advanced age. Specimens
from the region of the type locality of N. nevadensis seem inseparable
from N. desertorum.

Specimens examined. — Total number 377, from the following
localities :

Arizona: Bright Angel Creek (mouth), 2; Fredonia, 1; Jacobs Pool, 1; Lees
Ferry, 5; Soap Creek (15 miles southwest of Lees Ferry), 1; Trumbull
Mountains, 1.

California: Amargosa River, 1; Amedee, 9; Argus Mountains, 3; Barstow, 5;
Bennett Wells, 22; Cameron, 8; Chucka walla Spring, 1; Coso, 22; Coso
Mountains, 2; Emigrant Spring, Panamint Mountains, 1; Fairmont, 3;
Fort Yuma, 2; Funeral Mountains, 6; Furnace Creek, Death Valley, 26;
Grapevine Spring, 2; Hesperia, 2; Honey Lake, 1; Independence Creek
(Rex Monte Mill), 1; Inyo Mountains, 7; Lone Pine, 8; Lone Willow
Spring, San Bernardino County, 2; Long Valley, (22 miles from Bennett
Wells), 1; Ludlow, 5; Mesquite Valley, 3; Mohave, 3; Mohave River, 3;
Morongo Pass, 1; Needles, 10; New York Mountain, San Bernardino
County, 8; Onyx, 19; Oro Grande, 19; Owens Lake, 1; Owens Valley
(Moran's), 4; Palm Springs, 2; Panamint, 2; Panamint Mountains, 8;
Panamint Valley, 19; Providence Mountains, 10; Resting Springs, 8;
Saline Valley, 1; Saratoga Springs, 6; Secret Valley, Lassen County, 1;
Shepherds Canyon, Panamint Mountains, 1; Twelvemile Spring, near
Resting Springs, 3; Walker Pass, 2; Warren Well, Mohave Desert, 1.

Colorado: Rangely, 4.

Nevada: Ash Meadow (10 miles north), 5; Austin (35 miles southwest), 4;
Battle Mountain, 7; Bunkerville, 4; Candelaria, 1; Charleston Mountains,
1; Colorado River, Lincoln County, 2; Deep Hole, 6; Granite Creek, 2;
Grapevine Mountains, 2; Indian Creek, 1; Monitor Valley, 1; Pahrump
Valley, 7; Peavine, 2; Pyramid Lake, 3; Rabbit Hole Mountains, 1;
Reese River, 1; Silver Creek, 1; Smoky Creek Desert, 1; Smoky Creek, 3;
Vegas Valley, 1.

Oregon: Vale, 1.

Utah: Fort Cameron, 5; Henry Mountains, 4; Kanab, 2; Kelton, 1; Little Pine
Valley (near Hebron), 2; Loa, 1; Moccasin Spring, 1; Pine Valley, 2;
Promontory, 2; St. George, 3; Santa Clara, 2.

Lower California: Cerro Prieto (near Volcano Lake), 2; Cocopah Mountains, 2.

1910.] DESERTORUM GROUP LEPIDA. 79

NEOTOMA LEPIDA Thomas.

Thomas Wood Rat.

Neotoma lepida Thomas, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 6 Ser., XII, p. 235, September,
1893. Type locality unknown. Type formerly No. 3898 in Smithsonian Insti-
tution, now No. 73.6.3.42, British Museum.

Distribution. — Upper Sonoran Zone in the plateau region of north-
eastern Arizona, north of the Little Colorado River, and northwestern
New Mexico south to Gallup, grading to the southward into stephensi.

General characters. — Most like N. I. stephensi, but smaller; color
decidedly paler (yellowish instead of dark grayish buff) ; tail slightly
bushy, as in stephensi. Rather closely resembling desertorum exter-
nally, but upper parts yellowish instead of pinkish bufTy; tail longer
haired and not sharply bicolored.

Color. — Partly worn pelage: Upper parts yellowish or between buff
and cream buff, clearest along cheeks, shoulders, and sides, becoming
pale buffy gray on middle of face, darkened over top of head and
back by dusky-tipped hairs; under parts white or creamy (varied in
some specimens by a pinkish buffy wash across belly) the fur plumbe-
ous basally, except small pure white areas on throat, inner sides of
forelegs, and on pectoral and inguinal regions; feet white; tail pale
grayish, somewhat darker above than below. Young (about half
grown) : Duller, less yellowish than adults, but decidedly paler than
stephensi with less nearly unicolor tail.

Skull. — Closely resembling that of stephensi, but smaller, with
relatively smaller interparietal, shorter tooth rows, and smaller
incisors; first upper molar with anterointernal reentrant angle faint
or absent (usually absent) , as in the other members of the desertorum
group.

Measurements. — Average of six adults from Keam Canyon: Total
length, 286; tail vertebras, 136; hind foot, 29. Skull (average of
same): Basilar length, 324; zygomatic breadth, 21.1; interorbital
breadth, 5.5; length of nasals, 14.8; length of incisive foramina, 8.3;
length of palatal bridge, 7.3; alveolar length of upper molar series 7.8.

Remarks. — A wood rat, mammal number 3898 of the Smithsonian
Institution, was regarded by Coues a in 1877 as an abnormally small
individual of Neotoma cinerea and listed by him as from Williams
Spring, Utah, with C. S. McCarthy as collector. Subsequently this
specimen passed to the British Museum and became the type of N.
lepida Thomas, from "Utah." Williams Spring, Utah, has been
generally accepted by later authors as the type locality of the species.
N. Hollister has directed my attention to the fact that when the
type was entered in the catalogue of the Smithsonian Institution
it had no label. An examination of the record shows that the speci-

« Monographs of N. A. Rodentia, p. 24, 1877.

80 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

men was entered in the same handwriting as the preceding numbers,
at the end of a general collection from various localities, received
from J. H. Simpson and collected by C. S. McCarthy, who was the
taxidermist for Simpson's expeditions to the " Great Basin of Utah."a

The preceding number (3897) was entered as "Neotoma Cinerea"
and ditto marks follow for number 3898, in the columns for the
name of the species and those of Simpson and McCarthy, but the
record is incomplete, and this is explained by the statement in the
column for remarks that the specimen had " no label." That it came
from Williams Spring is an assumption without apparent reason
beyond the mere chance that the preceding entry is from that local-
ity. The type locality of N. lepida is therefore unknown.

In March, 1904, specimens of arizonse, desertorum, and an unrec-
ognized animal in the collection of the Biological Survey from Keam
Canyon, Arizona, were submitted to Oldfield Thomas for comparison
with the type of lepida. The Keam Canyon specimen was found
to agree in many respects, and, in view of the uncertainty regarding
the type, is now assumed to represent typical lepida.

N. lepida seems to be a species quite distinct from desertorum,
although clearly a member of the same group. The ranges of the
two are completely separated by the effective barrier of the Colorado
River. Specimens of stephensi from Zuni River, Arizona, and Burley,
N. Mex., are somewhat intermediate in coloration and in cranial
characters, also approach lepida.

Total number of specimens examined 32, from the following
localities :

Arizona: Cedar Ridge (30 miles north of Tuba), 3; Keam Canyon, 20; Tuba, 1.
New Mexico: Blanco, 1; Bluewater, 1; Fort Wingate, 3; Gallup, 1; Wingate, 2.

NEOTOMA LEPIDA STEPHENSI Goldman.

Stephens Wood Rat.

(PI. VI, figs. 5, 5a.)

Neotoina stephensi Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVIII, pp. 32-33, February 2,
1905. Type from Hualpai Mountains, Arizona (altitude, 6,300 feet); No. 117466,
9 ad., U. S. National Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by F.
Stephens, July 1, 1902.

Distribution. — Upper Sonoran Zone along Hualpai, Mogollon, and
White Mountains across central Arizona and from the Burro Moun-
tains to the Zuni Mountains in western New Mexico, passing farther
north into lepida.

General characters. — Size small; tail slightly bushy; underparts
pinkish buff. Most like lepida, but larger and decidedly darker —
dark grayish buff instead of yellowish. Related to N. desertorum,
but tail longer haired; differing also in color and cranial characters.

« Report of Exploration Across the Great Basin of Utah in 1859, L876.

1910.] DESERTORUM GROUP — GOLDMANI. 81

Color. — Partly worn pelage: Upper parts dark grayish buff, mod-
erately darkened over top of head and back by dusky hairs, becoming
pinkish buff along cheeks and sides; under parts usually more or less
heavily washed with pinkish buff, this color spreading over entire
belly and irregularly invading other parts; small areas on pectoral
and inguinal regions, sometimes including throat, pure white; ankles
dusky; feet white; tail grayish brown above, slightly paler below.
Young (about half grown) : Decidedly darker than lepida, with more
nearly unicolor tail.

Skull. — Closely resembling that of lepida, but larger and heavier.
Similar to that of desertorum, but less angular; brain case more
smoothly rounded; nasals broader posteriorly; zygomata more
squarely spreading, the sides nearly parallel; frontal region broader
and flatter; dentition and bullae about as in desertorum.

Measurements. — Average of 3 adults from the type locality: Total
length, 305; tail vertebrae, 135; hind foot, 31. Skull (an adult
topotype): Basilar length, 33.8; zygomatic breadth, 22; interorbital
breadth, 6.7; length of nasals, 16.5; length of incisive foramina, 8.9;
length of palatal bridge, 7.5 ; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.5.

Remarks. — This dark subspecies is much more nearly allied to lepida
than to desertorum, as shown by closer agreement in important
cranial characters, and in hairiness of tail. Specimens from Zuni
River, Arizona, and Burley, N. Mex., are somewhat paler than the
typical form and in cranial characters also approach lepida. One
from the lava beds near Grant, N. Mex., is unusually dark even for
stephensi and may indicate the dichromatic condition seen in albigula
and fallax and apparently associated with the lava beds of the region.
In the series from the Burro Mountains the under parts vary from the
usual pinkish buff across the belly to pure white.

Total number of specimens examined, 27, from the following
localities :

Arizona: Hualpai Mountains (type locality), 5; Springerville (25 miles north),

2; Zuni River, 3; Walnut, 1.
New Mexico: Burley, 3; Burro Mountains, 11; Grant, 1; Glenwood, San

Francisco River, 1.

NEOTOMA GOLDMANI Merriam.

Goldman Wood Rat.

(PI. VI, figs. 6, 6a.)

Neotoma goldmani Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVI, p. 48, March 19, 1903. Type
from Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico (altitude 5,000 feet); No. 116894, $ ad., TJ. S.
National Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by E. W. Nelson
and E. A. Goldman, April 18, 1902.

52668°— 10 6

82

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[NO. SI.

Distribution. — Desert regions in southern Coahuila, Mexico. Lower
Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Smallest known species of the genus. In
general, similar to N. lepida, but smaller; tail shorter haired; color
darker; cranial characters distinctive. '

Color. — Partly worn pelage: Upper parts creamy buff, purer along
sides, becoming paler on head, much darkened over back by admix-
ture of dusky; feet and under parts white; tail blackish above,
white below.

Skull. — Similar in general form to that of N. lepida, but smaller;

ascending branches
of premaxillse broad-
er posteriorly; ante-
rior border of inter-
parietal more con-
vex, posterior angle
more developed;
bulla? much smaller;
dentition of the deser-
torum type, but
rather heavy.

Measure ment s.—
Average of 4 adult
topotypes: Total
length, 279; tail ver-
tebras, 128; hind foot,
30. Skull (average
of same): Basilar
length, 30.8; zygo-
matic breadth, 18.7;
interorbital breadth,
5.4; length of nasals, 14.1; length of incisive foramina, 8.1; length of
palatal bridge, 6.4; alveolar length of upper molar series, 7.4.

Remarks. — This form is distinguishable from all other species of
the genus by its small size. It agrees with the other members of the
desertorum group in long, soft, silky pelage.

Specimens examined. — Total number 10, from the following locali-
ties in Coahuila, Mexico :

Jaral, 5, Saltillo (type locality), 5.

NEOTOMA MAGISTER Baird.

Fig. 11.— Distribution of Neotoma goldmani.

Cave Wood Rat.

Neotoma magister Baird, Mamm. North Amer., p. 498, 1857. Cotypea from bone cave?
near Carlisle, Pa.; Nop. 12206-12214. inclusive, U. S. National Museum; col-
lected by S. F. Baird.

1910.]

PENNSYLVANIA GROUP MAGISTER.

83

Distribution.— Pleistocene cave deposits of Pennsylvania.

General characters. — Similar to N. pennsylvanica, but larger.

Skull. — Mandible similar to that of N. pennsylvanica, but larger;
coronoid process longer, more decurved; diastema (mandibular)
longer; beveled cutting edge of lower incisor longer; upper incisor
broader and heavier; lower molars as in N. pennsylvanica, but larger,
toothrow longer.

Comparative measurements of Neotorna magister and Neotoma pennsylvanica.

Museum
number.

!

Name.

Locality.

<v

60

a

■O

a

03

y,
a?

o

0J."
03 J->

si

~.° ^

«»§

o

a

03

So

si

5

o
E
o .

o

a
t2

o a

o

(J

S3

I®

^ s

03 U. r/j

0J p t.

i

12207 !

Pennsylvania: Near Carlisle

do

Adult...
Adult...
Adult. . .
Young . .
Young . .
cf Adult
cf Adult

9 Adult
9 Adult
cf Adult

7.1
7.3

7.2
7.2
7.3
6.4
6.8

6.1
6.4
6.7

32.5

31.6.
29.7

31.1
29.8
31.3

9.7
9.7
9.6
8.4
8.3
9.0
8.2

8.9

7.8
.92

8.5

8.4
7.9

8.2
7.6
7.5

9.6

12208

...do

10.1

12206

..do

....do

10.0

12209

...do

...do

9.8

12212

.do

....do

9.8

77513
82146

...do

West Virginia: White Sulphur.
Virginia: Potomac River near

Washington.
do

9.3

8.8

87195

....do

9.4

77512

...do

...do

8.7

3956

.do...

Kentucky: Mammoth Cave

9.4

Remarks. — The remains of the type material used by Baird in his
description of N. magister consist of eight incomplete halves of lower
jaws and a fragment of a premaxilla containing an upper incisor.
Of these jaws one of the most valuable for comparative purposes
lacks only the teeth and angular process. Several of the others
contain all the teeth but are otherwise imperfect. Three are evi-
dently fully adult and the others somewhat immature. Collectively
the jaws show all the parts except the angular process. Six are AT.
magister and the others, numbers 12210 and 12213, are probably
N. pennsylvanica. a

Comparison of this rather scanty material with a considerable
number of fully adult as well as immature specimens of the living
species inhabiting the same region shows very close relationship. The
differences noted, however, appear to be constant, and in the absence
of material establishing their identity both should receive specific
recognition.

Specimens examined. — The type material.

aFor discussion of status of N. magister see Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila.,
pp. 213-221, 1894, and Mearns, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., X, pp. 334-335, 1898.

84

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[no. 31.

NEOTOMA PENNSYLVANICA Stone.

Pennsylvania Wood Rat.

(PI. I, figs. 6, 6a.)

Rat Bartram, in Kalm's Travels, II (English edition), pp. 47-48, 1749.

Neotoma pennsylvanica Stone, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., pp. 16-18, February, 1893.

Type from South Mountain, Cumberland County, Pa. (altitude 2,000 feet);

No. 156, 9, collection of Witmer Stone; collected by J. G. Dillin, December 2,

1892.

Distribution. — Appalachian Mountain region from southern New-
York to northern Alabama, probably including western North

Fig. 12.— Distribution of Neotoma pennsylvanica.

Carolina and northern Georgia, and westward to Mammoth Cave,
Kentucky, and Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. Alleghenian and Caro-
linian zones.

General characters. — Largest of the round-tailed species of the
genus; tail moderately long, well haired, bicolored; ears large; pelage
coarse ; cranial characters pronounced ; no closely related living species
known.

1910.] PENNSYLVANIA GROUP PENNSYLVANIA". 85

Color. — Fresh winter pelage: Upper parts grayish buff, becoming buffy
gray on head, heavily overlaid, especially on back, with blackish; feet
and under parts white, the fur pure white to roots, except along sides
of belly, where the basal color is pale plumbeous; axillae creamy buff,
tail varying from grayish brown to black above, whitish below.

Skull. — Skull very large, elongate, rather narrow; rostrum long;
nasals long and narrow, truncate or slightly emarginate posteriorly;
ascending branches of premaxillae broadening and then narrowing
abruptly at frontomaxillary suture, reaching posteriorly slightly
beyond nasals; frontal region broad, constricted near middle, exca-
vated above, lateral margins upturned and tending to develop a small
point anteriorly; temporal ridges diverging to near anterior border
of interparietal, whence they turn abruptly inward, as in N. cinerea;
interparietal subquadrate or rectangular, much as in N. mexicana;
palatal bridge about equal to incisive foramina; interpterygoid fossa
rounded anteriorly, as in N. Jloridana, but narrower; sphenopalatine
vacuities small; bullae more elongated and tapering anteriorly more
than in N. Jloridana; mastoid process of squamosal very broad;
dentition similar to that of N. Jloridana, but first upper molar with
anterointernal reentrant angle deeper — nearly as deep as in N. mex-
icana. Compared with that of N. magister, the mandible is smaller,
with coronoid process shorter, less decurved, and beveled cutting edge
of lower incisor shorter.

Measurements. — Average of 2 adults from Renovo, Pa.: Total
length, 430; tail vertebrae, 198; hind foot, 43. Skull (average of
same): Basilar length, 45.7; zygomatic breadth, 27.5; interorbital
breadth, 6.5; length of nasals, 21.7; length of incisive foramina, 10.9;
length of palatal bridge, 10.1 ; alveolar length of upper molar
series, 9.4.

Remarks. — N. pennsylvanica is a well-marked species, requiring no
close comparison with any known living form. Its exact relationship
to the fossil N. magister, however, is somewhat problematical. Care-
ful comparison of the fragmentary type material of the latter with
N. pennsylvanica shows that the two were related, but differed in
size and apparently in other important details.

In 1749 Peter Kalma cited John Bartram,of Philadelphia, as author-
ity for the statement that he saw a " great number" of rats which
lived among the rocks in the "Blue Mountains" of Pennsylvania,
came out only at night, and made a "terrible" noise. Pennant6
described an American rat, apparently from a specimen in the Live-
rian Museum, and referred to Bartram's observations. In 1792

a Kalm's Travels (English edition), II, pp. 47-48, 1749.

b Hist, of Quad., Ed. 3, II, No. 378, pp. 180-181, 1793.— Arctic Zool. I, No. 58,
p. 130, 1784.

86 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

Kerr° used Pennant's descriptions under the name Mus americanus.
The animal seen by Bartram was probably the species now known as
Neotoma pennsylvanica, but as Kerr apparently described some other
species, although including *a reference to Kalm's Travels, the name
given by him is untenable.6

Specimens of pennsylvanica from Tennessee and Alabama have
somewhat shorter fur, the nasals average narrower posteriorly and
the premaxillae are more prolonged beyond them than in those from
Pennsylvania.

Specimens examined. — Total number 94, as follows :

Pennsylvania: Drurys Run, Clinton County, 3; Renovo, 5.

Alabama: Huntsville, 2.

Kentucky: Hawesville, 4; Lost Creek, 1; Mammoth Cave, 11.

Tennessee: Lawrenceburg, 1; Walden Ridge (3 miles southwest of Rath-
burn), 8.

Virginia: Difficult Run (near mouth), Fairfax County, 2; Franklin, 11; Great
Falls, 10; Hillsboro, 1; Peaks of Otter, 1; Potomac River (opposite Hog
Island), 2; Potomac River (10 miles above Washington), 7; Tazewell
Peak, 4; White Sulphur, 21.

Subgenus HOMODONTOMYS c nobis.

(PI. VII, figs. l-3o.)

Type. — Neotoma fuscipes Baird, from Petaluma, California.

Distribution. — Pacific coast region from northern Oregon to north-
ern Lower California.

Subgeneric characters. — Maxillary toothrow only slightly narrower
posteriorly than anteriorly ; third upper molar broad and heavy, with
middle enamel loop partially or completely divided by deepening of
inner reentrant angle; frontals constricted near middle; bullae large;
tail terete, tapering, and short-haired; hind foot naked below along
outer side, at least to tarsometatarsal joint.

Remarks. — The subgenus Homodontomys differs from Neotoma
proper chiefly in the more nearly equal width of the molars and in the
more or less complete division of the middle enamel loop in the crown
of the third upper molar. The condition of the third upper molar is
due mainly to the deepening of the inner reentrant angle, resulting in
four more or less complete loops, instead of three as in Neotoma
proper. In tins character it approaches Xenomys, but differs widely
in other respects. In the peculiar combination of cranial and dental
characters Homodontomys departs as much from Neotoma proper as
from Teonoma, and has no very near relatives in either subgenus.

a Animal Kingdom, No. 463, p. 227, 1792.
& See Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., VII, p. 189, 1895.

c Homodontomys, from b^bg, the same; ddobf, tooth; /zuf, mouse, in reference to the
nearly equal width of molars.

1910.] FUSCIPES GROUP FUSCIPES. 87

NEOTOMA FUSCIPES (Cooper MS.) Baire.

Dusky-footed Wood Rat.

(PI. VII, figs. 1, la, 16.)

Neotoma fuscipes (Cooper MS.) Baird, Mamm. North Amer., pp. 495-496, 1857. Type

from Petaluma, Sonoma County, Cal.; No. 2679, $, U. S. National Museum;

collected by E. Samuels, February, 1856.
Neotoma monochroura Rhoads, Amer. Nat., XXVIII, pp. 67-68, January, 1894. Type

from Grants Pass, Josephine County, Oreg.; No. 1739, $ ad., Academy of Natural

Sciences, Philadelphia, collected by George Kenzer.
Neotoma splendens True, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XVII, p. 353 [advance sheets issued

June 27], 1894. Type from Marin County, Cal.; No. 19693, $, U. S. National

Museum; collected November 25, 1887.

Distribution. — Pacific coast region from San Francisco Bay north
to Salem, Oreg. Upper Sonoran and Transition zones.

General characters. — Size large; tail long, nearly unicolor; ears
large; molariform toothrow only slightly narrowing posteriorly;
third upper molar with middle enamel loop partially or completely
divided by inner reentrant angle. About like N.f. annectens in color,
but cranial characters distinctive. Nearer to N. f. streatori, but
larger; color darker; metatarsus usually clouded with dusky instead
of pure white, as in typical streatori.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts light ochraceous buff clearest
along sides, heavily darkened over top of head and back by black-
tipped hairs, becoming grayish on facial area; throat, chest, and
inguinal region pure white ; belly washed with creamy buff or pinkish
buff, beneath which the fur basally is plumbeous; muzzle and orbital
rings dusky; ears brownish; forefeet and toes of hind feet white;
hind feet to toes irregularly clouded with dusky; ankles dusky, this
color passing downwards on both sides, leaving the heels whitish;
tail blackish. Worn pelage: Upper parts varying shades of rusty
brown.

Skull. — Skull long, rather narrow, and evenly arched; rostrum
long; ascending branches of premaxillae slender, reaching posteriorly
well beyond nasals; frontals rather narrow, with sides slightly
upturned, forming supraorbital ridges; interpterygoid fossa narrow,
concave or slightly emarginate anteriorly; interparietal subquadrate
or rectangular; bullae large; molariform toothrow only slightly nar-
rowing posteriorly; first upper molar with anterointernal reentrant
angle reaching less than halfway across anterior enamel loop, much
as in N. jloridana; third upper molar short and broad, the middle
enamel loop partially divided by deepening of inner reentrant angle.
Similar in general to that of N.f. streatori, but larger; palatal slits
about equal to palatal bridge (decidedly longer than palatal bridge
in streatori), not reaching posteriorly to anterior plane of first molars
(reaching or passing this plane in streatori); interpterygoid fossa
narrower; bullae larger.

88

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[no. 31.

Fig.

Measurements. — Average of 3 adults from the type locality : Total

length, 438; tail vertebrae,
209; hind foot, 42.3. Slcutt
(average of 2 adult topo-
types): Basilar length, 42.5;
zygomatic breadth, 25.7; in-
terorbital breadth, 6.5; length
of nasals, 20.3; length of in-
cisive foramina, 11.2; length
of palatal bridge, 9.7; alveolar
length of upper molar series,
9.8.

Remarks. — N. fuscipes and
its five subspecies form an in-
teresting series of intergrading
forms, the habitats of which
completely encircle the Sacra-
mento and San Joaquin val-
leys in California. The only
break in the series is in the
region south of Monterey
Bay, where the range of N.f.
annectens meets that of N. f.
macrotis, yet the two forms are
quite distinct. Apart from
its subspecies N. fuscipes re-
quires close comparison with
no known form. Typical
specimens do not differ ap-
preciably in color from those
of annectens, but well-marked
cranial characters suffice to
separate them. Around the
upper end of the Sacramento
Valley, fuscipes intergrades
with streatori, which ranges
thence to the eastward and
southward along the west side
of the Sierra Nevada.

Specimens from a large
number of localities show
many slight geographic varia-
tions in color. Those from
within the fog belt imme-
usually darker than those from the

13. — Distribution of the subgenus Homodontomys
(Neotoma fuscipes and subspecies).

diately along the coast are

1910.] FUSCIPES GROUP — STREATORI. 89

dryer valleys often only a few miles inland. Topotypes of mono-
chroura have the under parts somewhat whiter and the hind feet less
dusky than typical fuscipes, but these slight differences are within
the range of variation of the species. N. splendens was based on one
of the darker specimens of N. fuscipes.

Specimens examined.— Total number 220, from the following
localities :

California: Ager, 1 ; Alton, 2 ; Alton Junction, 4; Bald Mountain, Shasta County,
1; Beswick, 1; Big Valley Mountains, 4; Bully Choop Mountains, 1; Burney,
1; Calpella, 1; Camp Meeker, 4; Cassel, 8; Dana, 2; Eel River, near South
Yolla Bolly Mountain, 10; Freestone, 3; Freshwater Creek, Colusa County,
1; Glen Ellen, 8; Gualala, 1; Hayden Hill, 1; Hoopa Valley, 4; Hornbrook,
13; Inverness, 4; Leesville, 2; Lierly's Ranch, 2; Little Shasta, 1; Lower
Lake, Lake County, 3; Mad River, Trinity County, 4; Marin County, 3;
Marshall, 6; Mendocino City, 3; Mount George, 8; Mount Saint Helena, 4;
Mount Tamalpais, 2; Mount Veeder, 6; Nicasio, 24; Novato, 5; Petaluma
(type locality), 15; Petrolia, 2; Picard, 8; Point Reyes, 7; Requa, 1; Round
Valley, 1; Salmon Mountains (near Etna Mills), Siskiyou County, 1; Scott
Valley (near Fort Jones), Siskiyou County, 1; Searsville, San Mateo County,
2; Snow Mountain, 12; Willits, Mendocino County, 1.

Oregon: Drain, 2; Elkhead, 1; Gold Beach, 7; Grants Pass, 9; Salem, 2.

NEOTOMA FUSCIPES STREATORI Merriam.

Streator Wood Rat.

Neotoma fuscipes streatori Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., IX, p. 124, July 2, 1894.
Type from Carbondale, Amador County, Cal.; No. 64439, $ ad., U. S. National
Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by C. P. Streator, April 4, 1894.

Distribution. — West slope of the Sierra Nevada in California from
Tehama County south to Porterville, Tulare County. Upper Sono-
ran Zone.

General characters. — Smaller than N. fuscipes; general color some-
what paler; tail sharply bicolor; hind feet from tarsus down, pure
white.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts pale ochraceous buff, brightest
and clearest along sides, moderately darkened over top of head and
back by more abundant admixture of blackish hairs; face grayish;
throat, chest, and inguinal region pure white; belly washed with pale
buff or pinkish buff, beneath which the fur is basally plumbeous;
ankles dusky; feet pure white; tail blackish above, whitish below.

Skull. — In general similar to that of N. fuscipes, but smaller;
ascending branches of premaxillae slightly heavier; incisive foramina
relatively longer, reaching anterior plane of first molars; inter-
pterygoid fossa broader and usually evenly rounded anteriorly;
palate shorter. In streatori, simplex, and macrotis, the palatal bridge
is decidedly shorter than incisive foramina (in fuscipes about equal).

90 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. I no. 31.

Compared with N.f. simplex the frontals are broader and ascending
branches of premaxillae heavier.

Measurements. — Average of 10 adult topotypes: Total length,
375; tail vertebrae, 188; hind foot, 39.5. Skull (average of same):
Basilar length, 38.6; zygomatic breadth, 24.3; interorbital breadth,
6; length of nasals, 17.9; length of incisive foramina, 10; length of
palatal bridge, 7.9; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.8.

Remarks. — This form intergrades on the north and west with
fuscipes and on the south with simplex. Externally it closely resem-
bles macrotis, but the pure white feet serve to distinguish it.

Specimens examined. — Total number 46, from following localities :

California: Blue Canyon, 3; Badger, 1; Carbondale (type locality), 15; Chinese
Camp, 1; Coulterville, 1; Eshom Valley, Tulare County, 2; Nelson (8
miles east), 7; Marysville Buttes (near Marysville), 2; Michigan Bluff, 1;
Milo, 1; Porterville (8 miles east), 3; Tehama, 2; Threerivers, 7.

NEOTOMA FUSCIPES ANNECTENS Elliot.

Portola Wood Rat.

(PI. VII, figs. 3, 3a.)

Neotoma fuscipes annectens Elliot, Pub. Field Columb. Mus., Zool. Ser., I, p. 201
March, 1898. Type from Portola, San Mateo County, Cal.; No. 2160, $ ad.,
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago; collected by Price and Coolidge,
December 23, 1895.

Neotoma fuscipes affinis Elliot, Pub. Field Columb. Mus., Zool. Ser., I, pp. 202-203,
March, 1898. Type from Alum Rock Park, Santa Clara County, Cal.; No. 2183,
$ ad., Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago; collected by J. Diefenbach,
May 14, 1895.

Distribution. — Coast region of California from San Francisco Bay
to Monterey Bay and thence inland and southward along the small
valleys and mountain ranges east of the Santa Lucia Mountains to
Carriso Plains, San Luis Obispo County. Upper Sonoran and Transi-
tion zones.

General characters. — Size and external appearance as in N. fuscipes,
but cranial characters distinctive.

Color. — Essentially as in N. fuscipes.

Skull. — In general form like that of N. fuscipes, but palate with a
blunt posterior median projection (palate in fuscipes concave or
emarginate) ; palatal bridge less deeply grooved along either side of
median line at posterior border of incisive foramina; bulhe slightly
larger, with anterosuperior border of meatus more strongly projecting.
Compared with those of N. f. macrotis and N. f streatori the skull is
much larger, with narrow interpterygoid fossa, and decidedly larger
bullae.

Measurements. — Average of 14 adults from Mountain View, Cal.:
Total length, 434; tail vertebras, 216; hind foot, 43.4. Skull (average

1910.1 FUSCIPES GROUP SIMPLEX. 91

of same): Basilar length, 41.5; zygomatic breadth, 26.2; interor-
bital breadth, 5.8; length of nasals, 19.3; length of incisive foramina,
10.1; length of palatal bridge, 9.5; alveolar length of upper molar
series, 9.3.

Remarks.— N. f. annectens does not differ externally from typical
fuscipes, but is easily recognizable by well-marked and constant cra-
nial characters. The ranges of annectens and macrotis meet along
the Salinas Valley, east of the Santa Lucia Mountains, but are not
known to overlap, and no intergradation of the two forms is shown
by the specimens examined. N. f affinis was based on specimens
from near the type locality of annectens and not appreciably different
from typical examples of the latter form.

Specimen's examined. — Total number 141, from the following
localities :

California: Alum Rock Park, 1; Aptos, 11; Bear Valley, San Benito County,
5; Berkeley, 3; Black Mountain, Santa Clara County, 1; Boulder Creek,
Santa Cruz County, 1; Carriso Plains, 1; Fremont Peak, Gabilan Range, 4;
Laguna Ranch, Monterey County, 2; Mountain View, 25; Mount Hamilton,
2; Pacheco Pass, 2; Pacheco Peak, 2; Palo Alto, 3; Portola (type locality),
52; Priest Valley, Monterey County, 12; Redwood City, 4; San Mateo, 1;
Santa Clara, 1; Santa Cruz Mountains (near Santa Cruz), 1; Santa Cruz
Mountains (Woodside), 2; Searsville, 2; Soledad, 2; Walnut Creek, 1.

NEOTOMA FUSCIPES SIMPLEX True.
Fort Tejon Wood Rat.

Neotoma macrotis simplex True, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XVII, p. 354 [author's sepa-
rates issued June 27], 1894. Type from Fort Tejon, Cal.; No. 3651, U. S. National
Museum ; collected by John Xantus.

Neotoma fuscipes dispar Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., IX, pp. 124-125, July 2, 1894.
Type from Lone Pine, Inyo County, Cal.; No. fff£i, $ ad., U. S. National
Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by Vernon Bailey, December
25, 1890.

Distribution. — Eastern basal slopes of the Sierra Nevada in Inyo
and Kern counties, Cal., and through Walker Pass to the foothill
region at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley. Upper
Sonoran Zone.

General characters.— Size somewhat smaller than N. fuscipes; col-
oration pale ochraceous, feet white, tail bicolor.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts ochraceous buff, palest on head,
darkened along back by a moderate admixture of black -tipped
hairs; feet, throat, chest, and inguinal region pure white; belly
washed with creamy buff, the fur basally plumbeous except along
median line, where the hairs are white to roots; ears grayish; tail
grayish brown above, whitish below.

STcull. — In general similar to that of N. fuscipes, but smaller; inter-
pterygoid fossa much broader; bullae smaller; incisive foramina
longer than palatal bridge, as in N. f. streatori and N.f macrotis (in
N. fuscipes about equal).

92 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [wo. 81.

Measurements. — An adult topotype: Total length, 390; tail ver-
tebrae, 175; hind foot, 39. SJcuU (of same): Basilar length, 40.8;
zygomatic breadth, 25.3; interorbital breadth, 5.9; length of nasals,
19.4; length of incisive foramina, 10.8; length of palatal bridge, 7.3;
alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.7.

Remarks. — This subspecies is a pale form interposed between the
ranges of streatori and macrotis, and intergrading with both. In the
southern part of the Sierra Nevada in Tulare County simplex passes
into streatori, which ranges thence to the northward along the west
slope of the mountains. The type of N. f. dispar and other speci-
mens from Lone Pine east of the Sierra Nevada are richer ochraceous
and show a greater degree of differentiation than topotypes of simplex,
but slight geographic and individual variations are numerous in the
general region, and dispar can not satisfactorily be separated.

Specimens examined. — Total number 40, from the following
localities :

California: Antelope Valley, 1; Buena Vista Lake (north side), 4; Fort Tejon
(type locality), 5; Gorman, 1; Kern River (15 miles northeast of Bakers-
field), 1; Kern River (25 miles above Kernville), 1; Lone Pine, 13; Onyx,
south fork of Kern River, 3; Piute Mountains, 3, San Emigdio, Kern
County, 3; Santiago Springs, Kern County, 1 ; Tehachapi, 1; Tejon Canyon,
1; Walker Pass, 2.

NEOTOMA FUSCIPES MOHAVENSIS Elliot.

Mohave Desert Wood Rat.

Neotoma fuscipes rnohavensis Elliot, Field Columb. Mus., Zool. Ser., Ill, pp. 246-247,
December, 1903. Type from Oro Grande, Mohave Desert, San Bernardino
County, Cat; type in Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago; collected by
Edmund Heller.

Distribution. — The Mohave Desert, in southern California. Lower
Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Smaller than N. fuscipes; color grayish; tail
long, bicolor. Similar to N.f. macrotis, but more grayish instead of
ochraceous.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Above brownish gray, palest on face and
sides, dorsally strongly mixed with black, giving the animal a some-
what grizzled appearance; underparts white, in some specimens
varying to creamy white across belly; feet white, the hind ones
more or less streaked with dusky to toes; ears grayish; tail brownish
black above, dull white below.

Skull. — As in N. f. macrotis.

Measurements. — Average of 6 adult topotypes: Total length, 386;
tail vertebrae, 182; hind foot, 37.8. STcull (average of same): Basilar
length, 38.8; zygomatic breadth, 24.2; interorbital breadth, 5.6;
length of nasals, 18.3; length of incisive foramina, 10.1; length of
palatal bridge, 8; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.8.

1910.] FUSCIPES GROUP — MACROTIS. 93

Remarks. — N. f. mohavensis is a pale desert form very closely
related to macrotis. Concerning its range Mr. Elliot says: "At the
headwaters of the Mohave, in the San Bernardino Mountains, this
race meets N. f. macrotis of the Coast Slope." Along the eastern
slopes of the mountains north of the Mohave Desert it may inter-
grade with N.f. simplex.

Specimens examined. — Total number 25, from the following
localities :

California: Fish Creek, San Bernardino Mountains, 1; Mohave, 7; Morongo
Pass, 2; Oro Grande (type locality), 15.

NEOTOMA FUSCIPES MACROTIS Thomas.

Large-eared Wood Rat.

(PI. VII, figs. 2, 2a.)

Neotoma macrotis Thomas, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 6 Ser., XII, pp. 234-235,
September, 1893. Type from San Diego, San Diego County, Cal.; (in alcohol)
No. 93. 2. 2. 4, $ , British Museum; collected by Prof. Eigenmann.

Neotoma fuscipes cnemophila Elliot, Pub. Field Columb. Mus., Zool. Ser., Ill, No.
15, pp. 267-268, March, 1904. Type from Lockwood Valley, Mount Pinos,
Ventura County, Cal.; No. 12781, $ ad., Field Museum of Natural History,
Chicago; collected by Edmund Heller, October 6, 1903.

Distribution. — Pacific coast region from Monterey Bay, California,
south through the San Pedro Martir Mountains, Lower California.
Upper Sonoran and Transition zones.

General characters. — Size smaller than N. fuscipes: color grayer;
tail distinctly bicolor; skull smaller; interpterygoid fossa much
broader; incisive foramina decidedly longer than palatal bridge.
Closely related to N. f. mohavensis, but color darker.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts grayish brown, more or less
suffused with buff or ochraceous buff, palest on head and along
sides, darkened dorsally by black-tipped hairs; under parts white,
the fur plumbeous at base across the belly, as in N. fuscipes (in
some specimens the basally plumbeous area is overlaid with pale
buffy); ankles dusky; forefeet white; hind feet clouded with dusky
to toes, toes white; tail brownish black above, whitish below.

Skull. — Much smaller than that of N. fuscipes: incisive foramina
relatively longer, reaching anterior plane of first molars; palatal
bridge shorter; interpterygoid fossa much broader; bullae smaller,
shorter, and more rounded. Skull closely resembling that of N. f.
streatori, but interorbital region narrower, and ascending branches
of premaxillae more slender.

Measurements. — Average of 7 adult topotypes: Total length, 359;
tail vertebrae, 170; hind foot, 37. Skull (average of same): Basilar
length, 37.6; zygomatic breadth, 23.4; interorbital breadth, 5.4;
length of nasals, 18.3; length of incisive foramina, 9.5; length of
palatal bridge, 7.6;- alveolar length of upper molar series, 8.7.

94 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [NO. 31.

Remarks. — N. f. macrotis is a well-marked subspecies forming one
of the extremes of the fuscipes series of intergrading forms. Its
range extends northward along the coast and through the Santa
Lucia Mountains to Salinas, meeting along the Salinas Valley the
range of annectens, the other extreme of the series. Specimens from
Mount Pinos, the type locality of cnemophila, and from the other
mountains of that vicinity show considerable variation in color,
depending on the altitude and slope exposure, and grade toward
simplex. Along the mountain slopes to the south and west of the
Mohave Desert, macrotis intergrades with mohavensis.

Specimens examined. — Total number 336, from the following
localities :

California: Alhambra, 7; Ballena, 1; Bergman, 1; Buckhorn Canyon, Santa
Barbara County, 1; Cajon Pass, 1; Capistrano, 2; Carmel River, 21; Car-
penteria, 1; Coahuila Mountain, 1; Colton, 1; Cone Peak, 2; Cuyama Valley,
1; Cuyamaca Peak, 2; Del Monte, 6; Dulzura, 25; El Nido, 4; Hesperia, 2
Indian Canyon, Santa Barbara County, 1; Indian Valley, Monterey County
1; Jacumba, San Diego County, 2; Jamesburg, 1; Jolon, 6; King City, 3
Las Virgines Creek, Los Angeles County, 6; Little Pine Canyon, Santa
Barbara County, 1; Lytle Creek, 25 miles northwest of San Bernardino, 1
Mansfield, Monterey County, 8; Mesa Grande, 1; Monterey, 4; Morro, 3
Mount Pinos, 8; Nordhoff, 3; Oceanside, 1; Pacific Grove, 12; Paraiso
Springs, 7; Pasadena (Arroyo Seco Canyon), 2; Pasadena (Oak Knoll), 1
Paso Robles, 5; Pine Valley, Monterey County, 7; Pleyto, 1; Port Harford
4; Posts, 4; Pozo, 3; Salinas, 5; San Bernardino, 7; San Bernardino Moun
tains, 14; San Diego (type locality), 25; San Fernando, 3; San Gabriel, 1
San Gabriel Mountains (Heninger Flats), 4; San Gorgonio, 1; San Jacinto
Mountains, 7; San Luis Obispo, 1; San Miguelito, Monterey County, 2
mountains near San Simeon, 2; Santa Inez, 1; Santa Isabel, 2; Santa Lucia
Peak, 4; Santa Monica, 1; Santa Paula, 5; Seaside, 1; Sur, 1; Sur River, 6
miles from mouth, 4; Sweetwater, San Diego County, 2; Tassajara Creek,
Monterey County, 7; Tejunga Valley, Los Angeles County, 2; Temescal, 6;
Twin Oaks, 6; Ventura River, Ventura County, 2; Wildomar, 2; Wilson
Peak, 1; Witch Creek, San Diego County, 4.

Lower California: El Rayo, Laguna Hansen Mountains, 1; Ensenada, 1;
La Grulla, San Pedro Martir Mountains, 7; Laguna Hansen, Laguna Hansen
Mountains, 4; Nachoguero Valley, 3; Pifion, northwest base San Pedro
Martir Mountains, 3; Rancho San Antonio, west base San Pedro Martir
Mountains, 1; Rancho Santo Tomas, San Pedro Martir Mountains, 3;
Rosarito Divide, 1; San Antonio, 1; San Matias Pass, San Pedro Martir
Mountains, 4; Santa Eulalia, 3; San Tomas, 1; Tecate Valley, 1; Tijuana
River (mouth), 1; Vallecitos, San Pedro Martir Mountains, 3.

Subgenus TEONOMA Gray.

(PI. VIII.)

Type. — Neotoma cinerea drummondi (Richardson), from Rocky Mountains, in

latitude 57°.
Teonoma Gray, List Spec. Mamm., British Museum, p. 117, 1843.
Teonoma Merriam, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 242, September 24, 1894 (subgenus).

1910. J CINEREA GROUP — CINEREA. 95

Distribution. — Mountains of North America west of longitude 100°,
from latitude 35° to 60°.

Subgeneric characters. — Tail large, bushy, and somewhat distichous ;
sole of hind foot normally densely furred from heel to posterior
tubercle. Skull large and angular; temporal ridges prominent,
diverging posteriorly to near anterior border of interparietal, whence
they turn abruptly inward and again outward in crossing inter-
parietal to lambdoid crest; frontal region narrow, constricted near
middle, somewhat depressed, and excavated above along median
line; maxillary arms of zygomata broad and heavy; bullae large;
interpterygoid fossa narrow.

Remarks. — The bushy-tailed wood rats form a rather well-defined
group regarded by some authors as generic in rank. Some of the
forms differ widely in size and external appearance, but all are very
closely related and doubtless intergrade. Merriam has shown that
N. c. arizonse, although a bushy-tailed species, approaches Neotoma
proper in cranial characters.0 A study of the group indicates the
close relationship of arizonse to N. c. orolestes, which in turn inter-
grades through N. cinerea with the type form of Teonoma. In the
Neotominse, differentiation appears in cranial and dental modifica-
tions, and Teonoma agrees with members of the subgenus Neotoma so
closely in these more essential respects that the bushy tail must be
regarded as a comparatively superficial character of not more than
subgeneric value.

NEOTOMA CINEREA (Ord.).&

Gray Bushy-tailed Wood Rat.

(PI. VIII, figs. 1, la.)

Mus cinereus Ord, Guthrie's Geog., 2d Amer. ed., II, p. 292, 1815. Type from Great
Falls, Cascade County, Mont.: "Based on the ash-colored rat of Rocky Mountains
of Lewis and Clark."

Neotoma cinerea Baird, Mamm. North Amer., p. 499, 1857.

Teonoma cinerea acraia Elliot, Pub. Field Columb. Mus., Zool. Ser., Ill, pp. 247-248,
December, 1903. Type from Hot Springs, Long Canyon, Mount Whitney, Inyo
County, Cal.; No. 12850, $ , Field Museum of Natural History; collected by Ed-
mund Heller, July 31, 1903.

Distribution. — Rocky Mountain region in southern British Colum-
bia, Montana, Idaho, western Wyoming, Utah, northern Arizona,

« Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., VIII, pp. 109-110, July 31, 1893.

b An extinct species ( Teonoma spelsea Sinclair, Bull. Dept. Geol. Univ. Calif., Pub.,
IV, No. 7, p. 148, PI. 19, July 19, 1905) has been described, based on material from
Potter Creek Cave, Shasta County, Cal. This material has not been examined by
me, but on comparing the drawings accompanying the description with numerous
skulls of N. cinerea I am unable to find any essential differences, except possibly
the more nearly equal extent of the inner and outer salient angles in the crown of
the second lower molar of the fossil species.

96

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[no. 31.

and thence westward through the mountains of central Nevada to the
southern part of the Sierra Nevada in California. Canadian Zone

Fig. 14.— Distribution of the subgenus Teonoma ( Neotoma cinerea and subspecies').

and down along cold cliffs and canyons well into the Transition
Zone.

1910.] CINEREA GROUP CINEREA. 97

General characters. — Very large; tail moderately long, bushy, and
somewhat distichous; hind feet very large; the soles thickly furred
from heel to posterior tubercle; ears large; fur long, thick, and some-
what woolly; rostrum elongated; sphenopalatine vacuities absent
or small.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts grayish buff, in some specimens
varying to ochraceous buff, palest on face, the back much darkened
by admixture of dusky hairs; lower surface, including upper lip,
white, the hairs along sides of belly pale plumbeous basally; forefeet
white, this color insensibly passing over fore limbs into general
color of upper parts; hind feet white; color of hind legs reaching a
short distance over tarsus; ears covered with brownish and grayish
hairs, and faintly edged with whitish; tail above brownish gray,
below white, usually crossed basally by a pale buffy band.

Skull. — Skull large, long, and angular; rostrum elongated; frontal
region narrow, depressed, deeply constricted near middle, chan-
neled above, the well-developed lateral ridges somewhat approxi-
mated, the sides of frontals rounded off and bulging below them;
brain case short, not prolonged anteriorly between orbits; zygoma
with squamosal root widely spreading, upper surface of maxillary
root very broad, the outer border passing forward in an evenly
convex curve to antorbital foramen ; antorbital foramina narrow and
somewhat constricted above; nasals long, narrowing posteriorly, not
usually reaching anterior plane of orbits; ascending branches of
premaxillse passing posteriorly well beyond nasals; temporal ridges
prominent, diverging posteriorly to near anterior border of inter-
parietal, whence they turn abruptly inward and again diverge
slightly in crossing interparietal to lambdoid crest; interparietal
subquadrate or rectangular; palatal slits much longer than palatal
bridge; palate usually convex posteriorly; sphenopalatine vacuities
absent, or present as very narrow slits; bullae large and somewhat
elongated; teeth similar to those of N. mexicana, but maxillary
toothrow less narrowed posteriorly; first upper molar with deep
anterointernal reentrant angle and last upper molar with an anterior
closed triangle and two confluent posterior loops, as in N. mexicana;
condyloid process of mandible long and upturned.

Measurements. — Average of 2 adults from Big Snowy Mountains,
Montana: Total length, 387; tail vertebras, 162; hind foot, 43.
Skull (an adult from same locality): Basilar length, 46.1; zygomatic
breadth, 29.5; interorbital breadth, 5.6; length of nasals, 20.9; length
of incisive foramina, 12.5; length of palatal bridge, 9.2; alveolar
length of upper molar series, 10.

Remarks. — This species and its subspecies form a series of slightly
differentiated forms which include all the bushy-tailed wood rats.
52668°— 10 7

98 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

The forms in which the sphenopalatine vacuities are large intergrade
with those in which they are completely closed, so that this charac-
ter, although remarkably constant, is merely of subspeciiic value.
Although N. cinerea presents considerable geographic variation in
color, specimens from the southern part of the Sierra Nevada in Cali-
fornia are perfectly typical, and there are no characters by which to
recognize T. c. acraia. Those from Fiddle Creek, Idaho, and Flat-
head Lake, Montana, are grading toward occidentalis. In the
eastern part of its range, specimens often closely approach orolestes
in color, but may be separated by the very small or absent spheno-
palatine vacuities. Specimens from southern Utah and northern
Arizona north of the Grand Canyon agree with cinerea in color and
in the absence of large sphenopalatine vacuities, but those from
some localities have rather larger, more inflated audital bullae.
Comparison of specimens of cinerea from Bright Angel Spring, on
the Kaibab Plateau, with arizonse, from the opposite side of the Colo-
rado River at Lees Ferry indicates the complete isolation of the two in
this region by the Colorado River. The Colorado River thus appears
to limit the dispersal of forms as effectively in the cinerea group
•as in the desertorum group of wood rats. The fresh autumn pelage
usually replaces the worn summer coat in late August or September.
Specimens examined. — Total number 184, from the following
localities :

Arizona: Bright Angel Spring, Kaibab Plateau, 3.

Montana: Bass Creek (northwest of Stevensville), 4; Big Snowy Mountains,
5; Billings, 2; Birch Creek, 3; Bozeman, 1; Columbia Falls, 1; Darby, 2;
Flathead Lake, 8; Florence, 4; Fort Assiniboine, 8; Gardiner, 1; Great
Falls (type locality), 2; Miles City, 1; Milk River, 1; Ravalli, 1; Red
Lodge, 1; Rock Creek, 1; Stanton Lake, 1; Terry, 1; Upper Stillwater
Lake, 9.

Idaho: Bear Lake (east side), 4; Birch Creek, 7; Challis, 1; Fiddle Creek, 2;
Lost River Mountains (near Arco), 5; Lumhi, 5; Pahsimeroi Mountains, 1;
Sawtooth, 1.

Utah: Beaver Mountains (Britt Meadows), 3; Blacksmith Fork, Cache County,
3; Fish Lake Plateau, 1; Henry Mountains, 3; Ogden, 3; Parawan, 1;
Provo, 3.

Wyoming: Fort Bridger, 1.

Nevada: Arc Dome, Nye County, 4; Carson City, 3; Monitor Mountains, 1;
Newark Valley (20 miles east of Eureka), 2; head of Reese River, 1; Reno,
2; White Rock Valley (30 miles southwest of Austin), 1.

California: Atwells Mill, Tulare County, 1; Bishop Creek, Inyo County, 2;
Bronco, Nevada County, 3; Dormer, 17; Emerald Bay, 6; Horse Corral
Meadows, Fresno County, 1; Inyo Mountains, 2; Kern River (Soda Springs,
north fork), 2; Lake Tenaya, Mariposa County, 1; Little Yosemite Valley,
1; Mineral King, Tulare County, 1; Mono Lake, 2; Mono Pass (east side),
2; Mount Unicorn, 1; Mount Whitney, 10; White Mountains, 2; Wood-
fords, 12.

1910.] CINEREA GROUP — DRUMMONDI. 99

NEOTOMA CINEREA DRUMMONDI (Richardson).

Bushy-tailed Wood Rat.

Myoxus drummondii Richardson, Zool. Journ., Ill, pp. 517-518, 1828. Type from
"Rocky Mountains in latitude 57°;" probably near Jasper House, Alberta,
Canada; No. 42.10.7.6, 9 , British Museum.

Neotoma drummondii Richardson, Fauna Boreali-Amer., pp. 137-140, 1829.

Neotoma cinerea drummondi Merri&m, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., September 24, 1894.

Distribution. — Rocky Mountains of eastern British Columbia and
western Alberta, north of the range of N. cinerea. Canadian Zone.

General characters. — Similar to N. cinerea, but fur longer; tail
more bushy on distal two- thirds; dark color of forelegs ending in a
sharp line near carpus, in strong contrast with pure white of feet;
sphenopalatine vacuities absent or very small.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Above grayish buff moderately overlaid with
dusky; head slightly paler; underparts, including upper lip, whitish;
orbital rings dusky; ears clothed with rather long grayish brown hairs
and edged with whitish; feet white; tail above brownish gray,
sometimes white at tip, below white, becoming pale buff across base.

STcull. — Closely resembling that of N. cinerea, but averaging
slightly larger; dentition slightly heavier; sphenopalatine vacuities
closed or nearly closed, as in N. cinerea.

Measurements. — Average of 10 adults from Jasper House, Alberta:
Total length, 382; tail vertebrae, 167; hind foot, 44. STcull (average
of 4 adults from same locality): Basilar length, 43.7; zygomatic
breadth, 26.9; interorbital breadth, 6.3; length of nasals, 19.2;
length of incisive foramina, 11.7; length of palatal bridge, 9.5;
alveolar length of upper molar series, 10.6.

Remarks. — This slightly differentiated form doubtless passes on the
south directly into N. cinerea, and in southern British Columbia,
west of the Rocky Mountains, probahly intergrades with N. c.
occidentalis. Although Richardson says : a " This animal inhabits the
Rocky Mountains, in latitude 57°," it is evident from his account of
Drummond's route that the type specimen came from farther south,
in the vicinity of Jasper House, near latitude 53°.

Specimens examined. — Total number 26, as follows:

Alberta: Jasper House (near type locality), 23.
British Columbia: Glacier House, 2.
Mackenzie: Fort Liard, 1.

o Fauna Boreali-Americana, p. 137, 1829-

100 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

NEOTOMA CINEREA SAXAMANS Osgood.

Osoood Bushy-tailed Wood Rat.

(PI. VIII, figs. 2, 2a.)

Neotoma saxamans Osgood, North Amer. Fauna, No. 19, pp. 33-34, October 6, 1900.

Type from Bennett, head of Lake Bennett, British Columbia, Canada; No. 98923,

$ ad., U. S. National Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by W. H.

Osgood, June 19, 1899.
Neotoma cinerea saxamans Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., XIX, pp. 544-546,

October 10, 1903.

Distribution. — Northern British Columbia west of the Rocky
Mountains, limits of range unknown. Canadian and Hudsonian
zones.

General characters. — Similar in size to N. cinerea, but color decidedly
darker; tail more bushy; cranial characters pronounced. Closely
related to N. c. drummondi, but color darker; skull differing in same
characters as from N. cinerea.

Color. — Fresh pelage (September) : Upper parts buffy gray, bright-
est on shoulders and along flanks, darkened everywhere by admixture
of dusky hairs; under parts white, fur faintly darkened basally along
sides of belly and hind legs by pale plumbeous; feet white; upper side
of tail brownish gray on proximal third, becoming slaty gray on distal
two-thirds, under side white, except a buffy gray band at base.
Worn pelage (June) : Above more conspicuously buffy than in fresh
pelage.

Skull. — Similar in general form to that of N. cinerea, but differing
in important details; nasals more attenuate, and deeply but narrowly
emarginate posteriorly, reaching plane of orbits, the posterior ends
acutely pointed; interorbital region narrow; interparietal broader
transversely, and sagittal area very wide at this point, the temporal
impressions turning less abruptly inward; sphenopalatine vacuities
present, but short and somewhat triangular, widest at palatopterygoid
suture; ascending branches of premaxillse rather broad, but narrow-
ing abruptly posteriorly on reaching frontals; basioccipital with a
sharp, well-developed median ridge; last upper molar variable, the
crown sometimes trifoliate.

Measurements. — Average of 4 adult topotypes: Total length,
409; tail vertebrae, 173; hind foot, 47. Skull (average of same):
Basilar length, 46; zygomatic breadth, 27.5; interorbital breadth,
5.5; length of nasals, 21.5; length of incisive foramina, 12.1; length
of palatal bridge, 9.1; alveolar length of upper molar series, 10.

Remarks. — In color and cranial characters saxamans departs con-
siderably from cinerea. Specimens from Inverness, Stuart Lake, and
River Inlet, British Columbia, however, are nearer occidentalis, and
complete intergradation seems probable, although not satisfactorily

1910.] CINEKEA GROUP — OCCIDENTALS. 101

shown by present material. In both adults and young the third
lower molar sometimes has a small additional outer reentrant angle,
anterior in position to the one normally present. In one adult an
unusual development of the additional reentrant angle had led to an
abnormal elongation of the tooth. In nearly full-grown young acces-
sory peglike nonfunctional teeth are sometimes present. They
appear at the posteroexternal base of the third lower molar. An
additional reentrant angle is also developed sporadically in N. m.
fallax and other members of the mexicana group.
Specimens examined. — Eighteen, from:

British Columbia: Bennett (type locality), 14; Inverness, 2; River Inlet, 1;
Stuart Lake, 1.

NEOTOMA CINEREA OCCIDENTALS (Cooper MS.) Baird.

Western Bushy-tailed Wood Rat.

Neotoma occidentalis (Cooper MS.) Baird, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., VII, p. 335,
1855. Type from Shoalwater Bay, Pacific County, Wash.; No. 572, $ ad., U. S.
National Museum; collected by J. G. Cooper in 1854.

Neotoma cinerea occidentalis Merriam, North Amer. Fauna, No. 5, p. 58, July 30, 1891.

Neotoma c[inerea] Columbiana Elliot, Pub. Field Columb. Mus., Zool. Ser., I, No. 13,
p. 255, March, 1899. Type from Ducks, British Columbia; No. 4910, Field
Museum of Natural History, Chicago; collected by C. P. Streator, August 1, 1889.

Distribution. — From Pacific coast region of southwestern British
Columbia to northern California (except the narrow coastal strip
west of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon), and thence eastward over
the lava beds to south-central Idaho and northeastern Nevada.
Mainly Transition and Canadian zones.

General characters. — Size and general appearance of N. cinerea, but
color darker; ankles more conspicuously dusky; tail bushy and
sphenopalatine vacuities absent or very small, as in N. cinerea.

Color. — Fresh pelage (October): Upper parts brownish buff, much
obscured by dusky hairs which thin out somewhat and leave the
sides more decidedly buffy; head slightly paler; under parts dull
white, the hairs pale plumbeous basally, except over pectoral and
inguinal regions; axillae ochraceous buff; forefeet white, contrasting
strongly with brownish buff of forearms; hind feet white; ankles
dusky all around; ears brownish, edged with whitish; tail above
brownish black, mixed with gray, below white with a buffy band
across base. Worn pelage (June to August) : Worn summer speci-
mens average slightly grayer, and old adults are more rusty brown
than in fresh autumn pelage. Young: Much darker at all ages than
in N. cinerea.

Skull. — As in N. cinerea.

Measurements. — An adult from Olympic Mountains, Washington:
Total length, 412; tail vertebrae, 180; hind foot, 45. Average of

102 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

4 adults from Spokane Bridge, Wash.: 388; 168; 44.5. Skull (aver-
age of 4 adults from Spokane Bridge, Wash.): Basilar length, 43.7;
zygomatic breadth, 26.8; interorbital breadth, 5.8; length of nasals,
20.7; length of incisive foramina, 11.6; length of palatal bridge, 9.1;
alveolar length of upper molar series, 9.4.

Remarks. — This subspecies is so much darker than N. cinerea that
typical specimens are easily separable at all ages. Although ranging
over widely differing faunal areas, variation in color is not great, and
specimens from the dry lava beds of northern Nevada and the Snake
River Valley, in Idaho, agree well with those from the humid forested
districts nearer the coast. The explanation of this remarkable con-
stancy of color may be that the dark lava has had the same effect on
the coloration of the animal as the forested areas, where a dark
environment is due to climatic conditions. The specimens examined
si iow that intergradation with N. cinerea occurs along the western base
of the Rocky Mountains in Montana and Idaho, in north-central
Nevada, and north of Lake Tahoe in California. Intergradation with
N. c.fusca occurs at Bissell and Eagle Creek, Oreg. The fresh autumn
pelage replaces that of summer about the month of September, and
continues to grow, becoming longer and fuller until winter. N. c.
columbiana was based on a nearly typical specimen of N. c. occidentalis .

Specimens examined. — Total number 261, from localities as follows:

Washington: Almota, 1; Cascade River (head), 1; Campbell's Ranch, Clallam
County 1; Cheney, 2; Columbia River (opposite John Day River),
1; Colville, 2; Conconully, 1; Coulee City, 1; Douglas, 2; Fort Spokane,
2; Goldendale, 5; Hamilton, 1; Marcus, 3; Marshall, 4; Neah Bay, 1;
Orondo, 2; Quiniault Lake, 1; Rockland, 1; Shoalwater Bay (type locality),
2 (including type); Soleduc River, Olympic Mountains, 1; Spokane
Bridge, 7.

California: Adin, 4; Bald Mountain (8 miles south), Shasta County, 1; Beswick,
2; Big Valley Mountains, Lassen County, 6; Bronco, 3; Brownell, 1;
Bunch Grass Spring, Lassen County, 2; Burney, 2; Canyon Creek, 7;
Dana, 1; Eagle Lake, 2; Goose Lake, 5; Hayden Hill, 1; Honey Lake, 2;
Lassen Creek, Modoc County, 3; Lassen Peak, 5; Little Shasta, 1; Lower
Alkali Lake, 1; Madeline Divide, Lassen County, 1; Madeline Plains, 4;
Milford, 2; Mount Shasta, 4; Old Fort Crook, 1; Orick, 1; Pine Creek,
Lassen County, 1; Prattville, 1; Preston Peak, 2; Requa, 2; Salmon Sum-
mit, 1; South Yolla Bolly Mountain, 4; Secret Valley, Lassen County, 1;
Siskiyou Mountains, 8; Susan ville, 6; Tuledad Canyon, Lassen County, 2;
Tule Lake, 2; Willow Creek (15 miles east), 2.

Idaho: Arco, 1; Big Butte, 2; Mullan, 1; Priest Lake, 5; Shoshone Falls, 1.

Nevada: Alder Creek, Pine Forest Mountains, 2; Bull Run Mountains, 1;
Cottonwood Range, 2; Granite Creek, Humboldt County, 2; Mountain
City, 7.

Oregon: Bissell, 1; Burns, 2; Christmas Lake, 1; Crater Lake, 1; Crooked Lake,
1; Eagle Creek, 8 miles southeast of Bissell, 1; Empire, 1; Fort Klamath,
7; Happy Lake, Clallam County, 14; Harney, 12; John Day River
(Crown Rock), 1; Lake Alvord, 2; Lonerock, 5; Mount Jefferson, 1; Nar-
rows, 1; Naylox, Klamath County, 2; Pendleton, 1; Plush. 7: Prospect,

1910.] CINEREA GROUP — FUSCA. 103

4; Shirk, 3; Siskiyou, 7; The Dalles, 2; Tule Lake, 1; Twelve Mile Creek,
1; Vale, 3; Wallowa Lake, 1.
British. Columbia: Ashcroft, 6; Carpenters Mountain, Caribou, 2; Chilliwack,
1; Ducks, 1; Midway, 1; Nelson, 1, Okanagan, 1; Shuswap, 3; Sicamous, 2.

NEOTOMA CINEREA FUSCA True.

Fuscous Bushy-tailed Wood Rat.

Neotoma occidentalis fusca True, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XVII, p. 354, November 15,
1894 [author's separates issued June 27, 1894]. Type from Fort Umpqua, Douglas
County, Oreg.; No. 3370, U. S. National Museum; collected by E. P. Vollum.

[Neotoma] cinerea fusca Trouessart, Catal. Mamm., p. 544, 1897.

Neotoma fuscus apicalis Elliot, Pub. Field Columb. Mus., Chicago, Zool. Ser., Ill,
pp. 160-1G1, April, 1903. Type from Gardiner, Coos County, Oreg.; type in
Field Museum of Natural History; collected by Edmund Heller in 1901.

Distribution.— Humid coastal belt west of the Cascade Mountains
in Oregon. Transition Zone.

General characters. — Similar to N. cinerea, but color very much
darker; fur more woolly; ears smaller; upper surface of metatarsus
dusky on proximal half ; tail bushy, lower surface not white ; spheno-
palatine vacuities absent.

Color. — Fresh pelage (October): Upper parts black, mixed with
grayish tawny, the black predominating dorsally, and black hairs
everywhere standing out conspicuously; sides brighter; head more
gray than back; belly and chin whitish, more or less encroached
upon by general color of upper parts, the line of demarcation indis-
tinct; hairs on pectoral and inguinal regions pure white to roots;
inner sides of legs grayish tawny; throat irregularly suffused with
tawny ochraceous; muzzle and ears dusky, the latter faintly edged
with whitish; forefeet and under sides of wrists white; hind feet
white, except proximal half of metatarsus, which is dusky above,
like ankles; tail above blackish, the thick, woolly, grayish underfur
showing through, below buffy gray, obscured by blackish hairs.
Winter pelage (January): Longer and fuller, but not different in
color from fresh fall pelage.

Skull. — As in N. cinerea.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 395; tail vertebra?, 180;
hind foot, 44. An adult from Newport, Oreg.: 410; 190; 48. Skull
(from Newport): Basilar length, 45; zygomatic breadth, 27.9; inter-
orbital breadth, 5.7; length of nasals, 21.4; length of incisive foram-
ina, 13.1; length of palatal bridge, 9.4; alveolar length of upper
molar series, 10.1.

Remarks. — In external appearance this subspecies differs widely from
cinerea, but intergradation through occidentalis is probably complete.
Its range is limited to a narrow strip mainly along the low Coast
Range west of the Cascade Mountains, where its differentiation is

104 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

due to an environment of heavy forest resulting from excessive
humidity in a relatively warm climate. Specimens of occidentalis
from Bissell and Eagle Creek, on the west slope of the Cascade Moun-
tains, are darker than usual in occidentalis and show gradation
toward fusca.

Neotoma fuscus apicalis was based on dark-colored specimens with
tails whitish along under side, and in five out of six more or less
broadly tipped with pure white. As specimens with white-tipped
tails occur sporadically in other forms of the cinerea group, this
can not be regarded as a character of taxonomic importance. The
name apicalis seems to belong in synonymy under fusca, represent-
ing specimens approaching occidentalis in lighter color of under parts.
A specimen in the Biological Survey, also from Gardiner, is typical
fusca.

Specimens examined. — Total number 26, all from localities as

follows :

Oregon: Beaverton, 2; FL rence, 10; Fort Umpqua, 1 (the type); Gardiner, 7;
Newport, 1; Seaton, 1; Wells, 3; Yaquina Bay, 1.

NEOTOMA CINEREA OROLESTES Merriam.

Colorado Bushy-tailed Wood Rat.

(PL VIII, figs. 3, 3er.)

Neotoma orolestes Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., IX, p. 128, July 2, 1894. Type from
Saguache Valley, 20 miles west of Saguache, Saguache County, Colo. ; No. f f fff ,
$ ad., U. S. National Museum (Biological Survey Collection); collected by J.
Alden Loring, August 13, 1892.

Neotoma grangeri Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., VI, pp. 324-325, November 7,
1894. Type from Custer, S. Dak.; No. Iffy, $ ad., American Museum Natural
History, New York; collected by W. W. Granger, August 4, 1894.

Neotoma cinnamomea Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., VII, pp. 331-332, November
8, 1895. Type from Kinney Ranch, Bitter Creek, Sweetwater County, Wyo. ; No.
VAV> $ ad-, American Museum Natural History, New York; collected by
W. W. Granger, July 9, 1895.

Distribution. — Rocky Mountain region from northern New Mexico
north through Colorado and Wyoming to southern Montana and
thence eastward to the Black Hills in South Dakota. Mainly
Transition and Canadian zones.

General characters. — Similar in general to N. cinerea, but color
usually more ochraceous; sphenopalatine vacuities large; tail bushy,
as in N. cinerea. Differs from both rupicola and arizonse in larger size
and much paler color. /

Color. — Fresh pelage (October): Upper parts ochraceous buff,
purest along sides, darkened over back by blackish hairs; head slightly
paler; under parts and feet dull white, the hairs over pectoral and
inguinal regions white to roots; tail above on proximal third grayish

1910.] CINEREA GROUP — OROLESTES. 105

buff, becoming brownish buff on distal two-thirds; below white with
a more or less distinct pale buffy band across base. Young (about
half grown) : Darker than in N. cinerea.

Skull. — Similar to that of N. cinerea, but sphenopalatine vacuities
large (small or absent in cinerea); presphenoid usually more con-
stricted. Much like that of rupicola, but larger.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 413; tail vertebrae, 175; hind
foot, 41. Average of 3 adults from Costilla Pass, N. Mex.: 394; 169;
40. Skull (type): Basilar length, 44.5; zygomatic breadth, 28;
interorbital breadth, 5.6; length of nasals, 19.7; length of incisive
foramina, 11.3; length of palatal bridge, 9.8; alveolar length of upper
molar series, 9.3.

Remarks. — The presence of large sphenopalatine vacuities dis-
tinguishes orolestes from cinerea, which many specimens closely
resemble in color. This character, although only of subspecific
value, is very constant. It is shared with subspecies rupicola and
arizonx. Specimens of orolestes from northern Colorado and south-
western Wyoming approach rupicola; those from the river valleys of
western Colorado grade toward arizonse. In northern and western
Wyoming orolestes passes into cinerea. Topotypes of N. grangeri
do not differ from nearly typical specimens of orolestes. Specimens
from the type locality of N. cinnamomea are paler than typical orolestes
and grade toward rupicola.

Specimens examined. — Total number 137, from localities as follows:

Colorado: Almont, 2; Boulder County, 8; Crested Butte, 2; East Fork of Rifle
Creek, Garfield County, 2; Elk Mountains, 1; Estes Park, 9; Gold Hill, 6;
Grand Junction, 1; Lay, 3; Lily, 1; Longs Peak, 1; Meeker, 1; Mount Mar-
vine, 1; Rangely, 1; Rifle (8 miles west), 1; Saguache Valley (type locality),
3; Snake River (near Sunny Peak), 4; White River (20 miles east of
Rangely), 1.

New Mexico: Agua Frio, 1; Amizett, 1; Chama, 1; Coyote Creek, 4; Costilla
Pass, 7; Halls Peak, 4; Hermit, 1; Jemez Mountains, 1; Martinez, 1; Moreno
Valley, 3; Pecos Baldy, 3; Taos, 2; Taos Mountains, 5; Tierra Amarilla, 1;
Tres Piedras, 1; Twining, 4; Willis, 1.

Montana: Pryor Mountains, 2.

South Dakota: Custer, 6; Deadwood, 2; Elk Mountain, 2.

Wyoming: Bridger Paes, 1; Bull Lake, Wind River Mountains, 5; Casper (18
miles southwest), 1; Casper Mountains, 1; Deer Creek, Converse County, 1;
Devils Tower, 2; Ferris Mountains, 1 ; junction Green River and New Fork,
1; Islay, 5; Kinney Ranch, Sweetwater County, 7; Lake Fork, Wind River
Mountains, 3; Laramie Peak, 1; Powder River, mouth of Clear Creek, 1;
Shoshone Mountains, head of Wind River, 2; Sun, 1; Wind River Basin, 2;
Woods, 1.

106 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 31.

NEOTOMA CINEREA ARIZONA Merriam.

Arizona Wood Rat.

(PI. VIII, figs. 5, 5a.)

Neotoma arizonse Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., VIII, pp. 110-111, July 31, 1893.
Type from Keam Canyon, Apache County, Ariz.; No. fffi ? ad., Merriam
Collection; collected by J. Sullivan, May 21, 1888.

Distribution. — Upper Sonoran Zone in northeastern Arizona,
southeastern Utah, and probably northward along the Green River
Valley, southwestern Colorado, and northwestern New Mexico.

General characters. — Similar in general to N. cinerea, but much
smaller; tail less bushy; color more buffy ochraceous; sphenopalatine
vacuities large (small or absent in N. cinerea). Nearest to N. c.
orolestes, but smaller; color paler; audital bullae larger.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts varying from pale to bright
ochraceous buff, purest along cheeks and sides, thinly overlaid with
dusky; feet and under parts white; tail grayish brown above, white
below.

Skull. — Skull much smaller, less angular than that of N. cinerea;
frontal region less depressed, not deeply channeled above; temporal
ridges more widely separated; interparietal broader between tem-
poral ridges; bullae larger, more rounded; sphenopalatine vacuities
large as in N. c. orolestes (small or absent in N. cinerea); otherwise
differing from N. c. orolestes as from N. cinerea.

Measurements. — Average of 2 adults from Holbrook, Ariz.: Total
length, 347; tail vertebrae, 146; hind foot, 36. Skull (type): Basilar
length, 38.8; zygomatic breadth, 24.3; interorbital breadth, 5.4;
length of nasals, 17.5; length of incisive foramina, 10.3; length of
palatal bridge, 8.2; alveolar length of upper molar series, 9.1.

Remarks. — Arizonse. differs from cinerea in a number of compara-
tively unimportant characters, and intergradation through orolestes
seems certain. Specimens of orolestes from northern New Mexico
and western Colorado are grading toward arizonse. The bushy tail,
always present in the cinerea group, diminishes progressively in size
from north to south, drummondi having the largest and arizonse the
smallest. The pale coloration of arizonse is probably a result of its
desert environment.

Specimens examined. — Total number 31, as follows:

Arizona: Holbrook, 10; Keam Canyon (type locality), 5; Lees Ferry (south

side of Colorado River), 1; Walpi, 1; Winslow, 5.
Colorado: Ashbaugh Ranch, Montezuma County, 3; Coventry, 1.
Utah: Bluff, 1.
New Mexico: Chaca (Canyon Bonito), 1; Fruitland, 2; Shiprock, 1.

1910.] CINEREA GROUP — RUPICOLA. 107

NEOTOMA CINEREA RUPICOLA Allen.

Pallid Busht-talled Wood Rat.

(PI. VIII, figs. 4, 4a.)

Neotoma rupicola Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., VI, pp. 323-324, November 7,
1894. Type from Corral Draw, southeastern base of Black Hills, S. Dak. ; No. f f f^,
$ ad., American Museum of Natural History; collected by W. W. Granger,
August 21, 1894.

Distribution.— Rig Bad Lands region from southwestern South
Dakota, through southeastern Wyoming and western Nebraska to
northeastern Colorado. Upper Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Similar in general to N. cinerea, but smaller
and color much paler; tail bushy, as in N. cinerea, but shorter;
sphenopalatine vacuities large, as in N. c. orolestes.

Color. — Fresh pelage (September): Upper parts cream buff, palest
on head, moderately darkened over back by black- tipped hairs;
under parts and feet snowy white; ears brownish gray edged with
white; tail brownish gray above, lighter toward tip, pure white below.
Worn summer pelage: Above paler with black-tipped hairs less con-
spicuous than in autumn. Young: Much paler than in N. cinerea.

Skull. — In general form similar to that of N. cinerea, but smaller;
dentition heavier; nasals reaching posteriorly to plane of orbits;
sphenopalatine vacuities large, as in N. c. orolestes.

Measurements. — Average of 5 adult topotypes: Total length, 349;
tail vertebrae, 144; hind foot, 43.2. Skull (average of same): Basilar
length, 40.2; zygomatic breadth, 25.7; interorbital breadth, 5.8;
length of nasals, 19.1; length of incisive foramina, 10.8; length of
palatal bridge, 8.9; alveolar length of upper molar series, 9.6.

Remarks. — This subspecies is closely related to orolestes, its near
geographical neighbor in the Black Hills, but may readily be known
by its small size and remarkably pallid coloration. Some of the
topotypes taken early in September are already in fresh pelage,
while others are still in the molting stage, with fresh fur appearing
in patches.

Specimens examined. — Total number 41, from localities as follows:

Colorado: Avalo, 5; Pawnee Buttes, 3.

Nebraska: Glen, 5; Warbonnet Canyon, 2.

South Dakota: Corral Draw (type locality), 23; Quinns Draw, Cheyenne

River, 1.
Wyoming': Bordeaux, 1; Uva, 1.

PLATE I.

[About natural size.]

Fig. 1, la. Neotoma floridana (Ord). Enterprise, Fla. (No. 72571, <? ad., U. S. Nat.
Mus.).

2, 2a. Neotoma floridana rubida Bangs. Houma, La. (No. 46144, $ ad., U. S.

Nat. Mus.).

3, 3a. Neotoma floridana baileyi Merriam (type). Valentine, Nebr. (No. 5034,

9 ad., Merriam Collection).

4, 4a. Neotoma micropus Baird. Nueces Bay, Texas. (No. 43552, 9 &&> U. S.

Nat. Mus.).

5, 5a. Neotoma micropus planiceps Goldman (type). Rio Verde, San Luis

Potosi, Mexico (No. 82105, $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

6, 6a. Neotoma pennsylvanica Stone. Renovo, Pa. (No. 57846, $ ad., U. S.

Nat. Mus.).
108

North American Fauna No. 31, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate I.

Skulls of Neotoma.

1, la. N. floridana.

2, 2a. N. f. rubida.

3, 3a. N. f. baileyi.

A, 4a. N. micropus.

5, 5a. N. m. planiceps.

6, 6a. N. pennsylvanica.

PLATE II.

[About natural size.]

Fig. 1, la. Neotoma albigula Hartley. Fort Grant, Ariz. (No. 92699, 9 ad-. U. S.
Nat. Mus.).

2, 2a. Neotoma albigula venusta True. Fort Yuma, Cal. (No. 99492, 9 ad-

U. S. Nat. Mus.).

3, 3a. Neotoma albigula melanura Merriam. Alamos, Sonora, Mexico (No.

96289, $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

4, 4a. Neotoma albigula leucodon Merriam. Chicalote, Aguas Calientes, Mex-

ico (No. 79010, $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

5, 5a. Neotoma latifrons Merriam (type). Querendaro, Michoacan, Mexico

(No. 50135, $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

6, 6a. Neotoma nelsoni Goldman (type). Perote, Veracruz, Mexico (No. 54320,

9 ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).
110

North American Fauna No. 31, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate II.

Skulls of Neotoma.

1, la. N. albigula.

2, 2a. N. a. venusta.

3, 3a. N. a. melanura.

4, 4a. N. a. leucodon.

5, •">". X. latifrons.
ti, (in. N. nelscmi.

PLATE III.

[About natural size.]

Fig. 1, la. Neotoma palatina Goldman (type). Bolafios, Jalisco, Mexico (No. 90959,
2 ad., U. S: Nat. Mus.).

2, 2a. Neotoma montezumse Goldman (type). Zimapan, Hidalgo, Mexico (No.

81426, $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

3, 3a. Neotoma intermedia Rhoads. Tijuana, Lower California (No. 81886, $

ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

4, 4a. Neotoma intermedia pretiosa Goldman (type). Matancita, Lower California,

Mexico (No. 146123, $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

5, 5a. Neotoma intermedia arenacea Allen (topotype). San Jose del Cabo,

Lower California, Mexico (No. 146716, $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

6, 6a. Neotoma bryanti Merriam (topotype). Cerros Island, Lower California,

Mexico (No. 81078) $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).
112

North American Fauna No. 31, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate III.

Skulls of Neotoma.

1, la. N. palatina.

2, 2a. N. montezuma'.

3, 3a. N. intermedia.

I. in. N. i. pretiosa.

5, 5a. N. i. arenacea.

6, 6a. N. bryanti.

52668°— 10 8

PLATE IV.

[About natural size.)

Fig. 1, la. Neotoma anthonyi Allen (topotype). Todos Santos Island, Lower Cali-
fornia, Mexico (No. 137176, ? ad., TJ. S. Nat. Mus.).

2, 2a. Neotoma martinensis Goldman (type). San Martin Island, Lower Cali-

fornia, Mexico (No. 81074, 9 ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

3, 3a. Neotoma mexicana Baird. Santa Eulalia, Chihuahua, Mexico (No. 57605,

9 ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

4, 4a. Neotoma mexicana fallax Merriam (type). Gold Hill, Colo. (No. 6345, $

ad., Merriam Collection).

5, 5a. Neotoma mexicana pinetorum Merriam (type). San Francisco Mountain,

Arizona (No. 246281, 9 ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

6, 6a. Neotoma mexicana bullata Merriam (type). Santa Catalina Mountains,

Arizona (No. 23774, $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).
114

North American Fauna No. 31, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate IV.

Skulls of Neotoma.

1, la. N. anthonyi.

2, 2a. N. martinensis.

3, 3a. N. mexicana.

4, -la. N. m. fallax.

5, 5a. N. m. pinetcirum.

6, 6a. N. m. bullata.

PLATE V.

[About natural size.]

Fig. 1, la. Neotoma navus Merriam (topotype). Sierra Guadalupe, Coahuila, Mexico
(No. 116896, $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

2, 2a. Neotoma torquata Ward. Mount Popocatepetl, Mexico (No. 52029, $ ad.,

U. S. Nat. Mus.).

3, 3a. Neotoma distincta Bangs (topotype). Texolo, Veracruz, Mexico (No.

126418, $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

4, 4a. Neotoma ferruginea chamula Goldman (type). San Cristobal, Chiapas,

Mexico (No. 76061, ? ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

5, 5a. Neotoma ferruginea solitaria Goldman (type). Nenton, Guatemala (No.

76908, $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

6, 6a. Neotoma ferruginea isthmica Goldman (type). Huilotepec, Oaxaca, Mex-

ico (No. 73187, 9 ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).
116

North American Fauna No. 31, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate V.

Skulls of Neotoma.

1, la. N. navus.

2, 'in. X. torquata.

3, 3a. N. distinotu.

4, 4a. N. f. chamula.

5, 5a. N. f. solitaria.

6, 6a. N. f. isthmica.

PLATE VI.

[About natural size.]

Fig. 1, la. Neotoma ftrruginea picta Goldman (type). Mountains near Chilpancingo,
Guerrero, Mexico (No. 70050, $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

2, 2a. Neotoma parvidens Goldman (topotype). Juquila, Oaxaca, Mexico (No.

71582, 9 ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

3, 3a. Neotoma tropicalis Goldman (type). Totontepec, Oaxaca, Mexico (No.

68593, $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

4, 4a. Neotoma desertorum Merriam. Furnace Creek, Death Valley, California

(No. 33139, $ ad., IT. S. Nat: Mus.).

5, 5a. Neotoma lepida stephensi Goldman (type). Hualpai Mountains, Arizona

(No. 117466, 9 ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

6, 6a. Neotoma goldmani Merriam (type). Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico (No.

116894, $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).
118

North American Fauna No. 31, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate VI.

Skulls of Neotoma.

1, la. N. f. picta.
•J, 2a. X. parvidens.

3, 3a. N. tropical is.

I, la. X. desertorum.
5, 5a. X. 1. stephensi.
t), 6a. X. goldnmni.

PLATE VII.

[About natural size, except figures 4, 16, which are enlarged two diameters.]

Fig. 1, la. Neotoma(Homodontomys)fuscipes Baird. Marshall, California (No. 140421,
9 ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).
16. Neotoma (Homodontomys) fuscipes Baird. Big Valley Mountains, Cali-
fornia (No. 48980, $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

2, 2a. Neotoma (Homodontomys) fuscipes macrotis Thomas (topotype). San Diego,

California (No. 46186, ? ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).

3, 3a. Neotoma (Homodontomys) fuscipes annectens Elliot. Mountain View,

California (No. 96164, $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).
4. Neotoma fioridana (Ord). Riceboro, Georgia (No. 45065, $ ad.,U. S. Nat.
Mus.).
120

North American Fauna No. 31, U. S. Dept Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate VII.

Skulls and Upper Molars of Neotoma.

1, la, lb. N. fuscipes.

2, 2d. N. f. macrotis.

3, 3a. N. f. annectens.

4. N. floridana.

PLATE VIII.

[About natural size.)

Fig. 1, la. Neoloma (Teonoma) cinerea (Ord). Big Snowy Mountains, Montana.

(No. 67244, 9 ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).
2,2a. Neotoma (Teonoma) cinerea saxamans Osgood (type). Bennett, British

Columbia (No. 98923, $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).
3,3a. Neotoma (Teonoma) cinerea orolestes Merriam (type). Saguache Valley,

Colorado (No. 48215, $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).
4, 4a. Neotoma (Teonoma) cinerea rupicola Allen (topotype). Corral Draw, South

Dakota (No. 138726, $ ad., U. S. Nat. Mus.).
5,5a. Neotoma (Teonoma) cinerea arizonse Merriam (type). Keam Canyon,

Arizona (No. 4980, 9 ad., Merriam Collection).
122

North American Fauna No 31, U. S. Dept. Agr. B ological Survey.

Plate VIII.

Skulls of Neotoma.

1, 1'/. N. cinerea.

2, 2a. N. c. saxamans.

3, 3a. N. e. orolestes.

4, la. X. c. rupicola.

5, 5a. N. c. arizonse.

INDEX.

(New names in bold-face type; synonyms in italics.)

Characters, general, 11-12.
Distribution, 8-9.

Economic status, habits and, 10-11.
Habits and economic status, 10-11.
History and material, 7-8.
Hodomys, 13, 20.
Homodontomys, subgenus, 8G.
Key to species and subspecies, 16-19.
Key to subgenera, 15.
List of species and subspecies, 14-15.
Material, history and, 7-8.
Measurements, explanation of, 12.
Mus americanus, 86.
cinereus, 95.
floridanus, 21.
Myoxus drummondii, 99.
Nelsonia, 13.
Neotoma, genus, 13.

subgenus, 20.
Neotoma abbreviata, 49-50.

affinis, 90, 91.

albigula, 31-33.

angusticeps, 31.

annectens, 90-91.

anthonyi, 52-53.

apicalis, 103.

arenacea, 47.

arizonse, 106.

attwateri, 26.

baileyi, 24-25.

bella, 76, 78.

bryanti, 51-52.

bullata, 59.

californica, 42, 44.

campestris, 24, 25.

canescens, 28-29.

chamula, 69.

chrysomelas, 74-76.

cinerea, 95-98.

cinnamomea, 104, 105.

cnemophila, 93, 94.

Columbiana, 101, 102.

cumulator, 34.

desertorum, 76-78.

dispar, 91, 92.

distincta, 64-65.

drummondi, 99.

drummondii, 99.

durangse, 37-38.

fallax, 56-58.

felipensis, 45.

ferruginea, 67-68.

Neotoma floridana, 21-22.
Julvivcntcr, 63, 64.
fusca, 103, 104.
fuscipes, 87-89.
gilva, 44-46.
goldmani, 81-82.
grandis, 34.
grangeri, 104, 105.
illinoensis, 23-24.
intermedia, 42-44.
isthmica, 71-72.
latifrons, 38-39.
lepida, 79-80.
leucodon, 36-37.
littoralis, 29-30.
macrotis, 93-94.
madrensis, GO.
magister, 82-83.
martinensis, 53-54.
melanura, 35-36.
mexicana, 54-56.
micropus, 26-28.
mohavensis, 92-93.
monochroura, 87, 89.
montezumae, 41-42.
navus, 61-63.
nelsoni, 39-40.
nevadensis, 76, 78.
nudioauda, 51.
occidentalis, 101-103.
ochracea, 74.
orizabx, 03, 64.
orolestes, 104-105.
palatina, 40-41.
parvidens, 66-67.
pennsylvanica, 84-86.
perpallida, 48-49.
picta, 72-73.
pinetorum, 58-59.
planiceps, 30-31.
pretiosa, 46-47.
rubida, 22-23.
rupicola, 107.
saxamans, 100-101.
simplex, 91-92.
sinaloae, 60-61.
sola, 44-45.
solitaria, 70.
splendens, 87, 89.
stephensi, 80-81.
streatori, 89-90.
surbcrl, 27, 28.

123

124

INDEX.

Neotoma tenuicauda, 73-74.

torquata, 63-64.

tropicalis, 65-66.

venusta, 33-34.

vicina, 48.

warreni, 34-35.

lacatecae, 38.
Neotominae, subfamily, 13.
Neotomodon, 13.
Ptyssophorus, 13.
Species and subspecies, key to, 16-19.

Species and subspecies, list of, 14-15.
Subgenera and minor groups, 13.

key to, 15.
Teanopus, 13, 20.
Teonoma acraia, 95, 98.

spelaea, 95.

subgenus, 94.
Tretomys, 13, 20.
Type localities, list of, 14-15.
Xenomys, 13, 20.

o

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

HENRY W. HENSHAW, ChieJ

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA

]STo. 32

[Actual date of publication, April 29, 1911]

A SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS OF THE
MUSKRATS

N. HOLLISTER

ASSISTANT CURATOR OF MAMMALS, UNITED

STATES NATIONAL, MUSEUM; FORMERLY

ASSISTANT, BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1911

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

U. S. Department of Agriculture,

Bureau of Biological Survey,
Washington, D. C, January 27, 1911.
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith, for publication as
North American Fauna No. 32, a Systematic Synopsis of the Musk-
rats, by N. Hollister, formerly Expert in the Bureau of Biological
Survey. Our fur bearers have been so reduced in numbers in recent
years that the muskrat has become of great economic importance
because of the utility of its fur. In addition its flesh is valuable for
food. The animals are likely to be still more important in future,
especially as it has been found practicable to raise them on flooded
marsh land of no agricultural value. In such areas muskrats may
be protected and the supply maintained indefinitely. In other
places they cause serious breaks by burrowing in embankments, and
the damage done in this way is far in excess of their value as fur
bearers. Because of its economic relations the muskrat has been
the subject of numerous legislative enactments. The animal is
widely distributed over North America, where there are several
species and numerous subspecies, the interrelations and ranges of
which have hitherto not been well understood. The present report
is therefore timely and important, as the ranges of the several forms
have been worked out and mapped and the whole subject brought
up to date.

Respectfully, Henry W. Henshaw,

Chief, Biological Survey.
Hon. James Wilson,

Secretary of Agriculture.

3

CONTENTS.

Page.

Introduction 7

History 7

Distribution and habits 9

Economic relations 10

Characters and pelage 11

Key 12

Fossil muskrats 13

Material and acknowledgments 13

Genus Fiber 14

List of species and subspecies, with type localities 14

Existing species 15

Fossil species 32

Tables of measurements 34

Bibliography 35

Index 47

5

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page.

Plate I. Map of the distribution of the muskrats Frontispiece

II. The muskrat in its haunts 10

III. Skulls (dorsal views) of Fiber zibcthicus, F. z. macrodon, F. z. spatu-

latus, F. z. zalophus, F. obsmrus, F. z. albus, F. z. ripensis 40

IV. Skulls (ventral views) of Fiber zibethicus, F. z. macrodon, F. z. spatu-

latus, F. z. zalophus, F. obscurus, F. z. albus, F. z. ripensis 42

V. Skull of F. z. osoyoosensis. Enamel pattern of upper molar teeth of
Fiber. Enamel pattern of lower molar teeth of Fiber. Hind feet

of Fiber 44

VI. Fiber z. macrodon, F. z. cinnamominus , right mandibular ramus.

Types of F. annectens, F. oregonus, F. nebracensis 46

6

No. 32. NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. April, 1911.

A SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS OF THE MUSKRATS.

By N. Hollister.

INTRODUCTION.
HISTORY.

The conspicuous North American animals which have no repre-
sentatives in the Old World, including the skunk, opossum, musk-
rat, hummingbird, turkey, and others, early attracted the attention
of explorers and accounts of them were soon taken to Europe. The
first published description of the muskrat appears in Captain John
Smith's Description of Virginia, 1612. x Smith writes: " Mussascus
is a beast of the forme and nature of our water Bats, but many of them
smell exceeding strong of muske." Under the name of mussascus,
musquash, or ondatra there are numerous references to the animal in
the literature of the period succeeding Smith's work. Linnaeus,
however, at first confounded the American muskrat with his Castor
moscliatus (== Desmana moschata) of Asia, and it was not until 1766
that he gave it an independent place in his Systema Naturae, placing
it in the same genus with the beaver and naming it Castor zibeihicus.
The specific name zibethicus has been used for the form from eastern
Canada and the northern United States by most systematists to the
present day. Tiedemann, in 1808, renamed it Ondatra americana,2
and Oken, 1816, used the same specific name. The Linnsean specific
name has, however, been associated between 1788 and 1840 with no
less than eight generic names.

From time to time various mammalogists have described forms of
muskrats from many parts of North America, giving them specific
or subspecific rank as the limited material before them seemed to
justify. Seventeen names have been thus proposed, and with the idea

1 A Map of Virginia. With a Description of the Countrey, the Commodities, People,
Government, and Religion. Written by Captaine Smith, sometimes Governour of
the Countrey, p. 14, 1612.

2Zoologie, 1,481, 1808.

7

8 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 32.

of determining their respective validity and importance and of map-
ping the ranges of the recognizable forms, a study of the large collec-
tion of skins and skulls of muskrats in the United States National
Museum was undertaken.

Sabine, in the Zoological Appendix to Franklin's Narrative, in
1823, describes a light-colored specimen from Cumberland House,
Saskatchewan, as Fiber zibethicus albus; and Richardson, in the
Fauna Boreali- Americana, in 1829, has three varieties, B, C, and D,
also based upon abnormally colored examples, which he designates as
nigra, maculosa, and alba. The names nigra and maculosa of Rich-
ardson are easily disposed of as synonyms of Fiber zibethicus or Fiber
z. albus, but Sabine's albus itself, with a perfect diagnosis and definite
type locality, must unfortunately, according to present rules of
nomenclature, be used for the recognizable geographic race found in
that region. In 1863, Lord, in the Proceedings of the Zoological
Society of London, described a species of muskrat from southern
British Columbia as Fiber osoyoosensis, but this form seems to have
been lightly considered and his name usually placed in synonyin}^.

The genus was generally considered monotypic up to 1890, when
Mearns described a form from Camp Verde, Arizona, as Fiber zibe-
hicus pallidus.1 During the next thirteen years eight new muskrats
were named. Bangs described Fiber obscurus from Newfoundland
in 18942 and Fiber z. rivalicius from Louisiana the following year.3
Merriam described Fiber macrodon from the Dismal Swamp of Vir-
ginia in 1897.4 Bangs, in 1899, proposed the name aquilonius for the
Labrador muskrat,5 and Osgood, in 1900, named the animal from
northwest America Fiber spatulatus.6 In 1902 Bailey described a
new muskrat from the Pecos River, Fiber z. ripensis,7 and Preble pro-
posed the name hudsonius for the Keewatin race.8 The following
year Elliot described Fiber occipitalis from the coast of Oregon.9
No more names were proposed for existing species until 1910, when,
as a result of the systematic revision in progress by the present writer,
three recognizable forms found to be still unnamed were described,
zalophus from the Alaska Peninsula,10 mergens from Nevada,10 and
cinnamominus from Kansas.11

•Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., II, 280, 1890.
2Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., IX, 133, 1894.
3Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., XXVI, 541, 1895.
4Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XI, 143, 1897.
fiProc. New England Zool. Club, I, 11, 1899.
6 North Amer. Fauna, No. 19, p. 36, 1900.
7Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, 119, 1902.

8 North Amer. Fauna, No. 22, p. 53, 1902.

9 Publ. Field. Col. Mus., Zool. Ser., Ill, 162, 1903.
I0Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXIII, 1, 1910.

11 Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXIII, 125, 1910.

1911.] HABITS. 9

DISTRIBUTION AND HABITS.

Muskrats occur over the greater part of North America from the
northern limit of trees south to the Mexican border. They are not
found along the lower Atlantic seaboard, nor, except in southern Lou-
isiana, over the entire Gulf region. They are unknown also on the
Pacific slope south of central Oregon.

As might be expected from the muskrat's extensive distribution,
its habits vary considerably with local conditions. Over the greater
part of its range it is noted as a builder of marsh houses, and these
heaps of aquatic vegetation are a characteristic feature of the marsh
landscape. The houses, chiefly for winter shelter, are sometimes of
great size, though commonly the home of a single family. The nest
chamber is in the center of the heap, above water line, with tunnels
for entrance and exit running out below the surface. Not all musk-
rats, however, build houses. Where abrupt banks take the place of
low, marshy shores, many of the animals seem to prefer holes in
these banks. In this case the burrows extend from an underwater
entrance through the bank to a dry nest chamber, near the surface,
above high-water mark. In many places muskrat houses are un-
known, all the animals living in these bank homes.

By far the greatest part of the muskrat's food is vegetable matter
and many kinds of aquatic and shore-growing plants help make up
its bill of fare. It often travels a considerable distance from water
at night to feed on some especially favorite food. There is good
evidence that the muskrat sometimes eats animal matter, fresh-
water mussels especially, and occasionally fish, dead birds, and other
animals. Doctor Mearns observed a muskrat fishing in the Verde
River, Arizona, and notes it "occasionally coming out upon a log to
eat the fish it caught." * Mr. E. R. Warren, in his recently pub-
lished Mammals of Colorado, records the following:

One [muskrat] was seen in a lake near Crested Butte chasing under water a "water
dog," Amblystoma tigrinum, which it finally captured by making a sudden dash
forward and seizing it with its teeth. The rat then came to the surface with its prey
in its mouth, and not until then was it seen to be a muskrat, for while the chase was
in progress the observers supposed it to be a mink.

Breeding habits doubtless vary somewhat with climatic condi-
tions. Prof. D. E. Lantz, after calling attention to the wide variance
in the published accounts of the breeding habits of the muskrat,
gives his information from the best-informed trappers in Maryland.
The most reliable evidence shows that in this region from 3 to 5
Utters (normally 3) are produced annually, and that the number
of young in a litter varies from 3 to 12, or even more, the average

1 Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 56, p. 496, 1907.
7Q5Gno_-n 2

10 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 32.

being probably 6 or 8. The young of early spring litters are said to
breed the fall of the same year. Professor Lantz further summarizes:

Normally the animals mate in March and the first litter is born in April; a second
litter is due in June or early July, and a third in August or September. In favorable
seasons a fourth or even a fifth litter may be produced. The period of gestation is
possibly no longer than twenty-one days, as with the common rat and probably with
the field mouse. The young are blind and naked when born, but develop rapidly.
Outside of low marshes, muskrats are usually born in the underground burrows.1

Where the muskrats are not able to find suitable banks for nesting
burrows, the young are usually born in open nests, made for the
purpose in the drier parts of the marsh home.

Actual breeding records noted on labels of female specimens are as
follows: Summit, Mont., June 18, 1895, 13 large fetuses (V. Bailey);
Ward, Colo., June 8, 1893, 8 fetuses (J. A. Loring); Newport, R. I.,
April 18, 1900, 6 small fetuses (Dr. E. A. Mearns). E. R. Warren, in
The Mammals of Colorado, gives breeding records from that State
as follows: Grand County, May 12, eight good-sized embryos; Lily,
Routt County, June 1, young 2 or 3 weeks old; Barr, Adams
County, May 30, very small young, not much larger than adult
Microtus modestus; Medano Ranch, Costilla County, June 24, seven
embryos, second litter.

ECONOMIC RELATIONS.

The great and ever-increasing demand from the furrier and the con-
sequent rise in the price of muskrat skins make the animal one of great
economic importance. During the past few years especially, the
price of the fur has steadily increased, until during the season of
1909-10 the choicest dark skins in prime condition netted the trapper
close to $1 each. Though this exceptionally high price may not be
maintained, the proper recognition of the beauty of this fur will
insure its steady favor. With the rapid extermination of the rarer
fur bearers, especially those species which can not«adapt themselves
to the changes wrought by the settlement of the country, the muskrat
will soon become the most important fur-bearing animal of North
America. With proper protection it should furnish a constant supply
of choice fur and add to the wealth of the country for generations to
come. Its well-known adaptability to changed conditions is a strong
point in its favor.

While the damage the rodent inflicts on crops is not severe, it
sometimes destroys grain and vegetables for a limited distance from
the water's edge. The chief complaint against it, however, is on
account of the injury it does by burrowing into dams and embank-
ments of ditches and levees. Instances of serious loss to property
from this source are numerous, and in certain places unceasing war-

1 U. S. Dept. Agr., Farmers' Bulletin No. 396, p. 15, 1910.

North American Fauna No. 32, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate II.

mil.] CHARACTERS AND PELAGE. 11

fare against the burrowers is necessary. In most localities, however,
the animal's value as a fur bearer justifies its protection throughout
the breeding season and the months when the pelage is not at its very
best.

Of late years the flesh of the muskrat has been extensively sold in
eastern markets, and during the open season many thousands are
used as food in the larger cities. In fur farming the chances of suc-
cess with the muskrat are much greater than with any of the other
fur bearers, and many reserves are now paying handsome profits to
owners and trappers.

CHARACTERS AND PELAGE.

All existing forms of muskrats are closely related. The majority
are geographic races of one species, and blend in characters from one
to another. As a rule the recognized forms are well characterized
and over a considerable definite area are constant in color, size, and
salient cranial characters. It is sometimes difficult to identify with
a particular race specimens from intermediate areas, especially if
they are immature, or of pelage not comparable with the specimens it
becomes desirable to study in that connection. In most cases the
material has been sufficient to settle the boundaries of subspecies with
considerable accuracy, though many additional specimens will be
necessary to fill in the numerous gaps in ranges, as shown by the
colored map.

The pelage of the muskrat is made up of a thick underfur, the main
coat, and long overlying darker hairs, which come in slowly as the
season advances. The great number of specimens examined from all
parts of the range show that all but one form have only one molt,
and this occurs during the warm summer months. Fiber rivalicius,
of the coast region of Louisiana, apparently molts twice a year,
approximately spring and fall.

Aside from conspicuous cases of dichromatism, the color of all
specimens in comparable pelage from any given locality is remarkably
uniform. The great variation frequently noticed in a large series
from one region is due mainly to age and season and the degree
to which the black overlying hairs have appeared. Sexuar variation
is so absolutely wanting that it was found useless to distinguish
between the sexes in tables of skin or cranial measurements. Skulls
in a large series from any particular water are remarkably alike in
shape and size, but a slight variation between series from near-by
localities is frequently noted. In the discrimination of forms I have
endeavored to confine the named subspecies to what appear well-
characterized geographic races, that combine the essential char-
acters of all the individuals over a definite area and differ from the
individuals of all other recognized subspecies in some general and
common characters. Long and painstaking study of large series of

12 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 32.

skulls is necessary to distinguish subspecific characters of real value
from minor local variations.

Since no two forms occur in the same locality and the characters
separating the geographic races are frequently relative, it is obvious
that an artificial key to the subspecies is of little value in identifying
specimens. As such a key has important uses, however, as a means of
ready reference to characters, and in other ways, the following is
presented :

KEY TO ADULT MUSKRATS IN FRESH PELAGE.

Size large; hind foot averaging over 80 mm.

Coloration darker; blackish or blackish brown.

Skull with high, sharp interorbital ridge; nasals broadly spatulate anteriorly

(Pnget Sound region and Rocky Mts.) osoyoosensis (p. 24).

Skull without specially developed interorbital ridge.

Largest in the genus; tooth row averaging over 17 mm.; coloration
blackish (Atlantic coast, Delaware Bay to N. C). Black phase

of macrodon (p. 18).

Size less; tooth row averaging under 17 mm. ; coloration dark brown (S. E.

Canada and N. E. United States) zibethicus (p. 16).

Coloration lighter; reddish brown or grayish brown.

Interpterygoid fossa narrow, with borders nearly parallel (western Ore-
gon) occipitalis (p. 26).

Interpterygoid fossa much widened posteriorly.

Upperparts grayish brown, with darker dorsal area (Great Basin region).

mergens (p. 27).
Upperparts bright reddish brown; size very large (Atlantic coast,

Delaware Bay to N. C). Normal phase of macrodon (p. 18).

Size small; hind foot averaging less than 80 mm.
Coloration dark; black or blackish brown.
Skull with high, sharp interorbital ridge.

Zygomata broadly spreading anteriorly (Alaska and N. W. British

America) spatulatus (p. 22).

Zygomata not broadly spreading anteriorly.

Hind foot averaging 75 mm. ; colors darker with more rusty tinge

(Keewatin and eastern Saskatchewan) albus (p. 20).

Hind foot averaging less than 70 mm. ; colors lighter with little rusty

tinge (Alaska Peninsula) zalophus (p. 23).

Skull without distinct interorbital ridge.
Coloration glossy blackish.

Tail long (averaging over 260 mm.); skull large (Labrador and

Ungava) aquilonius (p. 19).

Tail short (averaging less than 230 mm.); skull small and weak

(Newfoundland) obscurus (p. 15).

Coloration dull blackish brown ; underparts dark (coast region of Louisi-
ana) rivalicius (p. 31).

Coloration pale; reddish or pale brown.

Larger (tail averaging 240 mm. ; hind foot over 73 mm.) (Great Plains region),

cinnamominus (p. 30).

Smaller (tail averaging less than 205 mm.); hind foot less than 70 mm.

Upperparts cinnamon rufous (Colorado River east to the Rio Grande in

New Mexico) pallidus (p. 28).

Upperparts Vandyke brown (Pecos Valley, Texas and New Mexico),

ripensis (p. 29).

1911.] FOSSIL MUSKRATS — MATERIAL. 13

FOSSIL MUSKRATS.

Fossil remains of muskrats have been found in Pleistocene deposits in
various parts of the United States. As might be expected, these bones,
chiefly fragments of skulls and jaws, indicate species identical with
existing forms or closely related to them. Three species known only
as fossils are recognizable, two of which are remarkable for their very
small size, considerably less than that of any species now living; about
the size of Neofiber alleni. Through the kindness of Mr. J. W. Gidley,
of the United States National Museum, and Dr. W. D. Matthew, of
the American Museum of Natural History, I have been able to study
these fossil muskrats in connection with the living species. One spe-
cies, Fiber annectens, from the Middle Pleistocene of the Ozark Moun-
tains, has already been described by Mr. Barnum Brown,1 and in
this paper two species, from the Lower Pleistocene of Nebraska and
Oregon, are named.

MATERIAL AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

In the preparation of the following systematic account of the genus
Fiber, over 1,000 specimens have been studied. These were chiefly
well-prepared skins, accompanied by skulls, together with many odd
skulls and skeletons. The type specimens, or virtual topotypes, of
all described forms have been examined. The range of the animal
has been well covered and, on the whole, the material has been suffi-
cient to work out satisfactorily the characters and ranges of the forms.

While the conclusions herein presented are based largely upon a
study of the specimens in the United States National Museum (the
collection of the Biological Survey alone contains over 500 specimens),
I have been greatly aided by the use of various other collections.
For the loan of material and for greatly appreciated assistance in other
ways, it is a pleasure to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. C. Hart
Merriam, to whose private collection I have had free access; to Mr.
Charles B. Cory and Mr. W. H. Osgood, Field Museum of Natural
History; to Dr. Joseph Grinnell and Mr. H. S. Swarth, Museum of
Vertebrate Zoology, University of California; to Mr. Outram Bangs
and Dr. Glover M. Allen, Museum of Comparative Zoology; to Dr.
W. D. Matthew, American Museum of Natural History; to Mr.
Gerrit S. Miller, jr., and Mr. J. W. Gidley, United States National
Museum; and others, particularly various members of the Biological
Survey.

1 Mem. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., IX, pt. 4, p. 197, 1908.

14 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 32.

Genus FIBER Cuvier.

Ondatra Lacepede, Tabl. Mamm., p. 9, 1799. Not Ondatra Link, 1795.

Fiber Cuvier, Lecons d'Anat. Comp., I, tabl. I, 1800.

Mussascus Oken, Lehrbuch Naturgesch., 3 ter Theil, 2 te Abth., p. 886, 1816.

Simotes Fischer, Mem. Soc. Imp. Nat. Moscow, V, 444, 1817.

Moschomys Billberg, Syn. Faun. Scandinavise. ed. 1, I, Mamm., Conspectus A, 1827.

Type species. — Castor zibethicus Linnaeus.

Geographic distribution. — Hudsonian, Canadian, Transition, and
Austral Zones of North America, from the northern limit of trees
south to the Mexican border of the United States; excepting the
southern Atlantic seaboard, most of the Gulf States, and the Pacific
coast south of middle Oregon.

General characters.— Form robust; legs short, feet large, both
modified for swimming; feet and toes fringed by short, stiff hairs,
and toes of hind feet partly webbed; tail long, compressed laterally,
covered by small scales, and thinly haired. External ear small,
scarcely extending beyond fur. Fur dense and waterproof; pelage
supplemented by longer glossy overlying hairs. Strongly developed
perineal glands secreting a powerful musk; mammae six; plantar
tubercles five.

STcull and teeth. — Skull resembling that of Microtus and other
related genera, but comparatively large and massive; angular, with
heavy zygomata and long rostrum; posterior border of palate not
bridged, but with small median spine projecting into the interptery-
goid fossa. Audital bullae large. Upper incisors without grooves;
lower incisor passes under m2 and outside of m3 with extremity of
root at base of condylar process. All molars rooted; ml with an-
terior loop and four closed triangles; m2 with anterior loop and
three closed triangles; m3 with anterior and posterior loops and

two or three closed triangles; ml normally with large anterior loop
deeply cut by two reentrant angles, five closed triangles, and pos-
terior loop; m2 with four closed triangles and posterior loop; m3
with three or four closed triangles and posterior lobp.

List of Species and Subspecies, with Type Localities.

EXISTING SPECIES.

Fiber obscurus Bangs Codroy, Newfoundland.

zibethicus (Linnaeus) Eastern Canada.

zibethicus macrodon Merriam Dismal Swamp, Virginia.

zibethiciLS aquilonius Bangs Rigoulette, Labrador.

zibethicus albus Sabine Cumberland House, Saskatchewan.

zibethicus spatulatus Osgood Lake Marsh, Yukon.

zibethicus zalophus Hollister Becharof Lake, Alaska.

zibethicus osoyoosensis Lord Lake Osoyoos, British Columbia.

zibethicus occipitalis Elliot Florence, Oreg.

zibethicus mergens Hollister Fallon, Nev.

1911.] FIBER OBSCUKUS. 15

Fiber zibethicus pallidus Mearne Old Fort Verde, Ariz.

zibethicus ripensis Bailey Carlsbad, N. Mex.

zibethicus cinnamominus Hollister Wakeeney , Kans.

rivalicius Bangs Burbridge, La.

FOSSIL SPECIES.

Fiber nebracensis nobis. . .Lower Pleistocene, Niobrara River, Sheridan County, Nebr.

oregonus nobis Lower Pleistocene, Fossil Lake, Oreg.

annectens Brown Middle Pleistocene, Newton County, Ark.

EXISTING SPECIES.

FIBER OBSCURUS Bangs.
Newfoundland Muskrat.
Fiber obscurus Bangs, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., IX, 133, September 15, 1894.

Type locality. — Codroy, Newfoundland.

Geographic distribution. — Newfoundland.

General characters. — Size small; hind foot proportionally large;
color very dark; skull small and weak; parietals large.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upperparts dark mummy brown, varying to
almost black, darkened on back by brownish black overlying hairs;
sides, chestnut ; underparts chestnut, brighter than in F. zibethicus;
small spot on chin blackish brown; underfur slate gray; lips pale
straw yellow or white; nasal pad and tail black; feet brown; nails
yellow to brown. Worn pelage: Upperparts paler, without overlying
black hairs ; sides lacking the brightness of the winter pelage. Young:
Above uniform dusky; below paler.

Skull and teeth. — Skull very small, weak, and smooth; interorbital
constriction relatively broad; parietals large; nasals narrow; teeth
small.

Measurements. — Average of seven adults from Codroy and Bay
St. George, Newfoundland: Total length, 500 ;* tail vertebrae, 226;
hind foot, 76.

Skull. — Average of 11 specimens from Codroy and Bay St. George,
Newfoundland: Basal length, 53.2; zygomatic breadth, 34.7; palatal
length, 34; length of nasals, 19.8; breadth of nasals, 7.4; alveolar
length of upper molar series, 14.2.

Type specimen. — No. 1155, Museum of Comparative Zoology
(Bangs collection). Skin and skull, 9 . Collected by Ernest Doane,
May 14, 1894.

Remarks. — Though some winter specimens of Fiber zibethicus are
as black as some skins of obscurus, the color of the Newfoundland
animal averages darker at all seasons. It is apparently a well-
established species.

Specimens examined. — Total number 17, from localities as follows:
Newfoundland: Balena, 1; Bay St. George, 12; Codroy, 3; Newfoundland, 1.

1 All measurements are given in millimeters.

16 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 32.

FIBER ZIBETHICUS ZIBETHICUS (Linnaeus).

Common Muskrat.

Castor zibethicus Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 12, I, 79, 1766.

Castor zibethus Severinus, Tent. Zool. Hung., p. 107, 1779.

Mus zibethicus Gmelin, Syst. Nat., I, 125, 1788.

Myocastor zibethicus Kerr, Anim. Kingd. syst. cat., bet. pp. 32 and 33, 1792.

Mus Myocastor zibethicus Kerr, Anim. Kingd., p. 225, 1792.

Ondatra zibethicus Link, Beytr. Nat., I, pt. 2, p. 76, 1795.

Ondatra americana Tiedernann, Zoologie, 1, 481, 1808.

[Fiber] zibethicus Illiger, Prodr. Syst. Mamm., p. 88, 1811.

[ Mussascus] americana Oken, Lehrb. Nat., 3 ter Theil., 2 te Abth., p. 886, 1816.

[Simotes] zibethicus Fischer, Mem. Soc. Imp. Nat. Moscou, V, 444, 1817.

Mus (Fiber) zibeticus Cuvier, Regne Anim., I, 192, 1817.

Fiber zibethicus, var B, nigra Richardson, Fauna Boreali-Amer., I, 119, 1829 (no

definite locality).
Fiber zibethicus, var C, maculosa Richardson, Fauna Boreali-Amer., 1, 119, 1829 (no

definite locality).
Lemmus zibethicus Fischer, Synops. Mamm., p. 289, 1829.
Fiber zibethicus varius Fitzinger, Sitz.-Ber. Kais. Akad. Wiss., LVI, 103, 1867 (new

name for F. z. maculosa Richardson).
Fiber zibethicus niger Fitzinger, Sitz.-Ber. Kais. Akad. Wiss., LVI, 103, 1867 (new

name for F. z. nigra Richardson).

Type locality. — Eastern Canada; specimens from New Brunswick
assumed to be typical.

Geographic distribution. — Southeastern Canada, northeastern and
east central United States; from New Brunswick and Quebec west
to Minnesota, and south to northern Georgia and Arkansas, except
along the Atlantic seaboard south of Delaware Bay.

General characters. — Size large; tail long; color dark; skull large,
with zygomata not broadly spreading anteriorly; molars of me-
dium size.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upperparts mummy brown, darkest on head;
back glossy; sides chestnut to hazel. The darker color on back is
due to the blackish overlying hairs, the color of the fur being much
like that of sides. Underparts like sides but paler, approaching tawny,
shading to whitish on throat and belly; a small spot on chin and hair
of wrist and heel blackish; lips straw j^ellow; underfur light slate
gray; nasal pad and tail black; feet dark brown; nails pale straw to
brown. Worn pelage: Paler and duller throughout; upperparts and
sides uniform grayish brown, or with a faded reddish mixture; back
and head with little or no black. Black phase: Upperparts uniformly
black; cheeks and long hair at base of tail chestnut; underparts
dark. Young: Back uniform dusky; sides and belly paler; cheeks
rusty.

Skull and teeth. — Skull large; zygomata not broadly spreading
anteriorly; interorbital ridge not especially developed, except in
extreme old age; parietals large; audital bullae rounded; molars of
medium size.

1911.] FIBER ZIBETHICUS ZIBETHICUS. 17

Measurements. — Average of 7 adults from Lake George and Peter-
boro, N. Y.: Total length, 563; tail vertebrae, 254; hind foot, 81.
Skull. — Average of 10 adults from New Brunswick: Basal length,
60.4; zygomatic breadth, 38.8; palatal length, 38; length of nasals,
21.2; breadth of nasals, 9.1; alveolar length of upper molar series,
16.3.

Remarks. — This form, the common muskrat of the Northern and
Middle States, is a dark-colored animal; much darker than F. z.
macrodon in ordinary color phase, and only slightly lighter than
obscurus from Newfoundland. Specimens from the coast region of
Massachusetts and Rhode Island average especially black in full
winter pelage. Specimens from Conanicut Island, Rhode Island,
have long tails, but occasional specimens from some mainland locali-
ties match them in this character, and the very slight insular variety
perhaps developing here is hardly worthy of recognition by name.
Prince Edward Island specimens show no approach toward obscurus
and are apparently typical of zibethicus. Specimens from Middle
and Southern States average less black than New England speci-
mens, approaching some of the less pronounced examples of nor-
mally colored macrodon, and have more red than most specimens from
the Northeast. I have as yet, however, failed to find a single speci-
men from any inland southern or western locality, east of the Great
Plains, that can not be matched by some strictly comparable speci-
men or specimens in the large series of true zibethicus from north-
eastern United States. Specimens from the lower Hudson Valley
and Long Island show a decided approach toward macrodon, and
these two forms probably blend throughout New Jersey and Delaware.
Specimens from upper Delaware Bay have been referred to macrodon,
though the discrimination at this point is difficult, and the animals
could be placed with either form without much violence.

The black phase appears to be of rare occurrence in typical zibe-
thicus. I have seen it only from Lake George, New York, and
Conanicut Island, Rhode Island. Several albinos and partial
albinos have been examined.

Remains of Fiber zibethicus are recorded by Leidy x and Holmes 3
from Pleistocene deposits of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and South
Carolina.

Specimens examined. — Total number 468, from localities as follows:

Prince Edward Island: Mount Stewart, 2.
New Brunswick: "New Brunswick," 14.
Quebec: Lake St. John, 1; Ottawa River, 1.
Maine: Naskeag, 1.

1 Synops. Extinct Manim. N. Amer., p. 407, 1869; Ann. Report Geol. Survey Penn-
sylvania for 1887, pp. 5 and 19, 1889.

2 Proc. Amer. Ass. Adv. Science, Third meeting, pp. 201-204, 1850.

79580°— 11 3

18 NOKTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 32.

New Hampshire: Charlestown, 2.

Massachusetts: Belmont, 16; Middleboro, 2; Wilmington, 7; Woburn, 2.

Connecticut: East Hartford, 2.

Rhode Island: Conanicut Island, 25; Fort Adams, 1; Newport, 14.

New York: Adirondacks, 2; Essex County, 68 ;* Fort Totten, 5; Hastings,

1; Highland Falls, 5; Lake George, 14; Locust Grove, 1; Montauk Point,

1; Peterboro, 3; Piseco, 2; Saranac Lake, 1; Schroon Lake, 2; Severance,

22 j1 Sing Sing, 3; Trousers Lake, 2; Troy, 1.
Pennsylvania: Allegheny County, 3; Carlisle, 6; Conestoga Creek, 1; Sayre, 1.
Michigan: Ann Arbor, 1; Isle Royale, 2; New Richmond, 1; Taquahmenaw

River, 1.
Wisconsin: Beaver Dam, 2; Conover, 1; Crab Lake, 1; Delavan, 14; Eagle

River, 4; Green Bay, 2; Lake Koshkonong, 1.
Minnesota: Elk River, 150 ;2 Fort Snelling, 5.
Iowa: Burlington, 1.

Illinois: Chicago, 1; Fox Lake, 7; Libertyville, 1; Olive Branch, 7.
Indiana: Effner, 3; Hebron, 2; La Porte, 1; Wheatland, 5.
Kentucky: Eubanks, 1.

Tennessee: Highcliff, 5; Roan Mountain Station, 1; Watauga Valley, 1.
West Virginia: White Sulphur Springs, 4.
North Carolina: Magnetic City, 1.
South Carolina: Greenville, 1.
Georgia: "Georgia," 1; Hogansville, 1.
Alabama: Reform, 1.
Arkansas: Mammoth Spring, 4.

FIBER ZIBETHICUS MACRODON Merriam.
Virginia Muskrat.

Fiber macrodon Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XI, 143, 1897.
Fiber zibethicus macrodon Stone and Cram, Amer. Anim., 126, 1902.

Type locality. — Lake Drummond, Dismal Swamp, Virginia.

Geographic distribution. — Middle Atlantic coast region of the
United States, from Delaware Bay to Pamlico Sound; inland to
Washington, Virginia, and Raleigh, N. C.

General characters. — Size largest in the genus; colors rich and
bright; normal pelage with much red in fresh and worn state (there
is a large proportion of specimens in the black phase from some
localities). Skull large and massive; teeth large.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Like zibethicus, but lighter and brighter,
with less black. Upperparts Prout's brown, darker on nose, head,
and back; sides varying from grayish brown to russet; underparts
from broccoli brown or drab to bright cinnamon rufous. Specimens
in perfectly fresh pelage have very little of the bright russet tinge
which appears in specimens taken later in the winter and spring, the
hairs of this color coming in as the season advances. Spring speci-
mens, before the summer molt has commenced, are often especially
bright and rich colored above and below. Worn pelage: Upperparts
dull russet; underparts pale cinnamon rufous. Young: Like young

i Skulls. ■ 122 odd skulls. •

1911.] # FIBER ZIBETHICUS AQUILONIUS. 19

of zibethieus. Black phase: Entire upperparts, sides, and middle area
of imderparts uniform brownish black; flanks with a few hairs of
rusty brown; cheeks rusty; throat and ventral region whitish, drab,
or Isabella color; usual small spot on chin black. Between this
phase and the normal color before described is every degree of vari-
ance. Some specimens have the back black and the belly gray or
rusty, some have the belly dark and upperparts nearly normal or
partly melanistic, while a few are of an intermediate slate color.

Skull and teeth. — Skull large, with heavy rostrum, posteriorly
elongated brain case, and elevated frontal; jugal massive, high, and
rounded above; molar teeth large.

Measurements. — Average of four adults from the Dismal Swamp,
Virginia: Total length, 620; tail vertebras, 274; hind foot, 88.
Skull. — Average of four adults from Dismal Swamp: Basal length,
65.1; zygomatic breadth, 41,. 7; palatal length, 41; length of nasals,
22.9; breadth of nasals, 9.9; alveolar length of upper molar series,
17.7.

Type specimen. — No. 75940, United States National Museum,
Biological Survey Collection. 9 adult, skin (black phase) and skull.
Collected by Dr. A. K. Fisher, October 9, 1895.

Remarks. — The most remarkable thing about this form is the large
per cent from certain localities of specimens in the black phase. In
some marshes on the eastern shore of Maryland over half of the
muskrats are black. From no locality, however, from which more
than two specimens are at hand, is the normal phase unknown.
Specimens from interior localities in Maryland, though retaining the
color of macrodon, have skulls closely approaching in character those
of zibethieus from farther north. No specimens from New Jersey
have been examined, but it seems probable that they will prove
somewhat intermediate between the two subspecies.

Specimens examined. — Total number 83, from localities as follows:

Pennsylvania: Chester County, 2.

Maryland: Branchville, 1; Broadwater, 1; Cambridge, 1; Forest Glen, 1;

Jefferson, 1; Kensington, 1; Laurel, 10.
District of Columbia: Washington, 11.
Virginia: Arlington, 1; Dunn Loring, 4; Fredericksburg, 1; Lake Drummond,

Dismal Swamp, 5; Pope Creek, 5; Quantico, 5; Suffolk, 6; Wallaceton,

Dismal Swamp, 2; Warwick, 8; Washington, 6.
North Carolina: Currituck, 2; Poplar Branch, 2; Raleigh, 7.

FIBER ZIBETHICUS AQUILONIUS Bangs.

Labrador Muskrat.

Fiber zibethieus aquilonius Bangs, Proc. New England Zool. Club., I, 11, February
28, 1899.

Type locality. — Rigoulette, Hamilton Inlet, Labrador.
Geographic distribution. — Labrador and Ungava.

20 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 32.

General characters. — Like zibethicus, but slightly smaller, with hind
foot actually and relatively smaller, color averaging more blackish
in summer.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Almost exactly like Fiber z. zibethicus, but
slightly brighter and richer colored, especially on sides and under-
pays. Worn pelage: Averaging darker, with more black, than the
corresponding pelage of F. z. zibethicus; underparts averaging more
heavily colored, the overlying hairs of a darker shade.

Skull and teeth. — Skull almost precisely like that of F. z. zibethicus,
but averaging a little lighter, with slightly lighter rostrum and very
slightly smaller teeth.

Measurements. — Average of four specimens from Hamilton Inlet
and Lance au Loup, Labrador: Total length, 551 ; tail vertebrae, 262
hind foot, 74. Skulls. — Basal length, 60.3; zygomatic breadth, 40.1
palatal length, 37.5; length of nasals, 22.3; breadth of nasals, 9.2
alveolar length of upper molar series, 15.3.

Type specimen. — No. 3957, Museum of Comparative Zoology
(Bangs Collection) . Skin and skull, immature $. Collected by C. H.
Goldthwaite, August 15, 1895.

Remarks. — The series of specimens representing this form is far
from satisfactory. In the available series of 16 skins and skulls there
is only 1 good adult specimen,1 and 3 or 4 more which may be called
subadult. These specimens, together with the remaining series of
young, indicate a slight form which seems to show enough average
difference from zibethicus to merit recognition. It approaches the
Hudson Bay form slightly but is much blacker and the skull is more
like that of zibethicus. In no important character does it seem to
resemble the very different F. obscurus from Newfoundland. A large
series of adult skulls and more skins in full winter pelage are much
needed, and until these are available the validity of the form can not
be considered as satisfactorily established.

Specimens examined. — Total number 16, from localities as follows:
Labrador: Black Bay, 1; Hamilton Inlet, 1; Lance au Loup, 10.
TJngava: Forks, 2; Fort Chimo, 2.

FIBER ZIBETHICUS ALBUS Sabine.
Hudson Bay Muskrat.

Fiber zibethicus — albus Sabine, Zool. App. Franklin's Narr., p. 660, 1823.
Fiber zibethicus, var. D, alba, Richardson, Fauna Boreali-Amer. , I, 119, 1829.
Fiber zibethicus hudsonius Preble, North Amer. Fauna, No. 22, p. 53, October 31, 1902.
Fort Churchill, Keewatin.

Type locality. — Cumberland House, Saskatchewan.

Geographic distribution. — Waters draining into Hudson Bay from
the west, in eastern Saskatchewan and Keewatin; north to the
Barren Grounds.

1 Museum of Comparative Zoology (Bangs Collection), No. 8947.

1911.] FIBER ZIBETHICUS ALBUS. 21

General characters. — Like Fiber z. zibethicus, but smaller, with
shorter tail and smaller hind foot; faded summer pelage with much
more rusty; skull with zygomata as in zibethicus, interorbital ridge
and teeth as in spatulatus.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upperparts like zibethicus but paler; back and
sides uniform Vandyke brown to Prout's brown; muzzle darker; sides
russet; underparts like sides but paler, shading to whitish on throat
and belly; small spot on chin and hair of wrist and heel brown; lips
pale straw yellow; feet grayish brown; tail blackish. Worn pelage:
Like zibethicus, but with more red; sides lighter. Young: Like cor-
responding age of zibethicus.

STcull and teeth. — Skull averaging smaller than in Fiber z. zibethicus;
interorbital crest higher; molars small. Differs from skull of spatu-
latus in the shape of the zygomata, which are not so squarely spreading
anteriorly; bullae more inflated; nasals narrower.

Measurements. — Average of eight adults from Keewatin: Total
length, 541; tail vertebras, 239; hind foot, 75. Skull. — Average of
five adults from Fort Churchill and Echimamish River, Keewatin:
Basal length, 58.8; zygomatic breadth, 38.1; palatal length, 37.1;
length of nasals, 21; breadth of nasals, 9.1; alveolar length of upper
molar series, 15.3.

Type specimen. — The original specimen of albus, collected at Cum-
berland House by a Mr. Holmes, was taken to Europe by Franklin's
First Expedition, and was described by Sabine. Mr. Gerrit S. Miller,
jr., has searched the records at the British Museum and informs me
that no such specimen is catalogued in that institution. The "type"
of tins form is probably not in existence.

Remarks. — This is a slight form, but one apparently worthy of
recognition. To a certain degree it combines the characters of true
zibethicus with those of spatulatus, but it occupies a definite area of
some extent and is not exactly an intermediate in the ordinary sense
of the term. To the northwest the intergradation with spatulatus
is very clear, and specimens from the Athabaska and the Mackenzie
regions, though unquestionably referable to spatulatus, are certainly
intermediate. Specimens from near The Pas, Saskatchewan River,
virtually topotypes, have been recently received at the Biological
Survey, through the efforts of Mr. E. A. Preble and Mr. R. MacFar-
lane, and the question as to what form occurs at Sabine's type locality
is thus definitely settled. Sabine's description, based upon an abnor-
mal specimen, agrees with this form in everything except color, and
his name unfortunately must be used.

Specimens examined. — Total number 14, from localities as follows:

Keewatin: Echimamish River, 5; Fort Churchill, 1; Hairy Lake, 1; Nelson
River 1; Robinson Portage, 1; The Pas, 2; York Factory, 3.

22 „. NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 32.

FIBER ZIBETHICUS SPATULATUS Osgood.

Northwestern Muskrat.

Fiber spatulatus Osgood, North Amer. Fauna, No. 19, p. 36, 1900.

Fiber zibethicus spalulatus Preble, North Amer. Fauna, No. 27, p. 191, 1908.

Type locality. — Liake Marsh, Yukon.

Geographic distribution. — Northwestern North America, from the
Kowak River and Yukon Valley, Alaska, east to the Anderson
River and south into British Columbia and Alberta.

General characters. — Size small; hind foot small; color dark, with
minimum amount of rusty. Skull angular, zygomata broadly spread-
ing anteriorly; interorbital crest high; parietals small; nasals broad;
molars small.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upperparts glossy mummy brown; nose and
hips blackish; sides russet ; underparts dull whitish with a cinnamon
wash; lips, throat, and belly whitish; small spot on chin brown; feet
grayish brown; tail black. Worn pelage: Varying from dingy yel-
lowish brown to dark grayish brown; underparts with less coloring
from overlying hairs than in the fresher coat. Young: Dull grayish
brown, lighter than in corresponding age of zibethicus or albus;
underparts grayish white.

Skull and teeth. — Skull angular; zygomata broadly spreading
anteriorly; interorbital ridge developed to a high, sharp crest, even
in comparatively young individuals; bullse small and flattened
diagonally; jugals small, not rising high above plane of the zygomatic
arch; parietals small; nasals broad at curve and constricted poste-
riorly; molars small.

Measurements. — Average of four adults from northern British
Columbia and Alberta: Total length, 530; tail vertebras, 232; hind
foot, 74.5. Skull. — Average of five adults from type region: Basal
length, 58.2; zygomatic breadth, 38.4; palatal length, 37; length of
nasals, 20.4; breadth of nasals, 10; alveolar length of upper molar
series, 14.7.

Type specimen. — No. 98567, United States National Museum,
Biological Survey Collection. Skin and skull, 9 . Collected by
Wilfred H. Osgood, July 3, 1899.

Remarks. — The northwestern muskrat is a well-defined subspecies
occupying a large area, over the greater part of which it remains
remarkably constant in characters. Specimens from the entire
Yukon Valley and northwestern Alaska, Yukon, northern British
Columbia, and Alberta are typical, but those from the northeastern
parts of its range, from the mouth of the Mackenzie River along the
northern tree limit, are obviously approaching the Hudson Bay form.

Specimens from the north of Great Bear Lake and from the Lower
Mackenzie Valley have slightly larger teeth and less broadly spreading

1911.] FIBER ZIBETHICUS ZALOPHUS. 23

zygomata. There is also a marked tendency toward the Hudson Bay
form in the increase of the rusty, throughout the pelage, in all the
most eastern specimens. Five specimens from Revillagigedo Island,
Alaska,1 while typical of spatulatus in size and color, show a slight
approach toward osoyoosensis in the shape of the audital bullae and in
the high, rounded jugals.

Specimens examined. — Total number 67, from localities as follows:

Alaska: Anklin River, Yakutat Bay, 2; Dangerous River, Yakutat Bay, 1;
Eagle, 1; Fort Hamlin, 3; Kowak River, 150 miles from mouth, near Jade
Mountains, 1; Nome, 1; Norton Bay, 1; Nulato, 1; Portage Cove, Revilla-
gigedo Island, 5; Russian Mission, Yukon River, 2; St. Michaels, 3;
Yukon, 4.

Yukon: Lake Marsh, 2.

Mackenzie: Fort Anderson, 1; Fort Franklin, 7; Fort Liard, 1; Fort McPher-
son, 7; Fort Resolution, 3; Fort Simpson, 5; Great Slave Lake, 1; Willow
River, 1.

British. Columbia: Bennett, 1; Tagish Lake, 1.

Alberta: Athabaska Lake, 1; Blindman River, 1; Edmonton, 2; Fort Chipe-
wayan, 4; Henry House, 1; Slave River, 2; Swan Lake, 1.

FIBER ZIBETHICUS ZALOPHUS Hollister.

Alaska Peninsula Muskrat.

Fiber zibethicus zalophus Hollister, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXIII, 1, February 2, 1910.

Type locality. — Becharof Lake, Alaska.

Geographic distribution. — Alaska Peninsula, north to Nushagak and
east to the head of Cook Inlet.

General characters. — Size small; tail short; hind foot very small.
Skull with zygomata not broadly spreading anteriorly; parietals very
small, even in young animals; interorbital ridge extreme in develop-
ment into a blade-like crest; molars small.

Color. — General tone of upperparts bister, darkest on back and
hips, with little or no rusty coloring; sides like back, but with a
slight russet tinge; brown spot on chin reduced to a mere streak.
Underparts creamy white with a cinnamon wash, varying in inten-
sity and shading to white on throat and hind legs; lips whitish; feet
grayish brown, fringed with pale buffy hairs; tail black. Worn
pelage: Upperparts russet to cinnamon, varying greatly in the speci-
mens at hand, but usually with much more red than in fresh coat, or
in any pelage of F. z. spatulatus. Young: Like young of spatulatus.

Skull and teeth.— Skull with zygomata not broadly spreading
anteriorly as in spatulatus; rostrum and nasals longer; parietals very*
small, squamosal covering most of area of brain case, even in young
animals; interorbital ridge extreme in development into a blade-like
crest; teeth small.

1 Collection Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University oi California.

24 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 32.

Measurements. — Average of four adults from Lake Clark and Cook
Inlet, Alaska: Total length, 533; tail vertebrae, 228; hind foot, 69.7.
Skull. — Average of five adults from Becharof Lake, Tyonek, and
Lake Clark, Alaska: Basal length, 60.1; zygomatic breadth, 38.8;
palatal length, 38.4; length of nasals, 21.3; breadth of nasals, 9.7;
alveolar length of upper molar series, 14.7.

Type specimen. — No. 131488, United States National Museum, Bio-
logical Survey Collection. Skin and skull, not sexed. Collected by
A. G. Maddren, October, 1903.

Remarks. — This is a very well-marked form, all the specimens agree-
ing in the uniformity of the characters which separate it from its geo-
graphical neighbor, F. z. spatulatus. It is completely cut off from
spatulatus on the east, but on the north it probably intergrades some-
where between Nushagak and the mouth of the Yukon River. In
many ways it is the extreme type of the spatulatus style, but it has a
longer skull with the zygomata shaped more like true zibethicus from
the East. Compared in color with spatulatus it is grayer in fresh
pelage and with more red in the worn or washed-out coat.

Specimens examined. — Total number 21, from localities as follows:

Alaska: Becharof Lake, 13; Fort Kenai, 2; Lake Clark, 3; Nushagak, 1;
Tyonek, 1; Ugashik, 1.

FIBER ZIBETHICUS OSOYOOSENSIS Lord.

Rocky Mountain Muskrat.

Fiber osoyooserms Lord, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1863, p. 97, 1863.

Fiber zibethicus osoyoosensis Hollister, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXIII, 1, 1910.

Type locality. — Lake Osoyoos, British Columbia.

Geographic distribution. — Puget Sound region and Rocky Moun-
tains, from southern British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, and west-
ern Montana, south in the mountains to northern New Mexico.

General characters. — Nearest to spatulatus but decidedly larger; col-
ors darker than in spatulatus, mergens, or cinnamominus. Skull much
like that of spatulatus but larger, with much larger teeth.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upperparts varying from uniform glossy
mummy brown to black; slightly darker than in spatulatus; sides rus-
set; underparts usually heavily colored with cinnamon and dark
russet or brown hairs; throat and ventral region lighter; hips black.
Worn pelage: Upperparts dull sooty brown, sides and underparts
paler, usually with few rusty overlying hairs. Young: Seal brown,
paler beneath.

Skull and teeth. — Skull large, resembling that of spatulatus in the
development of the high interorbital ridge and broad nasals, but
much larger and relatively narrower; molars larger; interorbital con-
striction great; bullse small, with lateral inflation; rostrum and nasals
lone:.

1911.] FIBEE ZIBETHICUS OSOYOOSENSIS. 25

Measurements. — Average of ten adults from Oroville, Washington:
Total length, 589; tail vertebrae, 271; hind foot, 83. Skull: Basal
length, 64.1; zygomatic breadth, 40.5; palatal length, 41.3; length
of nasals, 23.6; breadth of nasals, 10.1 ; alveolar length of upper molar
series, 15.9.

Type specimen. — No. 62.12.30.6, British Museum (Natural His-
tory). Skin and skull, barely adult, not sexed. Collected by J. K.
Lord, no date. As this is the only muskrat type not preserved in an
American museum, the following notes, kindly made for me by Mr.
Gerrit S. Miller, jr., at the British Museum, August, 1910, are of con-
siderable importance and should be placed on permanent record:

Skin in moderately good condition; recently made over; Bomewhat shrunken.
Head and body, 270; tail, 220 (from skin in present condition); hind foot, 72 (by
taxidermist); hind foot (now), 69; with claw, 76; ear (by taxidermist), 19. Color
rather dark but not at all peculiar, belly of the ordinary style, not dusky. Skull
barely adult; brain case smooth; ridges in temporal region low, not quite joined.
Condylobasal length, 58 (estimated, condyles cut away); upper length (to front of
nasals), 57.4; zygomatic breadth, 35; mastoid breadth, 25.4; interorbital breadth,
6.2; nasals, 19.0; greatest breadth, both nasals together, 9.0; diastema, 20.6; man-
dible, 40.2; maxillary tooth row (alveoli), 14.6; (crowns), 13.2; mandibular tooth row
(alveoli), 15; (crowns), 13.6.

Remarks. — This large, dark-furred muskrat of the spatulatus type
is readily distinguishable from its neighboring subspecies. From
spatulatus on the north, with which it clearly intergrades in British
Columbia, it is distinguished by its larger size and darker colors, as
well as by the great cranial differences. Specimens from Ashcroft,
British Columbia, are slightly approaching spatulatus in skull char-
acters. From its neighbor on the great Nevada desert, mergens, it
differs especially in its darker color. At Twelvemile Creek, Oregon,
and at points along the western range in the Rockies it shows a
decided tendency toward mergens in color and skull. To the east it
blends into cinnamominus, as shown wherever specimens are available
from along the border of the Great Plains. I can find no satisfactory
characters to separate the animals from the southern Rockies, in
Colorado and New Mexico, from typical osoyoosensis. The speci-
mens from southern localities average slightly smaller, with smaller
hind foot, and the skulls have shorter rostra, but some specimens
can be exactly matched in the series from northern localities, and the
per cent of specimens exhibiting the slight differences does not seem
large enough to warrant naming the form. Some skulls from Farm-
ington, N. Mex., are almost exactly matched in the topotype series
from Lake Osoyoos (Oroville, Wash.), and the skins are equally black
above, with the black hips and other characteristics of osoyoosensis.
Specimens from Rinconada and Costilla River, New Mexico, though
clearly referable to this form, show a slight approach toward ripensis
of the Pecos Valley.

26 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 32.

Specimens examined. — Total number 131, from localities as follows:

British Columbia: Ashcroft, 2; Kettle River, 1; Port Moody, 5.

Washington: Aberdeen, 1; Almota, 1; Chehalis County, 2; Easton, 1; Fort
Steilacoom, 1; Lake Cushman, 29; Lake Washington, 2; Mabton, 2; Mar-
shall, 2; Mount Vernon, 3; Oroville, 12; Rockland, 1; Seattle, 6; Touchet,
7; Walla Walla, 1.

Oregon: The Dalles, 1; Twelvemile Creek, 1.

Idaho: Fort Sherman, 1; Lemhi, 1; Packer Meadow, 2; Sawtooth Lake, 5.

Montana: Corvallis, 8; Florence, 1; High wood Mountains, 1; Summit, 1.

Wyoming: Opal, 2; Pass Creek, 1; Rock Creek, 1; Valley, 1.

Utah: Laketown, 2; Ogden, 2; Utah Lake, 1.

Colorado: Cochotope Pass, 5; Coventry, 2; Crested Butte, 1; Hebron, 2; Hot
Sulphur Springs, 3.

New Mexico: Costillo River, 1; Farmington, 4; Rinconada, 2.

FIBER ZIBETHICUS OCCIPITALIS Elliot.
Oregon Coast Muskrat.
Fiber occipitalis Elliot, Publ. Field Col. Mus., Zool. Ser., Ill, 162, April, 1903.

Type locality. — Florence, Oreg.

Geographic distribution. — Northern Willamette Valley -and coast of
Oregon.

General characters. — Size and general characters of F. z. osoyoosensis,
but averaging slightly paler or more reddish; skull with extremely
narrow interpterygoid space.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Like F. z. osoyoosensis, but with less black;
color above a uniform chestnut brown; head darker; nose and outer
sides of legs blackish; sides like back but slightly brighter; under-
pays heavily washed with bright cinnamon rufous. Worn pelage:
Duller and darker, showing much more black.

Skull and. teeth. — Skull like that of osoyoosensis but with less highly
developed interorbital ridge; interpteiygoid space very narrow, the
borders nearly parallel.

Measurements. — Average of four specimens from the type locality:
Total length, 589; tail vertebrae, 271; hind foot, 83.5. Skull of type:
Basal length, 64.1; zygomatic breadth, 44; palatal length, 42.5;
length of nasals, 24.5; breadth of nasals, 10; alveolar length of upper
molar series, 16.

Type specimen. — No. 9260, Field Museum of Natural History,
Chicago. ? , old adult, skin and skull. Collected by Edmund Heller,
December 16, 1901.

Remarks. — This form is known from only three localities, and the
material representing it is rather unsatisfactory. It seems to be a
well-marked form, but with a limited range. The specimens from
the upper Willamette Valley are mostly rather immature but clearly
belong with this form rather than with osoyoosensis. Some of the
specimens from south of Puget Sound, in Washington, show a slight

1911.] FIBER ZIBETHICUS MERGENS. 27

approach toward this form in a narrowing of the interpterygoid
fossa; but otherwise distinctly belong with osoyoosensis, which
remains typical south along the Sound to and below Seattle. Addi-
tional specimens from the coast region of Washington and Oregon
are greatly needed to work out thoroughly the interrelations of these
forms.

Specimens examined. — Total number 10, from the following
localities:

Oregon: Beaverton, 1; Florence, 4; Portland, 5.

FIBER ZIBETHICUS MERGENS Hollister.

Nevada Mtjskrat.

Fiber zibethicus mergens Hollister, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXIII, 1, February 2y
1910.

Type locality. — Fallon, Nev.

Geographic distribution. — Northern part of the Great Bashi; south-
eastern Oregon, northeastern California, Nevada, and western Utah.

General characters. — Size large, colors pale. Differs from F. z.
osoyoosensis in its much paler color, and from F. z. pallidus in its
large size and darker colors.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Above, grayish brown; head and dorsal area
blackish; cheeks, shoulders, and sides rusty; underparts creamy
white with central area pale cinnamon or russet; usual spot on chin
blackish brown. Fall specimens, before the black hairs have come
in, are sometimes quite rusty above. Worn pelage: Above, uniform
pale yellowish brown; sides and underparts with little rusty.

Skull and teeth. — Skull slightly smaller than that of osoyoosensis,
with shorter rostrum, more broadly spreading zygomata, and heavier
jugals; much larger than that of pallidus.

Measurements. — Average of six adults from Fallon and Lovelocks,
Nev.: Total length, 554; tail vertebra?, 253; hind foot, 80. SJcull. —
Average of four adults from Fallon and Lovelocks, Nev.: Basal
length, 62.1; zygomatic breadth, 40.2; palatal length, 39.9; length
of nasals, 21.4; breadth of nasals, 9.9; alveolar length of upper molar
series, 15.5.

Type specimen. — No. 156880, United States National Museum,
Biological Survey Collection. 9 adult, skin and skull. Collected
by Stanley E. Piper, April 3, 1908.

Remarks. — This is a pale desert form of the osoyoosensis type, occu-
pying the northern part of the Great Basin. It grades directly into
osoyoosensis on the north and east, but the material from southern
Nevada and Utah is too scanty to give a good idea of its direct rela-
tionship with pallidus. At the time of publishing the original descrip-
tion of mergens, I stated that no intergradation with pallidus was

28 NOETH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 32.

known. Since that time two specimens have been received from St.
George, Utah, which show almost intermediate characters. For the
present these, on account of their large size, have been placed under
mergens, though a larger series from the same locality and interme-
diate points may change tins view.

Specimens examined. — Total number 20, from localities as follows:

Oregon: Shirk, 1.

California: Eagle Lake, l;1 Susanville, l.2

Nevada: Fallon, 6; Lovelocks, 4; Paradise, 1; Ruby Lake, 4.

Utah: St. George, 2.

FIBER ZIBETHICUS PALLIDUS Mearns.
Arizona Muskrat.
Fiber zibethicus pallidus Mearns, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., II, 280, 1890.

Type locality. — Old Fort Verde (Camp Verde), Yavapai County,
Ariz.

Geographic distribution. — Colorado River valley (California, Lower
California, and Arizona), east to the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico.

General characters. — Size small, color uniform rusty red, with no
overlying black hairs; skull small.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Back and sides bright rusty red, nearest to
the cinnamon rufous of Ridgway, with no black in the overlying hairs;
between eyes and nose Prout's brown; whiskers blackish brown.
Underparts like back and sides, but paler; a small brown spot on
chin; edges of lips yellow; nose pad black; tail brownish; feet pinkish
gray, fringed with buffy hair; nails straw to chrome. Worn pelage:
Similar, but paler and duller throughout; underparts pale drab with
little of the rusty tint; throat and ventral region whitish; brown spot
on chin nearly obsolete. Young: Like adult in summer but still
paler; very different from the dark young of all the other forms.

Skull and teeth. — Skull very small; except in size it resembles that
of F. z. zibethicus in nearly every particular. Skulls of pallidus are
easily separated from skulls of mergens by their small size, but it is
difficult to distinguish them from skulls of ripensis, which are also
small. Skulls of pallidus average slightly larger than those of
ripensis, with heavier rostrum, wider nasals, and smaller, less inflated
audital bullae.

Measurements. — Average of five specimens from the Arizona and
California banks of the Colorado River: Total length, 431; tail verte-
bra?, 191 ; hind foot, 66.5. Doctor Mearns's type series of nine speci-
mens from the Verde River average: Total length, 482; tail, 204. 3
Skull. — Average of five specimens from the Colorado River: Basal
length, 54.7; zygomatic breadth, 36.8; palatal length, 34.7; length of

1 Foot only. 2 Skull only. 3 Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., II, 282, 1890.

1911.] FIBER ZIBETHICUS EIPENSIS. 29

nasals, 19.2; breadth of nasals, 8.6; alveolar length of upper molar
series, 14.5.

Type specimens. — There are two cotypes, both in the American
Museum of Natural History, New York City — No. 2346, $ , Septem-
ber 17, 1885, and No. 2348, ? , August 28, 1886; collected by Dr. E. A.
Mearns.

Remarks. — This is one of the best of the described forms of the
muskrat, and it is readily distinguishable at all seasons by its small
size and peculiar coloration. Its range is restricted and it does not
seem to be abundant in many localities. New Mexican specimens
seem to be grading toward the Rocky Mountain form, but the scarcity
of material from this region and from eastern Arizona is a great
handicap in working out its relationships.

Specimens examined.'- — Total number 14, from localities as follows:

California: Colorado River, 15 miles southwest of Ehrenberg, Ariz., 4.
Arizona: Camp Grant, 2; Fort Verde, 2; Robert's Ranch, opposite Needles,

Cal., 1; Springerville, 1.
New Mexico: Albuquerque, 1; Upper Tularosa River, 3.

FIBER ZIBETHICUS RIPENSIS Bailey.
Pecos Muskrat.
Fiber zibethicus ripensis Bailey, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, 119, June 2, 1902.

Type locality. — Carlsbad (Eddy), N. Mex.

Geographic distribution. — Pecos Valley, in Texas and New Mexico.

General characters. — About the size of F. z. pallidus, with shorter
tail; color much darker. Skull slightly smaller, with larger bullae.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upperparts Vandyke brown; a few black
hairs on back; top of head blackish; muzzle whitish; sides russet,
brightest on neck and cheeks; underparts much paler; throat and
ventral regions whitish. Worn pelage: Similar, but much paler and
with no gloss. Back and sides light brown; underparts dirty white,
with a faint cinnamon wash over central area. Young: Blackish
above, drab below; sides and cheeks with a faint rusty tinge.

Skull and teeth. — Skull very small; differs from that of pallidus in
the slightly lighter rostrum, narrower nasals, and larger, more
inflated, bullae.

Measurements. — Average of six specimens from the type locality:
Total length, 463; tail vertebra?, 204; hind foot, 68. Skull: Basal
length, 53.6; zygomatic breadth, 34.6; palatal length, 34.3; length
of nasals, 18.3; breadth of nasals, 7.7; alveolar length of upper molar
series, 14.9.

Type specimen. — No. 109012, United States National Museum,
Biological Survey Collection. $ adult, skin and skull. Collected
by Vernon Bailey, July 25, 1901.

30 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 32.

Remarks. — This well-marked form, easily distinguished from all
others, is confined to a small area in New Mexico and Texas, the
immediate vicinity of the Pecos River, and neighboring streams and
springs. Specimens from Santa Rosa, N. Mex., in the upper Pecos
Valley, have more black in the pelage and are slightly larger than
typical specimens. They apparently show a tendency toward the
darker form of the Rocky Mountains.

Specimens examined. — Total number 28, from localities as follows:

New Mexico: Carlsbad, 6; Santa Rosa, 7.
Texas: Fort Stockton, 15.

FIBER ZIBETHICUS CINNAMOMINUS Hollister.

Great Plains Muskrat.

Fiber zibethicus cinnamominus Hollister, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXIII, p. 125, Sep-
tember 2, 1910.

Type locality. — Wakeeney, Trego County, Kan. .

Geographic distribution. — Great central plains region of western
United States and Canada; from Manitoba south to northern Texas;
east to central Iowa and west to the Rocky Mountains.

General characters. — Smaller than F. z. zibethicus or osoyoosensis;
larger than ripensis. Coloration pale, with much red in both fresh
and worn pelages. Skull smaller than in zibethicus, with smaller teeth.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upperparts and sides cinnamon brown,
dorsal area only slightly darker, with few black hairs. Nose to fore-
head and eyes seal brown. Cheeks and underparts creamy clay color,
lighter on neck, throat, and inner sides of legs. A very small brown
spot on chin. Feet drab; nails yellowish. Tail dark brown. Worn
pelage: Varying from wood brown to russet, depending upon the
state of wear or renewal. Specimens in the short-haired early fall
pelage are the darkest, and those in extreme faded or washed out
early summer coat are the lightest.

Skull and teeth. — Skull smaller than in zibethicus or osoyoosensis
with smaller teeth; larger than that of ripensis. Compared with
skulls of zibethicus it has a proportionally shorter and heavier rostrum,
accompanied by a shortening and widening of the nasals.

Measurements. — Average of two specimens from the type locality:
Total length, 496; tail vertebras, 240. Average of hind foot in
twenty-one specimens from various localities, 73.5. Skull. — Average
of live specimens from the type locality: Basal length, 56.3; zygo-
matic breadth, 35.5; palatal length, 35.5; length of nasals, 19.5;
breadth of nasals, 8.9; alveolar length of upper molar series, 15.

Type specimen. — No. f$f£, Merriam Collection (in United States
National Museum). $ adult, skin and skull. Collected by A. B.
Baker, January 14, 1887.

1911.] FIBER EIVALICIUS. 31

Remarks. — This is the muskrafc of the prairie sloughs and streams
of the interior Great Plains region. In color it most resembles
Fiber z. pallidus of Arizona, and is thus very different from its nearest
geographical neighbors. It apparently intergrades with albus on the
north and with zibethicus and osoyoosensis on the eastern and western
borders of the Great Plains. Specimens from Carberry, Manitoba,
though apparently referable to cinnamominus, are somewhat inter-
mediate between three forms, zibethicus, cinnamominus, and albus.

Specimens examined. — Total number 84, from the following local-
ities :

Manitoba: Carberry, 4.

North Dakota: Buford, 1; Oaks, 1.

Montana: Glasgow, 1; Little Dry Creek, 3.

Wyoming: Bear Creek, 1; Sun, 3.

South Dakota: Custer, 1; Savoy, 4; Tigerville, 1.

Nebraska: Beemer, 10; Johnstown, 27. '

Colorado: Boulder, 5; Ward, 1; Wray, 2.

Kansas: Garnett, 1; Manhattan, 1; Wakeeney, 8.

Iowa: Knoxville, 1.

Oklahoma: Red Fork, 1.

Texas: Canadian, 4; Lipscomb, 8.

FIBER RIVALICIUS Bangs.

Louisiana Muskrat.

Fiber zibethicus rivalicius Bangs, Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., XXVI, 541, July 31,
1895.

Type locality. — Burbridge Plantation, near Belair, Plaquemines
Parish, La.

Geographic distribution. — Coast region of Louisiana, north to north-
ern Calcasieu, Pointe Coupee, and Tangipahoa parishes.

General characters. — Like Fiber zibethicus, but averaging slightly
smaller; colors duller; underparts darker.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upperparts uniform dark brownish black,
with little of the reddish tints of other forms; sides like back, but
without the overlying hairs. Underparts pale drab to sepia or
Prout's brown, the color depending on the number and shade of the
longer dark-colored hairs; underfur light plumbeous. Worn pelage:
Paler and duller throughout, usually showing more of the rusty tint
than the fresh pelage.

Slcull and teeth. — Skull ahnost precisely like that of Fiber z. zibethi-
cus, but averaging slightly smaller.

Measurements. — Average of 10 adults from Belair, La.: Total
length, 547; tail vertebrae, 233; hind foot, 78. Skull: Basal length,
60.1; zygomatic breadth, 38.7; palatal length, 38; length of nasals,
20.3 ; breadth of nasals, 8.4 ; alveolar length of upper molar series, 15.7.

1 Skulls.

32 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 32.

Type specimen. — No. 2719, Museum of Comparative Zoology
(Bangs Collection). $ adult, skin and skull. Collected by F. L.
Small, January 31, 1895.

Remarks. — This form has a very limited range and is known only
from the southern parishes of Louisiana. In a letter to Dr. C. Hart
Merriam, Mr. Frank M. Miller, of New Orleans, writes that the musk-
rat is confined strictly to the area south of a line running along the
northern boundaries of Calcasieu, Acadia, Lafayette, St. Martin,
Pointe Coupee, Baton Rouge, Livingston, Tangipahoa, and St. Tam-
many parishes. The animal is thus completely isolated from other
forms. The colony doubtless originated from stock from farther up
the river. The most southern localities from which muskrats are
known are included within the range of Fiber rivalicius, though they
are only slightly farther south than the known southern limit of
Fiber z. ripensis, at Del Rio, on the Rio Grande. This is the only
form of which the specimens examined show anything like conclusive
evidence of two annual molts. The Louisiana muskrat apparently
molts in spring and fall, approximately in May and October.

Specimens examined. — Total number 36, from localities as follows:

Louisiana: Abbeville, 5; Belair, 20; Chef Menteur, 1; Gum Cove, 1; Houma,
4; Iowa, 2; Octave Pass, 2; Slidell, 1.

FOSSIL SPECIES.

FIBER NEBRACENSIS sp. nov.

Type from Lower Pleistocene ("Equus Beds"), quarry on Niobrara
River, near Hay Springs, Sheridan County, Nebr. No. 2702,
American Museum of Natural History, Department of Vertebrate
Palaeontology. Skull, adult; parts of rostrum, palate, zygomata,
brain case, and occiput; incisors and left row of cheek teeth in situ.
Missing parts restored. American Museum Expedition of 1897.

Characters. — Size medium, about that of Fiber z. cinnamominus,
the existing form in same region. Teeth as in living species. Ros-
trum short; audital bullae peculiar, small and much flattened, without
angular surface on basioccipital side; interorbital crest high and
sharp, as in the boreal forms; parietals and interparietal small and
much flattened. Jaw not peculiar.

Measurements. — Upper molar series, crowns, in three specimens;
12.7 (type); 12.8; 12.7. Lower molar series, crowns, five specimens:
12.7; 13.2; 12.5; 13.5; 12.7. First lower molar, crown, seven speci-
mens: 6.3; 6.5; 6.4; 6.5; 6.4; 6.9; 7.0. Front of crown of ml to inferior
notch of mandible, five specimens: 21.4; 22.2; 23.2; 23.3; 23.5.

Remarks. — The skull of this fossil species, while greatly resembling
that of some of the living forms of Fiber, possesses a combination of
characters not found in any other known form. In size it agrees

1911.1

FIBER ANNECTENS.

33

with living forms, thus differing widely in that respect from the other
described fossil species.

Material examined. — Parts of three skulls and seven lower jaws,
all with teeth in situ, from the type locality.

FIBER OREGONUS sp. nov.

Type from Lower Pleistocene ("Equus Beds"), Fossil Lake (Christ-
mas Lake), 20 miles from Silver Lake, Lake County, Oregon. No.
8594, American Museum of Natural History, Department of Verte-
brate Palaeontology. Young adult, right mandibular ramus; coro-
noid process, condyle, and angle broken; m3 missing; incisor broken
at alveolus. Cope Collection.

Characters. — Size very small, about the size of Fiber annectens
Brown, from Arkansas in Mid-Pleistocene, and much smaller than
any existing species of Fiber. Anterior loop of ml with deeper
reentrant angles than in any living species; triangles not completely
closed in any case. From the type specimen of F. annectens, a right
mandibular ramus also, it differs in its much more robust build (the
type of F. annectens is rather immature, however); teeth distinctly
larger, especially broader across crowns; triangles less nearly closed.
The inferior notch is rounded, while in F. annectens it is sharply
square. The root of the lower incisor extends much farther back,
passing beyond the inferior dental foramen.

Comparative measurements of mandibles of fossil and recent muskrats.

orcgonux. annectens.

osoyno-
sensis.

ohscurus.

From anterior eage of crown of ml to inferior notch

Length of first two lower molars, crowns

Length of m 1 , crown

19.5
9.0
6.0

19

8.2
5.7

25.7
11.3

7.1

23
11
7.5

Remarks. — Except in size, the fragment representing F. oregonus
is almost identical with the corresponding bone in living species. It
differs from the jaw of Fiber annectens in only a few slight characters.

Material examined. — One right mandibular ramus, the type.

FIBER ANNECTENS Brown.
Fiber annectens Brown, Mem. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., IX, pt. 4, p. 197, February, 1908.

Type locality. — Conard Fissure, Newton County, Ark. Middle
Pleistocene.

Characters. — Size very small; smallest muskrat known. The
species is based upon one right mandibular ramus and an upper
molar, which indicate a species close to existing forms in everything
except size. The sharply squared inferior notch is the most striking

34

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[no. 32.

difference; in all other species this notch is well rounded. The
anterior loop of first lower molar is more deeply cut by the reentrant
angles than in any specimen of an existing species examined. In the
original description the statement is made that this loop is not cut
by reentrant angles, the deep cuts apparently leading the describer to
believe that the loop included only that part of the pattern anterior
to these reentrant angles. The reduction of the anteroexternal
column of m3, a character used in his argument of intermediate
relationship between Fiber and Neqfiber, is of little consequence;
this column is indifferently present or absent in Fiber, this particular
tooth showing more variation in pattern than any other.

Measurements. — Length of jaw, condyle to anterior surface of
symphysis, 30; from anterior edge of crown of ml to inferior notch,
19; alveolar length of lower molar series, 12; length of first two lower
molars, crowns, 8.2; length of first lower molar, crown, 5.7.

Type specimen. — No. 12424, American Museum of Natural History,
Department of Vertebrate Palaeontology. Right mandibular ramus,
somewhat immature. Nearly complete; coronoid process broken;
incisor broken at alveolus. Collected by Barnum Brown, 1903.

Remarks. — This is the smallest muskrat known, living or fossil.
In size the jaw almost matches that of Neqfiber alleni. It appears to
be a true Fiber, in no important character connecting Fiber with
Neqfiber. The molars are all rooted.

Material examined. — One right mandibular ramus (the type) and
one right upper first molar, from the same deposit.

TABLE OF AVERAGE CRANIAL MEASUREMENTS OF MUSKRATS.

Form.

Locality.

fl

&

03
O
Eh

,a

a

a

■3
3
a

03
3

a

a

s

"3

0

■5

03

5

c

ffl

N

fc

i-l

pq

53.2

34.7

34

19.8

7.4

60.4

38.8

38

21.2

9.1

65.1

41.7

41

22.9

9.9

60.3

40.1

37.5

22.3

9.2

58.8

38.1

37.1

21

9.1

58.2

38.4

37

20.4

10

60.1

38.8

38.4

21.3

9.7

64.1

40.5

41.3

23.6

10.1

64.1

44

42.5

24.5

10

62.1

40.2

39.9

21.4

9.9

54.7

36.8

34.7

19.2

8.6

53.6

34.6

34.3

18.3

7.7

56.3

35.5

35.5

19.5

8.9

60.1

38.7

38

20.3

8.4

O tn

O hi

> P<

■< s

F. obscurus .

F. zibethicus

F. z. macrodon..
F. z. aquilonius .

F. z. albus

F. z. spatulatus.

F. z. zalophus.

z. osoyoosensis .

z. occipitalis

z. mergens

z. pallidus

F. z. ripensis

F. z. cinnamominus.
F. rivalicius

Newfoundland: Codroy and Bay St.

George.

New Brunswick

Virginia: Dismal Swamp

Labrador: Hamilton Inlet and Lance

au Loup.
Keewatin: Fort Churchill and Echi-

mamish River.
Alaska: Eagle; Yukon: Lake Marsh;

British Columbia: Bennett and

Tagisb Lake.
Alaska: Becharof Lake, Tyoonok

and Lake Clark.

Washington: Oroville

Oregon: Florence

Nevada: Fallon and Lovelocks

Colorado River, in Arizona and Cali-
fornia.

New Mexico: Carlsbad

Kansas: Trego County

Louisiana: Belair . . . ."

14.2

16.3
17.7
15.3

15.3

14.7

14.7

15.9
16
15.5
14.5

14.9

15

15.7

1911.] BIBLIOGRAPHY. 35

TABLE OF AVERAGE FLESH MEASUREMENTS OF MTJSKRATS.

Form.

F. obscurus

F. zibethicus

F. z. macrodon

F. z. aquilonius

F. z. albus

F. z. spatulatus

F. z. zalophus

F. z. osoyoosensis

F. z. occipitalis

F. z. mergens

F. z. pallid us

F. z. ripensis

F. z. cinnamominus. .
F. rivalicius

Num-
ber
aver-

Locality.

Newfoundland: Codroyand Bay St. George..

New York: Lake George and Peterboro

Virginia: Dismal Swamp

Labrador: Hamilton Inlet and Lance au Loup

Keewatin

Northern British Columbia and Alberta

Alaska: Lake Clark and Cook Inlet

Washington: Oroville

Oregon: Florence

Nevada: Fallon and Lovelocks

Colorado River, in Arizona and California

New Mexico: Carlsbad

Kansas and South Dakota '

Louisiana: Belair

Total
length.

500
563
620
551
541
530
533
589
589
554
431
463
497
547

Tail.

226
254
274
262
239
232
228
271
271
253
191
204
230
233

Hind
foot.

76.0
81.0
88.0
74.0
75.0
74.5
69.7
83.0
83.5
80.0
66.5
68.0
71.3
78.0

1 Kansas specimens without flesh measurements of foot. Foot average from 4 specimens from South
Dakota.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

The following list of titles includes chiefly books and articles which
contain new material, relating either to the history of the nomen-
clature and classification of the muskrat, or to its habits and distribu-
tion. No attempt has been made to make it complete, as the litera-
ture on the subject is exceedingly voluminous and much of it is buried
in old files of sporting and trapping magazines. The titles of papers
containing notes on habits have been carefully selected, to include
only those containing fairly complete summaries of the subject,
gleaned from many sources and there brought together, or those recent
papers containing original matter of special importance.

1612. Smith, Captaine [John]. A Map of Virginia. With a Description of the

Countrey, the Commodities, People, Government, and Religion, p. 14.

This is apparently the first reference to the muskrat in literature. The

name mussascus is used.
1758. Linnaeus, C. Systema Naturae, ed. 10, I, 59. The American muskrat is here

confounded with the Castor moschatus (= Desmana moschata) of Asia.
1766. Linnaeus, C. Systema Naturae, ed. 12, I, 79. American muskrat recognized,

under the name of Castor zibethicus, as a distinct species.
1779. Severinus, Joann. Tentamen Zoologise Hungaricae, p. 107. Name emended

to Castor zibethus.
1788. Gmelin, Jo. Frid. Systema Naturae, ed. 13, I, 125. Muskrat transferred to

genus Mus, and placed, with the Mus coy pus of Molina, in a starred section,

" cauda apice compressa. "
1792. Kerr, Robert. The Animal Kingdom, p. 225. Myocastor proposed as a sub-
genus of Mus, to include the two species of Gmelin 's first starred section, M.

coy pus and M. zibethicus.
1795. Link, H. F. Beytrage zur Naturgeschichte, I, pt. 2, p. 76. Ondatra proposed

as a genus to include the same species as Gmelin 's first starred section of Mus

and Kerr's Myocastor, O. coypus, and 0. zibethicus.
1798. Cuvier, G. Tableau 61ementaire de l'Histoire Naturelle des Animaux, p. 141.

Description of l'ondatra (Mus zibethicus).

36 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. I no. 32.

1799. Lacepede, B. G. E. Tableau des Divisions, Sous-divisions, Ordres et Genres

des Mammiferes, p. 9. Lists the genus Ondatra, with 0. zibethicus as the typical
specific example . Presumably considered the coypu and muskrat congeneric ,
as did the previous authors.

1800. Cuvier, G. Lecons d'Anatomie Comparee, Tome I, tabl. I, April. Proposes

the generic name Fiber, based upon l'ondatra of the 1798 Tableau.
1808. Tiedemann, D. Friedrich. Zoologie. Zu eeinen Vorlesungen entworfen.

I, pp. 480-481. Ondatra americana, new name for Mus zibethicus.
1811. Illiger, C. Prodromus Systematis Mammalium et Avium, p. 88. Mus

zibethicus Linn. Gmel. first assigned to genus Fiber.

1816. Oken, [Lorenz]. Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte, Dritter Theil, Zoologie,
Zweite Abth., Fleischthiere, pp. 386-387. Mussascus proposed as a generic
name with Ondatra americana as only species.

1817. Cuvier, C. Le Regne Animal, I, 192. Castor zibeticus (sic) placed in sub-

genus Fiber of Mus.

1817. Fischer, Gotthelp. De systemate Mammalium. <Mem. Soc. Imp. Nat.
Moscou., V, 444. Simotes proposed as a generic name for Mus zibethicus.

1823. Sabine, Joseph. Zoological Appendix [to Franklin's Narrative of a Journey
to the Polar Sea.], pp. 659-660. Account of muskrats, with original descrip-
tion of Fiber zibethicus albus.

1827. Billberg, G. J. Synopsis Faunae Scandinavise, Tom. I, Mammalia, Con-
spectus A. Moschomys proposed as substitute for Ondatra Lacepede.

1829. Fischer, Joanne Baptista. Synopsis Mammalium, p. 289. Muskrat in-
cluded in genus Lemmus as L. zibethicus.

1829. Richardson, John. Fauna Boreali- Americana; or the Zoology of the North-
ern Parts of British America, pp. 115-119. General account; three varieties
recognized by name, nigra, maculosa, and alba.

1831. Godman, John D. American Natural History, pt. 1, v. II, pp. 57-62. De-
scription, habits, and distribution.

1846. Audubon, John James, and Bachman, John. The Viviparous Quadrupeds
of North America, I, 108-124. General account o£ habits.

1857. Baird, Spencer F. Mammals of North America, pp. 560-564. General
account; description of external characters.

1863. Lord, J. K. Notes on Two New Species of Mammals. <Proc. Zool. Soc.
London, March 24, pp. 95-98. Original description of Fiber osoyoosensis.

1884. Merriam, C. Hart. The Mammals of the Adirondack Region, Northeastern
New York. Reprinted from v. 1 and 2, Trans. Linn. Soc, New York, pp.
275-289, September. Life history.

1890. Mearns, Edgar A. Description of Supposed New Species and Subspecies of

Mammals from Arizona. <Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., II, No. 4 [author's
edition issued February 21]. Original description of Fiber zibethicus pallidus.

1891. Flower, William Henry, and Lydekker, Richard. An Introduction to

the Study of Mammals, Living and Extinct, pp. 470-472. General account.

1892. Herrick, C. L. The Mammals of Minnesota. <Bull. Geol. and Nat. Hist.

Surv. Minnesota, No. 7, pp. 211-217. Habits of muskrats; description of
houses.

1894. Bangs, Outram. Description of a New Musk Rat from Codroy, Newfound-

land. <Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, IX, 133, September 15. Original
description of Fiber obscurus.

1895. Bangs, Outram. Notes on North American Mammals. <Proc. Boston Soc.

Nat. Hist., XXVI, 541-542 [author's edition July 31]. Original description
of Fiber z. rivalicius.

1911.] BIBLIOGRAPHY. 37

1897. Merriam, C. Hart. Description of a New Muskrat from the Great Dismal
Swamp, Virginia. <Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XI, 143, May 13. Original
description of Fiber macrodon.

1899. Bangs, Outram. Notes on some Mammals from Black Bay, Labrador. <Proc.

New England Zool. Club., I, 11-12, February 28. Original description of
Fiber z. aquilonius.

1900. Osgood, Wilfred H. Results of a Biological Reconnoissance of the Yukon

River Region. North Amer. Fauna, No. 19, October 6, pp. 36-37. Original
description of Fiber spatulatus.

1901. Elliot, Daniel Giraud. A Synopsis of the Mammals of North America and

the Adjacent Seas. <Field Col. Mus. Pub., Zool. ser., II, 211-214, fig.
49. General account of muskrats; seven forms recognized.

1901. Miller, GerritS., Jr., and Rehn, James A. G. Systematic Results of the

Study of North American Land Mammals to the Close of the Year 1900, pp.
130-131. Eight forms of muskrats listed.

1902. Bailey, Vernon. Seven New Mammals from Western Texas. <Proc.

Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, 117-120, June 2. Original description of Fiber z.
ripensis.
1902. Preble, Edward A. A Biological Investigation of the Hudson Bay Region.
North Amer. Fauna, No. 22, pp. 53-54, October 31. Original description
of Fiber z.hudsonius.

1902. Stone, Witmer, and Cram, William Everett. American Animals, pp.

121-127. Muskrats of Eastern North America. Fiber macrodon reduced to
a subspecies of F. zibethicus.

1903. Elliot, D. G. Descriptions of Apparently New Species and Subspecies of

Mammals from California, Oregon, the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, and Lower
California, Mexico. ^Field Col. Mus., Zool. ser., Ill, pp. 162-164. Original
description of F. occipitalis.

1903. Rhoads, Samuel N. The Mammals of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, pp.

104-106. Habits and distribution in these States.

1904. Elliot, Daniel Giraud. The Land and Sea Mammals of Middle America

and the West Indies. <Field Col. Mus. Pub., Zool. ser., IV, pt. 1, pp.
306-308, fig. 55. Fiber z. pallidus as a Mexican species.

1905. Bailey, Vernon. Report on the Mammals of Texas. <North Amer. Fauna,

No. 25, pp. 121-122, October. Habits and distribution of Fiber z. ripensis.

1905. Mac Farlane, R. Notes on Mammals Collected and Observed in the Northern

Mackenzie River District, Northwest Territories of Canada, with Remarks
on Explorers and Explorations of the Far North. <Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus.,
XXVIII, 737-738. Notes on abundance and breeding habits of muskrats.

1906. Ingersoll, Ernest. The Life of Animals. The Mammals, pp. 436-438.

Habits of muskrats.

1906. Stephens, Frank. California Mammals, pp. 132-133. Habits and distribu-

tion of Fiber z. pallidus.

1907. Mearns, Edgar Alexander. Mammals of the Mexican Boundary of the

United States. Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 56, pt. 1, pp. 494-498. Accounts
of F. z. pallidus and F. z. ripensis, with notes on habits and distribution.

1908. Brown, Barnum. The Conard Fissure, a Pleistocene Bone Deposit in North-

ern Arkansas: with Descriptions of Two New Genera and Twenty New
Species of Mammals. <Mem. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., IX, pt. 4, p. 197,
February. Original description of Fiber annectens.
1908. Preble, Edward A. A Biological Investigation of the Athabaska-Mackenzie
Region. North Amer. Fauna, No. 27, October 26, pp. 191-193. Account of
muskrats in Northern British America. F. spatulatus reduced to a subspecies
of F. zibethicus.

38 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [xo. 32.

1909. Howell, Arthur IT. Notes on the Distribution of Certain Mammals in the
Southeastern United States. <Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, XXII, pp. 62-63,
April 17. Limits of distribution of muskrats in the Southern States.

1909. Seton, Ernest Thompson. Life Histories of Northern Animals. An account

of the mammals of Manitoba. I, Grass eaters, pp. 538-557. General account
of muskrats with map of ranges of the forms.

1910. Hollister, N. Descriptions of Two New Muskrats. <Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash-

ington, XXIII, 1-2, February 2. Original descriptions of F. z. mergens

and F. z. zalophus. F. osoyoosensis reduced to subspecific rank.
1910. Lantz, David E. The Muskrat. U. S. Dept. Agric, Farmers' Bulletin

396, pp. 1-38, April 30. General account of habits and economic relations.
1910. Hollister, N. A New Muskrat from the Great Plains. <Proc. Biol. Soc.

Washington, XXIII, 125-126, September 2. Original description of F. z.

cinnamominus .

1910. Warren, Edward Royal. The Mammals of Colorado, pp. 105-107. Original

notes on food and breeding habits.

1911. Evermann, Barton W., and Clark, Howard W. Notes on the Mammals

of the Lake Maxinkuckee Region. <Proc. Washington Acad. Sci., XIII,
19-24, February 15. Habits of the muskrat in Indiana.
1911. Hollister, N. The Generic Name of the Muskrat. <Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash-
ington, XXIV. Fixes type of Ondatra Link. Fiber considered the proper
generic name for the muskrat.

PLATE III.

SKULLS (DORSAL VIEWS, NATURAL SIZE).

Fig. 1. Fiber zibethicus (Linn.). o ad. Peterboro, New York. (No. 111082, U. S.
Nat. Mus.)

2. F. z. macrodon Merriam. $ ad. Wallaceton, Virginia. (No. 77811, U. S.

Nat. Mus., Biol Surv. Coll.)

3. F. z. spatulatus Osgood. $ ad. Tagish Lake, British Columbia. (No.

108335, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biol. Surv. Coll.)

4. F.z.zalophusB.o\\i8teT. Ad. Becharof Lake, Alaska. (No. 131483, U. S.Nat.

Mus., Biol. Surv. Coll.)

5. Fiber obscurus Bangs. Ad. Bay St. George, Newfoundland. (No. 76370,

U. S. Nat. Mus., Biol. Surv. Coll.)

6. Fiber z. albus Sabine. $ ad. Echimamish River, Keewatin. (No. 106874,

U. S. Nat. Mus., Biol. Surv. Coll.)

7. Fiber z. ripensis Bailey. $ ad. Carlsbad, New Mexico. (No. 109010, U. S.

Nat. Mus., Biol. Surv. Coll.)
40

North American Fauna No 32, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate III.

Skulls of Fiber.

1. F. zibethicus. 4. F. z. zalophus.

2. F. z. mac-rodon. 5. F. obscurus.

3. F. z. spatulatus. ij. F. z. albus.

7. F. z. ripensis.

PLATE IV.

SKULLS (VENTRAL VIEWS, NATURAL SIZE).

Fig. 1. Fiber zibethicus (Linn.) 9 ad. Peterboro, New York. (No. 111082, U. S.
Nat. Mus.)

2. F. z. macrodon Merriam. $ ad. Wallaceton, Virginia. (No. 77811, U. S.

Nat. Mus., Biol. Surv. Coll.)

3. F. z. spatulatus Osgood. $ ad. Tagish Lake, British Columbia. (No.

108335, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biol. Surv. Coll.)

4. F. z. zalophus Hollister. Ad. Becharof Lake, Alaska. (No. 131483, U. S.

Nat. Mus., Biol. Surv. Coll.)

5. F. obscurus Bangs. Ad. Bay St. George, Newfoundland. (No. 76370, U. S.

Nat. Mus., Biol. Surv. Coll.)

6. Fiber z. albus Sabine. $ ad. Eehimamish River, Keewatin. (No. 106874,

U. S. Nat. Mus., Biol. Surv. Coll.)

7. F. z. ripensis Bailey. $ ad. Carlsbad, New Mexico. (No. 109010, U.S.

Nat. Mus., Biol. Surv. Coll.)
42

North American Fauna No. 32, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate IV.

Skulls of Fiber.

1. F. zibethicus. 4. F. z. zalophus

2. F. z. rnaerodon. 5. F. obscurus.

3. F. z. spatulatus. 6. F. z. albus.

7. F. z. ripensis.

PLATE V.

Fig. 1. Skull of F. z. osoyoosensis Lord. $ ad. Oroville, Washington. (No. 90505,
U. S. Nat. Mus., Biol. Surv. Coll.) Natural size.

2. Enamel pattern of upper molar teeth of Fiber. {Fiber z. osoyoosensis Lord.

No. 99941, U. S. Nat. Mus. Lake Cushman, Washington.) X 3.

3. Enamel pattern of lower molar teeth of Fiber. {Fiber z. osoyoosensis Lord.

No. 99941, U. S. Nat. Mus. Lake Cushman, Washington.) X 3.

4. Hind feet of Fiber. {Fiber z. macrodon Merriam. From fresh specimen col-

lected at Cambridge, Maryland, March 16, 1909.) Natural size.
44

North American Fauna No. 32, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey

Plate V.

Skull, Tooth Enamel Pattern, and Feet of Fiber.
1, 2, :;. F. /.. osqyoosenis. 4. P. z. macrodon.

PLATE VI.

Fig. 1. Fiber z. macrodon Merriam. From fresh specimen collected at Cambridge,
Maryland, March 16, 1909. Reduced.

2. Fiber z. cinnamominus Hollister. Right mandibular ramus of type. No.

3724, Merriam Coll. Trego County, Kansas. Natural size.

3. Type of Fiber annectens Brown. Middle Pleistocene, Newton County, Arkan-

sas. No. 12424, Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Dept. Vert. Palaeontology. Natural
size.

4. Type of Fiber oregonus Hollister. Lower Pleistocene, Fossil Lake, Oregon.

No. 8594, Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Dept. of Vert. Palaeontology. Natural size.

5. Type of Fiber nebracensis Hollister. Lower Pleistocene, Niobrara River,

Sheridan County, Nebraska. No. 2702, Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Dept. of
Vert. Palaeontology. Most of right side restored. Natural size.
46

North American Fauna No. 32, U. S Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate VI.

1. F. z. maerodon. 3. F. annectens. Type.

•1. F. z. cinnamominus. Type. 4. F. oregonus. Type.

5. F. nebracensis. Type.

INDEX.

[New names in bold-faced type; synonyms in italics.)

Acknowledgments, 13.
Bibliography, 35-38.
Castor zibethicus, 16
zibethus, 16.
Characters, 11-12.
Cranial measurements, 34.
Distribution, 9-10.
Economic relations, 10-11.
Fiber, genus, 14.
Fiber albus, 20-21.

annectens, 33-34.

aquilonius, 19-20.

cinnamominus, 30-31.

hudsonius, 20.

macrodon, 18-19.

maculosa, 16.

mergens, 27-28.

nebracensls, 32-33.

niger, 16.

nigra, 16.

obscurus, 15.

occipitalis, 26-27.

oregonus, 33.

osoyoosensis, 24-26.

pallidus, 28-29.

ripensis, 29-30.

rivalicius, 31-32.

spatulatus, 22-23.

varius, 16.

zalophus, 23-24.

zibethicus, 16-18.
Flesh measurements, 35.
Fossil muskrats, 13, 32.
Habits, 9-10.
History, 7-8.
Key to species and subspecies, 12.

Lemmus zibethicus, 16.

List of species and subspecies, 14-1.5.

Localities, type, 14-15.

Material and acknowledgments, 13.

Measurements, cranial, 34.

flesh, 35.
Moschomys, 14.
Mus zibethicus, 16.
zibeticus, 16.
Muskrat, Alaska Peninsula, 23.

Arizona, 28.

Common, 16.

Great Plains, 30.

Hudson Bay, 20.

Labrador, 19.

Louisiana, 31.

Nevada, 27.

Newfoundland, 15.

Northwestern, 22.

Oregon Coast, 26.

Pecos, 29.

Rocky Mountain, 24.

Virginia, 18.
Mussascus, 14.
Mussascus americana, 16.
Myocastor zibethicus, 16.
Neofiber alleni, 34.
Ondatra, 14.
Ondatra americana, 16.
zibethicus, 16.
Pelage, 11-12.
Simotes, 14.
Simotes zibethicus, 16.
Species and subspecies, key to, 12.

list of, 14-15.
Type localities, 14-15.

47

O

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

HENRY W. HENSHAW, Chief

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA

JSTo. 33

[Actual date of publication, August 17, 1911]

A BIOLOGICAL SURVEY OF COLORADO

BY

MERRITT CARY

ASSISTANT BIOLOGIST, BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

1911

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

U. S. Department of Agriculture,

Bureau of Biological Survey,
Washington, D. C, February 21, 1911.
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith for publication as
North American Fauna No. 33 a report on the results of a biological
survey of Colorado, by Merritt Gary. The report consists of three
sections. The first characterizes the five life zones which traverse
the State, defines their extent and limits, and discusses their agri-
cultural and economic possibilities. The second consists of a com-
plete list of the mammals of Colorado with brief notes on their habits,
distribution, and economic relations. The third is a list of the
principal trees and shrubs of Colorado observed by the assistants of
the Biological Survey during the progress of work in the State, with
annotations as to their distribution and abundance.
Respectfully,

Henry W. Henshaw,
Chief, Biological Survey.
Hon. James Wilson,

Secretary of Agriculture.

CONTENTS,

Page.

Introduction 9

Effect of physiographic and climatic features of Colorado on faunal and floral

distribution 12

Upper Sonoran zone 14

Great Plains division of Upper Sonoran zone 18

Mammals 19

Breeding birds 20

Plants 20

Reptiles and batrachians 21

Great Basin division of Upper Sonoran zone 22

Colorado River drainage 22

Northwestern section — Colorado River drainage 22

Mammals 22

Breeding birds 23

Plants 23

Reptiles and batrachians 23

Southwestern section — Colorado River drainage 24

Mammals 24

Breeding birds 24

Plants 25

Reptiles and batrachians 25

Rio Grande drainage 27

Juniper and pinyon belt 28

Mammals 28

Breeding birds 29

Plants 29

Agricultural importance of < !olorado Upper Sonoran zone 29

Transition zone 33

Mammals 36

Breeding birds 37

Plants 38

Reptiles and batrachians 39

Agricultural importance of the Transition zone 40

Canadian zone 41

Mammals 44

Breeding birds 44

Plants 45

Reptiles 45

Hudsonian zone 45

Mammals 48

Breeding birds 48

Plants 49

Arctic- Alpine zone 49

Mammals 50

Breeding birds 50

Plants . „ 51

Mammals of Colorado 51

Principal trees and shrubs of Colorado 212

Index 247

5

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATES.

Page.

Plate I. Map of Colorado showing life zones Frontispiece.

II. Fig. 1. — Grand River Valley near De Beque, showing strip of Upper
Sonoran zone. Fig. 2. — Pocket of Upper Sonoran zone on southern
slope, at 7,500 feet. Near McCoy, Grand River Valley 16

III. Fig. 1. — Greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus) in lower Snake River

Valley, Routt County. Fig. 2. — Bench bordering valley of Ver-
milion Creek, northwestern Routt County. The shrubbery is
Atriplex confertifolia and Grayia spinosa, with Juniperus mono-
sperma on bluffs 22

IV. Fig. 1. — Spruce Tree Cliff Ruins, Navajo Canyon, Mesa Verde, with

juniper and pinyon forest in the rough canyon country of south-
western Colorado. Fig. 2. — Navajo Canyon. Characteristic view
in rough canyon region of southwestern Colorado, showing dense

growth of junipers and pinyons at 7,000 feet 28

V. Fig. 1 . — Farms in the lower White River Valley below Rangely, at
5,500 feet. Fig. 2. — Fruit ranches in the McElmo Valley between
Moqui and McElmo, at 5,200 feet 30

VI. Fig. 1. — Effect of slope exposure — yellow pines (Pinus scopulorum)
and firs (Abies concolor) growing at same elevation (9,000 feet) in
Wet Mountains east of Westcliffe. Fig. 2. — Characteristic view
at upper edge of Transition zone. Undergrowth of small aspens
(Populus tremuloides) in forest of yellow pine (Pinus scopulorum),

on Dolores Plateau 34

VII. Fig. 1. — Dense chaparral of oak (Quercus gambeli) in western foothills
of West Elk Mountains, on head of Smith Fork of Gunnison River,
altitude 8,000 feet. Fig. 2. — Yellow pines (Pinus scopulorum) near
Elkhorn, Larimer County, showing characteristic scattering growth

of the species on eastern foothills of Front Range 38

VIII. Fig. 1. — Lower part of Canadian zone forest of lodgepole pines (Pinus
murrayana) and aspens (Populus tremuloides), on North Park slope
of Medicine Bow Range. Fig. 2. — Forest of Engelmann spruce
(J'icea engelmanni) , in upper part of Canadian zone on summit of
Park Range, at 10,000 feet 40

IX. Fig. 1. — Summer cattle range, Canadian zone meadow east of Laramie
River, 10,000 feet altitude. Fig. 2. — Canadian zone vegetation at
9,000 feet on open summit of Uncompahgre Plateau — Frasera, Del-
phinium, Geranium, and Lupinus 42

X. Fig. 1. — Hudsonian zone on precipitous slopes of San Juan Moun-
tains, southwest of Ophir. Fig. 2. — Hudsonian zone forest on
Saguache Range near St. Elmo (timberline at about 12,000 feet).. 44

XI. Fig. 1. — Foxtail pines (Pinus aristuta) at timberline near St. Elmo,
Saguache Mountains, at 12,300 feet. Fig. 2. — Ascending tongue of
Engelmann spruce at timberline on Front Range near Berthoud

Pass (northwest slope), at 11,600 feet 46

XII. Fig. 1. — Grays Peak group from near Berthoud Pass, showing an
extensive area of Arctic-Alpine country. Fig. 2. — Arctic-Alpine
zone on the Saguache Range near St. Elmo 48

ILLUSTRATIONS. 7

TEXT FIGURES.

Page.
Fig. 1. Map of Colorado showing routes and collecting localities of Merritt Cary. 10

2. Map of distribution in Colorado of tuft-eared squirrels (Sciurus aberti

m im us and S. a.ferreus) 65

3. Map of distribution in Colorado of Fremont squirrel (Sciurus frcmonti). 70

4. Map of distribution in Colorado of Hopi, Say, and Las Animas chip-

munks (Eutamlas hopiensis, E. quadrivittatus, and E. q. animosus).. . 72

5. Map of distribution in Colorado of golden-mantled ground squirrels

(genus Callospermophilus) 82

G. Map of distribution in Colorado of antelope squirrel (Ammospcrmo-

pliilus I. cinnamomeus) 85

7. Map of distribution in Colorado of rock squirrel (Citellus r. grammurus) . 87

8. Map of distribution in Colorado of Wyoming ground squirrel (Citellus

elegans) 89

9. Map of distribution in Colorado of striped ground squirrels (Citellus t.

parvus and C. t. pallidus) 91

10. Map of distribution in Colorado of grasshopper mice (Onychomys I.

brevicaudus and 0 . I. pallescens) 100

11. Map of distribution in Colorado of cliff mice (Peromyscus truei and P.

nasutus) 104

12. Map of distribution in Colorado of harvest mice (Reithrodontomys)

except R. albescens 109

13. Map of distribution in Colorado of bushy-tailed woodrats (Neotoma c.

arizonse, N. c. orolestes, and N. c. rupicola) 112

14. Map of distribution in Colorado of round-tailed woodrats (Neotoma

fallax, N. desertorum, JV. floridana bailey i, N. albigula ivarreni, and

N. micropus canescens) 115

15. Photograph of nest of Neotoma desertorum on Atriplex flat near Rangely. 119

16. Map of distribution in Colorado of Hayden and pygmy field mice ( Micro-

tus pauperrimus and M. ochrogaster haydeni) 122

17. Map of distribution in Colorado of yellow pocket gopher (Geomi/s

lutescens) 129

18. Map of distribution in Colorado of chestnut-faced pocket gopher (Cra-

togeomys castanops) 130

19. Map of distribution in Colorado of pocket gophers of the genus

Thomomys 132

20. Photograph of earth heaps of Colorado pocket gopher ( Thomomys fossor) . 135

21. Map of distribution in Colorado of kangaroo rats (genus Perodipus) ' 139

22. Map of distribution in Colorado of pocket mice (Perognathus fascial us

and P. apache groups) 144

23. Map of distribution in Colorado of Baird pocket mouse (Perognathus

flavus) 146

24. Map of distribution in Colorado of jumping mice (Zapus princcps and

Z. h. campestris) 149

25. Map of distribution in Colorado of black-tailed jack rabbits (Lepus

cali/ornicus texianus and L. c. melanotis) 156

26. Map of distribution in Colorado of gray fox ( Urocyon c. scotti) 177

27. Map of distribution in Colorado of dwarf weasel (Putorius streatori

leptus) and the black-footed ferret (P. nigripes) 184

28. Map of distribution in Colorado of marten ( Mustela caurina origenes) . . . 189

29. Claw marks of black bear on aspen (Populus tremuloidcs) . Lone Cone,

San Miguel Mountains, at 10,000 feet 197

30. Map of distribution in Colorado of lodgepole pine (Pinus murrayana) 214

8 ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page.

Fig. 31. Photograph of forest of lodgepole pines (Pinus murrayana) 215

32. Photograph of pocket of Douglas spruce (Pseudotsuga mueronata) 219

33. Map of distribution in Colorado of common yucca ( Yucca glauca) 223

34. Photograph of Yucca baccata in flower 224

35. Photograph of Alpine willows in Arctic-Alpine zone. Front Range

near Berthoud Pass : 227

36. Photograph of desert vegetation (Atriplex nuttalli and Sarcobatus ver-

miculatus) in lower Grand River Valley north of Mack 229

37. Map of distribution in Colorado of. tree cactus (Opuntia arborescens) . . . 241

38. Photograph of bilberry ( Vaccinium oreophilum) in forest on Park Range . 244

39. Photograph of desert sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) on plains near

Higho, North Park 246

No. 33. NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. August, 1911.

A BIOLOGICAL SURVEY OF COLORADO.

By Merkitt Cary.

INTRODUCTION.

Colorado, because of its diverse and striking physical features,
presents an interesting field for natural-history investigations, and
has received more than ordinary attention from naturalists. Never-
theless, prior to 1905 the distribution of mammals and birds had been
studied in detail over only a few small areas, chiefly on the eastern
slope of the main ranges, on the adjacent plains, and in the southern
end of the San Luis Valley. Field work in the more accessible parts
of the State by several field naturalists of the Biological Survey had
accumulated important series of specimens and valuable data on
the fauna and flora. Many perplexing problems of geographical and
vertical distribution and relationships of species, however, remained
to be solved. Moreover, the intimate connection and correlation
between the natural life zones and crop zones of the country, as
pointed out by Dr. Merriam,1 made increasingly apparent the lack
of information respecting Colorado. The data on the distribution
of species in Colorado available at the beginning of 1905 proved
entirely inadequate for a detailed study of the life zones, although
the need of accurate delimitation of the zones constantly increases
as vast areas are opened to agriculture and horticulture through
modern methods of conserving and distributing the water supply.

Accordingly, in 1905, the writer was directed to undertake a
biological reconnoissance of certain of the least-known sections of
northern Colorado with a view to the completion of a detailed survey
of the State. Field operations were begun early in June of that
year. PreUminary work in the mountains of Boulder, Jefferson, and
Clear Creek Counties was followed by a wagon trip from Boulder
across the range to Middle Park by way of Rollins Pass; north over
the western end of the Rabbit Ear Mountains into North Park; thence

» Life Zones and Crop Zones of the United States, by C Hart Merriam, Bull. 10, Biological Survey, U. S.
Dept. Agric, 1898.

9

10

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

west to Steamboat Springs, crossing the Park Range over Buffalo
Pass, and down the Bear River Valley as far as Axial Basin. Travel-
ing southward over the Danforth Hills to Meeker and across the
White River Plateau, the expedition finished its season's work in the
Grand River Valley.

Field work was continued in northern Colorado in 1906. Again
outfitting at Boulder, I made a wagon trip of much greater length,
completely encircling the area covered in 1905.1 The route was
along the northern and western boundaries of the State, from Boulder
north to Fort Collins; west over the Medicine Bow Range to North
Park; across the northern end of the Park Range to Hahns Peak and

■ RAILROAD JOU/WCyS.

tVASOA/ AA/O PACK Tff/PS.

+ COLLECTING LOCALITY.

Fig. 1.— Map of Colorado showing routes and collecting localities of Merritt Cary, 1905, 1906, 1907,

and 1909.

Slater; down the Snake River Valley to the Escalante Hills and
northwest to Browns Park, on Green River; thence south to Rangely,
on White River, and over the Book Cliffs to Mack, in the Grand River
Valley; northeast in the valleys of Grand and Eagle Rivers to Wol-
cott; north to Egeria Park; east across the Gore Range to Middle Park;
and back to Boulder by way of Berthoud Pass and Black Hawk.

The field season of 1907 was devoted to a detailed study of zonal
conditions hi all the important physiographic areas of southern Colo-
rado, including a trip into the little known La Sal Mountains along

» The ready resource of my camp assistant, Mr. \Y alter Blanchard, of Boulder, contributed greatly to the
success of the wagon trips of both 1905 and 190C. Over much of the region traveling was arduous and on
some of the high mountain passes even dangerous.

1911.] INTRODUCTION. 11

the boundary of eastern Utah. Owing to the extent of territory
covered, the railroads were largely utilized for travel, but many side
trips were made by stage and pack train.

Knowledge was still lacking as to the distribution of a great many
plains species along the eastern edge of the State, and further work in
that region was deemed necessary. Consequently part of the field
season of 1909 was spent on the Arkansas Divide and on the plains
from Cheyenne Wells northwest to Sterling, Colorado, and Cheyenne,
Wyoming. This trip, although of short duration, filled in an impor-
tant gap and yielded valuable distribution data.

In studying the life zones of Colorado it has been necessary to
collect many mammals, birds, reptiles, and plants, illustrating
climatic variation, and to work out in detail the geographic and
vertical distribution of all characteristic zone species. In regions
devoted to agriculture and stock raising, the economic relations of
both mammals and birds have been carefully investigated. Valuable
information bearing on the past and present ranges and abundance of
the larger game mammals and carnivores has been acquired from
hunters, trappers, and sportsmen of wide experience in the State.

The present report is based chiefly on the field work prosecuted
during 1905, 1906, 1907, and 1909. It is primarily a characterization
of the several major distribution areas or life zones, and their geo-
graphical and vertical boundaries as here defined are believed to be
approximately correct and in sufficient detail for all practical pur-
poses. (See frontispiece.) In the course of three seasons' work it
is obviously impossible to run continuous zone lines in a rough and
broken region like the mountainous two- thirds of Colorado. To
insure reasonable accuracy the zone limits have been checked up
both horizontally and vertically b}^ crossing the important mountain
ranges, plateaus, and mesas at different latitudes; while abnormal
variations of zone level resulting from peculiar physiographic condi-
tions have received special attention.

The report on life zones is supplemented by a chapter on the dis-
tribution of trees and shrubs. Many notes on birds and reptiles are
incorporated in the sections of life zones to which the different species
belong.

The list of Colorado mammals, in addition to the results of the
four seasons' investigations conducted by the writer, contains a large
amount of important unpublished data collected prior to 1905 by the
following naturalists of the Biological Survey: Vernon Bailey, Dr.
A. K. Fisher, Edward A. Preble, Arthur H. Howell, J. Alden Loring,
and Clark P. Streator. Among the local naturalists whose work has
contributed materially to the completeness of the mammal report
should be mentioned E. R. Warren, of Colorado Springs, the author of
important publications on the mammals of Colorado.

12 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. S3.

New species of mammals have been described from time to time
from the material collected by the Biological Survey in Colorado.
Among the mammals collected in southern Colorado in 1907 were
three new forms. Owing to unavoidable delay in the publication of
the present report, these have been characterized by Dr. Merriam in
the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington as follows:
Eutamias minimus caryi, Neotoma albigula warreni, and Tliomomys
talpoides agrestis.1

In preparing the mammal report I have freely used the collection of
the Biological Survey and the private collection of Dr. C. Hart Mer-
riam, both in the United States National Museum. I am indebted to
Gerrit S. Miller, jr., curator of mammals in the National Museum, for
access to the collections under his charge. Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, of
the same institution, has identified the reptiles and batrachians. Dr.
J. N. Rose and his assistants have named many of the plants.

EFFECT OF PHYSIOGRAPHIC AND CLIMATIC FEATURES OF
COLORADO ON FATJNAL AND FLORAL DISTRIBUTION.

Colorado is no exception to the rule that a region of varied climatic
and physiographic conditions possesses a correspondingly large and
varied fauna and flora. That it is surpassed by a few other States in
the variety of its animal and plant life is due, not so much to a lack of
varied physical conditions as to the absence of climatic extremes.
The comparatively rich fauna and flora of the State are largely due
to the great range of altitude in the mountains, since the high basal
plane lies entirely within the arid region. Colorado has neither the
extent of latitude nor the low, hot areas of great humidity or aridity
which contribute to the wonderfully rich fauna and flora of such States
as California and Texas. The extensive eastern plains, the Rocky
Mountain system traversing the central part, and the rough region of
alternating plateaus, desert valleys, and mesas on the western slope,
divide the State into three general topographic regions, each occupy-
ing approximately a third of its total area. Dissimilar physical and
climatic conditions still further divide these into smaller irregular
areas which differ considerably in their fauna and flora. Thus, on the
western slope, high mesas, clad with a scrubby and more or less
scattering forest growth receiving moderate rainfall, alternate with
lower arid desert stretches (some with less than 10 inches of annual
rainfall) , while in the mountains are extensive belts of heavy forest with
much greater humidity (20 to 25 inches annual rainfall) and bare alpine
crests and summits above timberline having a truly arctic climate.

East of the mountains are found the fauna and flora peculiar to
the Great Plains region, with a slight admixture of Mississippi Valley
species in the river valleys along the eastern boundary of the State.

i Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXI, pp. 143-144, June 9, 1908.

1911.] PHYSIOGRAPHIC AND CLIMATIC FEATURES. 13

The lower elevations on the western slope have a strong infusion
of desert species, characteristic of the Great Basin region. The
Rocky Mountain system has a complex fauna and flora — the foot-
hills, the open valleys and parks, the dense forests of the central
slopes, and the alpine summits, all having associations of mammals,
birds, and plants, which are more or less distinctive.

Altitudinal variation in Colorado has a pronounced effect upon
both temperature and moisture, and accounts for great extremes in
summer and winter temperatures in different sections, and also for
a wide range between night and day temperatures throughout the
year. At Grand Junction (4,500 feet) the winter and summer mean
temperatures are 29° and 75° F.; at Gunnison (7,600 feet) they are
11° and 59°; at Breckenridge (9,500 feet) they are 16° and 52°;
while along the summits of the main mountain ranges the tempera-
tures are still lower.

As temperature is a very important factor in the distribution of
life, Colorado is an exceptionally favorable field for illustrating
vertical distribution. Tn fact, the wide range of elevation, from
3,000 and 4,000 feet along the eastern boundary to considerably over
14,000 feet on the summits of the main ranges, furnishes favorable
conditions for characteristic species of five of the seven major life
zones of North America. Thus, in passing from the plains of eastern
Colorado to the summit of either the Front or Sangre de Cristo
Ranges, or from the warm desert valleys or sage plains of the western
counties eastward to the crest of the Continental Divide, the fol-
lowing life zones are successively traversed: (1) Upper Sonoran,
which includes all the basal plane of the State from which the moun-
tains rise; (2) Transition or yellow-pine zone, occupying the foothill
region; (3) Canadian, or zone of coniferous boreal forests, com-
prising the lodgepole pine, aspen, fir, and spruce belts of the middle
mountain slopes; (4) Hudsonian, or belt of dwarfed conifers
extending to timberline; and (5) Arctic-Alpine zone, reaching from
timberline to the summits of the highest mountain peaks. With
the exception of the first named, all are included in full width, and
the lower border of the Upper Sonoran zone is nearly reached in some
of the low desert valleys of the southwest. Of the above zones the
Upper Sonoran and Transition alone are of agricultural importance.
Their adaptation to various crops is discussed under their respective
headings.

The Austral element (Upper Sonoran zone) occupies territory
aggregating nearly half the area of the State, or about twice as much
as the Boreal element (including Canadian, Hudsonian, and Arctic-
Alpine zones). The region of overlapping austral and boreal species
(Transition zone) is about equal in extent to that occupied by the
boreal zones.

14

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

On the eastern slope of the front ranges, as a result of the rela-
tively abrupt ascent from the base level of the plains, the several
life zones are usually restricted to horizontally narrow and well-
defined belts. West of the Continental Divide, however, they often
cover broad and extensive areas, as the incline of the country is more
gradual. There is, moreover, in consequence, a decided overlapping
of species for a considerable horizontal distance, rendering the zonal
limits less clearly defined than on the steeper slopes. The boundaries
of the zones in western Colorado are extremely irregular and sinuous,
owing to the broken and diversified character of the country, and
especially to the warm desert valleys which enter the State from
the west and deeply penetrate and parallel the westward extending
boreal plateaus and mountains.

The vertical breadth of the zones is much the same on both sides of
the Continental Divide. The zone levels, however, are a few hundred
feet higher on the warmer western slope, particularly in northern
Colorado. In southern Colorado the combined effects of lower lati-
tude and more elevated base level are noticeable in higher zone
levels, which are about the same on both sides of the Continental
Divide.

The vertical boundaries assigned the several zones are necessarily
approximate, since various governing factors, chief among which are
slope exposure, steepness of slope, and deforestation, either force
species above their normal limits or restrict their limits below nor-
mal. On the border of each zone is a belt of varying vertical breadth
(usually from 400 to 800 feet) in which species of the two bordering
zones commingle. The following table gives the extreme vertical
limits of zones in Colorado:

Extreme vertical limits of zones in Colorado.

Northern Colorado.

Southern Colorado.

Zone

Northeast ex-
posure.

Southwest ex-
posure.

Northeast ex-
posure.

Southwest ex-
posure.

Upper Sonoran

Transition

Feet.

to 5,600

5, 600 to 7,500

7, 500 to 10, 000

10, 000 to 10, 900

10, 900 to

Feet.
to 6,500
6, 500 to 8,200
8, 200 to 10, 400
10, 400 to 11. 000
11, 600 to

Feet.
to 6,500
6, 500 to 8,000
s. odd to 10, 500
10,500 to 11,200
11, 200 to

Feet.
to 7,800
7. 800 to 9,000
9.000 to 11,000

Hndsonian

11.000 to 12,000
12, 000 to

UPPER SONORAN ZONE.

The entire base level of Colorado, comprising territory aggregating
nearly half its area, or about 50,000 square miles, lies within the
Upper Sonoran or arid division of the Upper Austral zone. As it is
preeminently the agricultural zone of the State, it will be character-
ized in considerable detail.

1011] UPPER SONORAN ZONE. 15

East of the mountains the Upper Sonoran zone occupies a broad
and continuous area of nearly uniform width, comprising the plains
region, besides a stretch of rough and broken juniper country
south of the Arkansas River and a narrow strip along the eastern-
most flanks of the foothills up to the point where the junipers (Juni-
perus monosperma) and pinyons (Pinus ednlis) give way to the
yellow pines of the Transition zone — at an elevation varying from
5,300 to 6,000 feet north of the Arkansas Divide, and from 6,200
to 7,300 feet farther south, according to the exposure and steepness
of the foothill slopes. The upper (western) boundary of the eastern
Colorado Upper Sonoran is tolerably regular from the Wyoming line
south to the Arkansas Divide, where it bends far eastward to skirt
this extensive Transition area. South of the Divide its regularity
is further broken by a long, narrow arm which penetrates the moun-
tains as far as Buena Vista, in the warm valley of the Arkansas,
and to a less degree by westward extensions in the valleys of the
Huerfano, Cucharas, and Las Animas Rivers still farther south.
The following localities in the eastern foothill region well indicate
the upper limit of the Upper Sonoran zone: Livermore, Arkins
(2 miles west), Lyons, Boulder, Golden, wSedalia, Ramah (Arkansas
Divide), Pikeview, Manitou (Fountain Creek Valley), Buena Vista
(Arkansas Valley extension), Malachite (Huerfano Valley), La Veta
(Cucharas Valley), and Weston (Las Animas Valley).

In western and southern Colorado the Upper Sonoran element
occupies much smaller and extremely irregular areas. It is largely
confined to long and sinuous arms or tongues in the warm, semi-
desert river valleys, which penetrate deeply the boreal country of
the mountains and plateaus; but it also crosses some of the inter-
vening watersheds at their lowest elevations and everywhere occu-
pies the lowest slopes of mesas, plateaus, and ridges to an altitude
of about 6,500 feet, regularly reaching 7,500 or even 7,800 feet on
the steep southwestern slopes which many of the elevations present
to the hottest rays of the sun.

West of the Continental Divide the Upper Sonoran zone embraces
two regions of irregular outline separated in Colorado by the boreal
cap of the Book Cliffs, although connected along the Green River
Valley in Utah. The northern and smaller of these two areas is a
southward extension of the Red Desert Upper Sonoran of Wyoming,
connecting across the divide south of Bear River with the White
River Valfey extension of the Utah Upper Sonoran. Practically all
of Routt and Rio Blanco Counties below 6,500 feet is included within
this area. The northern half (western Routt County) is a region of
extensive sage plains, while the rough region contiguous to the
White River drainage is for the most part clothed with pinyons and
junipers. The eastern and southern limits of this area are reached

16 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

at or near the following localities: Dixon, Wyoming, Snake River
Valley; Fortification, Colorado, west base Elk Head Mountains; half
way between Hayden and Craig, Bear River Valley; north base
Williams River Mountains; Hamilton, Williams Fork of Bear River;
Axial, Axial Basin; north bases of Yampa and Wapiti Peaks; middle
southwestern slopes of Danforth and Gray Hills; and northern base
of White River Plateau, east in a rapidly narrowing tongue to a
point on White River about 15 miles southeast of Meeker, where the
Upper Sonoran is restricted to a narrow strip of pinyons and junipers
occupying the warm southwestern slopes of the lowest hills bordering
the river on the north. Narrow tongues extend southward in the
valleys of Piceance and Bitter Creeks; thence the zone includes the
eastern and northern bases and lower western slopes of Cathedral
Bluffs, the northern bases of the Book Cliffs, and most of the valley
of Evacuation Creek. In extreme western Routt County the west-
ward continuity of the Upper Sonoran is interrupted by three arms
of high country which extend a short distance into the State from
Utah — the O-wi-yu-kuts Plateau and Diamond Peak on the north;
the eastern extension of the Uinta Mountains, terminating in Mount
Cullom, west of Green River; and, still farther south, the Yampa
Plateau. East of Green River it is still further broken by the sum-
mits and upper northern slopes of the Escalante Hills, which form a
Transition and Canadian zone island separated from the Uinta
Mountains on the west and the Yampa Plateau on the south by a
narrow tongue of Upper Sonoran zone extending through the Ladore
Canyon of Green River on its warm eastern side and along the north
side of the Yampa Canyon of Bear River.

South of the Book Cliffs the Upper Sonoran zone covers broad
belts in the lower desert valleys of the Grand, Gunnison, Dolores,
and San Juan Rivers and their chief tributaries. Over most of this
region the pinyons, junipers, and other characteristic Upper Sonoran
species of plants, birds, and mammals reach their limit of upward
dispersion at a little over 7,000 feet elevation, but the variation due
to slope exposure in a region so broken and incised is such as to
prevent exact delimitation. Thus on the exposed southern faces of
the Book Cliffs, from the Utah line east to the Little Book Cliffs, the
upper limit conforms closely to the 7,000-foot contour; while on the
remarkably bold and exposed slopes on the southwestern extremity
of Grand Mesa, north of Delta, and also on the Landsend Peak, the
most western point of the West Elk Mountains — unbroken slopes
which rise directly out of the desert to a great height — the belt
of junipers and pinyons can be traced to considerably over 8,000
feet, and probably occasionally reaches 8,500 feet. Looking north
from Delta (4,950 feet) in the bottom of the Gunnison Valley to the
bold southwest slope of Grand Mesa, a striking view is obtained of

North American Fauna No. 33, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate II

Fig. 1.— Grand River Valley near De Beque,
Showing Strip of Upper Sonoran Zone.

- --» ■ " • . i~\i - . -47 «^*43^sfe3b£^r l

Fig. 2.— Pocket of Upper Sonoran Zone on Southern Slope, at 7,500 Feet.
Near McCoy, Grand River Valley.

1911.] UPPER SONORAN ZONE. 17

perhaps the greatest vertical breadth of the Upper Sonoran zone visi-
ble at any point in the State. In contrast to the conditions on warm
exposed slopes is the cooling effect exerted by north and especially
northeast slopes and canyon sides, shaded during the greater part of
the day, and also by mountain streams, which together create an
environment unfavorable for Upper Sonoran species above 6,000
feet. Examples of these conditions appear on the south side of
Grand River below Glenwood Springs and also in the Grand Canyon
a few miles above, where the Douglas spruces and other Transition
zone forms occupy the slopes to below 6,000 feet; in constrictions of
the Unaweep Canyon, which cuts through the Uncompahgre Plateau
near its northern end; and in a great many other localities.

The Grand Valley Upper Sonoran enters Colorado from the Utah
deserts in a broad belt and penetrates the high country in a long and
sinuous tongue for over 150 miles in an east-northeast direction.
East of Palisade, where the Little Book Cliffs and Grand Mesa ap-
proach each other, it is greatly narrowed, but again widens to include
the valleys of Plateau and Roan Creeks. Between De Beque and
Newcastle it is confined to a strip 2 or 3 miles wide along Grand
River (see PI. II, fig. 1), and east of Newcastle occupies a still nar-
rower strip along the north side of the valley to Glenwood Springs,
continuing up the Roaring Fork to Basalt. The continuity of the
Upper Sonoran in the Grand Valley is broken by the Transition
environment obtaining through the entire length of the Grand
Canyon, from Glenwood to Dotsero, but the zone is again encoun-
tered in dilute form on the warm southern slopes of the lowest hills
along the north side of Eagle River nearly to Wolcott. The Grand
Valley between Dotsero and McCoy was not explored, but a well-
defined Upper Sonoran pocket 4 or 5 miles in width was traversed
on the northern side of the river at McCoy. At this point both
pinyons and junipers were growing on the warm southern slopes up
to 7,800 feet. (PL II, fig. 2.) The Upper Sonoran belt in the Gunni-
son and Uncompahgre Valleys is uniformly broad, and covers a
greater area than that in the Grand Valley, of which it is an offshoot.
Its eastern and southern limits are marked by Somerset (North Fork
of Gunnison River), near River Portal (Gunnison Canyon), between
Cedar Creek and Cerro Summit, and near Portland (Uncompahgre
Valley).

Another extension of the Grand Valley Upper Sonoran follows
southeast along the Dolores River, widening in the San Miguel and
Paradox regions to include practically all the rough canyon country
between the western escarpment of the Uncompahgre Plateau and
the eastern flanks of the La Sal Mountains. Norwood is very near
the eastern limit of the Upper Sonoran in the San Miguel Valley, and
90432°— n 2

18 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

Lavender marks its upper edge on Disappointment Creek, south of
the San Miguel Mountains. South of the junction of the Disap-
pointment with the Dolores tins area connects across an extensive
sage desert with a northward extension of the San Juan Upper
Sonoran area, which covers practically all the extensive desert
region lying west of Dolores River and south of the La Plata Moun-
tains. Continuing eastward in the San Juan drainage, arms of this
zone extend northward in the valleys of all northern affluents —
along the Rio Las Animas to Durango, along the Rio Pinos nearly
to Bayfield, and on the Rio Piedra to a point opposite the Piedra
Padre, while along the San Juan it reaches nearly to Trujillo.

The intermountain region is penetrated by the Upper Sonoran
zone only in the Rio Grande Valley. An arm of considerable breadth
enters this region from New Mexico along the Rio Grande, where it is
well characterized in a wide strip on each side of the river nearly as
far as Alamosa. In a dilute form the Upper Sonoran element
spreads over most of the open country as far as Del Norte, and north
over the level plains of the San Luis Park to a little beyond Moffat.
It includes also the J^elt of junipers and pinyons on the hot foothill
slopes of the San Juan and Garita Mountains on the west and on the
lower flanks of the Sangre de Cristo Range on the east side of San
Luis Valley to an elevation of 8,500 feet, or about 1,000 feet above
the mean level of the valley. The cold water in the many side streams
of San Luis Valley — the Conejos, La Jara, Alamosa, Saguache, San
Luis, Trinchera, Culebra, and the branches of the Rio Grande above
Alamosa — carries narrow strips of Transition zone far out into the
plain, and the immediate valleys of these streams can not be included
in the Sonoran area.

The Upper Sonoran zone includes within the State two well-
marked subdivisions differing considerably in their physical charac-
teristics. These are the Great Plains region of eastern Colorado and
the Great Basin region of western Colorado including San Luis Val-
ley. Since each possesses a fauna and flora in a large degree peculiar
and distinctive, they will be treated as minor distribution areas.

Great Plains Division of the Upper Sonoran Zone.

With the exception of Las Animas County and parts of Pueblo,
Otero, Bent, and Baca Counties, practically all of Colorado east
of the foothills is a vast undulating grassy plain which varies in
elevation from 3,000 and 4,000 feet along the eastern boundary to
between 5,000 and 6,000 feet where it approaches the foothills.
Throughout this region strips of sandy country alternate with areas
of firm soils. The chief rivers are the Platte and Arkansas, which,
with their many small tributary streams, drain most of the eastern

1911.] UPPEE SONORAN ZONE. 19

part of the State through shallow valleys. A large number of these
tributaries indicated upon maps are dry most of the year, and only
a small proportion are perennial. Rock exposures are infrequent,
being found chiefly in the eastern tier of counties, where some of the
streams of the Republican River drainage, in seeking a lower level,
have worn through beds of sandstone; and in northeastern Weld
and northwestern Logan Counties. The plains are devoid of
natural tree growth, except along the watercourses, which are
usually fringed with cottonwoods, various species of willows, and
dense thickets of wild plum and cherry, with scattering clumps of
hackberry and box elder in the neighboring gulches and arroyos. A
little sagebrush is found toward the north, in Weld and adjoining
counties, but over most of the region the limited shrubbery is con-
fined to the stream valleys. Range grasses in great variety grow
luxuriantly on the plains and form the dominant vegetation.

The fauna and flora of this region are essentially those of the
Great Plains, from Nebraska and South Dakota to the Panhandle of
Texas. The following associations of mammals, birds, plants, and
reptiles are more or less characteristic.

MAMMALS OF GREAT PLAINS.

Those mammals of the plains of eastern Colorado which are
restricted to the Upper Sonoran zone are the large spotted and
Kennicott spermophiles (Citellus spilosoma major and C. obsoletus);
pale grasshopper mouse (Onychomys leucogaster pallescens) ; white-
footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus tornillo1); harvest mouse (Rei-
throdontomys nebrascensis) ; wood rats (Neotoma cinerea rupicola,
N.floridana baileyi, and N. micropus canescens 2) ; Hay den vole {Micro-
ins ochrogaster haydeni); pocket gophers (Geomys lutescens and
Cratogeomys castanops 3) ; kangaroo rat (Perodipus montanus richard-
soni) ; pocket mice (Perognatlius flavescens, P. flavus, P. hispidus
paradoxus); black-tailed jack rabbit (Lepus californicus melanotis);
Bailey cottontail (Sylvilagus auduboni baileyi); long-tailed skunk
( Mephitis mesomelas varians) ; prairie spotted skunk (Spilogale inter-
rupta) ; long-eared and hairy-lipped bats ( Myotis evotis and M.
californicus ciliolabrum) .

Other mammals which have their center of abundance in the
Upper Sonoran zone, but are not entirely restricted to it, are the
antelope (Antilocapra americana); striped spermophile (Citellus
tridecemlineatus pallidus); prairie dog (Cynom,ys ludovicianus) ;
white-footed mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus nebrascensis); coyote
(Canis nebracensis) ; swift fox (Vulpes velox) ; badger (Taxidea taxus) ;

1 In brush fringe along streams only. 2 Only in extreme southeast.

' 3 Only in southeastern counties.

20 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

black-footed ferret (Putorius nigripes); long-tailed weasel (Putorius
longicaudus) ; and the Say and brown bats (Myotis subulatus and
Eptesicus fuscus) .

BREEDING BIRDS OF GREAT PLAINS.

Among the characteristic Sonoran birds which breed on the plains
are the following: California cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus occiden-
talis); burrowing owl (Speotyto cunicularia hypugxa); Arkansas
kingbird (Tyrannus verticalis); Bullock oriole (Icterus bullocM);
western grasshopper sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum bimaculatus) ;
western lark sparrow (Ohondestes grammaeus strigatus) ; lazuli bunting
(Passerina amcena); western blue grosbeak (Guiraca cserulea lazula);
Bell vireo (Vireo belli); long-tailed chat (Icteria virens longicauda) ;
catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) ; brown thrasher ( Toxostoma rufum) ;
and western mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos leucopterus).

Other birds breeding commonly on the plains, which are not so
closely restricted to the Upper Sonoran zone, are: Upland plover
(Bartramia longicauda); long-billed curlew (Numenius americana) ;
mountain plover (Podasocys montanus); black-crowned night heron
(Nycticorax n. nsevius); bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) ; ferruginous
rough-legged hawk (Archibuteo ferrugineus) ; mourning dove (Zenai-
dura macroura carolinensis); kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus); thick-
billed redwing (Agelaius phamiceus fortis) ; western meadowlark
(Sturnella neglecta); bronzed grackle (Quiscalus quiscula seneus);
lark bunting (Calamospiza melanocorys) ; western vesper sparrow
(Poacetes gramineus confinis) ; Brewer sparrow (Spizella breweri) ;
white-rumped shrike (Lanius ludovicianus excubitorides) ; western
yellowthroat (GeotJilypis trichas occidentalis) ; and yellow warbler
(Dendroica sestiva).

PLANTS OF GREAT PLAINS.1

Aside from the trees and larger shrubs along streams, including
cottonwood (Populus occidentalis), several species of willows (Salix),
box elder (Acer negundo), hackberry (Celtis reticulata), buffalo berry
(Lepargyrea argentea), golden currant (Ribes longijlorum) , wild plum
(Prunus americana), chokecherry (Prunus melanocarpa), wolfberry
(Symphoricarpos occidentalis), sumac (Schmaltzia trilobata), and false
indigo (Amorplia angustifolia) , the most conspicuous plants and
smaller shrubs of the plains region are:

1 Throughout this report, with a few exceptions, the botanical nomenclature used is that of Rydberg;
Flora of Colorado, Bull. 100, Colo. Agric. College Experiment Station, 1906.

1911.]

UPPER SONORAN ZONE.

21

Amorpha canescens.
Aragallus lamberti.

Artemisia filifolia .
Atriplex canescens (local).
Asclepias (several species).
Astragalus mollissimus.
Astragalus crassicarpus.
( '(Kins missouriensis.
Chrysothamn us phttensis.
Gaura cocdnea.
(,'ulicrrezia sarothrae.
Glycyrrhiza lepidota.
Helianthus lenticularis.
Ipomaea leptophylla.
Laciniaria punctata.
Leucocrinum montanum.
Lithospermum linearifolium.
Lupinus pusillus.
Malvastrum coccineum.
Meriolix sen u lata.

Oenothera (several species).

Opuntia polyacantha.

Opuntia arborescens (Arkansas Valley and

southward).
Peritoma serrulatum.
Petalostemon villosum.
Petalostemon oligophyllus.
Petalostemon purpureas.
Planfago purshi.
Psoralea lanceolata.
Psoralen kypogea.
Psoralea tenuijlora.
Prunus besseyi (in sandy country).
Touterea stricta.
Touterea nuda.

Toivnsendia (several species).
Ratibida columnaris.
Verbena hastata. ,
Verbena bracteosa.
Yucca glauca.

The following list
eastern Colorado is
Plant Industry:1

Agropyron smithi.
Andropogon furcatus.
Andropogon halli.
Andropogon -scoparius.
Aristida longiseta.
Bouteloua curtipendula.
Bouteloua hirsuta.
Bouteloua oligostachya.
Buchloe dactyloides.
Calamovilfa longifolia.
Festuca octojlora.

of conspicuous grasses of the Great Plains of
taken from a recent report of the Bureau of

Koeleria cristata.
Muhlenbergia gracillinm .
Muhlenbergia pungens.
Munroa squarrosa.
Panicum virgatum.
Redfieldia ftexuosa.
Schedonnardus pa n iculatns.
Sitanion hystrir.
Sporobolus cryptandrus.
Stipa comata.

REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS OF GREAT PLAINS.

Most of the reptiles of eastern Colorado are common to the semi-
arid part of the Great Plains. Aside from the rattlesnake (Crotalus
confluentus) , bull snake (Pituopliis sayi), blue racer (Bascanion con-
strictor), and hog-nosed snake (Ileterodon nasicus), lizards are the
most noticeable reptiles, particularly hi sandy tracts. These com-
prise, among others, the horned toad (Phrynosoma ornatissimum) ,
sand swift (IlolbrooJcia maculata), whip-tailed lizard (Cnemidoplwrus
gularis), and Sceloporus consobrinus. A large, beautifully colored
ring-necked lizard (probably Crotaphytus collaris) reaches the plains
of eastern Colorado in Baca County, in the extreme southeast,

'■ Natural Vegetation as an Indicator of the Capabilities of Land for Crop Production in the Great Plains
Area. Bureau of Plant Industry Bull. 201, pp. 20-62, March 16, 1911.

22 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

where it is reported as not uncommon. A salamander (Ambystoma
tigrinum) from Loveland is in the Biological Survey collection.

Great Basin Division of Upper Sonoran Zone.

The Upper Sonoran area of Colorado lying in the drainage of the
Rio Grande and Colorado Rivers is an integral part of the Great Basin
region and differs from the Great Plains area in more arid climate
and more barren and deeply eroded surface. A large proportion of
its plants and animals are Great Basin forms, either specifically or
subspecifically different from those of the Great Plains. Its open
areas are generally characterized by the bunch-like growth of desert
shrubs commonly termed sagebrush, grease brush, and rabbit brush,
and the foothills and valley margins by a scrubby growth of junipers
and nut pines. This area is best considered under its local subdi-
visions.

COLORADO RIVER DRAINAGE.

The territory embracing the open reaches in the warm lower
valleys from Snake River south to the San Juan possesses a fauna
and flora characterized by a large number of Great Basin desert forms,
few of which show appreciable differentiation in passing through the
entire width of the western Colorado Upper Sonoran. Considered
locally, however, with respect to both faunal and physical character-
istics, the Colorado River drainage readily admits of division into
two minor distribution areas — the northwestern and southwestern

sections.

Northwestern Section — Colorado River Drainage.

A broad expanse of undulating sandy plains and low watersheds
lying chiefly north of Bear River in west central Routt County is
characterized by a dense growth of sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata).
With an average elevation of 6,000 feet, this region is higher than the
desert valleys to the south and has a mixture of Transition species
in its fauna and flora. Its plants and animals, unlike those of the
valleys of the Colorado drainage farther south, are partly derived
from the Great Plains. The trees and slirubs, consisting of scattered
cottonwoods, dense copses of willows, and thickets of buffalo berry,
are confined to the banks of watercourses. A sparse growth of
juniper covers the canyon sides and the steep faces of bluffs. The
region is drained by the Snake and Bear Rivers, which flow through
valleys of considerable depth — often through rugged canyons.

MAMMALS OF NORTHWESTERN SECTION COLORADO RIVER DRAINAGE.

The following mammals characteristic of the Routt County sage
plains have reached that region from the west and north, and most
of them are absent from the southwestern valleys: The least chip-
munk (Eutamias minimus), Wortman ground squirrel (Callospermo-

North American Fauna No. 33, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate III

Fig. 1 .— Greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus)
in Lower Snake River Valley, Routt County.

Fig. 2.— Bench Bordering Valley of Vermilion Creek, Northwestern Routt

County.

The shrubbery is Atriplex coiifrrtifnlia and Grayia spinosa, with Junipt rus monospi rum on bluffs.

1911.] UPPEE SONORAN ZONE. 23

philus lateralis wortmani), little striped ground squirrel {CiteUus
tridecemlineatus parvus), Idaho grasshopper mouse (Onychomys
leucogaster brevicaudus), Red Desert pocket mouse (Perognathus
callistus), Green River pocket gopher (TJtomomys clusius ocius), and
Fort Yuma bat (Myotis yumanensis). Species derived from the
Great Plains region are Peromyscus maniculatus nebrascensis, Pero-
dipus mohtanus richardsoni, Sylvilagus auduboni baileyi, Canis
nebracensis, and Myotis californicus ciliolabrum. The long-eared bat
(My otis evotis) occurs on the plains on both sides of the mountains.
Species which are common over this area but which regularly range
higher are: Lepus campestris townsendi, CiteUus elegans, Cynomys
leucurus, Neotoma cinerea orolestes, and the gray wolf and antelope.

BREEDING BIRDS OP NORTHWESTERN SECTION COLORADO RIVER DRAINAGE.

The sage sparrow (Ampliispiza nevadensis), Brewer sparrow
(Spizella breweri), and Bullock oriole (Icterus bullocki) are character-
istic Upper Sonoran breeders in the low areas of northwestern Colo-
rado, while the sage thrasher (Oreoscoptes montanus), white-rumped
shrike (Lanius ludovicianus excubitorides) , desert horned lark (Otocoris
alpestris leucolsema) , and San Diego redwing (Agzelaius phamiceus
neutralis) breed commonly but nest also in the Transition zone.
The sage hen (Centrocercus uropliasianus) is an occasional breeder,
although restricted mainly to the Transition zone during the summer.
Many Great Basin species of birds which are common breeders hi
the valleys of southwestern Colorado are noticeably absent from the
northwestern valleys.

PLANTS OF NORTHWESTERN SECTION — COLORADO RIVER DRAINAGE.

Conspicuous shrubs and plants on the sandy sage plains of Routt
County are Artemisia tridentata, Opuntia polyacantha, Eurotia lanata,
and several species of Chrysoiliamnus and Eriogonum; on the adobe
soil of the first and second benches above the streams, Grayia spinosa,
Atriplex nidtalli, A. canescens, and A. confertifolia (PI. Ill, fig. 2) ; on
the alkaline flats in the valley bottoms, Sarcobatus vermiculatus
(PI. Ill, fig. 1), Dondia erecta, and, in damp places, Salicornia her-
bacea; on the rocky faces of bluffs, Juniperus monosperma, Kunzia
tridentata (mainly Transition), Ephedra antisyphylitica, Yucca
glauca; along streams, Populus acuminata, Lepargyrea argentea, Salix
amygdaloides, and others.

REPTILES AND BATRACHIAXS OF NORTHWESTERN SECTION — COLORADO RIVER DRAIN4.GE.

Reptiles are few in number compared with those in the valleys
farther south. Rattlesnakes (Crotalus confluentus) and horned toads
(Phrynosoma ornatissimum) were the only reptiles noted on the sandy
sage plains in August, 1905, although the dainty mottled Sceloporus

24 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

graciosus was collected among the rock ledges along the Bear River
bluffs near Maybell, and also on Snake River, 20 miles west of Baggs
( Irossing. The leopard frog (Rana pipiens) is common in the streams
of this section, a specimen having been collected on Vermillion Creek,
near Lad ore, September 3, 1906.

Southwestern Section — Colorado PavER Drainage.

Although traversed by such large perennial streams as the White,
Grand, Gunnison, Dolores, and San Juan, and their numerous tribu-
taries, this isj throughout, a region of great aridity, and presents the
onlv truly desert conditions found within the State. Although small
in area it is of great importance from both a biological and a hor-
ticultural standpoint. Most of the region is below 5,500 feet, the
Grand Valley below Grand Junction being under 4,500 feet. In the
extreme southwest, however, a few desert areas reach 6,000 feet.
The larger part of the soils are to be classed as adobe. In common
with all arid desert regions, the warm valleys of southwestern Colo-
rado, when brought under irrigation, are remarkably productive,
especially of fruit.

MAMMALS OF SOUTHWESTERN SECTION — COLORADO RIVER DRAINAGE.

The most representative of the mammals are the antelope squirrel
(Ammospermopkilus leucurus cinnamomeus), pale grasshopper mouse
{Onychomys leucogaster pallescens), golden-breasted canyon mouse
(Peromyscus crinitus auripectus), big-eared harvest mouse (Reithro-
dontomys megalotis), desert wood rat (Neotoma desertorum) / golden
pocket gopher {Thomomys aureus), Moki kangaroo rat (Perodipus
longipes), Apache pocket mouse (Perognathus apache), cottontail
rabbit (Sylvilagus auduboni warreni), Texas jack rabbit (Lepus
californicus texianus), cacomistle (Bassariscus astutus Jlavus) , Arizona
skunk (MepMtis estor), Great Basin spotted skunk (Spilogale gracilis
saxatilis), coyote (Canis estor), and the bats, Antrozous pallidus,
Myotis californicus, M. evotis, Pipistrellus hesperus) and Nyctinomus
mexicanus.

BREEDING BIRDS OP SOUTHWESTERN SECTION — COLORADO RIVER DRAINAGE.

A few of the most characteristic breeding birds are the California
quail (Lophortyx californicus),2 ash-throated flycatcher (Myiarclius
cinerascens) , house finch {Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis) , Arkansas
goldfinch (Astragalinus psaltria) , black-throated sparrow (Amphispiza
bilineata) , western blue grosbeak (Guiraca cserulea lazula) , and canyon
wren (Catherpes mexicanus conspersus). Practically all the Upper
Sonoran birds found on the northwestern sage plains breed more

1 Taken in White River Valley only. 2 Introduced.

1911.] UPPER SONORAN ZONE. 25

or less commonly in the desert valleys, as do also a number of species
which are common to the Upper Sonoran areas on both sides of the
mountains.

PLANTS OF SOUTHWESTERN SECTION — COLORADO RIVER DRAINAGE.

This region is especially marked by a large number of Upper
Sonoran desert shrubs and plants, most of which extend into Col-
orado only a short distance on the west and southwest, being pecul-
iar to the desert areas of the southwestern United States. Important
among these are:

Berberis fremonti. Grayia spinosa.

Coleogyne ramosissima. Lyciuin pallidum.

Cowania mexicana. Opuntia uhipplei.
Echinocactusivhippleispinosior (McElmo). Rhamnus smithi.

Ephedra antisyphylitica. . Yucca baccata.

Ephedra torreyana. Yucca harrimanise .
Fraxinus anomala.

Other plants and shrubs of more general distribution in the Col-
orado Upper Sonoran which are found commonly in the south-
western desert valleys are:

Atriplex confertifolia. Opuntia camanchica.

Atriplex canescens. Opuntia rhodantha.

Atriplex nuttalli. Populus wislizeni.

Dondia erecta. Populus acuminata.

Eurotia lanata. Sarcobatus renniculatus.

Echinocereus paucispinus. Schmaltzia trilobata.

Lepargyrea argentea. Ximenesia exauriculata.

REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS OP SOUTHWESTERN SECTION — COLORADO RIVER DRAINAGE.

A large variety of reptiles, especially lizards, characterize the
Upper Sonoran zone in the hot valleys and on the slopes of western
Colorado, and several lizards which reach their greatest abundance
in the Lower Sonoran zone of the southwest United States are rep-
resented. Probably all have reached this region from the south-
western deserts. Following are some of the most important reptiles,
with brief notes on their distribution: 1

Crotaplmjtus collaris baileyi. — This ring-necked lizard is abundant
in the McElmo and Montezuma Valleys, east to a point 6 miles
north of Cortez, at 6,500 feet; also in the San Miguel region ranging
east to Coventry (6,500 feet) ; present in west Paradox Valley (west-
ern rim at 6,500 feet), Salt Canyon, and other branches of the canyon
of the lower Dolores River. Equally common on open deserts and
in rocky pinyon country. I took two specimens at McElmo, June
17, 1907, and one each at Coventry and Sinbad Valley, July 13 and
17, 1907.

'Many of the lizards of the desert valleys range up for some distance into the pinyon belt; but as no
speeies appears to be restricted to the upper part of the zone, the present list will include notes bearing
on both these areas.

26 xoirril AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

Ufa stansburiana. — This little desert lizard has a general distribu-
tion from the Grand Valley southward, chiefly below 6,000 feet, but
rarely to 7,000 feet (Spruce Tree Cliff Ruins, Mesa Verde). It was
found in the following localities: Desert north of Mack; Plateau
Creek; Coventry; Paradox Valley; Salt Canyon; Dolores River Can-
yon; and McElmo. A very abundant lizard, usually occurring among
locks, but often on the open desert. The specimens are from Mack,
Plateau Creek, and De Beque, September 25 and 30 and October 1,
1906, and McElmo, June 18, 1907.

Ufa ornafa. — A rock-inhabiting species of delicate profile and slight
build, often scarcely discernible on account of its peculiarly pro-
tective colors and thin body. Present in most of the valleys from
Grand River south to the San Juan. Represented by six specimens
from Plateau Creek, September 30, 1906, and one each from Mesa
Verde (Spruce Tree Cliff Ruins, 7,000 feet), June 13, and Coventry,
July 29, 1907, and observed in Sinbad Valley and at McElmo and
Arboles.

Sceloporus elongatus. — The large gray scaly rock lizard has a wide
distribution, north at least to Bear River, and ranging through the
entire width of the Upper Sonoran zone, and also a short distance
mto the Transition zone. In eastern Colorado noted only at Arkins.
Found chiefly about rocks. Specimens from Arkins; Escalante Hills
(7,000 feet); Meeker; Rangely; Plateau Creek; and McElmo.

Sceloporus consobrinus. — A medium-sized species, inhabiting rock
ledges in the pinyon and juniper country up to 7,000 feet. Smaller
than the preceding species and not nearly so common. Specimens
are from Douglas Spring (Escalante Hills); La Veta; and Arboles.

Sceloporus graciosus. — A small graceful lizard, usually noted among
greasewood (Atriplex and Sarcobatus) in open valleys and desert
flats, chiefly below 5,500 feet. It was common at the following
localities: Escalante Hills; valleys of Texas and Evacuation Creeks
in extreme western Rio Blanco County; lower Grand Valley north
of Mack; Rifle; Coventry; and McElmo.

Phrynosoma ornatissimum. — Horned toads are common at McElmo
and on the desert north of Mack, Mesa County, and are reported
elsewhere between 5,000 and 6,000 feet.

Cnemidophorus tigrls. — This large whip-tailed lizard ranges into
the State only in the lowest and hottest desert valleys, extending up
to about 5,500 feet. It is tolerably common in the lower McElmo
Valley, and abundant in West Paradox and Sinbad Valleys and also
hi the Dolores River Canyon as far down as the mouth of West Creek,
frequenting sandy flats which are clothed with Atriplex and Sarco-
batus. It doubtless occurs also in the lowest part of the Grand Valley
near the Utah boundary, as I found it on Plateau Creek, 5 miles
east of Tunnel, Mesa County. Represented by two specimens from

1911.] UPPER SONORAN ZONE. 27

Plateau Creek September 30, 1906, and one from McElmo June 18,
1907. This species has its center of abundance in the arid Lower
Sonoran zone.

Cnemidophorus guIaris.—A medium-sized species not uncommon
in the lowest valleys below 5,500 feet, in same situations as O. tigris.
I collected specimens at Grand Valley October 2, 1906, near McElmo
June 22, 1907, and at Hotchkiss August 8, 1907. It was observed
also in Salt Canyon and in the canyon of Dolores River near the
mouth of West Creek.

Bascanion tseniatum. — This handsome and graceful snake enters
the State, so far as known, only in the Grand River Valley, where a
specimen was taken on Plateau Creek September 30, 1906, and another
at Morris, west of Rifle, August 13, 1907. The Plateau Creek indi-
vidual climbed bushes with great ease, while the one from Morris
was discovered among beds of prickly pear on a sandy knoll. Both
localities are below 5,300 feet.

Thamnopliis elegans vagrans. — This garter snake was taken at
Meeker, Rio Blanco County, August 11, 1905.

Crotalus confluentus. — Rattlesnakes are not at all common, but are
reported in most localities.

Pituophis sayi. — A bull snake was taken on Dry Creek, 8 miles
west of Naturita, July 20, 1907.

Scaphiopus liammondi. — Numbers of these toads were caught in
my mousetraps among beds of prickly pear on a sandy knoll at
Morris, west of Rifle, August 15, 1907, at 5,200 feet.

Bufo lentiginosus woodhousei. — -This toad was taken at Rangely
September 12, 1906, and also at Rifle August 15, 1907.

Chorophilus triseriatus. — A specimen of this little frog was collected
at Rangely September 13, 1906, at 5,500 feet.

RIO GRANDE DRAINAGE.

The Upper Sonoran element which follows up the Rio Grande
Valley and in dilute form spreads over the level expanse of San Luis
Park is mainly characteristic of the arid valleys of western Colorado.
It includes among mammals Antilocapra, Eutamias minimus cari/i,1
Citellus tridecemlineatus parvus, Onychomys Uucogaster pallescens,
Reithrodontomys montanus,1 Thomomys aureus pervagus, Perodipus
montanus,2 Perognaihus jlavus and P. apache, Sylvilagus auduboni
warreni, and Lepus californicus texianus ( ?) . Among plants and
shrubs the various greasewoods (Sarcobatus and Atriplex), rabbit
brush {Chrysothamnus) , and sages {Artemisia and Eurotia) predomi-
nate, while Gutierrezia, Grindelia, Helianthus, Ximenesia, Peritoma
(especially P. sonorx) , . Yucca, and Opuntia are conspicuous genera

1 Restricted to San Luis Park and Rio Grande Valley, so far as known.

2 San Luis Park, Rio Grande Valley, and intermountain valleys of northern New Mexico.

28 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No, 33.

on the arid plains. The Rio Grande, Conejos, and other streams are
fringed in many places with thickets of Ribes longiflorum and
Schmaltzia trilobata, while willows and broad-leaved cottonwoods
are abundant.

JUNIPER AND PINYON BELT.

A belt of country clothed with juniper and piny on, uniformly
rough and broken in configuration, marks the higher part of the
Upper Sonoran zone on the basal flanks of all the mountains in Colo-
rado except the Front Range.1 These two species (Pinus edulis and
Juniperus monosperma 2) form the characteristic tree growth on the
slopes between the yellow pine belt of the higher foothills and the
open plains or desert valleys at their bases. They also densely
clothe extensive areas partially removed from the main mountain
ranges, comprising in western Colorado practically all the lower
elevations and the rough country forming the watersheds between
the valleys (see PI. IV), and east of the mountains a region of alter-
nating canyons and ridges extending from southeastern Pueblo and
eastern Huerfano Counties southeast to western Baca County. The
pinyons grow to a higher elevation than the junipers, extending a
short distance into the Transition zone. They occasionally reach
8,500 or 9,000 feet on hot slopes, as on the western side of the Sangre
de Cristo Range, the eastern side of the Arkansas Valley between
Salida and Buena Vista, and the bold southwest exposures of Grand
Mesa and Sierra Blanca. They are not found as low as the junipers,
however, and are usually absent from the rough areas below 5,500 feet.

Most of the mammals, birds, and plants of the juniper and piny on
country in Colorado are more or less characteristic of this belt over
much of the Great Basin region. Few of the species are found on
the Great Plains, and the fauna and flora as a whole belong to the
Great Basin division of the Upper Sonoran zone.

MAMMALS OF JUNIPER AND PINYON BELT.

The following mammals represent the Upper Sonoran element in
the juniper and piny on belt in different parts of the State. On both
slopes of the mountains: Rock squirrel (Citellus variegatus gram-
murus), cliff mice (Peromyscus truei and P. boylei rowleyi), and gray
fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus scotti). In western Colorado only:
Hopi chipmunk (Eutamias hopiensis), golden-breasted canyon mouse
{Peromyscus crinitus auripectus), Arizona wood rat (Neoioma cinerea
arizonae), cacomistle (Bassariscus astutus jiavus) , Great Basin spotted

1 North of the Arkansas Divide the yellow pines of the Transition zone usually extend down to the edge
of the plains, the juniper belt being but slightly indicated on a few outlying ridges and talus slopes by a
very sparse growth.

" A third, Juniperus scopulorum, is common in the upper part of this belt, but also extends up through
the Transition zone.

North American Fauna No. 33, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate IV.

Fig. 1.— Spruce Tree Cliff Ruins, Navajo Canyon, Mesa Verde, with Juniper
and Pinyon Forest in the Rough Canyon Country of Southwestern
Colorado.

**Sy^

1 fiib*^

" Lx£ "'" -•< -". .:-''«^-I— V

•^•-.•" a -r^Kaey

sir

?** -v.. ^j |

* f \ t f. - - - w ; .

&» ■ ■ . ■ /

} .*. X

Fig. 2.— Navajo Canyon, Mesa Verde.

Characteristic view in rough canyon region of southwestern Colorado, showing dense growth of
junipers and pinyons at 7,01)0 feet. Scattering Douglas spruces are on cool slope at left.

1911.] UPPER SONORAN ZONE. 29

skunk (Spilogale gracilis saxatilis), and Arizona skunk (Mephitis
estor). In the Escalante Hills: Utah chipmunk {Eutamias dorsalis
utdhensis). In southeastern Colorado: Warren wood rat (Neotoma
albigula warreni).

BREEDING BIRDS OP JUNIPER AND PINYON BELT.

Breeding birds of general distribution in this belt are the Wood-
house jay {Aphelocoma woodhousei) , pinyon jay (Cyanoceplialus
cyanocephalus), gray titmouse (Bseolophus inornatus griseus), lead-
colored bush tit (Psaltriparus plumbeus), western gnat catcher
(Polioptila cserulea obscura), and Baird wren (Thryomanes bewicki
bairdi). The canyon towhee (Pipilo fuscus mesoleucus) , scaled quail
(Callipepla squamata), and the road runner (Geococcyx californianus)
are common breeders in the juniper country of southeastern Colorado,
but the quail and road runner breed also in the open valleys of the
region and in the Lower Sonoran zone.

PLANTS OF JUNIPER AND PINYON BELT.

The vegetation of the juniper belt shows a great preponderance of
Upper Sonoran species. Conspicuous among them are:

Juniperus monosperma. Celtis reticulata (rare).

Juniperus utahensis (west Colorado). Ephedra antisyphylitica (west Colorado).

Pinus edulis (also lower Transition). Ephedra torreyana (southwestern Colo-

Fendlera rupicola . rado).

Philadelphus micro phyllus. Echinocereus aggregatus (southeastern I !< >lo-

Fallngia acuminata (San Luis Valley re- rado).

gion). Echinocereus viridiflorus.

Cowania mexica?ia (southwestern Colo- Cactus radiosus.

rado). Opuntia arborescens (southeastern Colo-
Peraphyllum ramossissimum (also lower rado).

Transition). Opuntia whipplei (southwestern Colo-
Cercocarpus parvifolius. rado).

A triplex canescens (locally common). Yucca baccata (southern Colorado).

Schmaltziatrilobata. Yucca harrimanize (southwestern Colo-
Quercus (several species). rado).

Agricultural Importance of Colorado Upper Sonoran Zone.

Although entirely within the arid region and embracing areas of
great aridity, the Upper Sonoran zone in Colorado is nevertheless of
great agricultural importance. It is the only zone winch affords
suitable physical and temperature conditions for extensive and
varied agriculture. With a light and insufficient annual rainfall,
which varies from 15 or 20 inches on the eastern plains to less than
10 inches on some of the western desert tracts, and a remarkably
dry atmosphere (average relative humidity about 50 per cent), the
rich agricultural and fruit districts on both sides of the mountains
have necessarily been developed largely by irrigation. It is true that

30 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

a certain measure of success with corn, cane, and cereal crops is
attained through dry farming in many sections on the eastern plains
where no water for irrigation is available; and as the various systems
of soil culture come into more general use and are made more effective
in conserving rainfall, the hard and loam soil tracts should become
increasingly productive. The great agricultural wealth of the State
has been built up mainly, however, along the base of the foothills
and in the valleys of the larger streams, and this area of greatest
production will always be limited by the water supply.1

The distribution of Upper Sonoran crops is at present local;
and so dependent are many of the crops upon natural protection,
adequate water supply, and suitable soils, entirely aside from tem-
perature, that they can not be grown over the whole of a region so
varied as the Upper Sonoran of Colorado. The State is noted for
its thrifty, scattered agricultural communities, some of which have
become famous as producers of particular crops. Thus the produc-
tion of potatoes on the plains of the Greeley region is enormous, as
is also the yield of watermelons and cantaloupes at Rocky Ford, in
the warm Arkansas Valley, and of peaches in the hot desert valley
of Grand River near Grand Junction and Palisade. Sugar beets are
a staple crop in the Platte and Arkansas Valleys, where a number of
large sugar factories take care of the product, and they are grown
extensively in the Grand Valley below Grand Junction. The raising
of a great variety of vegetables on a large scale for canning is an
important industry fostered by the establishment of several canneries
in the region between Longmont and Fort Collins. Wheat and oats
are important crops east of the mountains, and yield heavily under
irrigation. Even the moderate yield now secured under dry farming
warrants a large acreage under improved methods of handling the
soil. Both of these cereals are successfully grown on moderate slopes
and benches bordering many of the desert valleys in western Colorado.
(See PL V, fig. 1.) A small acreage of corn is grown on the eastern
plains, but it is not a sure crop west of the mountains, owing to the
prevalence of cool nights during the growing season. Among the
hay and forage crops alfalfa easily takes the lead, yielding two cuttings
in the upper part of the zone, above 6,000 feet, and three or four in
the warmer parts.

The leading fruit districts lie at the eastern base of the foothills
and in the desert valleys of the western slope. The region from
Boulder north to Fort Collins is noted for apples and small fruits,
and most varieties of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants,
plums, and cherries thrive in this section. The Florence and Canon
City district, in the Arkansas Valley, also is a heavy producer of berry

1 Vitally essential to the agricultural interests of the State are the mountain forests. Many authorities
maintain that they induce precipitation; they also conserve moisture by holding the snows of winter, thus
insuring a regular supply of water in the streams well into the growing season.

North American Fauna No. 33, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate V.

Fig. 1.— Farms in the Lower White River Valley
Below Rangely, at 5,500 Feet.

Fig. 2.— Fruit Ranches in the McElmo Valley Between Moqui and McElmo,

at 5,200 Feet.

1911.] UPPEE SONORAN ZONE. 31

fruits and apples. The western desert valleys are peculiarly adapted
to a groat variety of Upper Sonoran fruits, as apples, pears, peaches,
prunes, apricots, and nectarines, while even almonds and peanuts
have been successfully raised in a few of the warmer localities. (See
PI. V, fig. 2.) Many hundred carloads of peaches, apples, and pears
are shipped annually from the lower Grand, Gunnison, and Uncom-
pahgre Valleys, the chief shipping points being Fruita, Grand Junc-
tion, Palisade, Delta, Hotchkiss, Paonia, and Montrose. The adobe
soils which prevail in most of the desert tracts prove wonderfully
productive under irrigation, and the transformation wrought in a
few years by water is little short of marvelous.

At present most of the eastern plains region and the sage plains
of Routt County are used for grazing, but all the hard and loam soil
tracts will doubtless eventually be brought under cultivation. The
extensive sandy areas, with their luxuriant growth of range grasses,
are well suited to grazing, but are also especially adapted to certain
crops.1 The short-grass plains which form the watershed between
the Arkansas and Cimarron Rivers, in the extreme southeast, are
arable throughout, and are being gradually reclaimed by dry-farming
methods.

The intimate connection between the natural life zones and the
crop zones has already been referred to. The same isotherms which
limit the upward or northward dispersion of certain associations of
native plants, birds, and mammals are found to limit effectively the
successful production of certain fruits and other crops. The varie-
ties of fruits, cereals, and miscellaneous crops which have proved
best adapted to the Upper Sonoran zone in various parts of the
western United States have been listed by Merriam.2 In this zone
the standard varieties of apples, plums, and cherries, the sugar beet,
most of the cereals, and many other fruits and vegetables, reach
their highest development and productiveness. It is not likely that
all the varieties listed will prove an unqualified success in the Upper
Sonoran of Colorado, but the tables furnish valuable aid in selecting
suitable varieties. Presupposing suitable soil and water conditions,
any intelligent fruit grower or farmer with a fair knowledge of the
distribution and character of the Upper Sonoran element should be
reasonably certain whether the proper temperature conditions for
the maturing of particular fruits and crops are present in a given
locality. Such knowledge is of special value along the upper edge
of the zone, where, among the lower foothills and in regions of broken
configuration, agriculture and horticulture, following the line of
least resistance, are now very largely confined to the stream valleys.
These are frequently descending tongues of the Transition zone, and

1 Natural Vegetation as an Indicator of the Capabilities of Land for Crop Production, Bureau of Plant
Industry Bull. 201, pp. 75-78, 1911.

2 Life Zones and Crop Zones, Bull. 10, Biological Survey, pp. 37-40.

32 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

the cooling influence of the streams very often causes the entire
valley bottoms to be filled with Transition vegetation. From the
nature of the case most of the Upper Sonoran fruits and crops tested
in these valleys have proved either a total failure or only a partial
success, and after long experimentation have been replaced by the
hardier varieties of the Transition zone. Many of the experiments
might have succeeded had they been tried in the warm pockets or on
the moderately inclined slopes along the warm sides of the valleys,
and had the rainfall been utilized by cross furrowing and ditching.
These warm exposures are covered with Upper Sonoran vegetation,
are occasionally open, but more often clothed with scattering pinyons
and junipers, and in many cases, with a little clearing of rocks and
shrubbery, are quite capable of cultivation. Many ranchmen have
already discovered the advantages of such locations for fruit raising,
but along the bases of the mountains are considerable areas of such
land, still unreclaimed, which under present methods of conserving
and handling the water supply are capable of producing the finest
Upper Sonoran fruits.

Although the larger part of the open San Luis and Rio Grande
Valleys is included in the Upper Sonoran on the zone map, this region
is very nearly on the border line between the Upper Sonoran and
Transition zones, with a slight preponderance of Upper Sonoran
species. This area is generally considered too cold for Upper Sonoran
crops and fruits, and few have been grown thus far. This is not
strange, however, since the part reclaimed for agriculture is very
largely in valleys of streams, whose cooling effect precludes the suc-
cessful cultivation of any but the hardy vegetables and cereals of the
Transition zone. Warmer conditions are indicated on all the bor-
dering foothill slopes by a belt of junipers, pinyons, and other Upper
Sonoran vegetation, which extends from 1,000 to 1,500 feet above the
level of the valley and continues out into the open country for some
distance along the the warm sides of ridges. The warmest and most
protected slopes are at the base of the foothills, and many of
them are open and, with little clearing, suitable for cultivation.
That certain of the hardier Upper Sonoran fruits, particularly apples,1
can be successfully grown on these warm, protected slopes, wherever
water is obtainable, seems highly probable, and the advantage of
fruit growing in an extensive isolated agricultural region like the
San Luis Valley is apparent.

An advantage of fruit raising in the foothills is the protection they
afford from the cold winds which sweep the plains in winter. An

1 In various parts of the southwest the pinyon belt has proved especially adapted to apples. Perhaps
the best example within the State is in Montezuma Valley and the neighboring country, where in the
natural openings and clearings among the pinyons the very finest apples are grown. When water from
the several large ditches now under construction is available, apple growing will become one of the most
important industries of southwestern Colorado.

1911.] TEANSITION ZONE. 33

added advantage is that, owing to the altitudinal difference in the
progress of the season, fruit in the foothill districts often escapes
injury from a late spring frost which catches the fruit of the lower
country in full blossom. This was notably the case in 1907, when
late frosts were general over the fruit districts on both sides of the
mountains, greatly diminishing the crop.

The protection afforded in the foothill valleys of western Colorado
is especially favorable to peach growing. The lower edge of the
pinyon belt appears to limit the successful growing of peaches, nec-
tarines, tomatoes, and melons over most of the region, but under
favorable conditions peaches have been grown somewhat higher. In
eastern Colorado peach growing is not carried on to any great extent.
At Canon City the average is about two crops every five years. This
failure is not due to coldness of climate, for the mean temperature is
unusually high, but to long spells of warm weather in winter, which
cause the buds to start, whereupon a sudden cold snap freezes them.

The many long arms or extensions of the Upper Sonoran zone in
western Colorado have a special value in that, deeply penetrating
the high country of the Transition and Boreal zones, they enable the
cultivation of Sonoran fruits and crops to be carried far within
regions devoted to mining and stock raising, and thus render their
production more lucrative than elsewhere. An excellent example is
the narrow, semidesert Grand Kiver Valley, between Grand Junction
and Glenwood Springs.

With the completion of the Gunnison Tunnel (through which
water from the Gunnison River is to reach 150,000 acres of desert
land in the Uncompahgre Valley) and many other private irriga-
tion projects of less scope, the ranchmen of western Colorado in
particular are rapidly awakening to the great possibilities of irrigation
and to the fact that fruit raising is far more remunerative, acre for
acre, than ranching and hay raising.

TRANSITION ZONE.

In general this may be said to be the foothill zone of Colorado,
with its lower limit marked by the edge of the plains on the east and
by the approach to desert conditions along the western bases of the
mountains and plateaus. It is a neutral distribution area of consid-
erable breadth lying between the Boreal (Canadian) and Austral
(Upper Sonoran) regions, and elements of both zones enter about
equally into its composition. Although a number of species of mam-
mals, birds, and plants are wholly or mainly restricted to the Transi-
tion zone and characterize it locally, it is best marked on the whole as
a region of overlapping boreal and austral species.1

1 See Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., VII, p. 31, 1892.
90432°— 11 3

34 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

In addition to occupying continuous belts in the broken foothill
country which flanks both sides of the main ranges, the Transition
zone covers large areas in North Park, the upper Bear River Valley,
the Wet Mountain Valley, Archuleta County south of the San Juan
Mountains, on the Arkansas Divide with the adjacent region border-
ing the South Platte, and elsewhere. Many outlying elevations in
west cin Colorado, chiefly secondary plateaus descending toward the
Colorado River, are capped with this zone. Among these are the
Mesa Verde, in Montezuma County, and the Yampa Plateau and
Escalante Hills in western Routt County. It covers also most of the
mountains west of the Ladore Canyon of Green River, forms a narrow
belt around the Canadian zone summit of the O-wi-yu-kuts Plateau,
occupies the summits of the higher eastward projecting flanks of the
La Sal Mountains in western Montrose County, and is present in
dilute form (indicated by pockets of Pseudotsuga) on the upper north-
east faces of the Rabbit Hills, in western Rio Blanco County. On
the east side of the mountains the only Transition zone island of
consequence is on the summit of the Mesa de Maya, in southern Las
Animas County. The total area in Colorado covered by the Tran-
sition zone is in the neighborhood of 25,000 square miles, or approxi-
mately one-fourth of the area of the State.

Warm slopes in various parts of the State having an unusual
exposure to the direct rays of the sun carry Transition species any-
where from 500 to 1,000 feet above the mean zone level. A few
examples are a southwest slope 1 mile northeast of Lake San Cris-
tobal, near Lake City, where scattering yellow pines are encountered
up to 10,000 feet; at Bath, on the summit of Trout Creek Pass, and
along the western slopes of the Trout Pass Hills, where the same tree
occurs regularly up to 9,500 feet and sparingly among the Douglas
firs for another 300 feet; and on the eastern slope of the Sangre de
Cristo Range in the Mosca Pass region, where the pines are common
at 9,500 feet. Transition zone vegetation is carried to an abnormal
elevation also on the remarkably exposed southwest slopes of Sierra
Blanca and Grand Mesa, and on Badito Peak, the southernmost point
of the Wet Mountains. (See PL VI, fig. 1.)

An excellent illustration of warmer environmental conditions
created through deforestation, and a consequent upward extension of
Transition zone species, is afforded on the mountains north of and
adjacent to Clear Creek, just east of Fall River. The southwest side
of a mountain between Fall River and Russell Gulch is clothed to
the summit, at 9,000 feet, with a dwarfed growth of Pinus scopulorum,
intermixed with Pseudotsuga mucronata and Pinus Jlexilis, and such
shrubs as Acer glabrum and Cercocarpus parvifolius. The upper 500
feet of this slope is said to have been forested with Pinus murrayana
in early days before mining activities exhausted the best forests of

North American Fauna No. 33, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate VI.

Fig. 1.— Effect of Slope Exposure.

Yellow pines (Pinus scopulorum) and firs (Abies concolor) growing at same elevation (9,000 feet)
on hot and cold slopes in Wet Mountains east of Westcliffe.

Fig. 2.— Characteristic View at Upper Edge of
Transition Zone.

Undergrowth of small aspens (Popidus tremuloides) in forest
of yellow pine (Pinus scoptdorum) on Dolores Plateau.

1911.] TRANSITION ZONE. 35

the region, and many stumps still remain. At present the summit
and upper northern slopes of this mountain are clothed with a young
and dense growth of lodgepole pines, but they apparently can not
recover a foothold on the upper southwest slope, where they formerly
abounded. At no other point in northern Colorado was Pinus
scopulorum observed above 8,500 feet, and it reaches above 8.000
feet in only a few places. (PI. VI, fig. 2.)

The Transition zone varies greatly over the State, not only in
respect to its vertical and horizontal breadth, but also in its charac-
terization, being sometimes strongly marked and again dilute and
ill-defined. It is most uniform in width along the eastern flanks of
the front ranges, where the chief irregularities are due to the eastward
extending Arkansas Divide and the deeply penetrating valley of the
Arkansas River. On the western slope of the Continental Divide the
Transition belt is extremely irregular in outline, because of the
many plateaus which project westward from the main ranges and the
intervening desert valleys. It completely fills the upper valleys and
skirts the lower valleys of the Snake, Bear, White, Grand, Gunnison,
Dolores, and San Juan Rivers, and their affluents. Two independent
arms of the Transition zone enter the State along its northern bound-
ary in the intermountain region — one along the North Platte, a
narrow tongue which widens to include practically all the extensive
sage plains of North Park at an average elevation of about 8,000 feet;
the other, a narrow strip of yellow pine and sage country in the
Laramie River region. Two belts of this zone likewise penetrate the
intermountain region of Colorado from the south, occupy the foothills
of the San Juan and Culebra Ranges, skirt the great San Luis Valley,
and connect with the upper Arkansas Transition through a narrow
tongue across Poncha Pass.

As already observed, the Transition zone varies greatly in breadth.
The variation in horizontal breadth, due entirely to difference in
slope incline, is well illustrated by the following examples: On steep
slopes such as are found north of Grand River near Glenwood Springs,
and between De Beque and Rifle, the aspens of the high Canadian
zone country are often less than half a mile from the junipers of the
warm Upper Sonoran valley; while on the western side of the Elk
Head Mountains, where the slope is very gradual, the Transition zone
merges almost insensibly into the Upper Sonoran sage plains, and has
a width of 8 or 10 miles or even more. Again, in a few instances, the
Transition element is almost lost or crowded out by an unusual
upward extension of Upper Sonoran zone. For example, on the
north side of the Grand River Valley at McCoy, Eagle County,
pinyons and junipers (Juniperus monosperma) follow up the warm
south slopes to 7,800 feet, while lodgepole pines and aspens clothe the
summits and northern slopes at 8,400 feet. The intervening 600 feet,

36 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

or upper part of the southern slopes, supports a scattering growth of
Pinus scopulorum, Pseudotsuga mucronata, Amelancliier alnifolia,
Symphoricarpos oreophilus, and other Transition species.

Narrow extensions or arms of the Transition zone penetrate the
mountains for a considerable distance on both. sides of the main
ranges, following along the warm north sides of the valleys. Under
such conditions the upper limit of the yellow pines is very materially
lowered where they penetrate an extensive region of high altitude —
that is, the highest elevation at which the pines grow is considerably
less at the head of a valley where the surrounding environment is
uniformly boreal than on the slopes and ridges near the mouth of the
valley, where the bordering high country is much broken and incised
and thus permits a more general diffusion of warm air currents. This
difference in the upward extension of the pines amounts to nearly 500
feet in the Fountain Creek Valley. In the region about Manitou the
upper limit on warm slopes is approximately 9,000 feet, while at
Woodland Park, in the upper valley, it is about 8,500 feet.

MAMMALS OF COLORADO TRANSITION.

Both boreal and austral mammals are represented in the Transition
zone in Colorado, while only six species appear to be restricted to
it. These are two squirrels of the Sciurus aberti group, three
pocket gophers of the genus Thomomys, and a small brown bat,
Myotis lucifugus longicrus. Sciurus aberti ferreus inhabits the east-
ern foothills of the front ranges from Loveland and Arkins south
to the Mosca Pass region, and Sciurus aberti mimus occurs in the
stately yellow pine forests on the southern slopes of the San Juan and
La Plata Mountains. Thomomys clusius is found on the sage plains
of North Park, on the high grassy plateau in northeastern Weld
County, and on the western (higher) end of the Arkansas Divide.
Thomomys talpoides agrestis, an isolated mountain form of the
common Thomomys talpoides of the northern plains, is known only
from the San Luis Valley meadows. Another gopher, Thomomys
fulvus, appears to enter the State only on the Raton Mesa, in the
Trinidad region. Myotis I. longicrus is common in the Transition
zone at several points in western Colorado, and appears to be a
characteristic zone species.

The following mammals, while not entirely restricted to the Transi-
tion zone, have their center of abundance there, and characterize it
locally in various parts of the State: The Say chipmunk (Eutamias
quadrivittatus) , in the foothills of the eastern and southern moun-
tains; Wyoming ground squirrel (Citellus elegans), on the high sage
plains of North Park and in northwestern Colorado; Estes Park cliff
mouse (Peromyscus nasutus) and Gale wood rat (Neotoma fallax) , in
the eastern foothills of the front ranges; pygmy vole (Microtus

1911.] TRANSITION ZONE. 37

pauperrimus) , on the higher sage plains of North and Middle Parks
and in Routt County; white-tailed jack rabbit (Lepus campestris),
east of the Continental Divide, from North Park south to the Arkansas
Divide, and in San Luis Valley; Townsend jack rabbit (Lepus campes-
tris townsendi), of the higher open country west of the Continental
Divide; Rocky Mountain cottontail (Sylvilagus nuttalU pinetis),
mountain coyote (Cards Testes), and mountain wildcat (Lynx uinta),
found throughout the mountainous districts; and the northern plains
skunk (Mephitis hudsonica), which occurs on both slopes of the
northern mountains.

The following mammals of wider zonal range have been found in
this zone in various parts of the State:

Mammals Common to Transition and Upper Sonoran.

Antilocapra americana. Castor canadensis fro ndutor.

Odocoileus virginianus macrourus. Canis occidental-is.

Onychomys brevicaudus. Spilogale tenuis.

Eptesieus fuscus.

Mammals Common to Transition and Canadian.

Cervus canadensis. Microtus nanus.

Callos pernio philus lateralis. Microtus pennsylvanicus modestus.

Eutamias amoenus operarius. Zapus princeps.

Eutamias minimus consobrinus. Vulpes macrourus.

Ereihizon epixanthum. Ursus americanus.

Mammals Common to Transition, Canadian, and Upper Sonoran.

Odocoileus hemionus. Felis oregonensis hippolestes.

Cynomys gunnisoni. Lutreola vison energumenos.

Cynomys leucurus. Putorius arizonensis.

Taxidea taxus.

BREEDING BIRDS OF COLORADO TRANSITION.

Birds which breed chiefly in the Transition zone in Colorado are
the sage hen (Centrocercus urophasianus) / saw- whet owl (Crypto-
glaux acadica), sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter velox), Rocky Mountain
hairy woodpecker (Dryobates villosus monticola), Lewis woodpecker
(Asyndesmus lewisi), Wright flycatcher (Empidonax wrighti), spurred
towhee (Pipilo maculatus montanus), green-tailed towhee (Oreospiza
cJdorura), white- throated swift (Aeronautes melanoleucus) , plumbeous
vireo (L,anivireo solitarius plumbeus) , Macgilhvray warbler (Oporomis
tolmiei), Rocky Mountain nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis nelsoni), p}'gmy
nuthatch (Sitta pygmsea), and chestnut-backed bluebird (Sialia
mexicana bairdi).2 Among the birds occupying restricted areas in the
Colorado Transition during the breeding season may be mentioned

1 Mainly in northwestern Colorado. 2 Southern Colorado.

38

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

the Grace warbler (Dendroica gracise) , a common breeder in the yellow-
pine forests on the southern slopes of the San Juan Mountains.

Other birds conspicuous during; the breeding season in the Transition
belt in different parts of the State are:

Bubo virginianus palhscens.
Calamospiza melanocorys.
Colaptes cafer collaris.
Dendragapus obscurus.
Dendroica auduboni.
Euphagus cyan ocephalus.
Falco sparverius phalxna.
Myiochanes richardsoni.
Oreoscoptes montanus.
Otocoris alpestris leucolsema.
Passerculus sandwichensis alaudinus.
Penthestes gambeli.
Phalxnoptilus nuttalli.

Pica pica hudsonia.

Planesticus migratorius propinquus.

Pocecetes gramineus confinis.

Salpinctes obsoletus.

Sayornis saya.

Sialia currucoides.

Spizella breweri.

Spizella passerina arizonse.

Sturnella ncglecta.

Tachycineta thalassina lepida.

Troglodytes aedon parkmani.

Vireosylva gilva swainsoni.

Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus.

Several genera of the Anatidas and at least one genus of the Linii-
cohie are found on Lake John, North Park, during the summer, and
doubtless breed there. These include Branta canadensis, Anas
platyrhynchos, Spatula clypeata, Querquedula discors, and Steganopus
tricolor. Other breeders in the same region are the coot (Fulica
americana) and the great blue heron (Ardea lieroclias).

PLANTS OF COLORADO TRANSITION.

In Colorado, as in most sections of the western United States, the
yellow pine (Pinus scopulorum) (see PI. VII, fig. 2) is the character-
istic Transition tree, and the zone is practically coextensive with these
pines wherever they occur. Their distribution in the Colorado foot-
hill§ is quite general, except in the northwest, where a very sparse
and scattering growth occurs in a few widely separated localities.
Over much of western Colorado north of the San Juan Mountains
and Uncompahgre Plateau the Transition zone is a partially open
region, sage-covered slopes and parks alternating with brushy slopes
and ridges of chaparral, including such shrubs as oaks (Quercus gam-
oeli (PI. VII, fig. 1), Q. fendleri, and others), chokecherry (Prunus
melanocarpa) , Juneberries (AmelancJiier alnifolia, A. baJceri, and
others), and Ceanothus velutinus, PerapJiyTlum ramosissimum , Sym-
phoricarpos oreophilus, Kunzia tridentata, Cercocarpus parvifolius,
and in the Escalante Hills Cercocarpus ledifolius. The most promi-
nent forest tree in the Transition belt of northwestern Colorado is the
Douglas spruce (Pseudotsuga mucronata) , which occurs chiefly on
sharp declivities and on the exposed crests of the plateaus above
7,000 feet.

North American Fauna No. 33, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate VII.

Fig. 1.— Dense Chaparral of Oak (Quercus gam-
beli) in Western Foothills of West Elk Moun-
tains, on Head of Smith Fork of Gunnison
River, Altitude 8,000 Feet.

Fig. 2.— Yellow Pines iPinus scopulorumi near
Elkhorn, Larimer County, Showing Charac-
teristic Scattering Growth of the Species
on Eastern Foothills of Front Range.

1911.] TRANSITION ZONE. 39

The vegetation of the sage plains of North Park, in addition to
Artemisia tridentata, consists chiefly of Sarcobatus vermiculatus and
Chrysothamnus, with Kunzia tridentata added in sandy strips of
country.

Along streams throughout the State this zone is best indicated by
the narrow-leaved cottonwood (Populus angustifolia) . Some of the
shrubs found commonly in the neighborhood of streams are the
alder (Alnus tenuifolia) , Rocky Mountain birch (Betula fontinalis) ,
dogwood (Svida stolonifera riparid), hazel (Corylus rostrata), haws
{Crataegus soligna, C. wheeUri, and others), willow (Salix nuttalli),
Distegia involucrata,1 and Opulaster ramaleyi. Another willow
(Salix perrostrata) grows in dense clumps in bogs and around spring
holes. A large variety of shrubs and plants are characteristic of the
rocky slopes, among which are several species of June berry (Amelan-
chier), mountain holly (Cercocarpus parvifolius) ,2 ninebark (Opulaster
monogynus), flowering raspberry (Oreobatus deliciosus) , New Jersey
tea (Ceanothus pubescens) , Oregon grape (Berberis aquifolium), bear-
berry (Arctostaphylos uvaursi), currants (Ribes inebrians and R.
pumilum), Kunzia tridentata, Edwinia americana, and Holodiscus
dumosus. A large species of bearberry (Arctostaphylos pungens
platyphylla) forms a dense chaparral on the western slopes of the
Uncompahgre Plateau and on the opposite (eastern) slopes of the
La Sal Mountains, between 8,000 and 8,500 feet. The only cactuses
found with any regularity in the Colorado Transition are the little
Opuntia fragilis, which is common in the yellow pine forests near
Pagosa Springs and on the Uncompahgre Plateau, and was found
also along the North Fork of the Gunnison River above Somerset;
the unique snake cactus (Echinocactus simpsoni), most abundant in
the Wet Mountain Valley and adjacent region, so called because of
the peculiar snake-like growth occasionally formed; and Echinocereus
viridijlorus, also of the Wet Mountain region. Cactus missouriensis
occurs occasionally in the yellow pine belt of the eastern foothills.
Chrysothamnus elegans, C. bigelovi, and several other species of
rabbit brush are common and characteristic shrubs in the Wet
Mountain Valley and in all the open valleys and parks between
7,000 and 9,000 feet.

REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS OF COLORADO TRANSITION.

A few reptiles occur with more or less regularity in the Transition
zone, but it is doubtful whether any are restricted to it. Among the
lizards, the large gray rock lizard (Sceloporus elongatus) 3 is found in
rocky situations along the lower edge of the zone in many parts of
western and southwestern Colorado. One of the whip-tailed lizards,

1 Also lower Canadian. ■ Also Upper Sonoran. 3 Most abundant in Upper Sonoran zone.

40 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33

(Cnemidophorus gularis) 1 seen in the foothills near Golden in June,
1905, was in a rank growth of grass on a yellow pine slope, at 6,500
feet. Horned toads (Phrynosoma ornatissimum) are tolerably com-
mon in the sandy yellow pine country on the northern end of the
Uncompahgre Plateau. In July, 1907, several were seen on the head
of Dominguez Creek, at 8,500 feet, and one individual was collected.
Another, not over a third grown, was taken in late September, 1906,
at the same elevation on the chaparral-covered summit of the Book
Cliffs at Baxter Pass near the Utah boundary. A garter snake
( TJiamnophis elegans vagrans) 2 is not uncommon in the pine belt and
is found also in the lake region of North Park. A specimen taken at
Higho, North Park, in August, 1906, was crawling through the sage-
brush at some distance from water. Another was collected along
Snake River east of Slater, Routt County, in August, 1906, at a little
over 7,000 feet. The little green snake (Liopeltis vernalis) was taken
but once, on the bank of the Rio Pifios, a few miles below Vallecito,
June 6, 1907. A small frog (Chorophilus triseriatus) was secured on
Snake River, about 10 miles east of Slater, August 21, 1906. Edward
A. Preble collected the larva of a salamander {Amby stoma tigrinum)
in Estes Park in 1895.

AGRICULTURAL IMPORTANCE OF THE TRANSITION ZONE.

The rough and broken character of much of the Transition area in
Colorado precludes agriculture on an extensive scale, although the
climatic conditions are favorable for many of the hardier vegetables,
cereals, and fruits. The most important of its natural resources are
the yellow pine forests, which in some localities are very extensive.
The few areas of any size which are sufficiently open for cultivation
are North Park, the Wet Mountain Valley, San Luis Valley, and the
western (higher) end of the Arkansas Divide, together with certain
of the larger foothill valleys. Of these, the first two are devoted
largely to ranching and hay raising, the Arkansas Divide to grazing,
and the San Luis Valley alone to extensive agriculture. Wheat,
oats, and rye are the leading cereals raised in the Colorado Transition,
while timothy is an important hay crop. A great deal of alfalfa is
grown along the lower edge of the zone, where it usually yields two
cuttings. Higher up it is not a success. Potatoes and Canada field
peas are important crops in the San Luis Valley. A great variety of
vegetables are grown in the San Luis Valley, and also in the stream
valleys of the higher foothills over the State, where a good market is
furnished by the neighboring mining camps. Comparatively little
fruit is raised, but with a proper selection of hardy varieties horticul-
ture might be made an important industry in the protected foothill

i Most abundant in Upper Sonoran zone. 2 Also in lower Canadian zone.

North American Fauna No. 33, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate VIII.

Fig. 1.— Lower Part of Canadian Zone Forest of
Lodgepole Pines (Pinus murrayana) and Aspens
(Populus tremuloides) on North Park Slope
of Medicine Bow Range.

.•:'-< • : it

Fig. 2.— Forest of Engelmann Spruce (Picea engelmannp in Upper Part of
Canadian Zone, on Summit of Park Range, at 10,000 Feet.

1911.]

CANADIAN ZONE. 41

valleys wherever water is available for irrigation. A variety of berry
fruits, such as June berries, strawberries, raspberries, currants, and
gooseberries, are native to the Transition zone in Colorado.

The Transition zone is suited to the growth of practically all the
vegetables, including the cabbage, lettuce, turnip, radish, potato, beet
(both table and sugar), pea, bean, onion, carrot, parsnip, and early
sweet corn; all hardy cereals; and the hardier varieties of apples,
cherries, and small fruits. The crab apple reaches its best develop-
ment in this zone.1

CANADIAN ZONE.

This, the more extensive of the boreal zones, occupies the middle
slopes on the main ranges and extensive areas in the mountain parks,
and caps all of the higher western plateaus, thus including the larger
part of the coniferous forests of the State. Broadly speaking, the
Canadian zone is characterized in the mountains of Colorado by
extensive forest belts of aspens (Populus tremuloides), lodgepole pines
(Pinus murrayana), and the lower, heaviest part of the Engelmann
spruce belt (see PI. VIII, fig. 2). White firs (Abies concolor) are added
to these in the southern mountains. On the western plateaus it is
marked by either a mixed forest of aspens and Engelmann spruces,
or else a partially open country of grassy parks and aspen groves.
In the park region of central Colorado considerable areas of open
grass land are in this zone.

Chief among the elevated areas in western Colorado extensively
capped with Canadian zone are the White River, Book, and Uncom-
pahgre Plateaus; Grand, Battlement, Lone, and Blue Mesas; the
Danforth and Huntsmans Hills; and the Cathedral Bluffs. The
Gore, Elk Head, Rabbit Ear, Williams River, and West Elk Moun-
tains are largely or wholly Canadian, while perhaps the largest areas
of this zone are found in the Middle, Egeria, and South Park regions.
Small Canadian zone islands cap the summits and upper northern
slopes of many small outlying peaks and plateaus, especially in western
and southern Colorado. Among these may be mentioned Diamond
and Zenobia Peaks, Mount Cullom, and Yampa and O-wi-yu-kuts
Plateaus, all in extreme western Routt County; Ute Peak, the
highest point in the Sierra el Late, in Montezuma County; isolated
table mountains south of the San Miguel and San Juan Mountains,
and peaks between the upper forks of the South Platte; and Raton
Mesa, southeast of Trinidad.

In the mountains of the northern half of the State the lodgepole
pine and aspen forests are regularly entered at between 7,500 and
8,000 feet, and continue up to a little over 10,000 feet. (See PI.

1 Some of the varieties of cereals and fruits which have proved adapted to the Transition zone (arid sub-
division) in Idaho, eastern Washington, and Utah, are listed by Merriam in Life Zones and Crop Zones,
Bull. No. 10, Biological Survey, pp. 25-27, 1898.

42 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33

VI II, fig. 1.) Passing south to the latitude of Colorado Springs, the
Canadian zone level is raised 500 to 1,000 feet, and continues high
over most of the southern mountains, with the vertical breadth about
as in the north. The vertical boundaries are subject to great local
variation, according to physiographic conditions, entirely apart
from the regular elevation and depression due to slope exposure.
Striking examples are the upper Arkansas Valley and Gunnison
regions, on opposite sides of the Continental Divide. On the moun-
tain slopes bordering the upper Arkansas from the Royal Gorge to
Buena Vista and beyond, Canadian zone species are seldom encoun-
tered much below 8,500 or 9,000 feet, even on cold exposures, and
along the east side of the valley in the vicinity of Trout Creek Pass
they are crowded on warm slopes above 9,500 feet. Over much of
the upper Gunnison country lodgepole pines and aspens grow regu-
larly as low as 8,000 feet on cold exposures and 8,500 feet on warmer
slopes. The comparatively low elevation reached in the Gunnison
country is undoubtedly due to the influence of the great mass of
boreal country which practically surrounds the region. The unusu-
ally high temperature and consequent high zone levels which pre-
vail in the upper Arkansas region are probably due to several factors.
The southward trend of this narrow valley admits the hottest rays
of the sun, which shine with great directness upon very abrupt
bordering slopes; while the region to the east and south is neither
so high nor so extensively boreal as that which surrounds the Gun-
nison country. The western slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Range
and the eastern slopes of the Cochetopa Hills and Garita Mountains,
bordering the northern two-thirds of the San Luis Valley, and the
eastern slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Range near Mosca and Sand
Hill Passes, are other notable examples of abnormally high zone levels,
where on warm slopes the Canadian element is often forced above
9,500 feet. This is probably the result of the high, 7,500-foot base
level of San Luis Valley. South from Mosca Pass along the eastern
slope of the range the lower boundary of the Canadian zone gradually
drops to about 8,000 feet, which level is uniformly maintained on the
slopes of the high Culebra Range west of Trinidad. The low 6,000-
foot base level of the Trinidad plains would account for low zone
levels on the Culebras.

The effect of slope exposure on zone level is well shown along the
lower edge of the Canadian zone, both on individual slopes and on
opposite sides of mountain ranges, especially on those which rise
abruptly with few flanking foothills. On the high narrow Sangre de
Cristo Range the difference in mean elevation between the east and
west slopes amounts to fully 500 feet, and it is nearly as great on
some of the other ranges. Throughout the mountains, cool shaded
north and northeast slopes and gulches carry the aspens, lodgepole

North American Fauna No. 33, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate IX.

Fig. 1.— Summer Cattle Range, Canadian Zone
Meadow East of Laramie River, 10,000 Feet
Altitude.

Fig. 2 —Canadian Zone Vegetation at 9,000 Feet
on Open Summit of Uncompahgre Plateau-
Frasera, Delphinium, Geranium, and Lupinus.

1911.] CANADIAN ZONE. 43

pines, firs, and other Canadian zone vegetation to a low elevation.
Some of the cold streams on the eastern slope of the Front Range
carry quite pronounced tongues of Canadian zone as low as 7,000 feet.
These consist of thickets of aspens, a scattering fringe of blue spruces
(Picea parryana), and occasionally an Engelmann spruce. These
descending boreal tongues are invariably embraced by warm slopes
clothed in different parts of the State with yellow pines, oaks, sage-
brush, and other Transition zone vegetation. At Honnold, Routt
County, lodgepole pines and dense thickets of scrubby aspens crowd
down the steep northern face? of the Elk Head Mountains to the
bank of Snake River, at 7,000 feet, alternating with ascending
tongues of sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) on all the warm Transi-
tion slopes up to 7,500 or even 8,000 feet.

The boreal forest belts are best shown on sharply inclined slopes,
like the steep north side of the Clear Creek Valley between Silver
Plume and Graymont, where in summer a beautiful tricolored
appearance is presented, due to the three shades of green of the
aspen, lodgepole pine, and Engelmann spruce forest. The slopes
up to 10,500 feet are densely clothed with the first two trees in about
equal abundance, and present a patched appearance, thickets and
ascending tongues of the light-green aspens being scattered through
the more uniformly distributed, dark, yellowish-green pines. (See PI.
VIII, fig. 1.) Joining the upper edge of this forest is a regular and
well-marked belt of greenish-black Engelmann spruces, while still
higher up the slope may be seen the straggling growth of foxtail pines
(Pinus aristata) of the timberline region — of the same hue as the
Engelmann spruces, but distinguishable by their ragged appearance.

In Colorado extensive forests cover a very large percentage of the
total area occupied by the Canadian zone, which is poorly adapted to
crops. The only open land at all suited to agriculture is found along
the lower edge, between 8,000 and 9,000 feet, and comprises narrow
strips along the streams in the larger mountain valleys and parks
and on the western plateaus. At present this agricultural land is
largely utilized for wild hay and timothy. As most of the park and
plateau region supports a luxuriant growth of grasses, affording an
excellent summer range for cattle (see PI. IX, fig. 1), there would
probably be no economic advantage in cultivating the hardy cereals
grown in the warmer part of this zone in various sections of the
United States and Canada. A very limited acreage of rye, oats,
and wheat is grown in Middle Park and elsewhere in the mountains,
but as yet their culture is scarcely beyond the experimental stage.
The hardier vegetables also, as beets, parsnips, lettuce, turnips,
potatoes, cabbages, and carrots, are raised successfully along the
lower edge of the zone. The fact that wild strawberries, raspberries,
currants, and blueberries grow in profusion in this zone strongly

44 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

suggests that cultivated varieties might do well in favored spots.
The roughness of much of the region in this zone precludes the possi-
bility of extensive agriculture even under favorable climatic condi-
tions. The chief resource of the Canadian zone, however, is its tim-
ber, especially the extensive forests of lodgepole pines. On some of
the northern mountains, as the Park and Medicine Bow Ranges,
where mining operations have made the least inroad on the forests,
these pines grow very closely and to maximum size, many of the
trees reaching a diameter of 2 feet or more. With their remarkably
uniform straight growth and close stand, these pines form a beau-
tiful and stately forest and yield valuable lumber. (See fig. 31.)

MAMMALS OF COLORADO CANADIAN ZONE.

The following boreal mammals have their center of abundance in
the Canadian zone of Colorado, and rarely range much lower, although
most of them extend up into the Hudsonian zone: Fremont chick-
aree (Sciurus fremonti), woodchuck (Marmota engelhardti) , Rocky
Mountain red-backed mouse (Evotomys gapperi galei), Preble phe-
nacomys (Phenacomys preblei), mountain phenacomys (Phenacomys
orophilus), Rocky Mountain field mouse (Microtus mordax), tawny
white-footed mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus rufinus) , snowshoe rabbit
(Lepus hairdi), Colorado pocket gopher (Thomomys fossor), black
bear (Ursus americanus), western fox (Vulpes macrourus), Rocky
Mountain jumping mouse (Zapus princeps), dwarf weasel (Putorius
streatori leptus), Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis), marten (Mustela
caurina origenes), wolverine (Gulo luscus), shrews (Sorex vagrans
dobsoni, S. tenellus nanus, S. obscurus, and S. personatus), water
shrew (Neosorex palustris navigator) , and silver-haired bat (Lasionyc-
teris noctivagans) .

BREEDING BIRDS OF COLORADO CANADIAN ZONE.

The following birds appear to be very commonly found in the
Canadian zone in Colorado during the breeding season: Rocky Moun-
tain jay (Perisoreus canadensis capitalis), olive-sided flycatcher
(Nuttallornis borealis), Alpine three-toed woodpecker (Picoides ameri-
canus dorsalis), Lincoln sparrow (Melospiza lincolni), Dendragapus
obscurus, Cyanocitta stelleri diademata, Loxia curvirostra minor,
Spliyrapicus thyroideus, S. varius nuchalis, Spinus pinus, Junco
phseonotus caniceps, Iridoprocne bicolor, Sitta canadensis, Cinclus
mexicanus unicolor, Myadestes townsendi, Hylocichla guttata auduboni,
Ih ndroica auduboni, and Carpodacus cassini. Some of the above
species breed more or less commonly from the foothill region nearly
to timberline, but their center of abundance during the breeding
season is in the Canadian zone, between 8,000 and 10,000 feet.

North American Fauna No. 33, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate X.

Fig. 1.— Hudsonian Zone, San Juan Mountains, Southwest of Ophir.

Fig. 2.— Hudsonian Zone Forest on Saguache Range Near St. Elmo (1 2,000 Feet.)

1911.] HUDSONIAN ZONE. 45

PLANTS OF COLORADO CANADIAN ZONE.

The coniferous forest of the Canadian zone is composed chiefly of
lodgepole pines in the northern two-thirds of the State and of white
firs in the southern third; but it includes also the heaviest and lowest
part of the Engehnann spruce belt and a scattering growth of balsam
firs (Abies lasiocarpa) along its upper edge; and in the lower third
a fringe of blue spruce along the streams, more or less Rocky Moun-
tain white pine (Pinus Jlexilis) , especially in the southern mountains,
and an admixture of Douglas spruce along its lower edge throughout
the State. The aspen (Populus tremuloides) marks this zone in all
the mountainous sections.

The most characteristic shrubs and plants are the Canadian buffalo
berry (Lepargyrea canadensis) on dry slopes, chiefly of the Front,
Park, and Saguache Ranges; alder (Alnus tenuifolia), and willows
(Salix geyeriana and others), which fringe the cold streams and bogs
between 10,000 and 11,000 feet; elderberries (Sambucus melanocarpa
and S. microbotrys); blueberry (Vaccinium caespitosum); currant
(Ribes wolfi); mountain juniper (Juniperus sibirica); mountain maple
(Acer glabrum); columbine (Aquilegia cserulea); twinflower (Linnxa
americana); Pachystima myrsinites; Rubacer parvijlorus; Viburnum
pauciflorum; Viola canadensis neomexicana; Frasera speciosa (see
PI. IX, fig. 2) ; Cytherea bulbosa; Actsea viridijtora; Dasiphora fruti-
cosa; Rosa manca; and several species of Pyrola, Epilobium, Castil-
leja, and Delphinium. The little dwarf birch (Betula glandulosa)
forms a conspicuous fringe along cold streams and bogs in the upper
part of the zone in many of the mountain ranges.

REPTILES OF COLORADO CANADIAN ZONE.

The only reptile observed in this zone is a garter snake (Thamno-
pMs elegans vagrans), collected hi a cold bog near Pearl, North Park,
in August, 1906, at an altitude of a little over 8,000 feet. It is not
known, however, that this snake occurs regularly hi the Canadian
zone. It is not uncommon over the State in the Transition zone.

HUDSONIAN ZONE.

On all the higher mountains of Colorado a dark, somber-colored
forest belt of varying width is prominent just below timberline.
Traced along the upper slopes of the main ranges this belt is seen to
be heaviest and broadest in gulches and basins, while on jutting
shoulders and exposed ridges of steep incline it often contracts to a
narrow black line. (See PL X, fig. 1.) This is the upper forest of
Engehnann spruce (Picea engelmanni) and balsam fir (Abies lasio-
carpa), and marks in a general way the limits of the Hudsonian zone.
It is a neutral or transition area combining both Arc tic-Alpine and
Canadian zone elements. Very few species are restricted to it, and
it is therefore not so well characterized as either bordering zone.

46 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

Especially is this lack of character manifest along the lower edge of
the zone, where in the heavy forests on slopes of moderate incline
Hndsonian conditions merge almost insensibly into those of the
Canadian zone. Well-defined belts of the Hndsonian zone are found
onlv on such mountain ranges as are sufficiently high to afford alpine
conditions on their summits and highest spurs, as the Front, Park,
Saguache (see PI. X, fig. 2) and Sangre de Cristo Ranges, and the
Sun Juan Mountains. The lower stretches of the above ranges and
many connecting and outlying mountains with a near approach to
timberline conditions on their highest elevations are capped with
this zone. In dilute form it may be traced also along the crests of
some of the outlying ridges and spurs which do not reach timberline.

The vertical width of the Hudsonian zone on the Colorado moun-
tains is not far from 1,000 feet. It narrows to 600 feet in places, and
again widens to as much as 1,200 feet, and in extreme cases to 1,500
feet. The lower boundary is seldom clearly defined, being usually
on steep slopes at between 10,500 feet and 10,800 feet on warm
exposures, and several hundred feet lower on cool slopes and espe-
cially in gulches. The upper part of the Hudsonian belt is well indi-
cated by timberline conditions. On normal warm slopes the spruces
and firs begin to dwarf at a little over 11,000 feet. They rapidly
become stunted and much dwarfed, then semiprostrate, and finally
as dense prostrate mats from 1 to 3 feet in height and often many
feet in diameter, crowd far up the exposed ridges in narrow ascending
tongues, giving place to the bare Alpine slopes at a mean elevation
of about 11,500 feet, but on the warmest slopes from 11,800 feet to
12,300 feet.

The upper limit of this zone (timberline) is the best marked of all
zonal boundaries. It is very sinuous, and affords perhaps the most
striking example of one zone lapping past another. Traced along
the upper slopes of a mountain range, it is seen regularly to dip
down several hundred feet to skirt the lower edges of basins and
gulches occupied by descending arms of the Arctic- Alpine zone; and
again to reach far above its normal elevation on the exposed crests
of the bordering ridges. In this manner tongues of Arctic-Alpine
and Hudsonian zone regularly lap past each other at timberline for
a vertical distance of 400 or 500 feet and in extreme cases for twice
that distance, or about the width of the zone. (See PL XI, fig. 2.)

The following are a few of the limits of the Hudsonian zone in
different parts of the State that will serve to illustrate the range of
variation as to vertical position: Rollins Pass, Front Range (east
slope), 10,000 to 10,900 feet; near Fremont Pass (east slope), 11,000
to 11,600 feet; St. Elmo, Saguache Range (southwest slope), 10,800
to 12,300 feet; Ophir, San Juan Mountains (north slope), 10,500 to
11,500 feet; Continental Divide, southeast of Lake City (northwest
slope), 10,800 to 12,000 feet.

North American Fauna No. 33, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate XI.

Fig. 1.— Foxtail Pines (Pinus aristata) at Timber-
line Near St. Elmo, Saguache Mountains, at
12,300 Feet.

Fig. 2. —Ascending Tongue of Engelmann Spruce
at Timberlineon Front Range Near Berthoud
Pass (Northwest Slope), at 11,600 Feet.

1911.] • HUDSONIAN ZONE. 47

The Engelmann spruce predominates in the Hudsonian forest belt
throughout Colorado, and in certain sections is the only tree present.
Usually, however, thickets of balsam fir are scattered through the
spruce forest in bogs and on cool slopes, and occasionally the firs
form a dense growth, as on the eastern slope of the Front Range in
the vicinity of Rollins Pass, on the western slope of the same range
above Arrow and Idlewild, and west of Alpine Pass on the Saguache
Range. Both the spruce and fir extend up to extreme timberline.
They reach their maximum size, and the former its densest growth,
along the upper edge of the Canadian zone. Above 11,000 feet
dwarfed growth is the rule, but there are marked exceptions. In
crossing the two high ridges which form the divide between the Lake
Fork of the Gunnison and Cebolla Creek, southeast of Lake City, at
elevations of 11,350 and 11,550 feet, respectively, I found the spruce
belt continuous and heavy, the trees averaging from 60 to 80 feet in
height. On a southwest slope in the Saguache Mountains north of
St. Elmo, at an altitude of 11,700 feet, Engelmann spruces were
growing commonly to a height of 30 or 40 feet.

On the Front Range south of James Peak, throughout the length
of the Saguache Range, and on the Sangre de Cristo Range south at
least to Crestone Peak, another tree occupies much of the timberline
region to the partial exclusion of the spruce and fir This is the
foxtail pine (Pinus aristata), which crowds up the warm sides and
along the crests of exposed gravelly ridges in a ragged, one-sided,
wind-beaten growth from 5 to 15 feet in height. This pine appears
to be local in its distribution, being present on some mountains
and entirely absent on neighboring peaks of the same range. It
is largely confined to the front ranges south of the latitude of Den-
ver and was not noted on the mountains of western and extreme
northern Colorado. It is the characteristic timberline tree on the
mountains bordering South Park on the west, and also on that part
of the Saguache Range known as the University Range — from Salida
north to Buena Vista. Warm south and southwest slopes are
chiefly occupied by the foxtail pines. Timberline on the cool sides of
the mountains is usually formed by spruces and firs. But at St.
Elmo, where foxtail pines form the highest recorded timberline in the
State (12,300 feet), the gnarled and twisted, often nearly prostrate,
trunks of the uppermost of these evidence in a most striking manner
the stern contest for existence waged against a rigorous and adverse
climate. (See PI. XI, fig. 1.)

Although characteristic of the Hudsonian zone, the Engelmann
spruce, balsam fir, and foxtail pine are by no means restricted to
it. The spruce forms regularly a heavy growth and the fir a scatter-
ing growth along the upper edge of the Canadian zone, while the pine
occurs sparingly on exposed gravelly points and ridges as low as 9,500
feet, particularly in the South Park region.

48

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

The mossy floor of the Iludsonian forest is saturated with moisture
throughout the summer from the melting snows of the higher slopes,
and cold bogs abound. Flowering plants grow in profusion, although
the number of species is not large — the flora being mostly a mixture
of overlapping Arctic-Alpine and Canadian zone species.

The Hudsonian and Arctic- Alpine regions are not only the sources,
but also the conservers, of much of the water supply, so vitally
essential to successful agriculture throughout the State, and the
importance of the regions in this regard can scarcely be overesti-
mated. The forests of Engelmann spruce and balsam fir, although
yielding lumber of very inferior quality, are used extensively for
raining timbers in the higher mountains.

MAMMALS OF COLORADO HUDSONIAN ZONE.

Among mammals, no species appears to be restricted to the Hud-
sonian, but the pika, marmot, and mountain sheep are characteristic
of the timberline region.

The following are found in greater or less abundance, as either
residents or stragglers:

Callos pernio philus lateralis.

( 'anis lestes.

Cervus canadensis.

Erethizon epixanthum .

Eutamias amcenus operarius.

Eutamias minimus consobrinus.

Evotomys gap peri galei.

Felis oregonensis hippolestes.

Gulo luscus.

Lepus bairdi.

Lepus campestris toivnsendi.

Lynx canadensis.

Lynx uinta.

Marmota engelhardti.

Microtus mordax.

Microtus nanus.

Mustela caurina origenes.

Neotoma cinerea orolestes.

Ochotona saxatilis.

Odocoileus hemionus.

Ovis canadensis.

Peromyscus maniculatus rufinus.

Putorius arizonensis.

Putorius streatori leptus.

Sciurus fremonti.

Sorex obscurus.

Thomomys fossor .

Ursus americanus.

TJrsus horribilis.

Vulpes maerourus.

BREEDING BIRDS OF COLORADO HUDSONIAN ZONE.

The following birds are restricted mainly in their breeding range to
the Hudsonian zone: Pinicola enucleator montana, Certhia familiaris
montana, and Regulus satrapa.

The following birds occur commonly in summer in Hudsonian and
Canadian zones, some of them breeding early in a lower zone :

Picoides americanus dorsalis. Wilsonia pusilla pileolata.

Nucifraga columbiana. Regulus calendula.

Perisoreus canadensis capitalis. Hylocichla guttata auduboni.

Myadestes townsendi. Planesticus migratorius propinquus.

Zonotrichia leucophrys. Sialia currucoides.

Junco phxonotus caniceps. Colaptes cafer collaris.
Spinus pinus.

North American Fauna No. 33, U. S. Dept Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate XII.

^ti&AJ^ £"

', '~*il

^

yr^^Ptepq^- - . . ■*•>

• *

.--ft-' ''^Sy

jr- V -" -;*

" - ■ Mi-

**^„ ■ *!

Fig. 1.— Grays Peak Group from Near Berthoud Pass, Showing an Extensive
Area of Arctic-Alpine Country.

Fig. 2.— Arctic-Alpine Zone on the Saguache Range Near St. Elmo.

1911.] ARCTIC-ALPINE ZONE. 49

PLANTS OF COLORADO HUDSONIAN ZONE.

The distribution of the Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmanni),
balsam fir {Abies lasiocarpa), and foxtail pine {Pinus aristata) in the
Hudsonian zone has already been discussed in detail. Conspicuous
plants and shrubs of the timberline region are: Caltha leptosepala ,
Trollius albiflorus, Ranunculus unguiculatus, Erysimum radicum,
Sedum stenopetalum, Polemonium (several species) , Trifolium (several
species), Androsace (several species), Clementsia rhodantha, Rhodiola
polygama and R. integrifolia, Mertensia alpina and other species,
Epilobium, Vaccinium erythrococcum, Kalmia micropTiylla , Betula
glandulosa, Salix glaucops, S. pseudolapponum, S. cMorophylla , and
S. saximontana.

ARCTIC- ALPINE ZONE.

Truly arctic conditions characterize this zone, which occupies the
summits of the liighest peaks and the crests of all the higher moun-
tains above the limit of tree growth. Small areas are found on the
Park Range from Buck Mountain and Mount Zirkel south nearly to
Buffalo Pass; on the southern half of the Medicine Bow Range; on
the higher eastern end of the Rabbit Ear Mountains; and on the
Vasquez, Williams, and Gore Mountains of the Middle Park region.'
A belt which is continuous, or at most is broken only by narrow gaps
dipping to timberline or a trifle below, extends from Longs Peak
south along the crest of the Front Range to Grays Peak (see PL XII,
fig. 1) and the Leadville region. Extensive areas of the Arctic- Alpine
zone are found on the mountains of southern Colorado, especially on
the San Juan Mountains, and on the Saguache (see PI. XII, fig. 2),
Sangre de Cristo, and Culebra Ranges. The La Plata, San Miguel,
Elk, Tarryall, and Wet Mountains, and the Kenosha Range all have
many summits reaching far above timberline. Small islands of the
Arctic- Alpine zone also cap many of the more or less isolated peaks
of the Gunnison country, Pikes Peak, and a few of the highest eleva-
tions at the eastern end of the White River Plateau known collec-
tively as the Flat Top Peaks.

The altitude of extreme timberline, which marks the lower bound-
ary of the Arctic- Alpine zone, varies over the State according to slope,
exposure, and latitude from a trifle under 11,000 feet to 12,300 feet.
It is lowest in the northern mountains and in the San Juans,1 where
the mean elevation is 11,500 feet and the extremes are 10,900 feet
(east side of Rollins Pass and south of Ophir), and 11,800 feet (moun-
tains southeast of Lake City) ; and liighest on the Front and Saguache
Ranges west of South Park and the Arkansas Valley, with a mean

i The reason for the low average timberline elevations in the San Juan Mountains is the lowness of the
base level (5,000 feet), where their latitude and their proximity to a hot desert region on the west would
lead us to expect a high timberline.

90432°— 11 4

50 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

elevation of nearly 11,800 feet, and extremes of 11,000 feet and 12,300
feet (north of St. Elmo). Under normal conditions the Arctic-Alpine
zone usually dips lowest in basins and gulches with northeast expo-
sures, where it is often embraced for 500 feet or more by ascending
tongues of the Hudsonian zone, which follow up the bordering ridges.
The exceptional cases, where timberline is lowest on west or south-
west slopes, will usually be found to be due to unnatural conditions.
Thus at Boreas Pass, in the mountains west of South Park, timber-
line is below 11,600 feet on a southwest slope of slide rock, while on
the northeast slope opposite, with favorable soil conditions, it reaches
11,900 or 12,000 feet. In approximating the elevation of normal
timberline due allowance must always be made for the effects of
rock slides and avalanches, which, viewed from a distance, appear to
be descending tongues of Arctic- Alpine zone reaching far below tim-
berline. These slides, by carrying away the soil and leaving in its
place great masses of slide rock, create conditions unsuitable for tree
growth, yet do not remove the climatic barrier which prevents the
downward dispersion of Alpine species.

The Arctic- Alpine area is a bare and bleak region covered with snow
for the greater part of the year, and with more or less remaining on
the ground in summer. Naturally the variety of life is here reduced
to a minimum.

MAMMALS OF COLORADO ARCTIC-ALPINE ZONE.

No mammals are restricted to the Arctic-Alpine area in Colorado.
The following species range at times to considerably above timber-
line in different parts of the mountains: Mountain sheep (Ovis
canadensis), grizzly bear (Ursus Tiorribilis), coyote (Canis Testes),
marten (Mustela caurina origenes), western fox (Vulpes macrourus),
porcupine (Erethizon epixanthum), snowshoe rabbit (Lepus bairdi),
two chipmunks (Eutamias amaznus operarius and E. minimus conso-
brinus), marmot (Marmota engelhardti) , Colorado pocket gopher
(Thomomys fossor) , pika (Ochotona saxatilis), and two held mice (Mi-
crotus mordax and M. nanus). Of these the marmot, pika, pocket
gopher, and field mice apparently live in tins bleak region throughout
the year.

BREEDING BIRDS OF COLORADO ARCTIC-ALPINE ZONE.

Three species of birds are restricted to the Alpine zone during the
breeding season. These are the white-tailed ptarmigan (Lagopus
leucurus), the pipit (Anthus rubescens), and the brown-capped rosy
finch (Leucosticte australis), none of wlrich are known to breed much
below 12,000 feet. The pileolated warbler ( Wilsonia pusilla pileolata)
and the white-crowned sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) breed regu-

1011.] MAMMALS. 51

larly in the thickets of alpine willows for 500 feet above timberline,
but their breeding range also extends down through the Hudsonian
zone. Other birds observed as stragglers above timberline are Buteo
boreaMs calurus, Chordeiles virginiunus Jienryi, Corvus corax sinuatus,
J unco pJiseonotus caniceps, and a humming bird (probably Selasphorus
platycercus).

PLANTS OF COLORADO ARCTIC-ALPINE ZONE.

The only shrubs able to withstand the rigorous climate on the
wind-swept slopes of this region are several species of alpine willows,
among which are Salix petropMla, S. cMorophylla, and S. glaucops,
with its smooth variety glabrata. Dense thickets of these willows
from a few inches to 3 feet in height occur from timberline to 13,000
feet, chiefly in ascending tongues through alpine bogs on the slopes
of gulches and basins (see fig. 35) ; wlule S. petrophila, at least, is met
with sparingly on the highest summits, at 14,000 feet. Some of the
plants characteristic of the region above timberline are Silene acaulis,
Saxifraga debilis, Leptasea austromontana, Micranthes rhomboidea,
Rhodiola polygaina, Clementsia rhodantha, Mertensia alpina, Myosotis
alpestris, Pedicularis grcenlandica, Polemonium confertum, Polygonum
viviparum, Swertia palustris, Sieversia turbinata, Phlox condensata,
Besseya alpina, Trifolium nanum, TKlaspi purpurascens, and Macro-
nema discoideum.1 Most of the vegetation present above 13,000 feet
consists of mosses and lichens.

MAMMALS OF COLORADO.

The following list is believed to include all species of mammals
known to occur in Colorado, and aims to furnish accurate knowledge
of their geographical and vertical distribution within the State. As
already stated, it is based primarily upon investigations conducted
in Colorado by the writer during the field seasons of 1905, 1906, 1907,
and 1909. In addition, the data secured by other members of the
Biological Survey during the past 20 years have been incorporated,
and all important articles bearing on the subject, both old and recent,
have been freely quoted.

The first accurate information regarding Colorado mammals was
obtained on Maj. Long's expedition in 1820. Several species new to
science were obtained within the State, and were described by Thomas
Say in the Report of Long's Expedition to the Rocky Mountains,
v. 2, 1823.

In the summer of 1871 Dr. J. A. Allen spent four weeks in Park
County, securing data which later formed the basis of an important

1 As indicative of the arctic environment of this region, note the occurrence of Pedicularis granlandica,
Myosotis alpestris, and Polygonum viviparum— species which are abundant in Greenland and Alaska.

52 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

paper on the mammals of the South Park region, published in the
Bulletin of the Essex Institute, VI, pp. 53-58, 1874.

Many Colorado mammals collected in the course of the United
States Geographical Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian
are recorded by Coues and Yarrow in v. 5 (Zoology) of the Report of
the Survey, 1875. Other articles and notes of less scope pertaining to
the subject, which have appeared from time to time in various pub-
lications, need not be detailed. Four important recent publications
on Colorado mammals, however, often quoted in the present report,
are here cited in full to avoid frequent repetition of the complete
reference.

Allen, J. A. List of Mammals Collected by Mr. Charles P. Rowley in the San Juan
Region of Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, with Descriptions of New Species.
<Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., V, pp. 69-84, 1893.

Warren, Edward R. The Mammals of Colorado. ^Colorado College Publica-
tions, gen. ser. no. 19, Science ser. no. 46, XI, pp. 225-274, 1906.

Warren, Edward R. Further Notes on the Mammals of Colorado. ^Colorado
College Publications, gen. ser. 33, Engineering ser. 1, No. 4, pp. 59-90, 1908.

Warren, Edward R. The Mammals of Colorado. Pp. 300, with maps and numerous
text figures. New York and London, 1910.

Didelphis virginiana Kerr. Virginia Opossum.

An apparently authentic instance of the occurrence of the
opossum in Colorado was given me by Mr. George Heckler, a ranchman
living in Shell Rock Canyon, in the northwest corner of Baca County.
Mr. D. A. Rhinehart, of Lamar, who was familiar with the opossum
farther east, afterwards verified Mr. Heckler's statement.

Mr. Heckler states that during the winter of 1903-4 he was hauling
supplies from Las Animas to the sheep camps in southern Bent and
Las Animas Counties, and one stormy evening camped in an old cabin
among the cottonwoods near the head of Caddoa Creek, some 12 miles
north of Gaume's ranch. Soon after kindling a fire in the fireplace,
he saw a peculiar animal skulk in at the open door, and knocked it
over with a stick of wood. After examining it and noting that it was
an animal with which he was unacquainted, Mr. Heckler left it lying
near the door, apparently dead. Happening to glance in its direction
a little later, however, he saw the eyes slyly open for a look around,
and the tales of "playing 'possum" which he had read came to his
mind. Mr. Heckler kept the animal alive and gave it to a gentleman
residing a few miles north of Springfield, where Mr. Rhinehart saw it
soon after its capture.

The opossum is known to occur commonly in west-central Kansas,
in western Oklahoma, and along certain of the streams on the Texas
Panhandle. The individual captured on Caddoa Creek was probably
a straggler, as careful inquiry in the Arkansas Valley and elsewhere in
the region elicited no information respecting the presence of opossums.
It may have reached the head of Caddoa Creek either by way of the

1911.] MAMMALS. 53

Arkansas, which is heavily fringed with cottonwoods from middle
Kansas westward, or from the southeast, through the valley of the
Cimarron River. Either route is a logical one for Didelphis to follow
westward. Caddoa Creek is a southern affluent of the Arkansas River
and has a scattering fringe of cottonwoods along most of its length.
The region at the head of Caddoa Creek is wild and unsettled, and the
cabin where the opossum was captured is the only one in many miies.

Cervus canadensis Erxleben. Elk; Wapiti.

The elk is now exterminated over much of its former range in
Colorado, and the few bands which remain in the wildest parts of the
western plateaus and mountains are small and widely scattered. The
huge piles of antlers at many of the ranches in the northern mountains
are a mute testimony to the former abundance of this noble animal.
Estimates in 1898 placed the number of elk in Colorado at 7,000; in
1902 at 3,000. In 1909 their numbers were reduced to considerably
less, and were divided about equally between northern and southern
Colorado.1 Conservative estimates of the number in Routt and Rio
Blanco Counties varied from 200 or 300 to twice that number. Mr.
Andrew R. Hodges, a well-known game warden with wide experience
in the elk range, thinks there were fully 400 and possibly 500 elk in
the mountains of Gunnison County up to 1909. In addition there are
known to be small bands in the San Juan and La Plata Mountains
and elsewhere.

In 1905, when I began work in Colorado, a few elk were still found in
the Rabbit Ear Mountains, ranging on both their north and south
slopes near the heads of Troublesome Creek (Middle Park) and
Arapahoe Creek (North Park). A small band was said to range the
Vasquez Mountains, and also on the headwaters of the Williams Fork
of Grand River, while several other bands were reported on the White
River Plateau, southeast of Meeker, probably at one time the best elk
range in the State. In August, 1905, I found the nearly complete
skeleton of a large bull elk in a- narrow box canyon along the East
Fork of Rifle Creek, 20 miles northeast of Rifle, and saw many
mounted heads in Meeker, Newcastle, and Glenwood Springs. Mr.
A. G. Wallahan, of Lay, reported that, unless they had been killed
since 1904, a fair number of elk still remained in the Flat Top country
at the eastern end of the Williams River Mountains.

In 1906 I learned of a few elk in the Danforth Hills (northwest of
Meeker) , in the mountains west of Green River, and along the crest of
the Book Cliffs. A small band reported on the head of Elk River, on
the western slope of the Park Range, is said to cross occasionally to
the neighboring Elk Head Mountains. A mounted head at Baggs
Crossing, Wyoming, belonged to a large bull elk which a trapper

i Careful estimates made by the Forest Service officers in the spring of 191 1 show a total of about 2,100.

54 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

named Criss shot in the region between Sunny Peak and the Vermillion
Bluffs in 1902. During the winter of 1905-6 two elk were seen at the
Sand Springs, west of Sunny Peak, Routt County. Apparently none
remain on the Medicine Bow and Front Ranges, or on the divide east
of Laramie River, since I could get no definite information regarding
their presence in that region in 1906. Dr. A. K. Fisher learned of a
few on the south side of Longs Peak in 1894.

In 1907, 12 or 15 elk were reported in the Cochetopa Hills west of
Saguache, and forest rangers estimated that there were nearly 100
remaining on the San Juan Mountains. These are much scattered,
and are usually encountered singly or in twos or threes. One of the
largest bands, consisting of about a dozen individuals, is said to range
near the summit of the San Juans south of Wagon Wheel Gap. The
same year fully 50 elk were reported in the La Plata Mountains, their
favorite range being on the head of Hermosa Creek, northwest of
Durango. Warren states that a few elk remain in Delta and Pitkin
Counties.1 They must have been at one time very abundant in the
West Elk Mountains, as at Cebolla, in 1907, I saw large piles of antlers
in front of the hotel.

Allen says that elk were becoming rare in Park County in 1871 ;2
and Brewer, writing of South Park at the same period, records but
three individuals observed by his party.3 Trippe has recorded elk
from the higher parts of Clear Creek County.4

Forest Supervisor H. N. Wheeler thinks the region on the head of
Hermosa Creek, in the Montezuma National Forest, would be an
ideal location for a national game preserve, with special reference to
elk, since so many are living in that region. State and national pride
should demand that this noble game animal, which formerly ranged
the Colorado mountains by thousands, be given the protection which
only a game preserve can afford. The close season on elk in Colorado
extends to November 1, 1924 (amendment of 1909). It has hitherto
been very difficult, however, to obtain in the wildest mountain dis-
tricts a strict enforcement of the game laws.

Mr. Barrett Littlefield, of Slater, Routt County, had about 100
elk in captivity on his ranch on the northern slope of the Elk Head
Mountains, a short distance south of that point, in 1906, and had
raised calves and steer elk for a number of years, readily selling the
dressed meat for 20 cents a pound at the nearest railroad point,
Rawlins, Wyoming. The steer elk are said to weigh from 500 to
600 pounds when well grown. Gray wolves have killed a number of
elk from Mr. Littlefield's herd during the past few years.

i Mammals of Colorado, Colo. College Pub., Sci. ser. no. 46, XI, p. 236, 1906.

2 Bull. Essex Inst., VI, p. 56, 1874.

3 Am. Nat., V, p. 220, 1871.

4 See Coues, Birds of the Northwest, p. 22-1, 1*74.

1011.] MAMMALS. 55

Odocoileus virginianus macrourus (Rafinesque). White-tailed Deer.

The white-tailed deer is at present uncommon, being largely
restricted to the foothills and eastern slopes of the front ranges, where
it occurs sparingly across the entire width of the State. A very few
have been killed on the mountain slopes bordering the San Luis Val-
ley, but it appears to be absent from other sections west of the main
ranges. In early days this deer was found pretty generally over the
plains region of eastern Colorado, where it frequented the thickets
and cottonwood growth which fringed the Platte, Cache la Poudre,
Boulder, Arkansas, and other streams.

In 1905 Mr. Walter Blanchard informed me of a pah of white-tailed
deer which had been on his ranch 5 miles west of Boulder for a num-
ber of years, and he has several times seen fawns. I saw deer tracks
in the gulches hi that vicinity several times dining June, 1905. Near
the summit of Floyd Hill, in the eastern edge of Clear Creek County,
a fine large buck jumped from a dense thicket of dwarfed aspens
directly in front of me, June 23, 1905. Settlers in that vicinity report
small numbers of deer in the heavy forests several miles south of Clear
Creek. A few white-tailed deer were reported in the yellow-pine belt
west of Arkins, Larimer County, and in the Laramie River region.
Mr. T. J. McKenna, of the Stevens mill, on Mount McClellan, states
that this deer formerly occurred in the Grays Peak region, but that
none have been seen recently. A specimen from the Cache la Poudre
River was in the collection of mammals which Mrs. M. A. Maxwell
exhibited at the International Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876.

White-tailed deer were reported at a number of localities in southern
Colorado in 1907. A few are said to have been killed in the Wet
Mountains east of Westcliffe during recent years. Mr. J. W. Frey,
of Salida, considers the species of rare occurrence in that vicinity,
but states that a few have heen seen recently in Pleasant Valley, on
the east side of the Sangre de Cristo Range. This deer is reported
rare at both La Veta and Bradford, in western Huerfano County, but
several have been killed on the San Luis Valley slope of the Sangre de
Cristo Range, in the vicinity of the Mosca and Medano Passes, within
the past 10 years, according to the cowboys of the Medano Springs
ranch. There is a skull in the National Museum from Rio Grande
County, on the western side of the San Luis Valley.

Most of the hunters with whom I conversed had never seen the
white-tailed deer in the juniper country of Las Animas and Baca
Counties, but Mr. D. A. Rhinehart, of Lamar, stated that a very few
were killed there in early times. The species was formerly common
among the cottonwoods and willows along the Arkansas River, but
apparently none remain. A ranchman living at Prowers Station,
west of Lamar, is said to have a few in captivity, but I was unable to
learn where they were secured. Warren gives the following data:

56 NORTH AMERICAN' FAUNA. [No. 33.

"C. E. Aiken says there are a few in the foothills west of Monument,
El Paso County, unless recently killed off. Dr. W. H. Bergtold tells
me it is still found near Trinidad and southward, and also in parts of
the Arkansas Valley, between Pueblo and the State line."1 Trippe
says "Cervus leucurus" was formerly common in Clear Creek County.2

Odocoileus hemionus (Rafinesque). Mule Deer.

The mule deer has a much more general distribution in Colorado
than 0. macrourus, and ranges from the lowest foothills occasionally
to timberline. It is found in every county west of the Continental
Divide, being probably most abundant in Routt and Rio Blanco
Counties. East of the main ranges a few are left in the rough juniper
country of Las Animas and Baca Counties, in the higher parts of El
Paso, Teller, and Jefferson Counties, and in 1907 they were reported
tolerably common in the foothills of Custer and Huerfano Counties.
Mr. Edward A. Preble reported a few mule deer in the Estes Park
region in 1895, but I heard of none in the foothills of Boulder and
Larimer Counties in 1906. Apparently none remain on the plains
east of the mountains, where they were common in early times.

Abundant signs of deer were noted on all the mountains and plateaus
west of the Front and Medicine Bow Ranges in August and Septem-
ber, 1905 and 1906. The aspen forests on the Rabbit Ear Mountains,
White River Plateau, and in the Hahns Peak country were especially
frequented by them, and large piles of antlers were seen at ranches
throughout the region. The Flat Top country of the Williams
River Mountains, west of Egeria Park, was said in 1906 to be the best
deer country in the State. All the many hunting parties which I
met returning from this region or the White River Plateau early in
October of that year had been successful.

Mr. A. G. Wallahan, of Lay, Routt County, states that prior to
1900 large herds aggregating many hundreds of mule deer passed his
ranch on the Lay game trail each fall in regular migration from their
summer home in the Elk Head and Williams River Mountains to
the winter range in the rough juniper and pinyon country bordering
the lower Snake and Bear Rivers. Since 1900 their numbers have
been greatly depleted, and during the winter of 1904-5 Mr. Wallahan
saw only 17 in the vicinity of his ranch. These semiannual migra-
tions performed by the mule deer from high to low country in the
fall, and back again to the mountains in the spring, are now scarcely
perceptible in most sections where 5 or 10 years ago they were impor-
tant events.

In 1907 this deer was reported as tolerably common in the San
Juan and La Plata Mountains, in Archuleta, La Plata, and Monte-
zuma Counties. Formerly there was a regular movement down into

i Mammals of Colorado, p. 237, 1906. 2 See Coues, Birds of the Northwest, p. 224, 1874.

1011.] MAMMALS. 57

the pinyon country on the Indian reservation along the southern
border of the State, but during the past few years the Ute, Navajo,
and Apache Indians have been ruthlessly slaughtering deer, and the
greater number now remain throughout the year in the high country,
where they are comparatively safe. Forest Ranger E. E. Chapson
states that at present coyotes are the worst enemies of deer in the
San Juan Mountains north of Pagosa Springs, as they kill a great
many fawns in summer and numbers of adults in winter, when the
snow crust impedes the deer's progress, but is strong enough to bear
the weight of the coyotes. Mr. Chapson has often found the car-
casses of deer thus killed, and states that the coyotes, usually hunt-
ing in bands of five or six, first hamstring the deer, after which they
easily kill it. Mountain lions also kill a large number in the San
Juan and La Plata Mountains.

During the same season (1907) deer were reported common at
various other points. On the Uncompahgre Plateau tracks were
seen in abundance, both in the sandy yellow pine country at the
head of Dominguez Creek and in the trails leading through the aspen
groves along the crest of the plateau near Uncompahgre Butte. In
the Coventry region a good many deer were inhabiting the pinyon
country during July, and tracks were common also in the aspen
country on Lone Cone. Before sunrise July 24 I saw a doe browsing
in the willow brush in the bottom of the Naturita Canyon, near Cov-
entry. Mule deer were quite common late in June in the oak and
aspen thickets of the Lone Mesa region, where they were feeding
extensively on acorns. During the winter they are said to range
chiefly in the yellow pine country on the Dolores Plateau. Just
before sunset June 26, as I was crossing a ridge on the southwest
flank of Beaver Mountain, southeast of Lone Mesa, my eye was
arrested by a beautiful sight. Standing in a small grassy opening
among the dense oak chaparral a hundred feet below me and in the
shade of the ridge, with head thrown back over his shoulders, nose
pointing exactly in my direction, and every sense alert, stood a large,
sleek-coated, 4-point buck. I stopped in plain sight and silently
watched the old fellow for fully five minutes, and he apparently
regarded me with equal interest. His curiosity was fully satisfied,
however, the moment I quietly and slowly concealed myself among
the oak brush, and lowering his head he loped off through the
chaparral.

Deer were reported as more abundant than usual on the mountains
bordering the San Luis and upper Arkansas Valleys, and nearly all
the hunters outfitting at Buena Vista, Salida, and Saguache during
the open season of 1907 met with success. A locomotive on the
Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, running light, killed a fine buck
November 8, in Browns Canyon, 6 or 8 miles north of Salida. On

58 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

the western slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Range the mule deer is
said to be usually found in the pinyon belt between 8,000 and 9,000
feet, although occasionally met with at timberline in summer and
early fall. I was informed that deer were scarce in 1907 on the head
of Smiths Fork, in the West Elk Mountains, and this was the case
also in western Montezuma County.

Allen found mule deer, " Cervusmacrotis," common near timberline
in Park County in 1S71;1 while Trippe recorded the species as for-
merly common in Clear Creek County.2

The Colorado game law in force during 1907 and 190S allowed the
killing of one deer "with or without horns" by any person during the
open season. This inclusion of deer without horns worked incal-
culable injury to the deer of Colorado during the two years it was
operative, as a great many does and fawns were killed by unscrupu-
lous hunters and particularly by novices. The pernicious results
were not fully manifest in 1908, when it was estimated a total of
about 2,500 deer were killed during the open season, but reports show
that a great scarcity of deer throughout the mountains marked the
season of 1909.

Antilocapra americana (Ord). Antelope.

Antelope are now comparatively scarce even in the thinly settled
parts of the eastern plains region, and few remain on the sage plains
of North Park and Routt County, where formerly there were thou-
sands. A small number are still present in San Luis Valley. Most
of the antelope of eastern Colorado are now in three areas — on the
plains of western Baca and southern Otero, Bent, and Prowers Coun-
ties; on the Arkansas Divide; and in northwestern Logan and north-
eastern Weld Counties.

That this most graceful game mammal is doomed to early extinc-
tion in many sections seems probable despite the protection afforded
by law, but the increase in numbers during the past few years, both
on the Arkansas Divide and in northeastern Weld County, is very
perceptible. The decrease of antelope in the State at large during
the past 10 years, however, has been very great. In 1898 the State
game warden placed the number at 25,000, while in 1908 the game
commissioner estimated not over 2,000. A conservative estimate
based on data collected by the Biological Survey would be not over
1,200 in 1909. Many cowboys and even ranchmen in the outlying
districts kill antelope whenever they can. It is gratifying, however,
to find that many large ranch owners have the public interests and
the preservation of game sufficiently at heart to afford this fine
mammal rigid protection on the ranges under their control.

i Bull. Essex Inst., VI, p. 56, 1874. 2 See Coues, Birds of the Northwest, p. 224, 1874.

1911.] MAMMALS. 59

Mr. A. G. Wallahan, of Lay, the well-known photographer of big
game, estimated in 1905 that 300 would fully eover the number of
antelope remaining in Routt County. He reported a band of about
30 on the Iron Springs Divide, east of Godiva Ridge, and another
larger band near Junction Mountain, between the Snake and Bear
Rivers. In 1906 I was informed by Mr. John Criss, of Baggs Crossing,
Wyoming, a trapper of many }Tears' experience in Routt County, that
only a few hundred antelope are left in that region; whereas as re-
cently as 1898, immense herds, aggregating thousands of individuals,
wintered there. During the summer the antelope were scattered over
the sage plains in small bands. Mr. Criss thinks that persistent
hunting in that region drove most of the antelope northward to the
Wyoming plains. In 1906 antelope were reported in small numbers
in North Park; on the sage flats bordering Muddy Creek, in north-
western Middle Park; on the divide between the Snake and Green
Rivers, north of the Escalante Hills; and in the parks on the O-wi-
yu-kuts Plateau. In August, 1906, I saw the tracks of small bands
at the eastern end of Godiva Ridge (Routt County) and near Iligho
(North Park) , while five or six were watering at Elk Springs, 8 miles
south of Lily. I saw none in Mesa County, and Warren states, on the
authority of Mr. W. P. Ela, of Grand Junction, that but two or three
have been killed in that region during the past 20 years.1

Numerous data on the distribution of antelope in the San Luis
Valley and in other parts of southern Colorado were gathered during
the summer of 1907. None appear to remain in Montezuma County,
and hunters in that region state that few were ever found there.
Mr. George J. Ashbaugh, living in the McElmo Canyon, told me
that the last antelope seen by him were three or four on the water-
shed between Yellow Jacket and McElmo Creeks about 1897. A
conservative estimate of the number of antelope in the San Luis
Valley would be from 50 to 75. The cowboys of the Medano Springs
ranch, who range the eastern side of the valley from Crestone south
to Garland, state that there are about 30 or 40 in that region, the
largest band, consisting of about 25, being found on the Luis Maria
Baca grant, south of Crestone. Others are scattered over the plains
from the west base of Sierra Blanca north to the northern end of
the sand dunes, west of the Medano Pass. Antelope are reported
between Garland and San Luis, at the west base of the Culebra
Range, and Vernon Bailey heard of a few in the unsettled region
between Antonito and the Rio Grande in 1904. Mr. C. H. Auld,
of Colorado Springs, reports seeing an antelope from the train be-
tween La Jara and Antonito September 18, 1907.

An antelope is said to have been killed, in the fall of 1907, within
sight of Salida, presumably on the extensive flats in the Arkansas

1 Mammals of Colorado, p. 237, 1900.

60 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No, 33.

Valley northwest of that point. This appears to be the only recent
record in the upper Arkansas Valley. Antelope were not uncom-
mon in South Park in 1871, according to Allen.1 They were formerly
abundant in the Wet Mountain Valley, but none have been seen
in that region for several years.

Conservative estimates made by residents of Baca County in
the fall of 1907 placed the number of antelope in that region at
between 50 and 100. The majority were said to range on the level
short-grass plains of western Baca County, just east of the rough
juniper country. Very few are reported in eastern Baca County,
which is well settled. Prof. D. E. Lantz reports possibly 12 ante-
lope on the plains north of Higbee, in southeastern Otero County, in
1910.

Antelope were reported by Mr. C. P. Streator as common on the
high plains of the Arkansas Divide near Flagler and Limon in 1894,
and Prof. Lantz says their numbers were increasing near Hugo in
1905, owing to rigid protection. In May, 1909, I saw a band of
fully 20 from a Rock Island train about 10 miles east of Limon, and
in crossing tjie Arkansas watershed from Cheyenne Wells northwest
to Seibert I saw several small bands. One band of nearly 200 is
said to have been seen near Agate, on the northern slope of the
Arkansas Divide, northwest of Limon, in December, 1908. Several
antelope were run over by trains in that vicinity the same winter,
which was one of excessive snowfall. This was due to the fact that,
in feeding along the railroad right of way, which was kept fairly
clear of snow, the antelope became quite unsuspicious and accus-
tomed to passing trains.

In driving from Sterling northwest to Grover early in June, 1909,
several small bands of antelope were encountered on the flats border-
ing Horsetail Creek south of the Chimney Cliffs, while on the undu-
lating grassy plateau northwest of Pawnee Buttes, where the antelope
seemed most numerous, 19 were counted in the course of a short
morning's drive. From observations made during the winter of
1908-9 residents variously estimate at from 200 to 300 the antelope
in the region between the Burlington Railroad from Cheyenne to
Sterling and the Nebraska boundary. A point 10 miles west of the
Platte River at Iliff indicates the present eastern limit of range in
winter, while the summer range is still more restricted.

A very few antelope are found in Yuma County, according to Mr.
W. E. Wolfe, of Wray. Mr. H. G. Smith, of Denver, states that
they were last seen in Denver County in the late seventies.

Bison bison (Linn.). Buffalo; American Bison.

The buffalo was formerly present over much of the State, even rang-
ing in summer to timberline in certain sections of the mountains,

' Bull. Essex Inst., VI, p. 56, 1874.

1911.] MAMMALS. 61

as is proved by the bleached and weathered skulls occasionally
found at that elevation. While most numerous on the plains east
of the mountains, they nevertheless must have been common in the
larger mountain parks, especially on the sage plains of North Park,
where the bleached skulls, now rapidly disintegrating after more
than 20 years' exposure, may still be seen in considerable numbers.
A favorite range of the buffalo was the extensive region of sage
plains in western Routt County, where in sections least frequented
by range cattle the deeply worn trails can still be distinguished.
Few, if any, well-preserved skulls can be found at the present time.
On my trips in North Park and in Routt County in 1905 and 1906
I met with only one skull at all complete, and in this case the teeth
were lacking. This skull was found embedded in a bog north of
Higho, North Park, and had been little exposed to the weather.
In most of the skulls found the nasals and horn sheaths, as well as
the teeth, are missing. - ■

The South Park plains were much frequented by buffalo in early
times, and nearly all the travelers passing through the region men-
tioned them. They were by no means confined to the open grassy
plains of the park, since Brewer records skulls found on the bordering
mountain slopes as high as 11,000 feet in both openings and forests.1
The same writer states that the mountain animals were unlike the
buffalo of the eastern plains, being smaller, with longer, shaggier,
and blacker hair.2 Allen mentions bleached skulls found far above
timberline on Mount Lincoln, by Mr. Bennett and others on the
"extremest sources" of the Platte River.3 Warren records a skull
which he found in the mountains near Irwin, Gunnison County, at
nearly 11,000 feet, and states that he has seen skulls at other locali-
ties in the West Elk Mountains.4

The data at hand respecting the time of the buffalo's disappear-
ance in most sections of the mountains are scanty. According to
Brewer (1. c.) it was abundant in South Park previous to 1862, and a
few were shot in 1867, while he "heard of none in 1869." Allen
(1. c.) states that a small band was seen along the Platte River in
South Park in June, 1871, while Coues and Yarrow, writing of the
South Park region, state that a few were seen and two were killed in
1873.5 Mounted specimens in the Maxwell collection of Colorado
mammals exhibited at the Philadelphia Exposition in 1876 were shot
in September, 1873, near Mount Whiteley, Middle Park, according
to Coues, who also states that a small band of buffalo still lingered
in North Park in 1876.6 The last buffalo in the Pikes Peak region

i Am. Nat, V, p. 221, 1871.

2 In this connection, see Allen, Bull. Essex Inst., VI, p. 55, 1874.

3 Bull. Essex Inst., VI, p. 55, 1S74.

* Mammals of Colorado, p. 239, 1906.

a Explorations W. of 100th Meridian, V, p. 07, 1875.

6 Dartt, On the Plains and among the Peaks, p. 221, 1879.

62 NOKTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

seems to have been a bull, killed in 1879 near the Seven Lakes, and
mounted by Mr. C. E. Aiken, of Colorado Springs, as recorded by
Warren (1. c). The famous and somewhat mythical "Lost Park
Herd" appears on good authority to have lived in the fastness of
its mountain retreat in comparative safety for many years after its
fellows in other sections of the mountains had been exterminated.
The remnant of this herd — two bulls, one cow, and one calf — were all
killed in February, 1897, in Lost Park, near Bison Peak, Park County.1
The last buffalo in Routt County appears to have been one killed by
Ute Indians at Cedar Springs, 6 miles west of Craig, in 1884.2

The buffalo of the plains east of the mountains appear to have
made their last stand in Baca County, in the extreme southeast,
where one was killed near Springfield as late as 1889. This is the
same year that the remnant of the Texas herd, driven to the north-
west corner of the Panhandle, was estimated by Dr. W. T. Hornaday
at 25.3 As the Baca County plains are practically a northern con-
tinuation of the Llano Estacado, and but a short distance north of
the Panhandle, it seems altogether likely that the buffalo killed in
Baca County, a cow heavy with calf, had strayed from the Texas
herd, as the animals remaining on the eastern Colorado plains had
been exterminated several years before.

Ovis canadensis Shaw. Mountain Sheep; Bighorn.

A few bands of mountain sheep live on nearly all the high moun-
tain ranges of Colorado. On the main ranges they are usually seen
at or near timberline and seldom below the Canadian zone. On the
plateaus and in the rough country of western and southwestern
Colorado, however, they occur at much lower elevations.

Mountain sheep show a gratifying increase during the past few
years over the State at large. Although they have been protected
by law in Colorado since 1885, the marked increase at the present
time is the result both of a more efficient game- warden service and
of local protection afforded by an aroused public sentiment. A
danger which threatens mountain sheep in Colorado, as well as in
other Western States, is the introduction of scab from domestic
sheep allowed to graze on the higher mountain slopes. An instance
is given by Warren, as follows:

C. F. Frey tells me they suffer much from scab in the "West Elk Mountains, and that
a party told him in 1902, at one place near the head of Sapinero Creek, 75 head were
counted which had died of scab. Domestic sheep have been run in that locality, and
the wild sheep doubtless contracted it from them.4

In the northern ranges mountain sheep were tolerably common in
1905 and 1906. Lumbermen at Fraser, Middle Park, reported two

■ See American Field, p. 273, Mar. 19, 1910.

2 Felger, Univ. of Colo. Studies, VII, No. 2, p. 143, 1910.

3 Extermination of the American Rison, Rept. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1S89.
* Mammals of Colorado, p. 23S. 1906.

1911.]

MAMMALS. 63

bands, each numbering about 20, in the neighboring mountains. One
of these bands is found on the Front Range, west of Berthoud Pass,
and thence north on the Vasquez Mountains to Vasquez Peak; the
other is usually seen near Arapahoe Peak, but ranges along the crest
of the Front Range from James Peak as far north as Longs Peak.
The sheep reported in the vicinity of Silver Plume and Graymont
doubtless belong to one of these bands. Another large band was said
to be found on the Medicine Bow Range between Lulu Pass and
Chirks Peak. At Spicer, North Park, I saw the heads and capes of
two fine rams which had been killed near Clarks Peak in the spring
of 1905. These heads measured between the horn tips 15 and 15^
inches, respectively. This band is stated to range near timberline
even in winter. A few sheep are still found in the mountains near
Estes Park, but they are more common on the western slope of the
range. A band of about 30 was seen by Nelson in the summer of
1883 on the summit of the range west of Estes Park. They were
reported in 1905 as tolerably common on the Park Range between
Buffalo Pass and Mount Zirkel. Other small bands were reported
in the Elk Head Mountains and near Pyramid Peak in the Williams
River Mountains. Mr. John Criss, of Baggs Crossing, Wyoming, states
that one or two sheep have been killed in the rough country north
of Snake River, in the vicinity of Sunny Peak, since 1900. A very
few were also reported on Junction Mountain (between Snake and
Bear Rivers), and on Zenobia Peak and Mount Cullom, near the
Ladore Canyon of Green River. In 1902 Dall De Weese estimated
their number as probably 700 in the State. A large ram was killed
among the Snake River bluffs north of Lily during the winter of
1905-6.

On October 16, 1906, while far above timberline in the mountains
south of James Peak, and on the edge of a small lake in a deep basin
surrounded by rather precipitous walls, the crashing of a number
of loosened rocks on the slope opposite broke the deep silence. No
sheep were visible on the rocky ledges far above, but upon climbing
the steep slope I discovered the fresh tracks of a large ram and a ewe
hi the snow on the crest of the divide at 13,000 feet.

In 1907 sheep were reported on most of the mountain ranges of
southern Colorado, and seemed to be on the increase. The sharp,
jagged peaks and ridges of the high and narrow Sangre de Cristo
Range afford a fine home for them, and they are said to be found
along its entire length, being in greatest numbers hi the Sierra Blanca
group at the southern end. Cowboys riding for the Medano Springs
ranch often meet with sheep among the pinyons along the lower
western slopes of the Sangre de Cristos between Mosca Pass and the
southwest flank of Sierra Blanca. A very few are reported also on
West Spanish Peak, south of La Veta, and on Pikes Peak. Forest

64 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. S3.

Ranger E. E. Chapson, of Pagosa Springs, says that a good many
sheep are killed by snowslides in the San Juan Mountains north of
that point. In one instance he discovered the carcasses of three or
lour sheep which apparently had been so closely shut in by a snow-
slide as to be at the mercy of a band of coyotes. The snow crust was
sufficiently strong to bear the light-footed coyotes, but too weak to
support the heavy-bodied sheep, and unmistakable signs in the
snow showed that the sheep had been lulled and partly eaten. Mr.
J. P. Galloway, of Norwood, states that sheep are often seen on
Dolores Mountain, but seldom range west across the valley to Lone
Cone, the westernmost peak of the San Miguel Mountains. Some
years ago a band of about 20 crossed to the Cone, but soon returned
to the more extensive range on Dolores and neighboring mountains.

Mountain sheep are not at all uncommon in the rough Upper
Sonoran country of extreme western Montrose and Mesa Counties.
Most of the region on both sides of the Dolores River below Paradox
Valley is very precipitous and quite inaccessible, affording an excel-
lent sheep range. Most of the sheep in this region live on the east
side of the Dolores, between Salt Canyon and the mouth of West
Creek, chiefly on the very broken southwest face of the Uncompahgre
Plateau. A very few are reported among the rocky ridges just
below the steep northern rim of West Paradox Valley, and Mr.
William Boren, of Norwood, informed me of a lone ram which has
been seen several times on the rocky points along the east side of the
Dolores Canyon, just south of Paradox Valley. Sheep are said to
be tolerably common in the West Elk Mountains, and occasionally
range down to the cliffs along the Gunnison, southwest of Crawford,
during the winter.

Brewer found sheep common on the mountains surrounding South
Park in 1871, and states that they were particularly abundant above
timberline on the highest peaks.1

[Sciurus niger rufiventer Geoffroy. Western Fox Squirrel.

Fox squirrels are not indigenous to Colorado, but have been intro-
duced at Greeley, where they are increasing in a gratifying manner,
and also, according to Young, at Denver. 2]

Sciurus aberti ferreus True. Northern Tuft-eared Squirrel.

Sciurus aberti concolor True, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XVII, p. 241, 1894. Type
from foothills west of Loveland, Larimer County, Colorado. (Not of Blyth.)
Sciurus aberti ferreus True, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XIII, p. 183, 1900.

This interesting form of Sciurus aberti has a much interrupted range
in the yellow pine belt of the eastern foothills, between 6,000 and
8,000 feet in northern Colorado, and chiefly between 7,000 arid 9,500
feet farther south. Judging from the meager data at hand its range

•Am. Nat., V, pp. 220-221, 1871. 2 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 406, 1908.

1911.]

MAMMALS.

65

was formerly continuous or nearly so, but now it is largely restricted
to the higher foothills west of Loveland, eastern Park and southern
Jefferson Counties, the Arkansas Divide between Monument and
Eastonville, and the eastern slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Range
between the Medano and Mosca Passes. (See fig. 2.)

Although the species is commonly reported by hunters and ranch-
men in the foothills of southern Larimer County, my experience in
the pine belt west of Arkins (practically the type locality) in July,
1906, leads me to believe that it is now uncommon, if not rare, in
that section. Several days were spent among the heavy forests of
yellow pines between 6,000 and 7,500 feet in a systematic search for

^ SC/URUS ABERT/ M/fitUS. %^, « "»•] rerRfteos.

Fig. 2.— Distribution in Colorado of tuft-eared squirrels (Sciurus aberti mimus and S. a. fcrrcus).

these squirrels, but not a single one was seen or heard. One inform-
ant stated that the squirrels come down into the valleys in the autumn
and feed extensively upon the wild plums. In October, 1894, Mr.
C. P. Streator collected two squirrels 12 miles west of Loveland, but
found the animals scarce. He attributed this scarcity to a shortage
in the crop of pine cones, upon winch the squirrels are said to feed.
In the fall and winter months of 1894, 1895, and 1896 Mr. R. S.
Weldon collected 12 specimens 3 miles northwest of Arkins and 1 at
Bellevue. Possibly this squirrel lives at a higher elevation in sum-
mer than in winter, but there are no data on this point. The type
90432°— 11 5

66 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

and one topotype in the National Museum were collected west of
Loveland by Mr. W. G. Smith.

In 1905 Mr. Edward Allensby, living in the South Boulder Canyon,
14 miles southwest of Boulder, reported a few of these squirrels in
the pine forests of that vicinity, stating that they were usually observed
during the winter months. Mr. Walter Blanchard, of Boulder, saw
a melanistic specimen which was killed near Sugar Loaf Mountain, 10
miles west of Boulder, about 1903. Mr. T. J. McKenna, of Denver,
states that many years ago, while located at Jamestown, Boulder
County, a few black squirrels were found in that vicinity. In 1894
Streator learned of five squirrels which had been killed in the vicinity
of Gold Hill.

This squirrel was reported at a number of localities in southern
Colorado in 1907, where it seems to be more common than farther
north. It was said to be not at all uncommon in the pine forests of
eastern Park County between 8,000 and 8,500 feet, especially on
Craigs Creek and along the North Fork of the Platte near Bailey.
Prof. D. E. Lantz found it common among the pines at Cascade in
July, 1910. Mr. J. W. Frey reports a very few in the Arkansas Hills
east of Salida, and Mr. C. E. Aiken, of Colorado Springs, has a summer
skin from the Cripple Creek region, which is gray with a trace of red-
dish in the middle of dorsum, thus greatly resembling S. a. mimus
in faded pelage. Sciurus ferreus has been seen on the San Luis
Valley side of the Sangre de Cristo Range, according to cowboys of
the Medano Springs ranch, Mr. William King having seen a few gray
individuals among the pines at the west end of Mosca Pass, and
others reporting it from Medano Pass. The species is quite generally
distributed along the eastern slopes of the Sangre de Cristos north at
least to Westcliffe, and it is said to occur also in the Wet Mountains.
In the region around Bradford, in the northwestern corner of Huer-
fano County, tins squirrel is said to be tolerably common, both on
the slopes east of Medano Pass and in the pine-clad gulches of Prom-
ontory Bluffs, the vertical range here being from 8,000 to 9,500 feet.
The inclement weather prevailing in this region during mid-November
doubtless accounted for the inactivity of squirrels, as none were seen,
but signs of their presence were found in large nests of pine needles
in the upper branches of pines and also in fresh cuttings scattered
here and there over the forest floor.

The species reaches its greatest abundance in the yellow pine
forest on the Arkansas Divide between Eastonville and Monument.
In the forest southwest of Eastonville the squirrels were active during
the bright crisp days of early December. The forest floor for a con-
siderable radius around the nest trees was generously sprinkled with
fresh green cuttings of branch tips, pieces of gnawed bark, and freshly
peeled twigs, while a few of the upper limbs of the trees were gnawed

1911.] MAMMALS. 67

and peeled in places, much as if by porcupines. The squirrels them-
selves were very quiet and shy and were seldom observed, and not
a single sound was heard which could be attributed to them. I
hunted carefully for the larger part of a day before catching sight of
one, and then secured two line brown males, two black males, and
one black female. These specimens are in beautiful long and silky
winter pelage, and the ear tufts are of maximum length. The fur of
melanistic specimens is of fine quality, and were the squirrels numerous
it would undoubtedly be in great demand.

The nests are nearly always constructed of pine needles and lined
with strips of the inner bark of the pine. In the Eastonville region
I found S. ferreus living entirely in open nests, but near Bradford it
is said often to take up its abode in hollow pines and even in hollow
cottonwoods (Populus angustifolia) .

Tins squirrel is one of the most striking examples of extreme mel-
anism among mammals. Of the 24 specimens in the Biological Sur-
vey and National Museum collections, including the type, 19 are
melanistic (either black or dark brown) and 5 are gray. A man wdio
had hunted in the Estes Park region for a great many years informed
Streator in 1894 that out of nearly 100 of these squirrels which he
had seen or killed only 1 was gray. This ratio is, of course, much
too high, but it is certain that melanistic individuals preponderate in
most sections. Near Eastonville I saw no squirrels in the gray phase,
nor could I learn of any having been seen there. Air. C. E. Aiken
states, however, that in a batch of nearly 150 skins of S. ferreus
wiiich he purchased many years ago from the region between Monu-
ment and Eastonville, the black phase was most common and the
brown phase next, while there were a very few gray skins. An odd
skull, which I secured at Bailey, belonged to a black squirrel. On
the slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Range the gray phase seems to be
more common than elsewhere, and no black squirrels were reported
from the Mosca and Medano Passes.

Sciurus aberti mimus Merriam. Tuft-eared Squirrel.

So far as known, this large, handsome squirrel occurs in Colorado
only in the extensive yellow pine forests which clothe the low^er
slopes of the San Juan and La Plata Mountains, in Conejos, Archu-
leta, La Plata, Montezuma, and Dolores Counties, in the Transition
zone. (See fig. 2.) The center of abundance appears to be the
Pagosa Springs region, Archuleta County, between 7,000 and 7,500
feet.

Tuft-eared squirrels are commonly reported from the upper valley
of the Los Pifios and along Vallecito Creek, in northeastern La Plata
County, and are found sparingly to the lower edge of the pine belt a
few miles north of Bayfield, but are said never to range down into
the pinyon country. The species has been recorded from Florida,

68 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

La Plata County, by Allen.1 One was noted at X,200 feet in the
upper edge of the yellow pine belt on the southwest slope of Pagosa
Peak. Mr. Steve Elkins, of Mancos, states that a few of these
squirrels inhabit the pine forests at the western base of the La Plata
Mountains, and their range extends a short distance out on the
Dolores Plateau, northeast of Dolores. In crossing this plateau
between Dolores and the Lone Mesa late in June, 1907, I saw no signs
of squirrels, but learned from Forest Ranger James Lowell that they
are present in small numbers. The Dolores Plateau appears to mark
the northern limit of the range, as none were found in the yellow pine
forests which clothe much of the San Miguel Plateau, the northern
slopes of the San Miguel Mountains, and the Uncompahgre Plateau.
Vernon Bailey says this squirrel was reported to him as common in
the eastern foothills of the San Juan Mountains, 10 miles west of
Antonito, Conejos County, in August, 1904. This is the only record
of its occurrence in Colorado east of the Continental Divide. On
the east side of the San Luis Valley, and along the eastern slopes of
the front ranges, this form is replaced by S. a.ferreus.

This squirrel is characteristic of the stately yellow pine forests near
Pagosa Springs and in the open vistas can be seen at a considerable
distance. It is often first detected on the ground, moving about
among the pine cones which carpet the forest floor in many places.
When alarmed, it lopes leisurely up to the base of a pine, usually the
nest tree, which it seems reluctant to climb, barking and scolding at
the intruder until approached somewhat closely. When thoroughly
frightened, it betakes itself to the higher branches, and its claws
make a very audible sound on the dry bark. When seated motion-
less on an exposed limb far up in a big pine, this squirrel presents an
odd appearance, due to its long hairy ear tufts. Once safely within
the confines of the nest tree it will occasionally scamper part way
down the trunk in a daring fashion, chattering excitedly. In
climbing up or down a tree it spreads its feet far apart and by its flat
appearance reminds one strongly of a flying squirrel.

The nest tree — usually a large dead pine with a hollow sufficiently
large for the squirrels' home — is generally located in the heaviest
forest, and very few of the animals live in small timber or along the
outskirts of the forest. A few nests, composed largely of dry pine
needles, were seen in the upper branches of large pines, but most of
the squirrels appeared to be living in hollow trees. A stomach
examined at Pagosa Springs contained a mass of finely masticated
green material which could not be identified with certainty, but
probably consisted of the inner bark of the terminal branches of the
yellow pine. One squirrel was seen gnawing the bark from a good-sized
limb, apparently feeding. The many freshly cut tips of terminal

1 Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., V, p. 83, 1893.

1011.] MAMMALS. 69

branches beneath the pines in the neighborhood of the nest trees attest
to the squirrels' activities.

In the silence of the vast forest reaches, the calls of this squirrel
are at times the only sounds which reach the ear. During rainy or
inclement weather, however, the squirrels are inactive and the calls
rarely heard. The soft bark, sometimes sounding like wuh, wuh,
wuh, and again like chuck, chuck, chuck, is usually repeated three
or four times at short intervals, and each call is accompanied by a
jerk of the tail. These squirrels are occasionally kept in confinement
and are said to make desirable pets.

In a series of four males and two females collected a few miles west
of Pagosa Springs, May 29, 1907, two were only about two-thirds
grown. Fully half the squirrels noted here during the last week in
May were immature, easily distinguishable on a tree by a dark-
colored area in the middle of the dorsum. In adults this area is
generally reddish.

Scrums fremonti Aud. and Bach. Fremont Squirrel; Chickaree.

Sciurus fremonti Audubon and Bachman, Quad. N. Am., Ill, p. 237, 1853. Type
from " Rocky Mountains " (probably from the Park region of central Colo-
rado).1

The Fremont squirrel lives in the coniferous forests throughout
the mountains of Colorado, and ranges from the upper edge of the
yellow pine belt to timberline. (See fig. 3.) It is typical in the
Canadian zone of the main ranges, but on the western plateaus
becomes slightly reddish on the rump and upper surface of the tail,
as shown by a large series of specimens from various localities. This
squirrel is usually common wherever found, and its lively, cheering
chatter is one of the few sounds which break the silence of the high
mountain forests. On the main ranges it occurs chiefly in the forests
of lodgepole pine and Engelmann spruce, but in the southern moun-
tains is perhaps more common in the forests of white fir {Abies
concolor), while on the western plateaus it frequents the more open
growth of Douglas spruce on the summits and upper northern slopes.
In the Escalante Hills this squirrel is reported to come down among
the yellow pines, at 7,000 feet, during the winter, and in a great many
sections I have found it along the extreme upper edge of the Transi-
tion zone, at 8,500 feet, where pockets of balsam and aspen are scat-
tered among the yellow pines. I shot one individual in the Upper
Sonoran zone, at 6,000 feet, on Tabeguache Creek, 8 miles north of
Nucla, Montrose County. It was in almost the last yellow pine found

1 So considered by Dr. J. A. Allen, who treats the matter in detail in Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., X, pp.
289-290, 1S98. Dr. Allen's conclusion that the type specimen of fremonti (in the collection of the Phila-
delphia Academy of Natural Sciences) was not collected near South Pass, Wyo., as had been previously
supposed, is confirmed by specimens in the Biological Survey collection. Large series of squirrels from
the Wind River Mountains, near South Pass, and also from the Green, Ferris, and Laramie Mountains to
the east and south, are quite distinct from fremonti, being referable to the northern S. hudsonicus group.

70

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

along the creek, at a point where the canyon sides were clothed with
junipers and pinyons, but really within a short distance of the
Canadian zone forests.

Like the common northern red squirrel, which it greatly resembles
in all respects except color, S. fremonti feeds chiefly upon pine and
spruce cones, which are hoarded in large caches at the bases of trees,
beneath logs, and among rocks. I have never found it living in a
hollow tree, although it may do so occasionally. The nests of pine
or spruce needles and fine strips of bark are usually constructed in
the fork of a branch well out from the main trunk, at from 20 to 40
feet above the ground, and in the densest forest. I have found the
nests occupied by the squirrels in both summer and winter. This

Fig. 3.— Distribution in Colorado of Fremont squirrel {Sciurus fremonti).

squirrel is not at all shy, and may be coaxed to within a few feet by
making a nondescript " screeping " noise. One seen by Mr. Morris M.
Green, near Almont, in August, 1909, was laboriously ascending a
tree, carrying a large cantaloupe rind, which had been left by a
camper. In some localities it is called the little gray squirrel, which
is, of course, a misnomer, as it is subgenerically different from the
gray squirrels and its color is olive brown.

(?) Sciurus fremonti neomexicanus Allen. New Mexico Chickaree.

It is not certain that neomexicanus occurs within the State, but
it has been taken at Costilla Pass and Bear Canyon, New Mexico,
both localities within a few miles of the Colorado boundary. A. H.

1011.] MAMMALS. 71

Howell thinks that a squirrel which he saw among the pinyons near
Trinidad in September, 1903, was this reddish form of S. fremonti;
while others seen by Mr. J. H. Gaut on the Conejos River, 12 miles
west of Antonito, may have been neomexicanus. Unfortunately,
there are no specimens from along the southern edge of the State,
and the identity of the squirrels found in the southern San Juan and
Culebra Mountains can be decided only by future investigations.

Eutamias quadrivittatus (Say). Say Chipmunk.

Stiurus quadriinttatus Say, in Long's Exped. Rocky Mts., II, p. 45, 1S2:>. Type
from Arkansas River, about 26 miles below Canon City, Colorado.

This large chipmunk, the four-lined squirrel of Say, was described
from a specimen taken by Maj. Long's party at a point on the Arkan-
sas River about 30 miles below the place where the river leaves the
mountains, July 17 or 18, 1820. Tins point, as Dr. Merriam has
already shown,1 was probably about 26 miles below Canon City.
The species has its center of abundance in the yellow pine belt of the
Transition zone in the eastern foothill region, where it ranges nearly
across the State from north to south. In Larimer County its known
range is restricted to the lower eastern slopes of the Medicine Bow
Mountains south of Arkins. Farther south, E. quadrivittatus has a
wide distribution within its zonal limits, and is occasionally taken
in the Canadian and Upper Sonoran zones. In the southern tier of
counties it extends east to the western edge of Baca County2 and
west to La Plata County. The western limits may be roughly indi-
cated by Florida and Bayfield, La Plata County; Silverton; Sapinero;
St. Elmo, Saguache Mountains; near McCoy, Eagle County; Grand
Lake; and Medicine Bow Range. (See fig. 4.) A large series of
specimens from Canon City (near the type locality) and from a great
many localities over the range of this species are in the Biological
Survey collection.

West of the Front and Saguache Ranges I have taken this species
at only one locality, Sapinero, in the valley of the Gunnison, at 7,300
feet, but it has been collected at Sulphur Springs, Grand Lake, near
Sheephorn Pass, and near McCoy, as recorded by Warren.3 In
extreme southern Colorado quadrivittatus is found in the foothills bor-
dering the San Luis Valley and is common west of the Continental
Divide, being especially numerous in the yellow pine forests of
Archuleta and La Plata Counties, on the southern slope of the San
Juans. In this region it is not uncommon in the pinyon belt, as at
Arboles and south of Bavfield, and was not seen above 7,500 or 8,000
feet north of Pagosa Springs or in the Vallecito region. This

i Proc. Biol. Soe. Wash., XVIII, p. 103, 1905.

2 The Baca County chipmunks have been recently separated as a pale race by E. R. Warren ( Proc. Biol.
Soc. Wash., XXII, p. 105. 1909,.

3 Further Notes on the Mammals of Colorado, Colo. College Pub., gen. sit. no. 33, p. 08, 1908.

72

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

chipmunk has, however, been taken at Silverton (9,000 feet). West
of the L;i Plata Mountains, and apparently west of their southern
extension, it is replaced by the Hopi chipmunk (E. hopiensis). The
limits of these two species along the San Juan River have not been
ascertained, but it is quite possible the ranges meet, as at McCoy,
on the upper Grand River.

At Sapinero, in mid-October, 1907, E. m. consobrinus was the only
chipmunk seen alive, but October 15 three specimens of quadrivittatus
got into my mousetraps along the rocky ledges of a gulch extending
from the Gunnison River up through the sagebrush slopes southwest
of the town. The species doubtless reaches the Gunnison region

$J £Ur/>M/AS HOP/EAJS/S.

Y/.C. QCADWV/TTATUS.

£■ Q AA//MOSUS.

Fig. 4.— Distribution in Colorado of Hopi, Say, and Las Animas chipmunks ( Eutamias hopiensis, E. quad-
rivittatus, and E. q. animosus).

from San Luis Valley by way of Cochetopa Pass, rather than across
the high Saguache Range, since at St. Elmo, on the east side of this
range, it was not observed in the Hudsonian and Arc tic- Alpine zones,
although tolerably common in the Chalk Creek Valley, at 10,000 feet.
In the Upper Arkansas Valley it is abundant to a short distance
above Buena Vista. At Como, in South Park, several were seen on
the timbered ridges at 10,000 feet, one being noted in the upper
branches of a foxtail pine (Pinus aristata).

E. quadrivittatus is the largest and best known of the Colorado
chipmunks, and is the one commonly seen along the eastern base of
the foothills. At several localities, notably at Colorado Springs and

1911.] MAMMALS. 73

Boulder, the ranges of this species and the smaller operarius of the
boreal zones overlap for a vertical distance of nearly 3,000 feet. The
two chipmunks are easily confused in life, as the coloration is very
similar, but quadrivittatus is considerably larger and slightly brighter
in color. Like most chipmunks, this species is out in greatest abun-
dance during the early morning hours or late in the afternoon, and may
be seen frisking about the rocks and stumps of trees on the sides of
canyons or along fences or busily feeding in the thickets of wild cherry
and June berry so abundant in the canyon bottoms. It is usually
shy, and when surprised hastily takes refuge among the rocks, utter-
ing high-pitched, chippering notes. The ordinary note, however, is
a soft chuck, chuck, usually uttered when the animal is at a distance
from the observer and either sitting on the summit of a large rock
far up the canyon side or on a tree stump in the silence of the yellow
pine forest.

The food consists chiefly of seeds of various weeds and grasses and
of Cercocarpus parvifolius, the fruit of the prickly pear (Opuntia),
and also juniper berries, currants, wild cherries, and June berries.
In autumn this chipmunk gathers a winter's supply of food, hoards
it in crevices and under rocks, and goes into at least partial hiberna-
tion over most of its range, according to the length and severity of
the winter. It is often out in mild winter weather.

Eutamias quadrivittatus animosus Warren. Las Animas Chipmunk.
Eutamias quadrivittatus animosus Warren, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXII, pp.
105-106, June 25, 1909. Type from Irwin's ranch, Las Animas County,
Colorado.

The range of tins large pale race of E. quadrivittatus is imperfectly
known. Warren based his description upon three specimens, all
taken by himself in the rough Upper Sonoran juniper country of
northwestern Baca and northeastern Las Animas Counties, at eleva-
tions of about 5,000 feet. The first specimen he secured in the
spring of 1905, at Gaume's ranch, Shell Rock Canyon, in the north-
west corner of Baca County. No more specimens were known until
April, 1909, when Warren made another trip to the region and col-
lected two more at Irwin's ranch, in Las Animas County, some 12
miles west of Gaume's ranch. (See fig. 4.)

In late November, 1907, I made a trip to Gaume's ranch, but failed
to see any chipmunks, as they were already in hibernation. They
were reported to be common, however, in the juniper country of that
section. Although the two localities at which specimens have been
taken are close together, it seems probable that this pale chipmunk
will be found to occupy most, if not all, of the rough juniper and
pinyon country of Las Animas and western Baca Counties, locally
known as The Cedars. It is reasonably certain that animosus is
confined to the Upper Sonoran area east of the foothills. Chipmunks

74 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

which I saw at Walsenburg were fully as dark as typical quadrivittatus,
while Trinidad specimens more nearly agree with those from Archu-
leta and La Plata Counties in being more brightly colored than
typical specimens and having the white dorsal stripes wider and purer
white.

Eutamias hopiensis Merriam. Hopi Chipmunk.

This handsome species is represented from Colorado by a series of
specimens from White River, near Angora; Rangely, 20 miles south-
west; Evacuation Creek, north base of "Book Plateau; Rifle; Dotsero,
Grand River Canyon ; McCoy; Somerset; Coventry; Uranium, Sinbad
Valley; and Spruce Tree Cliff Ruins, Mesa Verde.

I first met with the Hopi chipmunk among the rocky bluffs at the
ford of White River, near Angora, September 12, 1906. At this point
fully a dozen were actively engaged in carrying oats from a stack
along the river and storing them in caches among the rocky ledges
near by. Numbers were seen among the White River bluffs as far
west as Rangely, and thence the range is continuous across the rough
juniper country to Dragon Junction, Utah, and southeast in the
valley of Evacuation Creek to the north base of the Book Plateau,
at 7,000 feet. This chipmunk doubtless occurs in all of the country
between the Book Plateau and White River and west of Cathedral
Bluffs. On the Book Plateau it was again found on the southern
slope near Atchee, at 7,000 feet, which is very near the upper limit
of junipers and pinyons. Thence it ranges south to Grand River and
northeast in the Grand Valley uninterruptedly to the western end
of Gore Canyon. It appears not to extend through this rugged gorge,
however, as it was not found at Kremmling, Middle Park. It is
very abundant in the lower valley of Plateau Creek, and occurs
sparingly on the warm juniper slopes north of the Eagle River Valley
nearly to Wolcott, where the Transition zone country proves an
effective barrier to its eastward extension.

South of Grand River the Hopi chipmunk reaches its eastern limit
at the following localities: Basalt, at the junction of the Frying Pan
and Roaring Fork Rivers; Somerset, on the North Fork of the Gunni-
son; Crawford, on the Smith Fork of the Gunnison; phtyon slopes
north of Dallas Creek, 5 miles west of Ridgway; Placerville,1 on the
San Miguel River; Cortez, in the Montezuma Valley; and the Spruce
Tree Cliff Ruins, at the head of Navajo Canyon, which breaks to the
south from the Mesa Verde into the canyon of Mancos River, a tribu-
tary of the San Juan. It was not found in the Durango region or at
Arboles, and apparently does not follow the San Juan Valley east
of the low divide extending south from the La Plata Mountains.
In the warm valleys and canyons of western Mesa, Montrose, and

1 Warren, Further Notes on the Mammals of Colorado, p. G8, 1908.

1011.] MAMMALS. 75

San Miguel Counties hopiensis is abundant up to 7,000 feet, and was
noted at the following localities: Coventry; Naturita Valley, 3 miles
east of Naturita; Tabeguache Canyon, north of Nucla; west rim of
West Paradox Valley up to the lower edge of the yellow pines, at 7,000
feet; Sinbad Valley and surrounding rim; Salt Canyon; Dolores
Canyon to mouth of West Creek; and 4 miles up the valley of West
Creek. It apparently does not extend through the northern end of
the Uncompahgre Plateau in the Unaweep Canyon; and since at all
other points the Canadian zone cap of this plateau is an effectual
barrier, it must reach the Uncompahgre Valley, on the east side of
the plateau, from the north, through the Grand and Gunnison
Valleys.

The Hopi chipmunk is common in western and southern Montezuma
County, where I have seen it in the McElmo Canyon at Ashbaugh's
ranch and Moqui, and in the southern borders of the Mesa Verde.
At the head of Navajo Canyon these chipmunks were abundant
the middle of June. They frequented the cliffs along the warm
side of the canyon during the early morning hours, and were usually
seen running along the rocky ledges in the bright sunlight in family
groups of four or five, the young being from half to two-thirds grown.
About 9 o'clock the chipmunks usually disappeared and were not again
seen until the following morning. A nursing female in worn pelage
and a male in bright fresh summer coat were collected at this point.

Eutamias hopiensis was described from Keam Canyon, Painted Des-
ert, Arizona, and is known also from Bluff City, Utah, and a num-
ber of localities in the San Juan Valley of northwestern New Mexico.
Its range has not been worked out in detail, but is known to be in the
desert canyons and pinyon and juniper country bordering the Colorado
River and its tributaries from northern Arizona and northwestern
New Mexico north to northwestern Colorado, mainly in the Upper
Sonoran zone. It occurs in Colorado at few points above 7,000 feet.

As far as known the ranges of E. hopiensis and quadrivittatus meet
at only one point in Colorado (see fig. 4). E. R. Warren collected
both species in May, 1907, at Yarmany Creek, near McCoy, Eagle
County, at an elevation of 6,900 feet,1 and the specimens, which I
have examined, show no evidence of intergradation. The two species
occur in close proximity elsewhere. I have taken E. quadrivittatus
at Sapinero and have seen hopiensis at Crawford.

In size and general appearance the Hopi chipmunk resembles E.
quadrivittatus of the eastern foothills, but its movements are more
deliberate and its colors much brighter and richer. The long tail
is carried more nearly horizontally, even when the animal is running.
This striking habit, together with the graceful downward curve of
the tail near the tip, serves to distinguish it, even at a distance, from

1 Further Notes on the Mammals of Colorado, p. G8, 1908.

76 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

the small K. consobrinus, with which it commingles in the higher parts
of its range. In the juniper country south of White River its habit
of leaping up a tree when alarmed and hiding on the opposite side
of a branch may cause it to be confused with the gray utaJiensis,
which is found in similar country in the Escalante Hills. The Hopi
chipmunks appear equally at home among the hot rocks in the pre-
cipitous canyons and in the dense juniper and piny on growth which
clothes the bordering mesas. They feed extensively upon the berries
of Juniperus monosperma throughout their range.
Eutamias amcenus operarius Merriam. Colorado Chipmunk.

Eutamias amcenus operarius Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVIII, p. 164,
June 29, 1905. Type from Gold Hill, Boulder County, Colorado.

This chipmunk was formerly confounded with quadrivittatus, with
winch it occurs at many points in the eastern foothills of Colorado;
but while the two are nearly alike in coloration, operarius is decidedly
smaller, and its short, round skull and short nasals indicate affinities
with a different group. The rump is usually ashy gray, while that of
quadrivittatus is olivaceous. From consolrinus of the western moun-
tains operarius may be distinguished by its more robust skull, although
in summer pelage the two are sometimes almost indistinguishable
externally. It is the highest ranging chipmunk in the State, occurring
regularly far above timberline along the crest of the front ranges.
It is found also as low as 6,500 feet at several localities in the eastern
foothills, and E. R. Warren has recently shown me specimens taken
by Robert B. Rockwell along the South Platte, 3 miles south of Little-
ton, at about 5,300 feet.

Although most abundant on the higher slopes of the front ranges,
operarius is common in the mountains bordering the San Luis Valley
and extends westward in the San Juan Mountains to Silverton and
Lake City, where fairly typical specimens have been taken. A June
specimen from the southeast base of Lone Mesa, west of the La Plata
Mountains, seems referable to operarius, although the only other
chipmunk taken at that locality is nearer consobrinus. A very
brightly colored July specimen taken in the yellow pine country
at the head of Dominguez Creek, on the Uncompahgre Plateau, is
intermediate, resembling consobrinus externally. E. operarius was
abundant in the high La Sal Mountains, Utah, west of the Paradox
Valley, in July, 1907, at 11,000 feet, and was seen considerably above
timberline. The chipmunks of the La Sal Mountains are entirely
isolated from those of the Colorado mountains by a broad belt of
Upper Sonoran desert country occupied, so far as known, by only
E. hopiensis.

The extent of country over which the ranges of operarius and
consobrinus overlap has not been worked out with precision. Both

1911.] MAMMALS. 77

forms have been taken at Canadian Creek, at the west base of the
Medicine Bow Range in North Park; at Coulter, Middle Park; and at
Lone Mesa (9,000 feet), west of the La Plata Mountains. Chip-
munks from Sapinero are typical consobrinus, while others from Lake
City, 35 miles south, are operarius. Specimens collected above
timberline on the Saguache Mountains at St. Elmo are, strangely
enough, consobrinus, indicating that operarius is not found on the
west side of the Arkansas Valley. Chipmunks taken by Warren on
the head of Eagle River (near Tennessee Pass) are intermediate but
nearest operarius.

Average measurements of five skulls of adult male topotypes of
E. operarius are as follows: Occipito-nasal length, 32; basilar length,
24.6; zygomatic breadth, 18. Average of four skulls of adult male
consobrinus from Canadian Creek, North Park: Occipito-nasal length,
31; basilar length, 23.5; zygomatic breadth, 17.2.

There are specimens of operarius in the Biological Survey collection
from the following localities: Gold Hill, type locality; Estes Park;
Longs Peak; Boulder, 5 miles west; Nederland; Golden; Idaho
Springs; Cascade; Mount Kelso; Elkhorn; Livermore; Berthoud Pass;
Canadian Creek; Coulter; Como; Lone Mesa; La Sal Mountains, Utah;
Silverton; Lake City* Hermit; Cumbres; Antonito; and Fort Garland.
Warren has specimens from Colorado Springs; Florissant; Tarryall
Creek; Salida; Boreas Pass, 11,470 feet; Breckenridge ; Poncha Pass;
Herard; Querida; Crestone; and Tercio, Las Animas County.

Eutamias minimus (Bachman) . Least Chipmunk.

Chipmunks from the Snake River Valley and the adjacent sage
plains and from the Browns Park region along Green River agree
well with typical E. minimus from Green River, Wyoming. In the
region between Bear River and the Danforth Hills, minimus grades
into the dark form consobrinus of the high mountainous country on
the south and east. Four August and September specimens from
Snake River (20 miles west of Baggs Crossing), Sunny Peak, and
Ladore are typical minimus. Others from Lay, Axial Basin, and
Lily show an approach to consobrinus.

The least chipmunk is one of the most characteristic mammals of
the sage plains and appears not to range at any point much above
6,000 feet. During the latter part of August, 1906, numbers were
observed in the Snake River Valley near Sunny Peak, Routt County.
Some were in dry arroyos or on the level sage plain, but the majority
were busily engaged in gathering a winter's supply of buffalo berries
(Lepargyrea argentea), which were fully ripe in the dense thickets
along the river. Near Ladore, in the Green River Valley, this chip-
munk was often seen in the tops of Sarcobatus bushes. On the north
slopes of the Escalante Hills it ranges up to the edge of the junipers
and pinyons inhabited by the large gray Eutamias utahensis, but

78 NORTH A.MEBICA3S FAUNA. [No. 33.

apparently does not enter the timber growth. This chipmunk may
often be seen in the top of a sagebush, but unlike E. consobrinus is
very wild and difficult to capture. When running, it holds its tail
at right angles to the back. The tail then appears very long, but
this may be partly due to the small size of the body.

Eutamias minimus caryi Merriam. San Luis Chipmunk.

Mitamias minimus caryi Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXI, p. 143, June 9,
1908. Type from Medano ranch, San Luis Valley, Colorado.

So far as known, this handsome ashy gray chipmunk is restricted
to the eastern and northern central parts of San Luis Valley, where
it inhabits the open Sarcobatus and Chrysothamnus plains. The
original series of specimens from the Medano Springs ranch, east of
the San Luis Lakes, consists of 8 males and 5 females collected Octo-
ber 24-29, 1907. In the summer of 1909 Warren found it at Moffat,
Hooper, Mosca, and Crestone, thus considerably extending the
known range. Chipmunks reported from the greasewood plains be-
tween Moffat and Saguache are doubtless the same form, and sug-
gest a very general dispersion over the central part of the valley.
At the time of my stage trip between these two points, November 6,
1907, the chipmunks had apparently retired to winter quarters.
I heard of none at Alamosa or at any point in the open valley south of
Mosca.

This chipmunk strongly resembles E. minimus of the Routt County
sage plains, its nearest relative, as regards both wariness and appear-
ance. When the animal is running, the tail is carried at a right angle
to the back, and appears much longer in proportion to the body than
measurements show it to be. At the Medano ranch these chipmunks
were usually seen among the low sandy hummocks and ridges bor-
dering the meadows, where the chico brush or chaparral of Sarcobatus
vermiculatus, Chrysothamnus patens, and Atriplex occidentalis reaches
its maximum growth, often from 6 to 8 feet in height, and affords
suitable homes and retreats among the gnarled and many branched
roots and basal stems which the drifting sands have left partially ex-
posed. Most of my specimens wer.e shot, but a few were caught in
mousetraps. The chipmunks were out chiefly during the forenoon,
and any time after sunrise on bright mornings could be seen in the
tops of the chico brush busily storing the seeds in their cheek pouches,
afterwards descending and caching them in the burrows, which were
usually in the sand at the bases of the shrubs. One usually noted
my approach at a distance of fully 50 yards, and, after hastily climb-
ing to the top of a tall bush for a good look, would descend to the
ground, sometimes silently, and again uttering excited, high-pitched
notes. When the little fellow next appeared above the level of the
chico it was generally in a tall bush fully 30 yards farther on. This
maneuvering would be kept up for some time until a very large bush

1911.] MAMMALS. 79

would conveniently intervene and afford sufficient cover to approach
within range. The chipmunks were silent for the most part, and the
alarm notes were heard only a few times. The notes are not loud,
but are very high pitched, and quite unlike those of .quadrivittatus
and operarius of the foothills and mountains on both sides of the
valley. The size, coloration, and habits readily distinguish this
chipmunk from either of the above forms. Cowboys at the Me-
dano ranch state that, in addition to the chico seeds, these chipmunks
are very fond of the large roundish seeds of a honey plant (Peritoma
sonorse), locally known as skunk weed, which grows rankly on the
dry sandy ridges extending through the meadows.

Eutamias caryi is characterized as follows (from original descrip-
tion, 1. a):

"Characters. — Similar to minimus but paler and grayer. In fall
pelage (late October) pale gray, most marked on neck and rum]),
and almost as clear en inner pair of light stripes; outer pair of white
stripes purer white than in minimus; pale face stripes whitish, in
striking contrast with the alternating dark stripes.

"Measurements. — Type: Total length, 194; tail vertebrae, S7; hind
foot, 30. Average of 10 specimens from type locality: Total length,
194; tail vertebras, 89; hind foot, 30.2."

Eutamias minimus consobrinus (Allen). Wasatch Chipmunk.

This is the small, brightly colored chipmunk so abundant in the
Canadian and Transition zones on the mountains and plateaus west
of the Front and Medicine Bow Ranges and north of Grand River.
It is present also on some of the plateaus and mesas of the south-
western counties, where it frequents the oak chaparral, ranging at
least as far south as the Mesa Verde and Ute Peak. In eastern
Middle and North Parks and on the western slope of the La Plata
Mountains its range meets and slightly overlaps that of operarius
and, as noted under operarius, both forms have been taken together
at several localities. On some of the western plateaus consobrinus
ranges a short distance into the pinyon belt of the Upper Sonoran
zone, where over small areas in the Grand, White, and North
Gunnison Valleys, and in the San Miguel region, it commingles with
the large Hopi chipmunk (E. Iwpiensis). Toward the north, on the
sage plains of Routt County, it grades into minimus. Its center of
abundance is in the heavy forests of the Canadian zone, but it is
common on the high sage plains of North Park, and even ranges into
the greasewood in some of the warm Upper Sonoran valleys in the
extreme western part of the State. It is especially numerous in the
Gunnison region, on the White River Plateau, and in the mountains
bordering North and Middle Parks, except on the east side.

E. consobrinus generally remains below the Hudsonian zone and,
broadly speaking, it is not such a high ranging form as operarius.

80 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

Near St. Elmo, in the Saguache Mountains, however, it was tolerably
common at timberline October 9, 1907, while down in the Chalk
Creek Valley at St. Elmo (10,000 feet) none were noted. Most of
the chipmunks seen were running actively over the snow banks in
the ragged growth of foxtail pines (Pinus aristata) just below tim-
berline. Seen at a distance on the bright snow banks, with their
tails held erect, these chipmunks are striking little objects. Three
specimens were shot at an altitude of 12,000 feet.

The sharp notes of this chipmunk are characteristic sounds in the
depths of the aspen and spruce forests. Deserted cabins are espe-
cially frequented by them, and near a camp the chipmunks soon
become tame and unsuspecting. In the latter part of September,
1906, from 20 to 30 could often be counted within sight of our camp
at Baxter Pass, at 8,000 feet, on the Book Plateau, where they were
busily gathering acorns. They were rarely observed during the
middle of the day, being out chiefly in the early morning hours.
In the high country the food consists largely of wild cherries, June
berries, and snowberries (Symphoricarpos oreopliilus) . In the White
River Valley in September they were feeding extensively upon buffalo
berries {Lepargyrea argentea) .

A large series of specimens from the following localities indicates
the range of consobrinus in Colorado: Coulter; Sulphur Springs;
Kremmling; Mount Whiteley; Arapahoe Pass; Canadian Creek;
Pearl; Elk Head Mountains; Meeker; White River Plateau; Rangely;
Evacuation Creek; Baxter Pass, Book Plateau; Gypsum; Sapinero;
Somerset; Mesa Verde; and Lone Mesa.

Allen has recorded (as Tamias quadrivittatus) a series of 16 chip-
munks collected by W. W. Granger at Three Forks (forks of Snake
River, near Honnold) in 1895.1 Specimens in the Biological Survey
collection from 5 miles south of Honnold are consobrinus, and that
Mr. Granger's series is referable to the same form is indicated by the
small hind foot measurements given— 29.5 to 30.7.

Eutamias dorsalis utahensis Merriam. Utah Chipmunk.

Fifteen specimens of this handsome gray chipmunk were collected
in the dense juniper and pinyon growth on the northern slopes of
the Escalante Hills, at Douglas Spring, early in September, 1906, but
it was not taken elsewhere in western Colorado, although much of
the region seems favorable for it. These chipmunks were abundant
hi the heavy growth of junipers and pinyons between 6,000 and
6,500 feet, and were found also in rocky ledges among the scattered
yellow pines on the summits at 7,000 feet. Warren collected this
species on Cross Mountain, east of Snake River, a few miles northeast
of Lily, in 1907. This locality is some 20 miles east of Douglas Spring.

i Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VIII, p. 256, 1S96.

1911.] MAMMALS. 81

It is reported also from the eastern end of Yampa Canyon, a few
miles west of Lily.

Eutamias utahensis was described from Ogden, Utah, and has not
been previously taken much east of Provo in that State. It is an
Upper Sonoran form and probably ranges eastward along the southern
foothills of the Uinta Mountains, entering Colorado in the region of
the Yampa Plateau, south of Bear River. Future work in northeast-
ern Utah will determine whether there is continuity of range or the
Colorado colony is entirely isolated.

These chipmunks at Douglas Spring were remarkably wild, and
it required much perseverance to secure my series of specimens, all
of which were shot. The favorite feeding time was in the early
morning and again just before sunset, when they were usually in the
tops of junipers busily feasting upon the berries. I seldom man-
aged to approach nearer than 30 yards without alarming them.
When frightened they uttered a series of high-pitched notes, and
after a hasty descent to the ground fled precipitately, rarely stopping
within sight. The bushy tail is very prominent and gives the animal
the appearance of a small squirrel, and this resemblance is heightened
by the ease and rapidity with which it climbs trees and keeps on the
opposite side from the observer. The seeds of the juniper berry
appear to be the chief food, and they filled the cheek pouches of the
specimens collected. Several caches of these berries were found in
the hollow branches of junipers in which the chipmunks appeared
to be living.

Callospermophilus lateralis (Say). Say Ground Squirrel.

S[ciurus] lateralis Say, in Long's Exped. Rocky Mts., II, p. 46, 1823. Type from
Arkansas River (a few miles below present site of Canon City), Colorado.

The Say ground squirrel is a common and characteristic mammal
throughout the mountains of Colorado in the Transition and Cana-
dian zones. It is found from the eastern bases of the foothills to
timberline and west of the main ranges occurs on all the timbered
hills and plateaus to the Utah boundary. The Biological Survey
collection is rich in specimens of this species from a great many
localities over its range. C. lateralis is replaced in the rocky canyons
and juniper country along Bear and Snake Rivers by a pale form,
C. I. wortmani. Specimens from the Transition zone summits of
the Escalante Hills, in extreme western Routt County, are nearest
lateralis. Others from the White River Valley near Rangely are
noticeably paler than typical specimens from the eastern foothills
and approach wortmani. (See fig. 5.)

In the foothills near Boulder C. lateralis is most abundant in the
yellow pine belt between 5,500 and 8,500 feet, but in crossing the
mountains from Fort Collins to North Park it was first noted in the
90432°— 11 6

82

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

lower edge of the lodgepole pine belt a few miles northeast of Bald
Mountain at 8,500 feet. From this point it was common across the
Laramie Divide, Laramie Valley, and Medicine Bow Range to the
edge of the sage plains of North Park. At Arapahoe Pass (Rabbit
Ear Mountains), and on the White River Plateau, southeast of
Meeker, lateralis was common in the aspen and lodgepole pine forests
at 9,000 feet, and was especially numerous about clearings and
among the charred stumps and logs in fire-swept tracts. Farther
west, on the Book Plateau, it was common on the open rocky south
slope as far down as Carbonera, at the edge of the Grand Valley, and

SSSSJJJSJ CAl l OSP£/?MOPH/LUS i. WOftrMAM. WW// C. /LArfftAC/S-

Fig. 5.— Distribution in Colorado of golden-mantled ground squirrels (genus Callospcrmophilus).

was also observed in the valley of Evacuation Creek at the north base
of the plateau.

In the southern part of the State the Say ground squirrel is most
abundant in the Transition zone — in the extensive yellow pine for-
ests at the southern base of the San Juan Mountains from Pagosa
Springs west to Vallecito; on the Dolores and Uncompahgre Pla-
teaus; and at the north base of the San Miguel Mountains, south of
Norwood. It has a wide zonal range, however, from the lower edge
of the pines to timberline, and at Mancos, at least, is abundant in the
upper edge of the pinyon country. One was noted on a pinyon-clad
slope a few miles west of Ridgway, Ouray County.

1911.] MAMMALS. 83

This ground squirrel usually lives in rocky ledges and among piles
of bowlders, but in the heavy forests often digs its own burrow or
takes up its abode in a hollow log or deserted cabin. In the sandy
yellow pine country at the head of Dominguez Creek on the Uncom-
pahgre Plateau it appeared to be living entirely in burrows, and in
some places in the higher parts of its range it uses so constantly the
tunnels of the mountain pocket gopher (Thomomys fossor) that it is
continually getting into traps set for gophers. Near Cochetopa Pass
Loring once found one living in a burrow which it had excavated in
the earth roof of a cabin. It is fond of sunning itself in exposed
situations during the warmer part of the day, and may often be seen
sitting upright and motionless on a point of rocks, tree stump, or
ridge pole of a cabin. The animals are rarely observed on cloudy
days, and they do not come out so early in the morning as the chip-
munks do, but await the warming rays of the sun. Several families
of this species were living in the slide rock near the Stevens Mill,
at timberline on Mount McClellan, in June, 1905. Each morning
during my stay, at about 9 o'clock, they were busily feeding, in com-
pany with chipmunks and white-throated sparrows, on the oats left
hi the trail in front of the mill by the ore teams. At Estes Park, in
August, 1894, Dr. A. K. Fisher found this species feeding extensively
upon currants (Ribes cereum). In southern Colorado acorns form a
part of its food. Warren states that near Querida it has been seen
to kill a young bluebird in a nest in the bank of a gulch, apparently
with the intention of eating it.

Near Georgetown, June 25, 1905, I saw a female and two young
about a third grown romping among some loose rocks on the bank of
Clear Creek. When the old squirrel first saw me she ran to the
little ones and pushed them back into a hole among the rocks with
her forefeet. As soon as she had left them the youngsters came out
and began playing again. The mother returned and again pushed
them into their safe retreat, appearing much excited at my presence.
This was continued for a number of times, until I tired of watching
the performance. Near Vallecito, June 5, 1907, the young were half
or two-thirds grown, and two weeks later a great many young of
about the same age were seen north of Dolores.

These ground squirrels go into winter quarters during October — at
the higher elevations early in the month.1 At McCoy, on Grand
River, I noted only one, October 9, 1906, and on my return through
Middle Park and over Berthoud Pass, from October 12 to 18, saw
none. In 1907 the latest records were: One at St. Elmo (10,500),
October 10; one at Sapinero (7,300 feet), October 16; and one east
of Lake San Cristobal, San Juan Mountains (9,500 feet), October 18.

i Warren writes me that he shot one at Colorado Springs Nov. 11, 1909, which is an unusually late
record.

84 NORTH AM E RICAN I 'A 1 1 X A. [No. 33.

Streator found the species had hibernated at Gold IIill7 October 27,
1894; while Warren states that it had disappeared for the winter at
Crested Butte before October 8, 1905. 1 They are said to come out
in spring before the snow is gone. On this point Warren observes:
"While it disappears, in the Elk Mountains at least, with the first
snowstorms in early October, it comes out in the spring before the
snow is gone. I have known it to tunnel through 3 feet of snow to
get to the surface. A specimen taken early in April under such
circumstances was very fat.'.' 2

Callospermophilus lateralis wortmani (Allen). Wortman Ground
Squirrel.

This pale form, described from Kinney ranch, Sweetwater County,
Wyoming, inhabits the rough bail-land region which borders the lower
Snake and Bear Rivers in western Routt County, and, so far as known,
is restricted to tins low arid Upper Sonoran country and the adjoin-
ing desert areas of Wyoming. (See fig. 5.) Specimens from the
plateaus and mountains to the east, south, and west, in the Transi-
tion zone, are referable to C. lateralis; but, as noted under that
species, specimens from near Rangely, in the Upper Sonoran area
of the WThite River Valley, although referred to C. lateralis, are paler
and approach the present form.

A specimen of C. wortmani from the northern edge of Routt
County, 20 miles southwest of Baggs Crossing, Wyoming, August 26,
1906, was taken in a trap set for wood rats among the scattering
junipers which clothed the steep southern face of a rocky bluff on
the north side of Snake River. This was the only one seen on my
journey down the Snake River Valley in 1906, and the animals ap-
peared to be rare. Another very pale individual, which appeared
to be this form, was seen a few days later, however, among the bluffs
on the north side of Bear River, near the mouth of Sand Creek, a
few miles below Maybell. Near Lily, at the confluence of the Snake
and Bear Rivers, this squirrel was said to be abundant. Several
specimens from the Snake River bluffs, 7 miles north of Lily, collected
by Warren in the summer of 1907 and sent to the Biological Survey
for identification, are clearly referable to wortmani. Warren says
the animals were tolerably common at this point, but I saw none
while encamped at the same place the previous year.

Ammospermophilus leucurus cinnamomeus (Merriam). Antelope
Squirrel.

The antelope squirrel is found in the warm desert areas of western
and southwestern Colorado below 6,000 feet, chiefly in the valleys
of the streams tributary to the Colorado and Green Rivers. There

i Mammals of Colorado, p. 241, 1900. 2 Ibid, pp. 240-241, 1900.

1011.]

MAMMALS.

85

are specimens at hand from White River, 20 miles east of Rangely;
Rangely; Fruita; Grand Junction; Hotchkiss; Coventry, 6,400 feet;
and Ashbaugh's ranch, near McElmo. The northward dispersion is
limited by the Yampa Plateau, between White and Bear Rivers.
(See fig. 6.)

In 1906 antelope squirrels were first met with in the White River
Valley at the ford east of Angora, and from this point to the Utah
boundary they were common among rock ledges along the river. In
crossing the country between White and Grand Rivers we saw them
until we were 10 miles southwest of Rangely, and not again until
we reached Carbonera, at the southern base of the Book Cliffs. On
the desert between Carbonera and Mack, and thence up the Grand

Fig. 6. — Distribution in Colorado of antelope squirrel (A mmospermophilus leucurus cinnamomeus).

River Valley to Palisade, the antelope squirrel is an abundant and
characteristic mammal. It was not noted at any point in the White
and Grand Valleys above 5,500 feet.

East of the Uncompahgre Plateau the species ranges over a con-
siderable area in the Gunnison and Uncompahgre Valleys. Mr. C. H.
Smith, of Coventry, states that he has seen several at the eastern
base of the plateau, southwest of Montrose.- In the valley of the
North Fork of Gunnison River it occurs east to Hotchkiss and
probably to Paonia. In August, 1907, I found these squirrels
tolerabl}r common on the open rocky slopes north of the river at
Hotchkiss. but did not see any near Crawford, at the base of the West

86 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

Elk Mountains. A skin in the National Museum, collected by Capt.
James Stevenson September 18, 1873, labeled "Elk Mts.," probably
came from some point at their western base.

The antelope squirrel is rather generally distributed in the warm
valleys of southwestern Colorado. In Montezuma County it was not
found at Mancos, but a single individual was seen on an Atriplex flat
at the north base of Mesa Verde, a little west of Point Lookout,
which appears to be the eastern limit. It is abundant along McElmo
Creek, both among the rocky ledges in the canyon and on the lower
bordering mesas. In the region of the lower San Miguel and Dolores
Rivers the species is restricted to the hottest valleys and slopes, and
was noted as follows: Naturita west to Dry Creek; Salt Canyon,
outlet of Sinbad Valley; canyon of Dolores River, Salt Canyon to
mouth of West Creek; and West Creek Valley to 4 miles above
mouth. It does not extend through the Unaweep Canyon to con-
nect with its range in the Gunnison Valley. Mr. William Boren, of
Norwood, says antelope squirrels are common in Dry Creek Basin in
Gypsum Valley, and on lower Disappointment Creek in western
San Miguel County. The above localities indicate a general distri-
bution below 6,000 feet.

Antelope squirrels frequent sandy arroyos and are striking objects
as they frisk about in the morning sunshine with the pure white
under surface of the upraised tail showing prominently. They are
easily alarmed and retreat precipitately to the burrows, which are
usually in the sandy bank of a dry desert wash or beneath sage or
Atriplex bushes. In a few moments the animal may be watching the
intruder from the mouth of a burrow or from behind a pile of rocks,
but it disappears at the slightest noise or movement. At Fruita,
Mesa County, several were living in the cemetery, and one or two
burrows were found beside gravestones. None of the squirrels
uttered a sound while under my observation, but one winch J. Alden
Loring heard near Grand Junction had a note described as "loud,
shrill, and rattling, and gradually dying out like a policeman's whis-
tle." Mr. Loring states that the antelope squirrel has from four to
six young in a litter. Mr. George J. Ashbaugh and other ranchmen
between Moqui and McElmo, Montezuma County, state that antelope
squirrels do much damage in the spring by digging up newly planted
corn. During my stay at Mr. Ashbaugh's ranch, June 18-23, 1907,
the young were about two-thirds grown, and proved a nuisance by
getting into traps placed at the mouths of Perodipus burrows on the
small sandy flats at the base of the rocky canyon walls. The species
is more or less active in winter, as Mr. C. H. Smith, of Coventry, has
taken it in January.

1011.]

MAMMALS.

87

Citellus variegatus grammurus (Say). Rock Squirrel.

Sciurus grammurus Say, in Long's Exped. Rocky Mts., II, p. 72, 1823. Type
from Purgatory River, near mouth of Chacuaco Creek, Las Animas County,
Colorado.

The large gray rock squirrel is common among the rock ledges of
the eastern foothills, and also throughout the warm valleys of southern
and southwestern Colorado north to the southern base of the Book
Cliffs mainly in the Upper Sonoran zone. East of the mountains it is
not known to extend north to the Wyoming line, but is found in the
foothills west of Fort Collins. Along the eastern slope of the moun-
tains it occurs regularly in open, rocky situations up to 7,000 feet,

Fig. 7.— Distribution in Colorado of rock squirrel (Citellus varkgatus grammurus).

and toward the south is occasionally found to 8,000 feet. In the
Grand River Valley the upper limit appears to be at 6,500 feet, a little
below the upper edge of the juniper and pinyon belt. In some of the
southwestern valleys, however, it ranges considerably higher, and on
the southwestern slopes of the Uncompahgre Plateau extends well
into the yellow pine belt wherever suitable rocky ledges occur. (See
fig. 7.)

The Biological Survey has specimens of grammurus from Higbee,
Otero County, winch are practically topotypes. Specimens from
both eastern and western slopes are fairly typical, those from western
Colorado not differing sufficiently to be referred to C. v. utdh, described
by Dr. Merriam from Ogden, Utah. Rock squirrels which I saw in

g8 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. fNo, 33.

the Grand River Canyon above Glenwood Springs in October, 1906,
appeared quite reddish on the back, however, in this respect suggest-
ing the Utah form.

Rock squirrels nearly always live in rocky situations, the ledges
and bowlder-strewn sides of canyons, the bare rock}'- slopes along the
base of the foothills, and the rim rock of outlying mesas and buttes
being especially frequented. In the piny on country near Bayfield,
La Plata County, their burrows were often found along the margins
of fields in a nearly level country. As a rule, however, the burrows
are located beneath bowlders at the base of a rocky canyon rim or in
rock slides. Rock squirrels are quite shy and wary, and when one
is surprised in the bottom of a canyon, as is often the case, it invari-
ably runs up the slope and takes refuge among the rocks above. If
the observer remains perfectly quiet, he may at length detect the
animal peering silently over the top of u large bowlder, but it gener-
ally vanishes at the slightest noise or motion. I watched one of
these squirrels dusting itself near Bayfield. Apparently it was
unaware of my presence and at intervals would run to a dusty spot
in a path, throw the dust up with its fore feet, turn on its back, and
wriggle and squirm along the ground in the greatest enjoyment.
This performance was repeated a number of times, when suddenly
the little fellow spied me and raced off through the brush.

The food of rock squirrels consists chiefly of pinyon nuts, acorns,
and juniper berries, and consequently over much of their range the
animals do little damage. In some sections, however, they are
reputed to show a fondness for young chickens. Rock squirrels are
abundant in the McElmo Valley, Montezuma County. Mr. George
J. Ashbaugh states that they destroy many apricots on the trees for
the sake of the seeds, of which they are especially fond;1 they eat
holes in cantaloupes and watermelons on the vines in search of the
seeds, which they carry into the rocks to be eaten at leisure; and they
also dig up and eat much newly planted corn.

While at Ashbaugh's ranch in June, 1907, I often heard the sharp
alarm notes of rock squirrels in the orchard back of the house. Near
Coventry in July they were feeding extensively upon pinyon nuts.
In Grand Valley, near Glenwood Springs, in October, 1906, numbers
Were seen in the tops of large pinyons busily feasting upon the nuts,
and so common is this habit in that section that the animals are
locally known as gray tree squirrels.

There are few data at hand on the breeding of C. grammurus. An
old female collected by Loring at Lyons, May 28, 1893, was heavy
with three large fetuses; while the young squirrels were about half
grown at Ashbaugh's ranch, June 19, 1907.

1 Warren (The Mammals of Colorado, p. 103, 1910) states that a rock squirrel which was killed at Ash-
baugh's ranch in the fruit season had 50 or more apricot pits in its pouches.

1911.]

MAMMALS.

89

Citellus elegans (Kennicott). Wyoming Ground Squirrel.

This large gray ground squirrel is common in the mountain parks
and on the sage plains of the northwestern part of the State. It does
not appear to range south of the valley of Grand River, and it occurs
east of the main ranges only in the Laramie River country. (See
fig. 8.) It is abundant in Middle and North Parks, ranging across the
Rabbit Ear Mountains at Arapahoe Pass (9,000 feet), and doubtless
at other points where there is sufficient open country. In crossing
the Medicine Bow Mountains west of Glendevey I did not meet with
this squirrel, and assume that its range extends from North Park
around the north end of the Medicine Bows into the Laramie Valley.

Fig. 8.— Distribution in Colorado of Wyoming ground squirrel ( Citellus elcgans).

A specimen in the National Museum from Cameron Pass, at 10,000
feet, was probably taken on the North Park side. The species was
observed in the small parks along the heads of watercourses on the
high forested divide east of the Laramie River as high as 10,300 feet,
and extends east to Log Cabin and Fish Creek,1 Larimer County,
which points are near its eastern limits. In Routt County it is
found everywhere except in the higher Elk Head and Williams River
Mountains, the Escalante Hills, the Yampa and O-wi-yu-kuts Plateaus,
and the higher western slope of the Park Range. Several of these
ground squirrels were observed about 10 miles northwest of Hahns

> Bailey, Spermophiles of Mississippi Valley, Bull. No. i, Biological Survey, p. 60, 1S93.

90 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. S3.

Peak, which appears to be near its eastern limit in the Snake River
country. It ranges to the headwaters of Bear River, in Egeria Park,
thence south to McCoy, on Grand River, and south across the Piney
Divide to Wolcott. The heavily forested Gore Range, east of Egeria
Park, apparently proves a barrier, although the species is common
in the parks on its western slope 8 miles east of Toponas. In the
Eagle River Valley I found C. elegans tolerably common from Gypsum
to Wolcott, and Warren reports it present to a point 3 miles east of
Minturn, while in the valley of White River it occurs from Buford
west as far as Rangely. From Meeker the range is north across the
Danforth Hills to Axial Basin, south in the valley of the Piceance to
Rio Blanco,1 and from Angora north to Lily, on Bear River.

The sage flats in Middle and North Parks are densely populated
with these ground squirrels, and ranchmen consider them very
injurious to the cattle range and to small grain. Judging from my
own observations the damage inflicted is by no means slight, and
when the large territory inhabited by them is considered, it must be
very considerable. During July I often saw numbers in the rye
fields eating the green stalks, and not a vestige of grass remained near
their burrows. Ranchmen in the Snake River Valley between
Honnold and Slater claim that this species destroys fully a third of the
rye crop, pulling down the stalks to get at the heads, and the appear-
ance of the small fields in August, 1906, fully sustained their state-
ment. In the summer of 1904 a 5-acre field of oats on Little Bear
Creek, a tributary of Fortification Creek, is said to have been utterly
ruined by ground squirrels. In North Park I often saw them in the
hay meadows, whither they resort in the early morning, busily engaged
in pulling down and eating the tall grass stems.

This species hibernates very early in the autumn. In 1905 none
were observed at Lav August 3, and Mr. A. G. Wallahan informed me
that they retired to winter quarters about the middle of July, although
in the lower Snake River country they usually remain active until
about August 1. August 17, 1906, a few were out near Honnold, but
the majority were already in hibernation. An immature specimen
was taken in a trap set in the underground tunnel of a pocket gopher
near Baggs Crossing August 24, but none were noted above ground. A
very few were seen near Meeker August 12, 1905. At Sulphur Springs,
Middle Park, Warren found these squirrels running about in fresh snow
on stormy da}Ts in April, and they probably come out of hibernation
somewhat earlier at the lower elevations. I noted a great many bur-
rows which had been opened by badgers, which appear to feed
extensively upon this species — a fact well worth noting by farmers
and stockmen.

1 Specimen in U. S. National Museum.

1911.]

MAMMALS.

91

Citellus tridecemlineatus pallidus (Allen). Pale Striped Ground

Squirrel.

This is the common striped ground squirrel of the plains, but it
is found also in some of the mountain parks on the eastern slope
of the mountains at an elevation of over 9;000 feet. It occurs also
sparingly in North Park. It is replaced on the sage plains and in
the mountain parks west of the Continental Divide, and also in the
San Luis Valley, by another form of the same group — the little
C. t. parvus. (See fig. 9.) Specimens from Loveland, Sterling,
Pawnee Buttes, Tuttle, Eureka Hill (Cheyenne County), Las Animas,

C. T. fiHRVVS. 'MM. C- T. PAL UDUS .

Fig. 9.— Distribution in Colorado of striped ground squirrels ( Citellus t. parvus and C. t. pallidus).

and other localities indicate a general distribution over the plains
of eastern Colorado.

At Golden the pale striped ground squirrel is common both on
the plains and in the parks of the foothills at 7,300 feet. One was
found dead in the trail near Elkhorn, in the foothills of Larimer
County, at 7,500 feet. In North Park small numbers were occu-
pying an isolated strip of sandy country east of Canadian Creek,
at the west base of the Medicine Bow Range. C. 'pallidus has
doubtless reached this region from the north, as the Medicine Bow
Range is an effective barrier on the east. It was not observed on
the sage plains of central and western North Park. It is common
in the Wet Mountain and Huerfano Valleys, and near La Veta in

92 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

the Cuch&ras Valley; and on August 23, 1007, I found it abundant
and active on the high grassy plains of South Park near Como, at
an elevation of 0,800 feet. It is reported also from the upper Arkan-
sas Valley near Buena Vista, but I did not find any at Salida. The
National Museum has a specimen from Twin Lakes. The species
probably reaches the upper Arkansas Valley from South Park
through some of the open mountain passes.

Over most of its range this ground squirrel is injurious to truck
gardens and grain fields. Its worst habit is that of digging up newly
planted corn and eating the kernels. Near Valmont, Boulder
County, in June, 1005, it was reported very injurious. Because
of its depredations several farmers were obliged to plant their sweet
corn a second time. In this section it was living in burrows along
the grassy margins of gardens and cultivated fields.

Citellus tridecemlineatus parvus (Allen). Little Striped Ground

Squirrel.

This ground squirrel, the smallest member of the group, has its
center of abundance in the semidesert areas of western Routt and
Rio Blanco Counties. (See fig. 0.) This region was traversed so
late in the summer, in both 1905 and 1906, that most of the squir-
rels were already hibernating; therefore their numbers could not be
ascertained. The few observed were living in deserted burrows of
white- tailed prairie dogs, with the exception of three in the White
River Valley, which were occupying small burrows apparently exca-
vated by themselves. The squirrels collected were sluggish in their
movements and extremely fat, which indicated that they were ready
for hibernation. They were usually sitting at the mouths of the
burrows enjoying the warm autumn sunshine, but near Rangely
one was seen in the top of a Sarcobatus bush. At Mud Springs, on
the White River Plateau at 9,000 feet, 0. parvus was occupying
deserted burrows of Tltomomys fossor. Two adults and two young
were observed in a park at this point August 18, 1905. This squirrel
is reported as common in Lily Park, at the confluence of the Snake
and Bear Rivers; in Browns Park, near the Utah boundary; and
on the Iron Springs Divide, between the Snake and Bear Rivers.
In the Snake River Valley it is found as far east as the mouth of
Four-mile Creek, where one was seen August 22, 1006. Warren
states that he saw it at Big Beaver Creek, Rio Blanco County, in
1907. x During my investigations six specimens were collected,
as follows: Axial Basin, August 8, 1905; Mud Springs, White River
Plateau, August 18, 1905; Escalante (7 miles west), August 31,
1906; and Rangely, September 13 and 17, 1906.

This little ground squirrel is the form occurring over most, if not
all, of the San Luis Valley. Loring found it not uncommon at

1 Further Notes on the Mammals of Colorado, p. 71, 1908.

1911.] MAMMALS. 93

Fort Garland in July, 1892, and collected three specimens, while
Mr. J. II. Gaut secured two at Antonito, Conejos County, August
30 and 31, 1904. Bailey has observed this ground squirrel at La
Jara, and it was reported. to me as abundant at the Medano Springs
ranch, near the San Luis Lakes, in 1907. While in the San Luis
Valley in 1909 Warren found it at Mosca, San Luis Lakes, and at
Moffat.

Nothing is known of the distribution of 0. parvus in the region
between the White River Plateau and the San Luis Valley aside
from a specimen in the U. S. National Museum labeled "Elk Mts.,"
collected by Capt. Stevenson September 6, 1873.

Citellus obsoletus (Kennicott). Kennicott Ground Squirrel.

This is the small grayish ground squirrel inhabiting the sandy areas
on the plains north of the Arkansas Divide. It does not appear to be
present on the higher plains, being found principally in the valleys of
the Platte and Republican Rivers and their tributaries. The western
limits of range have not been ascertained. A specimen in the Colo-
rado Historical and Natural History Society collection was taken at
Sand Creek, near Denver, and the Biological Survey has the species
from Greeley. Specimens from Hugo, Tuttle, Wray, Sterling, Avalo,
and Greeley are referable to C. obsoletus, although there is consider-
able variation. Specimens from Wray and Tuttle have the coloration
of obsoletus, but in size approach major. The Sterling series agrees
best with specimens of obsoletus from Cherry County, Nebr. (assumed
to be typical), in small size and in coloration, most of the specimens
having the characteristic coal-black edgings of the indistinct spots on
posterior part of dorsum.

Like most other forms of spotted ground squirrels, 0. obsoletus is
largely restricted to sandy country. In starting northwest across the
plains from Cheyenne Wells in 1909, I first saw the species on the level
plain a few miles northwest of that point May 10. No others were
found until I reached the South Fork of Republican River, where an
adult male was shot 5 miles east of Tuttle May 18. The following
day another was collected on the hard soil divide 2 miles south of
Wray, and one was noted in the sand 2 miles east of the same point.
Mr. W. E. Wolfe, of Wray, informed me that in the valley east of the
town these squirrels are more numerous than the striped ground
squirrels. May 24 a spotted ground squirrel was seen in the sand
hills midway between Wray and Yuma. I saw none in crossing the
hard soil watershed between Yuma and Sterling. The species was
encountered 6 miles southeast of Sterling May 28, one being trapped
in a gravelly arroyo just below the bluffs, and others were taken in
the sand along the east side of the Platte at Sterling a day or so later.
The only one found northwest of Sterling was dug out of its burrow

94 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

on a hard soil flat along Horsetail Creek, 13 miles east of Avalo, June
3. Prof. Lantz found these ground squirrels common south of the
Big Sandy near Hugo. A burrow which he dug out in sandy soil
was 12 feet in length, but at no place more than 18 inches below
the surface. This burrow had three entrances and terminated in a
small round chamber which contained a slight nest of grass, in which,
instead of a squirrel, a large bull snake was coiled.

Citellus spilosoma major (Merriam). Large Spotted Ground Squirrel.

Spotted ground squirrels from the Arkansas Valley and southward,
though not typical, are referred to this form. Specimens from Las
Animas and La Junta (18 miles south) in the Biological Survey col-
lection agree in size with typical major from Albuquerque, New Mex-
ico, but are grayer. Others collected by Warren at Lamar and at
Monon, Baca County, are best referred to this form. These are said
to be the common ground squirrels in the Arkansas Valley at Pueblo.1
Spotted ground squirrels from the Arkansas Divide and northward
are nearest obsoletus, indicating that the twTo forms may intergrade
in southern Colorado. Prof. D. E. Lantz, who collected specimens
south of La Junta, thinks this form comes out of hibernation about
April 20.
Cynomys ludovicianus (Ord). Prairie Dog.

This is the large brown prairie dog of the eastern plains of Colorado.
There is probably not a county east of the foothills in which it is not
present in considerable numbers, and colonies are found in some of
the broader foothill valleys to an elevation of 6,000 feet. The western
limit of range may be roughly indicated by Livermore, Larimer
County; Lyons; Boulder; Rockvale, Fremont County;2 Badito, Huer-
fano County; and Trinidad.

At several points in southern Colorado the range of this species
almost meets that of the smaller C. gunnisoni, but usually the two
species are separated by a vertical distance of from 1,000 to 2,000
feet — ludovicianus occupying the valleys and the flat tops of the
lowest mesas, while gunnisoni lives in the parks of the highest foot-
hills and in the mountains. Near Badito colonies of both species
are found within a mile or so of each other — ludovicianus occupying
the flat along Huerfano River, and gunnisoni the open parks among
the pinyons on the first benches south of the river and only a few
hundred feet above it. At Gardner, 12 miles above Badito, gunni-
soni is found in the Huerfano Valley.

Prairie dogs are especially abundant along the Santa Fe Railroad
between Trinidad and La Junta, and in Baca County in the extreme
southeast corner of the State. In 1909 I found them common on the

i Warren, Mammals of Colorado, p. 242, 1906.

s Field Col. Mus. Pub. 115, Zool. ser., VIII, p. 181, 1907.

1911.] MAMMALS. 95

eastern end of the Arkansas Divide near Cheyenne Wells, and again
from a point 15 miles northwest of Sterling west to Grover. Their
numbers are decreasing in Yuma County and elsewhere, owing to
rapid settlement. Numerous grass-grown mounds between Yuma
and Sterling indicate that formerly the animals were abundant,
but in 1009 I saw very few inhabited colonies in tins section. In the
thinly settled grazing country dog towns often cover large areas of
excellent cattle range and are thus a source of loss to stockmen.

In 1802 Dr. A. K. Fisher found this species abundant at Trinidad
in open places among the pinyons on the table mountains, and
reports that at Las Animas nine prairie dogs were drowned out of a
single burrow. In 1005 Prof. Lantz reported a colony at Byers in
which albinos are common, stating that "a dozen pure white speci-
mens can sometimes be seen at a time." Near Higbee, Otero County,
Prof. Lantz reports that all the females had apparently given birth
to young before April 12, 1010. In six instances the number of young
was six; in two instances it was four.

Cynomys gunnisoni (Baird). Gunnison Prairie Dog.

Spermophilus gunnisoni Baird, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., VII, p. 334, 1855.
Type from Cochetopa Pass, Saguache County, Colorado.

The type of Cynomys gunnisoni was collected by F. Kreuzfeldt on
Capt. E. G. Beckwith's expedition in 1853. The species is consider-
ably smaller than C. ludovicianus, with very short ears and tail, the
latter bordered and tipped with white. Like C. leucurus of north-
western Colorado, it does not seem to be of marked gregarious habits,
the burrows being scattered here and there over valleys, mesas, and
even steep slopes. It is more of a mountain animal than either of
the above species, but is equally at home in the Upper Sonoran,
Transition, and even lower Canadian zones.

This is the prairie dog so abundant in South Park, in parts of the
upper Arkansas, San Luis, and Rio Grande Valleys, and in the open
country and valleys south and west of the San Juan and La Plata
Mountains and the Uncompahgre Plateau. It crosses the Cochetopa
Pass into the Gunnison country and ranges as far west as the Black
Mesa. The northern and western limits are indicated by localities
as follows: Como (South Park), Twin Lakes, Leadville, near Crested
Butte,1 Black Mesa, Cerro Ridge, and the Uncompahgre Plateau.
The ranges of gunnisoni and leucurus do not seem to meet at any
point, although separated by only a very narrow strip of country in
the Cimarron region. C. gunnisoni is known to inhabit the lower
western parts of Montezuma, Dolores, San Miguel, and Montrose Coun-
ties, and doubtless extends westward some distance into eastern Utah,
possibly in that region also approaching the range of C. leucurus.

i Further Notes oil the Mammals of Colorado, p. 71, 1908.

96 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

Prairie dogs are reported abundant on the extensive sage flats and
deserts south of the La Sal Mountains, but the species is not known.

In crossing the Continental Divide between Lake City and Creede,
C. gunnisoni was not noted south of Lake City, but was again seen
on the flats just below Lake Santa Maria, at 9,400 feet, and it may
occur still farther up the Rio Grande Valley. The range is continuous
across the Poncha Pass, between the San Luis and Arkansas Valleys,
and also across Trout Creek Pass, between the Arkansas Valley and
South Park. To the east this species is common in the small moun-
tain parks near Divide, Teller County, at 9,500 feet, and extends
down the Fountain Creek Canyon to Cascade. It follows the Arkan-
sas River down to Texas Creek and thence extends south across the
Wet Mountain Valley to the Huerfano, and down this valley to Badito.
It occupies the divide between the Huerfano and Cucharas Rivers,
and from near La Vet a. apparently follows southeast around the
Spanish Peaks, as it is again met with on the parks and plateaus of
the Trinidad region. In open sections like South Park, it reaches
its upper limit at between 9,500 and 10,000 feet, but the vertical
range is governed entirely by the character of the country. Thus on
the southern slopes of the San Juan Mountains in Archuleta and La
Plata Counties, where there is an extensive area of 3^ellow pine forest
between 7,000 and 8,500 feet, prairie dogs are not found so high,
along the Rio Pinos occurring only as far up as Vallecito, at about
8,000 feet.

As the higher part of its range is a region of very limited agricul-
ture and supports an abundance of wild grasses, this species can not
there be considered very injurious, but in some of the low irrigated
valleys of the southwestern counties it is very destructive to grain
and alfalfa fields. On the South Park plains, just east of Como, in
August, 1907, the heads of prairie dogs could be seen sticking out of
the tall grass in all directions, but grass was so abundant that they
were making no visible impression upon it. The greatest damage
caused by prairie dogs was reported from Coventry, the McElmo
Valley, and near Bayfield. At the last two localities the ranchmen
successfully drown them out of all the low ground which can be
reached with ditch water; but on the neighboring benches and mesas,
and even on the largest dry knolls in the fields, the prairie dogs more
than hold their own, as comparatively few ranchmen take the trouble
to poison those left on high ground. Several ranchmen at Bayfield
have for several years kept their land clear of prairie dogs by the use
of carbon bisulphide or wheat soaked in strychnine, but a lack of
cooperation permits the animals to maintain their present abundance.
In a single pasture in the Rio Pinos Valley 181 prairie dogs are said to
have been drowned out and killed in a single day. Old residents at
Bayfield state that 15 years ago the animals were unknown in the

1011.] MAMMALS. 97

valley, but that they have gradually worked northward with the
cultivation of the land. According to Mr. C. G. Bates, of Bayfield,
a peculiar disease killed the larger part of the prairie dogs on Florida
River some years ago. The affection is said to have caused excessive
weakness, and in its later stages loss of hair.

This species appears to hibernate throughout the winter. It was
out in abundance at Divide, and also on the South Park plains
between Howbert and Hartsel, October 5, 1907, and all of the ani-
mals appeared fat, sleek, and well furred. At Sapinero two were seen
out of their burrows October 16, but none thereafter, although I was
in good prairie-dog country until mid-November.

Cynomys leucurus Merriam. White-tailed Prairie Dog.

This handsome species replaces C. ludovicianus and gunnisoni on
the sage plains of northwestern Colorado, where it occupies much of
the open country west of the Park and Gore Ranges and north of the
lower Gunnison Valley. It occurs also in North Park, but I did not
find it in Laramie Valley, east of the Medicine Bow Range, nor does
it range across the Rabbit Ear Mountains into Middle Park and Blue
River Valley. In Snake River Valley it is found east to Hoimold,
and in White River Valley it is common as far up as the mouth of
South Fork. Prairie dogs occur throughout the Bear River
region, and follow this stream to its headwaters in Egeria Park;
thence, sparingly, south across the divide to McCoy on Grand River,
and again across Piney Divide to Wolcott, on Eagle River, and west
in the Grand Valley to Gypsum. They do not extend through the
Grand Canyon above Glenwood, nor do they pass around it, and they
are absent from the Grand Valley between Glenwood and Grand
Junction. On the desert areas between Grand Junction and the
Utah boundary, prairie dogs are common, doubtless coining in from
the west, where the range is probably continuous around the west-
ern end of the Book Cliffs in Utah. They range from the Axial
Basin south across the lowest passes of the Danforth Hills to the
White River Valley at Meeker, but apparently do not cross the
White River Plateau or its western extension, the Book Plateau, at
any point in the State.

Instead of extending northeast from Grand Junction in the nar-
row Grand Valley, C. leucurus ranges to the southeast in the broad
Gunnison and Uncompahgre Valleys, and occurs over a wide area
between the Grand Mesa and Uncompahgre Plateau. In the Uncom-
pahgre Valley it was noted south to a point on Dallas Creek, a few
miles west of Ridgway. East of Montrose it was abundant along
the railroad at Cedar Creek, and a few were seen almost to the sum-
mit of Cerro Ridge, between Cedar Creek and Cimarron. None were
observed at Cimarron, and the divide between the Cimarron and
90432°— 11 7

98 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

Uncompahgre Rivers appears to mark the eastern limit of range in
this region. The species extends east along the North Fork of the
Gunnison to Ilotchkiss and Paonia, and was abundant at the west
base of the West Elk Mountains, between Hotchkiss and Crawford.
The majority observed in this section were on the dry adobe flats,
where the only vegetation worthy of mention was the prostrate,
scrubby, desert-growing Atriplex nuttalli and a sparse growth of
Dondia (probably D. moquini) in damp alkaline spots.

C. leucurus is not unlike gunnisoni in size and general coloration,
but may be readily distinguished from the latter by its white tail
and by the broad dusky patch which covers the eye and extends down
over the cheek. It is not extensively colonial, the burrows being
scattered here and there over the sage plains. The burrows are
apparently occupied for many years, and the ejected earth accumu-
lates into very large mounds, often as much as 3 feet in height and
8 or 10 feet in diameter. These prairie dogs are not very shy and
often sit at the mouth of the burrow until approached within a rod.
The usual note is a peculiar querulous cry, very unlike the short,
sharp bark of ludovicianus. Chattering alarm notes also are occa-
sionally heard as one walks through a colony.

Wherever white-tailed prairie dogs live in the neighborhood of
cultivated ground they are very injurious to green crops. Loring
states that in the vicinity of Grand Junction the burrows are usually
in the dry banks of irrigating ditches, and the prairie dogs inflict
considerable damage on the adjacent truck farms by eating cabbages,
cantaloupes, and other crops. While eating, they sit erect on their
hind legs, but if disturbed run to the burrows, carrying the food in
their mouths. They destroy considerable areas of range grasses and
feed extensively in alfalfa fields and hay meadows in the river valleys
throughout their range.

Marmota engelhardti Allen. Engelhardt Woodchuck; Marmot.

The Colorado marmots are tentatively referred to this species,
which was described from Beaver Mountains, Utah. The scanty
material at hand is insufficient for accurate comparison, and definite
conclusions are impossible in view of the present condition of the
group.

The marmot is one of the most characteristic mammals of the
mountains, and occurs from 6,000 feet in the foothills to the rock}'
summits of the highest peaks, at over 14,000 feet. It has, therefore,
a vertical range of about 8,000 feet. Marmots are much more abun-
dant above than below 8,000 feet, and are especially numerous in
the slide rock near timberline. They are reported present on the
summit of Grays Peak, at an elevation of 14,341 feet, and have been
observed also on the summit of Longs Peak, 100 feet lower. The
clear, shrill whistle of the marmot is one of the few sounds that break

1911.] MAMMALS. 99

the silence of the high altitudes, and the large reddish-brown animals
may often be seen sunning themselves on the warm, flat surfaces of
rocks during the middle of the day. In the IT alms Peak region
marmots were abundant, and were usually seen around abandoned
prospect holes and mining shafts, while at Arkins, Larimer County,
one was living in an old sandstone quarry. On the Bear River
meadows east of Hayden, Routt County, in August, 1905, I saw a
marmot run into its burfow beneath a pile of brush, while a week
later four were observed feeding on grass in a meadow along Good
Spring Creek, on the north slope of the Danforth Hills. I have
found marmots more or less common at Coulter; Mount Whiteley;
Mclntyre Creek, Medicine Bow Mountains; Elk Head Mountains;
Mount Kelso; near Boulder; Sapinero; and Georgetown. They are
reported common in the following localities: St. Elmo; Lone Cone;
Pagosa Springs; La Plata Mountains, northeast of Mancos; San Juan
Mountains, north of Vallecito; Silverton; Cochetopa Pass; Estes
Park ; and Longs Peak.

In Park County, in 1871, Allen found the marmot abundant from
the Platte Valley to above timberline, and states that black speci-
mens occur frequently in that region.1

Epimys norvegicus (Erxleben). Norway Rat; Wharf Rat.

There is very little information available on the distribution in
Colorado of this noxious species, which is usually known as barn rat
or house rat. Doubtless by this time it has reached most of the
larger towns at least, as Warren says it is found in Denver, Colorado
Springs, Pueblo, and Greeley; 2 and in 1905 I was informed that it was
common in the Boulder warehouses. Rats are uncommon away from
towns, and I have met very few ranchmen whose buildings are
infested with them. Mr. C. II. Smith, of Coventry, Montrose County,
reports a very few on his ranch, so they are probably more or less com-
mon over the western part of the State, although Warren did not hear
of them at Grand Junction. Near Valmont, Boulder County, I caught
a large Norway rat in a trap set at a ground squirrel burrow in a
prairie dog town, a quarter of a mile from the nearest farm.

Mus musculus Linnseus. House Mouse.

I have not seen the common house mouse in the higher mountains,
and have no information regarding its presence above the Transition
zone. It is tolerably common in cultivated districts on the plains,
in towns, and around farm buildings, and even in fields and meadows,
but is not such a pest as in the older settled States. House mice are
by no means restricted to the vicinity of railroads, for I have found
them in sparsely settled districts 40 or 50 miles from the nearest rail-
road. At Ashbaugh's ranch, near McElmo, Montezuma County, one

1 Bull. Essex Inst., VI, p. 57, 1874. - .Mammals of Colorado, p. 244, 1000.

100

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

was taken in a tule marsh along McElmo Creek, and I have elsewhere
observed that marshes are much frequented by this species. A
house mouse was killed in one of the buildings at Gaume's ranch,
northwestern Baca County, a region where ranches are many miles
apart. Another was caught in the barn at the Medano Springs ranch',
near the San Luis Lakes. Prof. Lantz found them abundant near
Higbee, in southeastern Otero County. White-footed mice of several
•species take the place of house mice over much of the timbered and
canyon country, and in many places are associated with the latter
about buildings and sheds.

Onychomys leucogaster pallescens Merriam. Pale Grasshopper Mouse.

The large pale grasshopper mouse is generally distributed over

the LTpper Sonoran plains and deserts on both sides of the Con-

\0/VKCf/OMKS L£OCQGAST£R BREWCAUOUS.

^%% O.L. PALLESCENS.

Fig. 10.— Distribution in Colorado ol grasshopper mice {Onychomys I. brcvicaudus and 0. 1, pallescens).

tmental Divide, except in the northwest corner of the State,
where the smaller 0. brevicaudus replaces it. (See fig. 10.) Speci-
mens from the southwestern desert region and also from the San
Luis Valley are larger and paler than those from the northeastern
plains, where an approach to 0. leucogaster is suggested by the
darker color.

This species apparently occupies a considerable area in western
Montezuma, Dolores, San Miguel, Montrose, and Mesa Counties,
but its range is imperfectly worked out. The distribution in the lower

1911.] MAMMALS. 101

Grand River Valley appears to be limited, the only specimens thus
far taken coming from Fruita, and the Uncompahgre Plateau must
certainly separate the Grand Valley range from the more extensive
area occupied farther south. The Book Cliffs limit its northward
dispersion and separate it from brevicaudus. In the San Luis Valley
it undoubtedly occurs throughout the Upper Sonoran zone. The
grasshopper mice of the Upper Arkansas Valley above the Grand
Canyon would appear to be separated from those of the eastern
plains by the Royal Gorge, but nothing is known of the distribution
in this section aside from the specimens taken on the sandy slopes
along the east side of the Arkansas Valley just above Salida. Warren
has taken 0. pattescens in the Wet Mountain Valley. It may have
reached this high mountain valley from either the Arkansas Valley
on the north or the Huerfano Valley on the south.

Grasshopper mice are nocturnal. They especially frequent sandy
areas, and are often taken in traps set at the burrows of kangaroo
rats, ground squirrels, and pocket mice. Their carnivorous propensity
is one of the chief obstacles the collector meets hi trapping the rarer
desert mice, and often after nights of trapping without success he
is chagrined to find in one of his traps the partly devoured and
mangled remains of a rare pocket mouse. Sometimes in regions
where grasshopper mice are plentiful, a miscellaneous catch of
other species will be almost ruined by them. Much of the food of
grasshopper mice consists of soft-bodied insects, such as grass-
hoppers and crickets. The name scorpion mice, sometimes applied
to these rodents, is due to a marked fondness for scorpions, which prob-
ably form part of their food in Colorado, particularly in the south-
west. Vegetable food also is eaten. At the Medano Springs ranch,
near the San Luis Lakes, these mice proved a nuisance by eating
carrots, potatoes, and cabbages in a vegetable cellar.

Because of the nature of their food, grasshopper mice decompose
much more rapidly than mice which feed chiefly on seeds and vege-
table matter.

The pale grasshopper mouse is represented in the Biological Survey
collection by a large series of specimens from Loveland, Pawnee
Buttes, Sterling, Greeley, Golden, Hugo, Limon, Loco, Canon City,
Salida, Burlington, Las Animas, La Junta (18 miles south), Gaume's
ranch (Baca County), Antonito, Medano Springs ranch, and Conejos
River, in eastern and southern Colorado; and others from Fruita,
Coventry, and Xaturita, in the southwestern part of the State. I
have taken immature specimens at Arkins, in the foothills of Larimer
County, and at Ashbaugh's ranch, near McElmo, Montezuma County.
A skull in the Merriam collection is from Roggen, Weld County.
Specimens from additional localities, Springfield and Monon (Baca
County), Moffat, Hooper, San Luis Lakes, Crestone, and Westcliffe,
are in the Warren collection.

102 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

Onychomys leucogaster brevicaudus Merriam. Idaho Grasshopper
Mouse.

This small species apparently does not range south of Bear River,
in northwestern Colorado. (See fig. 10.) On the sage plains of
North Park it occurs as high as 8,500 feet in the upper part of the
Transition zone, but in the region between Snake and Bear Rivers,
in western Routt County, it inhabits a much lower altitude. It is
usually met with in sandy strips of country, but at no point is it
abundant, being always greatly outnumbered by white-footed mice.
This species is represented by a series of eight specimens from Cana-
dian Creek, east of Walden, North Park; Snake River, south of
Sunny Peak, Routt County; and Bear River, south of Lay.

Allen records a specimen from Three Forks (forks of Snake River),
in northeastern Routt County.1 Warren mentions specimens taken
by himself at Craig, and on Snake River 7 miles north of Lily.2
Peromyscus leucopus tornillo Mearns. Texas White-footed Mouse.

This form represents P. leucopus in the arid region from the Rio
Grande at El Paso, Texas, north to the Arkansas Valley. An immature
pair collected in the brushy bottom along the Arkansas River at
Canon City by Loring, and specimens taken by Warren at Lamar, and
in Baca County at Monon, Springfield, and Gaume's ranch, indicate
the known distribution of this form within the State. Much work
remains to be done in working out the distribution of this and many
other small mammals on the eastern plains. Judging from its habits
farther south, it should be found in the brushy stream bottoms of
most of the region lying south of the Arkansas Valley and east of the
foothills, particularly in the piles of drift and rubbish left after
freshets. Regarding its habits in Baca County, Warren says: "The
specimens taken in Baca County were mostly found among the sand-
stone bluffs along the water courses, although a few were taken about
some ranch buildings." 3

Peromyscus maniculatus nebrascensis (Mearns). Nebraska White-
footed Mouse.

This is the common white-footed mouse of the Upper Sonoran
plains region of both eastern and northwestern Colorado, as shown
by series of specimens from a great many localities. It is found also
in the sandy strip of country along the eastern side of San Luis Valley.
Along the edge of the foothills and the higher western plateaus it
grades into the dark reddish P. rufinus of the mountains. Like that
form, it inhabits all conceivable situations, but it is normally more

i Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist,, VIII, p. 253, 1896.

2 Further Notes on the Mammals of Colorado, p. 72, 1908.

3 Mammals of Colorado, p. 245, 1900.

1011.1 MAMMALS. 103

abundant, and sometimes becomes exceedingly numerous despite
coyotes, hawks, and owls. Such was the case on the sage plains of
western Routt and Rio Blanco Counties in 1906; also at the Medano
Springs ranch, in the San Luis Valley, in October, 1907, where in a
single night 38 were caught in 1 acre by 60 traps, and their excessive
numbers all but prevented my securing topotypes of Reithrodontomijs
montanus. On several occasions two were taken in a small trap at
one setting. In the Green River Valley near Ladore white-footed
mice were often seen in the dusk darting about the bases of cotton-
wood trees. They were everywhere a great nuisance, gnawing har-
ness, foraging in our provisions, and, above all, depleting our much-
needed supply of oats. In the rocky juniper and pinyon country of
western Colorado this race is found over considerable areas with two
other forms of white-footed mice, P. truei and auripectus, but every-
where outnumbers them.

Peromyscus maniculatus luteus Osgood. Yellow White-footed Mouse.
Five specimens in the collection of the Colorado Agricultural Col-
lege have been identified by W. H. Osgood as P. m. luteus. They
were collected in Spring Canyon, 4 miles southwest of Fort Collins.
Others taken by Warren at Wray, Yuma County, seem referable to
this beautiful yellowish species. There are specimens from Haigler,
Nebraska, just east of the Colorado line, hi the Biological Survey col-
lection. Future collecting will doubtless show that luteus is present
over much of the sandy area of the northeastern counties.

Peromyscus maniculatus rufinus (Merriam). Tawny White-footed
Mouse.

The wide range of this form in the Colorado mountains is shown
by a large series of specimens. The center of abundance is in the
boreal zones on the main ranges. In the foothills east of the front
ranges, and on the slopes of the plateaus in northwestern Colorado,
it shades off almost imperceptibly into the pale form nebrascensis of
the Upper Sonoran plains and valleys. Specimens from Estes Park,
Boulder, Gold Hill, and Nederland show a decided approach to P.
nebrascensis. P. m. rufinus is almost omnipresent in the mountains
'and lives indiscriminately under logs and brush piles in the heavy
forests, among rocks, in cabins along streams, in mountain bogs, and
among the sagebrush in mountain parks. In the southwest it occurs
at lower elevations and inhabits semidesert areas. In the sand hills
at the 'west base of the Medicine Bow Range, in North Park, this
mouse was abundant among the CJirysothamnus bushes.

These mice were very numerous in the sandy flats along the eastern
side of the Arkansas Valley just north of Salida, in November, 1907.
Nearly all trapped at this point were in soiled pelage, the dorsal fur
being of a dark olive-greenish cast, while the underparts were heavily

104

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

tinged with dirty plumbeous. Mr. J. W. Frey, of Salida, accounts
for this soiling by the statement that the prevailing westerly winds
carry the smoke of the Salida smelter to the east side of the valley,
where much of the time it hangs in a dense pall, soiling the vegetation
and, indirectly, the mice which come in contact with it. Kangaroo
rats living on the same sand flats were somewhat smoke-soiled, but
not to the same extent.

P. m. ruftnus appears to be as strictly nocturnal as the other deermice.
In the little cabin on the edge of the chfTs just above the Spruce Tree
Cliff Ruins, at the head of Navajo Canyon, on the Mesa Verde, I

Fig. 1 1. — Distribution in Colorado of cliff mice (Pcromyscus trim and P. nasutus).

heard these mice squeaking about midnight of June 13. A faint
squeak in one end of the cabin elicited answers from other parts of
the building, and the noise was kept up for some time.

Peromyscus truei (Shufeldt). True Cliff Mouse.

This large-eared species has a wide distribution in the warmer parts
of western Colorado, where in common with many other Upper
Sonoran mammals its range is practically coextensive with the
juniper and pinyon belt. (See fig. 11.) It has been taken also in
the juniper country of the southeastern corner of the State, and
Warren has it from Salida and Parkdale, in the upper Arkansas Val-
ley. Over much of its range in northwestern Colorado this species

1911.]

MAMMALS. 105

and the smaller-eared nehrascensis occur together, and in the south-
west it is usually associated with P. auripectus and rowleyi.

The True cliff mouse almost always lives in the cliffs and rocky
ledges along canyons or in hollow junipers and pinyons. In the
dense juniper growth at the northern base of the Escalante Hills it
was very abundant and was taken in traps placed in and around
hollow junipers.

In the Grand River Valley it ranges east to McCoy, Eagle County.
Although taken in Montezuma County, both on the Mesa Verde and
in the McElmo Canyon, it does not appear to be so common there as
auripectus. At Coventry it was abundant in rocky ledges among the
pinyons and along the cliffs bordering Xaturita Creek, where it was
associated with both rowleyi and auripectus. Most of those taken at
this point in July, 1907, were from half to two-thirds grown.

I found P. truei common in ths rocky canyons and juniper country
near Gaume 's ranch in northwestern Baca County, and also collected
a specimen in the rocky ledges at Rhinehart 's Stage Station, on the
plains of southern Prowers County, 20 miles south of Lamar. Prof.
Lantz has taken it in southeastern Otero County, 18 miles south of La
Junta.

Although this species almost invariably inhabits the Upper Sonoran
zone, I have taken it once in the aspen forest in the Canadian zone.
This was at the Club ranch, near Uncompahgre Butte, at the extreme
head of Mesa Creek,- at nearly 9,000 feet. An adult female was
caught in a trap set beneath a log lying in a boggy aspen thicket
July 17, 1907. There was none of the normal environment of truei —
rocky pinyon or juniper slopes — within a mile or within a vertical dis-
tance of fully 1,500 feet, and this individual must have reached tins
high elevation from the lower country by following up one of the
numerous canyons heading on the upper western slopes of the
Uncompahgre Plateau.

In September, 1906, a favorable opportunity was afforded for
observing these interesting mice on White River a few miles west of
Rangely. My tent was pitched in a dense Lepargyrea tlricket, and a
sack of oats proved a great attraction to white-footed mice. All
night long they were darting noisily over the tarpaulin, climbing the
tent walls, and investigating the provisions. In the early morning
numbers of both P. truei and nehrascensis were seen running about, all
intent upon transferring a winter's supply of oats from the sack to
their nests in the thicket. I obssrved that one of the large-eared
mice, meeting an individual of the other species, invariably retreated
precipitately, and gained the oat sack only by the exercise of great
caution. The True cliff mouse presents a most peculiar and striking-
appearance in life with its large protruding eyes and immense ears.
It is remarkably agile and takes long leaps with the greatest ease.

106 noivni aatertcan fauna. tNo,&.

Peromyscus nasutus (Alien). Estes Park Cliff Mouse.

Vesperimus nasutus Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Ill, p. 299, 1891. Typo
from Estes Park, Larimer County, Colorado.

This large plumbeous species has been taken at a number of locali-
ties in the eastern foothills of Colorado, but its range has not been
satisfactorily worked out. (See fig. 11.) While it has been found as
high as 8,400 feet, its center of abundance appears to be in rocky
situations along the lowest edge of the foothills. It has not been
taken in Wyoming, but is common in many places in the foothills of
the New Mexico mountains. It belongs to the large-eared group of
white-footed mice and bears a close resemblance to P. truei. It may
be distinguished from the latter species, however, by its somewhat
smaller ears and grayer or more plumbeous coloration, while the
skull is a little larger and has longer nasals and much smaller audital
bullae.

At Estes Park (the type locality), Edward A. Preble secured speci-
mens in a rocky gulch near the summit of a hill bordering the park,
at 8,400 feet. Dr. Fisher found the species common in crevices in
the rocky rims of the table mountains near Trinidad. Other mem-
bers of the Biological Survey have taken it at Boulder, Gold Hill, and
( 'anon City. Warren reports it as common in the vicinity of Colorado
Springs, ''both in the foothills and in the bluffs to the north and east
of the city."1

Peromyscus boylei rowleyi (Allen) . Rowley Cliff Mouse.

Specimens of this large long-tailed species from Arboles, Mesa
Verde, and Coventry in the Biological Survey collection, and others
from Cortez, Salida, and Irwin's ranch (Las Animas County), identi-
fied for Warren, represent all the information available on its dis-
tribution within the State. Noland's ranch, Utah (the type locality),
is situated on the San Juan River within a few miles of the Colorado
line. The Rowley cliff mouse is an Upper Sonoran species inhabiting
rock ledges and cliffs in the juniper belt and probably occurs over
most of the lower country in southwestern Colorado. It probably
reaches Salida, in the upper Arkansas Valley, from the south and
east, since Warren found it in the juniper country of northeastern
Las Animas County. There are no specimens from the San Luis
Valley, and hence it seems unlikely that it has reached the upper
Arkansas region over the Poncha Pass.

At Coventry, Montrose County, where a small series representing
both sexes was collected in July, 1907, I found P. rowleyi and P. truei
about equally abundant in some low rocky ledges in a dense growth
of pinyons. A long line of traps placed along the high and nearly
naked cliffs bordering Naturita Creek yielded fewer specimens of
rowleyi and more of truei. Most of the cliff mice taken at this season

i Mammals of Colorado, p. 247, 1906.

1911.] MAMMALS. 107

were half or two-thirds grown. Near the Spruce Tree Cliff Ruins, on
Mesa Verde, at an elevation of 7,000 feet, an adult male rowleyi was
trapped in a Microtias runway among the fallen leaves in an oak
thicket. Tracks of a large cliff mouse were abundant in the fine
chalk-like dust among all the cliff ruins examined on the Mesa Verde,
but, as I had no time for careful trapping, it was impossible to deter-
mine which of the two species, tinn i or rowleyi, was more abundant.
The Rowley cliff mouse was not taken at Ashbaugh's ranch, in the
lower McElmo Canyon, but is doubtless present there, since Warren
has two specimens from Cortez, near the head of McElmo Canyon.
Arboles appears to be near the eastern limit of dispersion in the
valley of the San Juan. Traps placed among the dry rock ledges on
the north side of the San Juan at this point, June 7, 1907, yielded
two immature specimens and one adult.

Peromyscus crinitus auripectus (Allen). Golden-breasted Canyon
Mouse.

The type locality of this beautiful mouse is Bluff City, Utah, on
the San Juan River, 40 miles west of the Colorado line. It inhabits
the rock ledges and cliffs in much of the rough canyon and mesa
country of western and southwestern Colorado, in the Upper Sonoran
zone, becoming increasingly numerous toward the extreme south-
west. It ranges northeast in the Grand River Valley to the Grand
Canyon, east of Glenwood Springs, but was not found on the lower
White River or at any point north of the Book Cliffs, and this high
escarpment doubtless forms the northern boundary of its habitat.
This mouse is usually associated with P. truei, but does not range
so high. It appears to be restricted to the warmest valleys below
6,500 feet.

I first met with the golden-breasted mouse in the canyon of Plateau
Creek, 5 miles east of Tunnel, Mesa County, where a female was
trapped among the rocky ledges. It was again found at three widely
separated localities in Montezuma and Montrose Counties. A speci-
men was secured among the Spruce Tree Cliff Ruins on Mesa Verde,
and five specimens, representing both sexes, were collected in the
rock ledges and cliffs bordering McElmo Creek at Ashbaugh's ranch,
20 miles west of Cortez. At Coventry, Montrose County, P. auri-
pectus is greatly exceeded in numbers by both truei and rowleyi. I
trapped a single specimen at this point in the rocky cliffs north of
Naturita Creek. Mr. C. H. Smith, of Coventry, has collected a
number of the golden-breasted mice among the same cliffs and does
not consider them at all rare. Warren has this species from Grand
Junction. Thus far it has not been found at any point in the Gun-
nison Valley, but this is doubtless owing to lack of careful collecting
in that region.

108 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

Reithrodontomys montanus (Baird) . Mountain Harvest Mouse.

Reithrodon montanus Baird, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 335, L855. "Vicinity
nf the Rocky Mountains, lat. 38°." Type locality restricted by Allen (Bull.
Am. Mus. Nat, Hist., VII, p. 125, 1895) to "upper part of the San Luis Valley."

The type specimen of this interesting little harvest mouse in the
National Museum was collected by F. Kreuzfeldt on Capt. E. G.
Beckwi th's expedition to the Pacific coast in August, 1853, and
until recently remained unique. The exact locality is indeterminate,
but from the itinerary appears to have been on the east side of the
San Luis Valley about one-third the distance between old Fort
Massachusetts (near Fort Garland) and Cochetopa Pass — probably
not far from the San Luis Lakes.

Vernon Bailey collected a harvest mouse at Del Norte in Septem-
ber, 1903, but it was so immature as to throw little additional light
on the status of Baird's montanus. The Del Norte specimen was
trapped "under a bunch of Sarcobatus at the edge of an alfalfa
field." .

Considerable areas of swamp land and wet meadows in various
parts of the San Luis Valley furnish an ideal environment for harvest
mice. When in the region, in October, 1907, in quest of specimens
of montanus, I visited the Medano Springs ranch, 15 miles northeast
of Mosca and a short distance northeast of the San Luis Lakes, as
this seemed very near where the type specimen must have been
taken. Here the extensive hay meadows and marshes along Medano
Creek appeared well suited to harvest mice; but after trapping care-
fully for a week in wet situations without success and taking mean-
while one adult and three young in the rank grass beneath Sarco-
batus bushes on higher ground, I decided that montanus must be
sought in dry situations. Accordingly, during the first week in
November, all the traps were placed in a grassy weed patch on a
broad sand ridge extending through the meadows and perhaps

6 feet above their level. Most of the specimens collected at this
time were caught in traps placed in the dense growth of grass beneath
the bushes of rabbit brush (Chrysoihamnus patens), which occupied
one end of the sand ridge. A very few were taken among the scat-
tering dry stalks of Peritoma sonorse. The series of 13 males and

7 females collected contains only 4 or 5 adults. Doubtless many
more of this species would have been taken had the majority of the
Imps not been filled each night with voles and white-footed mice,
which were exceedingly numerous in both wet and dry situations.

This is probably an isolated intermountain species. Its known
range is indicated by Del Norte, Medano ranch, and Crestone, Warren
having taken it at the last-named place in early October, 1909.
(See fig. 12.)

1911.]

MAMMALS.

109

A. II. Howell, of the Biological Survey, who has in preparation a
revision of the genus Reithrodontomys, has compared with related
forms the topotype series of R. montanus from Medano Springs
ranch. The following characterization is from his manuscript:

"General characters. — Size small (about the size of humilis); ears
and tail short; colors pale.

"Color. — (Fresh whiter pelage, October and November). Pinkish
buff, clearest on sides and face, much mixed with blackish on dorsal
surface. Black hairs, most pronounced on hinder back. Ears much
as hi megalotis, usually clothed on inner surface with ochraceous
buff hairs (a little darker than body hairs), sometimes, though not

X.MZGALOT/S. ^/?.W/VH/y^. ^^ /?. OYCH£J A/£S/MSC£MS/S

Fig. 12.— Distribution iu Colorado of harvest mice (Reithrodontomys) except R. albescens.

always, with a distinct blackish area on lower margin. Tail dis-
tinctly bicolor — grayish brown above, white beneath. Compared
with megalotis, the general tone is paler and less brownish; dorsal
area more distinct from color of sides; sides pinkish buff instead of
ochraceous buff; tail grayer (less brownish).

"Cranial characters. — Skull about the same size as that of humilis,
but with narrower rostrum and interorbital region; zygomata nar-
rowing anteriorly; nasals longer; molars heavier. Compared with
megalotis the resemblance is very close; montanus averages smaller,
with narrower and relatively higher brain case.

" Measurements. — Average ol 10 specimens from Medano Springs
ranch: Total length, 126 (118-139); tail vertebra?, 58 (51-64);

110 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

hind foot, 17 (16-17.5). Average of three skulls: Occipito-nasal
length, 20.2; breadth of brain case, 9.4: length of nasals, 7.0."

R. montanus is a small, short-tailed species related to R. albescens
and R. griseus, and, like these, frequents dry grassy situations.
Compared with R. megalotis, it may be distinguished by its smaller
size, paler coloration, and shorter ears and tail. From the pale
grayish form albescens of the Nebraska sand hills, montanus differs
m darker (less gray) coloration, and somewhat larger ears, while the
skull is relatively longer and narrower and the rostrum longer than
in albescens.

Reithrodontomys montanus albescens Cary. Pallid Harvest Mouse.

Four specimens of harvest mice from Loveland in the Miller col-
lection seem referable to R. in. albescens, although somewhat inter-
mediate in characters between albescens and griseus. The relative
abundance and distribution of harvest mice on the plains of eastern
and northeastern Colorado will not be known until more thorough
collecting is done. Possibly albescens or some other form of the
short-tailed group occurs with R. nebrascensis over much of the plains
region, as in western Kansas and Nebraska.

Reithrodontomys dychei nebrascensis Allen. Nebraska Harvest

Mouse.

The Nebraska harvest mouse doubtless occurs over most of the
plains region east of the foothills in the northern two-thirds of the
State. (See fig. 12.) There are specimens from Denver, Golden,
Yalmont, Boulder (5 miles west), Loveland, Greeley, and Canon City,
but none have been taken on the plains south of the Arkansas Divide.
The species is usually taken in wet meadows, in alfalfa fields, or
along the grassy margins of irrigation ditches, but may be found
also in smaller numbers on dry uplands where there is a sufficiently
heavy growth of grass and weeds. Harvest mice range a short
distance into the foothills, along some of the streams, following the
widest and warmest valleys. I trapped one specimen at Blanch-
ard's ranch, on Middle Boulder Creek, 5 miles west of Boulder.
It was taken in a grassy swale along the stream at 5,600 feet, in the
Transition zone. At Wray one was seen in a tangle of willow brush
in the boggy bed of a canyon, where in moving about in the brush
it often wrapped its tail around a twig by way of assistance.

Reithrodontomys megalotis (Baird). Big-eared Harvest Mouse.

This large-eared desert harvest mouse ranges into the State from the
west and southwest, following the low Upper Sonoran valleys. It
is not known to occur north of the Grand River Valley. (See fig. 12.)

At Arboles, in southwestern Archuleta County, near the New Mexico
boundary, a female was taken in a trap set in the short grass beneath
a dense growth of willows and buffalo berry {Lepargyrea argentea) on

1911.] MAMMALS. Ill

the bank of the San Juan River. Two males taken from six traps set
in a tule marsh along McElmo Creek at Ashbaugh's ranch, Montezuma
County, during; the night of June 19, 1907, indicate that harvest mice
are tolerably common in that locality. I collected one at Hotchkiss
August 9, beneath a low rocky ledge bordering a small tule marsh
along the North Gunnison River. This specimen was nearly eaten
up by other mice, but the skin of back and rump which I preserved
is grayish and does not at all resemble the usual fulvous summer
pelage of megalotis. This species is not by any means restricted to
marshes and damp situations, as was shown by two specimens trapped
among beds of Opuntia on a high sand knoll in the Grand Valley near
Morris, 7 miles west of Rifle, August 13 and 14. These specimens,
a male and a female, are gray, like the Hotchkiss example. The
female contained six fetuses. A series of 25 specimens taken by
Howell at Grand Junction early in November, 1895, are in early
winter pelage; while another individual which Preble secured at the
same locality August 25, 1895, is in the bright fulvous summer coat.
Warren has a specimen from Cortez, Montezuma County.

Neotoma cinerea orolestes Merriam. Colorado Bushy-tailed Wood
Rat.

Neotoma orolestes Merriam, Proc Biol. Soc. Wash., IX, p. 128, July 2, 1894.
Type from Saguache Valley (20 miles west of Saguache), Colorado.

Bushy-tailed wood rats are common throughout the mountains and
also in the rough juniper and pinyon country of western Routt and
Rio Blanco Counties. On the eastern slopes of the main ranges they
rarely occur below 6,000 feet, and are largely replaced in the lower
foothills by the smaller round-tailed N. fallax. They have been
found from an elevation of only 4,500 feet at Grand Junction to tim-
berline on Mount McClellan and near Silverton, thus having a verti-
cal range of approximately 6,000 feet. (See fig. 13.) Specimens
from the lower arid western portions of Routt and Rio Blanco Counties
are usually much paler than those from the main mountain ranges.

In 1905 and 1906 I observed N. orolestes in all the mountainous coun-
try traversed. It was least common in the Middle and North Park
region, where a few stick nests were noted in the cliffs along Grand
River and in the Rabbit Ear Mountains, and one rat was seen in an
old cabin near Fraser. In the rough country bordering the lower
Snake and Bear Rivers the favorite homes of this species are in hollow
junipers, which are often completely filled with sticks, cactus pads,
bones, and other nest material. In this region the rats live also
among the rocky bluffs, in hollow cottonwoods along the streams, in
the adobe banks of arroyos, and occasionally in thickets of buffalo
berry. One nest noted on Snake River was in a buffalo berry bush
fully 10 feet above the ground. The few old cabins which I entered
in the Snake River Valley below Baggs Crossing were inhabited by

112

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

numbers of rats, in addition to two or three species of bats and innu-
merable white-footed mice. The cupboard, stoves, shelves, and
l)i inks were filled with trash carried in by the rats, and an immense
pile of rubbish had been piled up in a corner of one of the cabins.
I often saw wood rats running about in the cabins during the day-
lime, and on Bear River shot one among the rocks at midday. At
one of our Snake River camps wood rats were very abundant and
all night long could be heard climbing the tent walls, investigating
our supplies, and running back and forth across our blankets. One
was bold enough to nip my companion's ear.

A/£OTOMA C.Aff/ZONAE

ty/ty/. A/.C.O/fOCSSr£S

£ /V.C.tf(/P/COLA.

Fig. 13.— Distribution in Colorado of bushy-tailed wood rats (Neotoma c. arizonx, X. c. orolestes, and N. c.

rupicola).

Supposed nests of N. orolestes were seen at Sapinero, Somerset, and
on the Uncompahgre Plateau in 1907, and the species was reported
at St. Elmo, in northwestern Huerfano County, and at many other
localities. Bailey reports it common in the cairyon of Conejos River,
west of Antonito. It is represented in the Biological Survey collec-
tion by specimens from a wide range of localities in the Colorado
mountains.

In its propensity for carrying rubbish into deserted cabins this
species resembles other members of the genus, and it also shares with
them the habit of hiding in its nest all manner of portable articles
which attract its fancy. The industry of these rats is remarkable,

1911.] MAMMALS. 113

and a pair can accomplish a surprising amount of work in one night.
On the lower Snake River a stick nest of considerable size was built
near the oat sack in our camp wagon while we slept, and a wood rat
was found early the next morning domiciled therein.

The nests are found in a variety of situations. In the mountains
they are usually placed in cracks and crevices of rocky ledges and
cliffs or in deserted cabins. Miners at the Stevens Mill, at timberline
on Mount McClellan, reported a few rats living in the mine several
hundred feet from the entrance, and stated that the animals often
passed them on the ladders.

Neotoma cinerea arizonse Merriam. Arizona Bushy-tailed Wood Rat.

Bushy-tailed wood rats from Ashbaugh's ranch (near McElmo),
Montezuma County, and from Coventry, Montrose County, are refer-
able to this small southwestern species. Warren has taken it at
Cortez, Montezuma County, and at Bedrock, Montrose County, and
it appears to be the species so common among the cliff ruins on Mesa
Verde. It is mainly Upper Sonoran in distribution, and probably does
not occur north of the San Miguel Valley (see fig. 13), since N.
orolestes is the species found in the Grand Valley at Grand Junction.
Intergradation between arizonse and orolestes probably takes place
in the region of the Uncompahgre Plateau, but there are no speci-
mens to decide this point.

The Arizona wood rat is uncommon at Coventry, being greatly
outnumbered by the little gray round-tailed N. fallax in the cliffs
along Naturita Creek. In the cliffs- at Ashbaugh's ranch, also, I
found both species occurring together, but here the bushy-tailed
rats were more numerous. The nests of the two are apparently
indistinguishable, and both species were taken in traps set at the
same nest. One of the yellowish bushy-tailed rats was seen running
along a rocky ledge about 4 o'clock one afternoon. Its course led
from one sheltering rock to another and obliged it to cross short
intervening spaces of sunlight. The rat. took advantage of all the
shadows and dark recesses, and when forced to cross a bright open
space its movements were so quick that the eye could scarcely follow.
Other rats were dimly seen moving about in nests far back under
rocks.

Many wood rat tracks which I saw in the fine dust of the Spruce
Tree Cliff Ruins (see PI. IV, fig. 1) on Mesa Verde, as well as fresh
stick nests found in the neighboring rock ledges, indicated an abun-
dance of the animals at this point — doubtless both fallax and ari-
zonse being present. Large piles of well-preserved rat excrement
found in many of the rooms among the ruins were apparently as old
as the ruins themselves, being blackened with the same smoke which
begrimed the interior of the rooms and caverns centuries ago.
90432°— 11 8

114 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

Neotoma cinerea rupicola Allen. Pallid Bushy-tailed Wood Rat.

Eight specimens from Pawnee Buttes and the Chimney Cliffs (30
miles northwest of Sterling) agree closely with topotypes of N.
rupicola from Corral Draw, Big Bad Lands, South Dakota. This*
interesting series greatly extends the known range of the species and
gives the first record for Colorado. (See fig. 13.)

Near the Chimney Cliffs two nursing females, an adult male in
badly worn pelage, and two young about quarter grown, were col-
lected June 4 to 8, 1909, on the talus slopes and rocky buttes in the
open valley a mile or so south of the cliffs. The rats probably in-
habit all the buttes scattered here and there over the upper drainage
of Horsetail Creek east to within 15 miles of Sterling. They appear
to be uncommon, however, among the precipitous white badland
cliffs which form the northern boundary of the Horsetail Valley.
This may be because there are fewer natural crevices and recesses
for nesting sites in the soft white rock of the badland formation.
Rat nests were numerous beneath the bowlders and rock ledges on the
buttes in the valley, as they were also in similar situations at Pawnee
Buttes, some 25 or 30 miles southwest. The species appeared in-
active at both localities, however, and I found it difficult to secure
specimens. The two nursing females from the Chimney Cliffs are in
fresh light yellowish summer pelage, while all the males taken are in
worn and faded whitish winter pelage.

N. rupicola is the palest known member of the genus. It is a small
form of the bushy-tailed group, inhabiting the rough areas of badland
bluffs and buttes from western South Dakota south to northeastern
Colorado, in the Upper Sonoran zone. I secured it in the bluffs along
Laramie River at Uva, Wyoming, and it occurs also in the rocky
bluff region of extreme western Nebraska.

Neotoma floridana baileyi Merriam. Bailey W'ood Rat.

This is the only representative of the Neotoma floridana group in
Colorado. It enters the State from the east, in the valWs of the
Republican and Arkansas Rivers and tributary streams, and ranges
westward along the Arkansas to Pueblo and farther north to Flagler
and Wray. (See fig. 14.) It is restricted to the Upper Sonoran zone.

At Olney, in December, 1894, Mr. C. P. Streator found this wood
rat abundant in thickets of tree cactus (Opuntia arborescens) and
collected a series of 12 specimens. He was informed by stockmen
that a few are found 10 miles north of Arlington, Kiowa County,
and also along the Arkansas River south of Chivington. Concerning
the distribution of N. baileyi in the Arkansas Valley, Mr. Streator
reports that it "evidently occurs wherever there are rocks, tree
cactus, or hollow trees." He found it common also in the cliffs
bordering the valley of the South Fork of the Republican River near

1911.]

MAMMALS.

115

Flagler. It is abundant in the sandstone ledges bordering the South
Fork Valley in the vicinity of Tuttle, where I captured specimens,
and found the nests composed of sticks, dried cow manure, bones,
and rubbish of all sorts, with cactus and yucca spines for protection.
Prof. D. E. Lantz reports pack rats common in hollow cottonwoods
along the Big Sandy near Hugo, and I found old nests among the
rocks on the northern face of Cedar Point, northwest of Limon.
This should be the form represented at both the above localities.
At Wray, where I secured specimens, this rat was inhabiting sand-

YsM.FXLLAX.

\A/.DES£KTORUM. ^^.W.frBA/L£Y/.

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/VA7. C/W£SC£A/S.

Iig. 14. —Distribution in Colorado of round-tailed wood rats ( Ncotoma fallax, N.descrtorum, JV. f.bailcyi,
N. a. warrcni, and JV. m. canescens).

stone ledges along the valley, much as at Tuttle. There is a specimen
from Pueblo, and the rats are reported by Mr. H. W. Nash as com-
mon at that point.1 ' The American Museum of Natural History has
a specimen from Fort Lyon, on the Arkansas River, collected by
Capt. P. M. Thorne February 4, 1885. This specimen has been
recorded as N. campestris.2

Neotomaf. baileyi is a large, long-tailed, gray form of the round-
tailed group, and quite unlike any of the other Colorado species.

Neotoma micropus canescens iVllen. Hoary Wood Rat.

The hoary wood rat has been found only in the southeast corner of
the State, in southeastern Otero County and in Baca County, this

i Mammals of Colorado, p. 247, 1906.

2 Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VI, p. 322, 1894.

HG NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

being the northern known limit. (See fig. 14.) A specimen taken
by Warren at Monon, and sent to the Biological Survey for identi-
fication, proves referable to this form. Mr. Warren found this wood
rat also at Springfield, and states that he found it living chiefly
among rocks, but that some were living in the buildings of an
unoccupied ranch. Near Higbee, Otero County, where Prof. Lantz
secured a specimen in April, 1910, these rats were living among
rocks and in hollow junipers on the mesas and in clumps of tree cactus
(Opuntia arborescens) in the open Purgatory Valley. On the deserts
of western Texas and over the greater part of its range the species
lives in open country, the nests being usually in bunches of cactus
or other spiny shrubbery.

Neotoma albigula warreni Merriam. Warren Wood Rat.

' Neotoma albigula warreni Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXI, pp. 143-144,
June 9, 1908. Type from Gaume's ranch, northwest corner of Baca County,
Colorado.

This medium-sized wood rat closely resembles N. m. canescens in its
gray coloration, but its relationships are with albigula. It inhabits
the rough juniper country of southeastern Colorado, and also occurs
in northeastern New Mexico, where it doubtless grades into AT.
albigula. It is abundant hi Shell Rock Canyon, in extreme north-
western Baca County, and Warren found it at Irwin's ranch, in eastern
Las Animas County. It may be the species inhabiting the rock
ledges at Rhinehart's stage station, 20 miles south of Lamar, in
southern Prowers County, but no specimens were taken at that point.
Doubtless it occurs throughout the juniper country of western Baca
and eastern Las Animas Counties. (See fig. 14.)

At Gaume's ranch, in Shell Rock Canyon, I found these wood rats
living among rocks along the canyon walls or in hollow junipers on
the upper rims of canyons, and occasionally in large stick houses
reared against the bases of junipers in the dense growth well back
from the canyon rims. Whether among the rocks or in the
junipers, the nests were fortified with a varied assortment of spines
and thorns, the sharp spiny bundles of the tree cactus (Opuntia
arborescens) always predominating. The stick houses averaged about
2 feet in height and often contained several bushels of dead juniper
branches. Judging from the signs observed at the nest entrances,
the rats were subsisting largely at this time of year (November) upon
the berries of Juniperus monosperma.

According to Mr. E. J. Gaume, these rats seldom take up their
abode in abandoned houses as do the "short-tailed blue rats" (un-
doubtedly referring to N. m. canescens) of eastern Baca County. Re-
garding the habits of this species at Gaume's ranch, Warren says: ' ' It
did not seem to breed as early as N. micropus [N. m. canescens] at
Motion, for half-grown young of the latter species were taken the 1st

1911.] MAMMALS. 117

of May, while the present species was apparently just beginning to
breed after the middle of the same month." 1

Neotoma fallax Merriam. Gale Wood Rat.

Neotoma fallax Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., IX, p. 123, July 2, 1894. Type
from near Gold Hill, Boulder County, Colorado.

The type specimen of this small gray round-tailed wood rat was
taken by the late Mr. Denis Gale on a tributary of Boulder Creek,
near Gold Hill, at the extreme upper limit of the range of the animal.
Other specimens in the Biological Surve}^ collection are from the
following localities, chiefly in the lower eastern foothills: Boulder;
Arkins; Loveland; Canon City; Trinidad; Fisher Peak; Martinsen,
Las Animas County; Arboles; near McElmo; and Coventry. Spe-
cimens from Colorado Springs, Spring Canyon (near Fort Collins),
and Grand Junction have been sent to the Biological Survey for
identification. Other localities from which Warren has specimens are
Cortez, Salida, Van Andert's Spring (on Little Fountain Creek, south-
west of Colorado Springs), and Howard.

N. fallax is common among the eastern foothills north across the
State as far as Fort Collins. It occurs from the lowest outlying
talus slopes at the edge of the plains to an altitude of about 7,500 feet,
mainly in the Transition zone. (See fig. 14.) In the Canadian
zone it is replaced by the larger bushy-tailed N. orolestes. The two
species occur together at a number of localities (including the type
locality of N. fallax) between 6,000 and 7,000 feet; and at Blan-
chard's ranch, 5 miles west of Boulder, both have been taken at
5,800 feet. Throughout this region of vertical overlapping of ranges
(about 2,000 feet), however, fallax is the commoner species. Warren
has taken both species at Grand Junction, below 5,000 feet.

From Trinidad this species probably extends south in the Upper
Sonoran and Transition zones around the southern ends of the Culebra
and San Juan Ranges, thus reaching southwestern Colorado from
the south, rather than from the east through the lowest mountain
passes. At Pagosa Springs, Arboles, and Bayfield it inhabits rock
ledges — at Pagosa Springs in gulches in the yellow-pine forest and
at the last two localities down among the pinyons. It is also com-
mon with N. arizonse in the cliffs along McElmo Creek at Ashbaugh's
ranch, Montezuma County, and on Naturita Creek at Coventry, at
the last locality being occasionally found about ranch buildings.
This seems to be the species commonly known in the lower parts of
western Mesa, Montrose, and San Miguel Counties as the sleek-tailed
rat. Fresh nests were found beneath the rocky ledges on Dry Creek,
west of Naturita, and others in the Sinbad Valley, near Uranium.
A very few nests seen in the bluffs along the North Gunnison River

i Mammals of Colorado, p. 248, 1906.

118 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

near Hotchkiss appeared to belong to fallax rather than to orolestes
It is not known from the San Luis Valley, but careful collecting on
the lower slopes of the bordering mountains may prove its presence
in that region.

In its habits fallax does not differ materially from the other wood
rats. It is equally at home in deserted mines, prospect holes, cabins,
and among rocks; while a talus slope seems peculiarly attractive to
it. The type specimen was taken in a stamp mill. Near Canon
City Bailey found several nests in hollow junipers, and in south-
western Colorado I have often seen nests in junipers and in pinyons.
The piles of sticks, stones, and other trash accumulated by these rats
among the rocks and on talus slopes are not so large as in old cabins.
The stove in a cabin which I entered near Gold Hill was completely
filled with sticks and rubbish, while the nest in the oven was com-
posed of softer materials. Among the varied assortment of nest
materials used by this wood rat may be mentioned juniper branches,
sticks, stones, bones, dried horse dung, pads of prickly pear cactus
(Opuntia), and the branches of a variety of thorny and spiny plants,
such as roses, haws (Cratsegus) , Ceanothus fendleri, and yuccas. The
inner nest is often composed of the soft inner bark of the juniper. At
Walsenburg and Badito, in Huerfano County, and also in the bluffs
along the San Juan River at Arboles, these rats often construct theii
nests entirely of the spiny branches of tree cactuses (Opuntia arbores-
cens and 0. whipplei).

A female wood rat which I surprised in her nest among the rafters
of a cabin near Boulder, July 23, 1906, glided away like a shadow in
the semidarkness, with two young about quarter grown clinging to
her teats. Her movements were rapid but perfectly noiseless. A
female collected by Loring at Loveland contained three small fetuses
May 1, while an immature individual from near McElmo, June 18,
is about two-thirds grown. Acorns, pinyon nuts, and juniper berries
are the chief food of fallax hi southern Colorado, judging from the
quantities found in and around some of the nests.

This wood rat appears to be chiefly nocturnal, but as we rode down
the bed of a dry desert arroyo north of Nucla, Montrose County, on
a hot day in July, one was seen dodging about among the bordering
rocks at midday.

Neotoma desertorum Merriam. Desert Wood Rat.

The small desert wood rat reaches Colorado in the extreme lower
White River Valley, in the vicinity of Rangely (see fig. 14), where it
meets the range of the larger, bushy-tailed N. orolestes. A number
of the nests of desertorum were found on the first bench south of Wliite
River, 5 miles west of Rangely, at 5,300 feet, where four of the rats
were collected September 15 and 16, 1906. These nests, or houses,
were 2 or 3 feet in height, and were constructed of dried cow manure

inn.]

MAMMALS.

119

and the pads of prickly pear. Scattered here and there over the
cactus flat they looked curiously like muskrat houses on a marsh.
(See fig. 15.) The rats were trapped at the entrances to the nests,
of which there were usually two above ground, and often a third
opening beneath a bush a yard or so distant. The largest of the
houses were in thickets of Atriplex confertifolia, but the smaller struc-
tures were reared in bunches of Opuntia. Specimens of N. desertorum
and orolestes were taken within a few feet of each other, the latter
species living in the banks of the dry arroyos which border the flat
occupied by the small desertorum.

I did not find the species in the desert areas of southwestern Colo-
rado in 1907, although much of the region seems suitable.

Phenacomys oro-
philus Merriam.
Mountain Phen-
acomys.

An adult female
Pit t itacom ys which
Warren collected
December 11, 1906,
at Lake Moraine, El
Paso County, and
forwarded to the
Biological Survey
for identification,
proves referable to
P. oropMlus of the
northern Rocky
Mount ains, and is
quite distinct from P. preblei, taken on Longs Peak. The Lake
Moraine specimen differs from the type of preblei in its larger size,
more robust skull, and particularly in its much grayer pelage. The
fur is full and long and of a beautiful frosted gray color, while the feet
and tail are almost white. The measurements are: Total length, 140;
tail vertebra?, 30; hind foot, 18. Warren secured this specimen near
Ruxton Creek, at 10,250 feet, " in a hole near creek bank." An imper-
fect skull in the National Museum which belongs to an alcoholic speci-
men (Xo. 59691, Fairplay, Park Co., July 11, 1873) is large and robust
as compared with the skull of the type of P. preblei, and accords well
with the. Lake Moraine specimen. The skin has lost its color value
through long immersion in alcohol. The altitude of Fairplay is about
9,900 feet. '

Little is known of the habits of these interesting sliort-t ailed mice.
The}' appear to be very rare in Colorado and restricted to the moun-

Fig. 15.— Nest of Ncotoma desertorum o.i Atriplex flat near Rangely.

120 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

tains above 9,000 feet. At present they are known only from the
higher eastern slopes of the Front Range, in the Canadian zone.

Phenacomys preblei Merriam. Preble Phenacomys.

Phenacomys preblei Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XI, p. 45, March 16, 1897.
Type from Lilie Mountain, near Longs Peak, Colorado.

The type of this small pale ochraceous species, an adult male, has
until recently remained unique. It was collected August 12, 1895,
by Mr. Edward A. Preble on Lilie Mountain (known also as Twin
Peak), not far from Longs Peak. Preble states that the exact local-
ity was on a southwest slope of the mountain not far from Lamb's
ranch, at an elevation of approximately 9,000 feet. The specimen
was taken in a trap set for white-footed mice among fallen logs on a
dry slope supporting scanty vegetation. This slope had been cov-
ered by trees, most of which had fallen.

Another specimen, an adult female, from North Boulder Creek,
near Nederland, has been recorded recently by Mr. R. T. Young,1 who
secured it on the Silver Lake trail September 19, 1900, at an elevation
of between 9,000 and 10,000 feet. This specimen, which is hi the
Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, I have been permitted
to examine through the courtesy of Mr. Witmer Stone. It is a well-
made skin and has a perfect skull, which is more robust than the skull
of the type of P. preblei, with the interorbital ridges well developed
(inclosing a median sulcus). The skin measurements are: Total
length, 143; tail, 33; and hind foot, 18; as compared with 130-30-17
of the type of P. preblei (a male), and 146-38-19 of the type of P.
oropJiilus (a female). In coloration the Nederland specimen is nearest
P. preblei, it being much too yellowish for oropliilus, with the back
and sides strongly suffused with ochraceous.

Evotomys gapperi galei Merriam. Rocky Mountain Red-backed

Mouse.

Evotomys galei Merriam, N. Am. Fauna No. 4, p. 23, pi. II, fig. 3, 1890. Type
from Ward, Boulder County, Colorado (9,500 feet).

In Colorado red-backed mice are restricted to the boreal forests of

the high mountains. Their center of abundance is in the lodgepole

pine forest belt of the Canadian zone, but they range up to at least

11,000 feet, in the Hudsonian zone, well within the Engelmann spruce

belt. Cold, mossy, heavily forested slopes having a great deal of

fallen timber are most frequented by red-backed mice, which live

beneath the rotten logs and brush piles. They seem to be largely

nocturnal, although one July afternoon I saw one running along

under a log at Petersons Lake, west of Eldora, Boulder County. In

most parts of the mountains they are difficult to trap owing to the

greater abundance of field mice and white-footed mice, which get

» Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 400, 190S.

1011.]

MAMMALS. 121

into the traps early in the night. For this reason it is often impos-
sible to judge whether red-backed mice are common or rare, but it
seems certain that in most sections they are greatly outnumbered
by other species. At the type locality, however, Preble found them
abundant and caught nothing else in his traps.

During the field seasons of 1905 and 1906 eleven specimens were
taken at four widely separated localities in northern Colorado. In
July, 1905, five were trapped beneath fallen logs in dry lodgepole pine
forest at Coulter, Middle Park (8,500 feet); three more were caught
August 16 in a thicket of balsam (Abies lasiocarpa) in the aspen forest
on the White River Plateau, 25 miles southeast of Meeker, at the same
altitude; August 10, 1906, an immature male was secured in a bog
near Pearl, in the northern end of North Park; and in late September
three others were captured in the Douglas spruce forest at Baxter
Pass, on the summit of the Book Plateau, within a few miles of the
Utah boundary. In October, 1907, I found Evotomys tolerably
common in mossy spruce woods and thickets near St. Elmo in the
Saguache Mountains, at 10,000 feet. Most of the individuals trapped
at this point were half or two-thirds grown. Other specimens are
from Gold Hill, Longs Peak, Lake City, and Silverton.

The type of E. galei, which is in the Merriam collection, was taken
by Mr. Denis Gale at Ward, July 13, 1889. The National Museum
has specimens from the Silver Lake trail, near Nederland, Boulder
County; and others labeled Twin Lakes and Del Norte.1 Warren
records this species from Crested Butte and Irwin, Gunnison County;
Divide, Teller County; Lake Moraine, and mountains near Colorado
Springs, El Paso County.2

Microtus pennsylvanicus modestus (Baird). Saguache Meadow Mouse.

Arvicola modesta Baird, Mamm. N. Am., p. 535, 1857. Type from "Sawatch
Pass, Rocky Mountains" (Cochetopa Pass, Cochetopa Hills, Colorado).

This large, dark meadow mouse is common on the plains at the
eastern base of the foothills and in the San Luis Valley region of
southern Colorado, but is apparently rare in the northern mountains.
Small colonies are found in marshes at Golden and Valmont, and at
Medano Springs ranch, near the San Luis Lakes, the species was
extremely abundant, not only in marshes and wet meadows, but
also on grassy uplands and wherever any cover was afforded. A
small colony of meadow mice found in an alkaline marsh near the
mouth of Four-mile Creek, Routt County, and others reported in
the McElmo Valley, in western Montezuma County, may have been
of this species, but no specimens were secured at either locality.

In August, 1892, Loring collected a large series of topotypes at
Tevebaugh's ranch, 9 miles south of Cochetopa Pass, where he found

i Probably from some point in mountains near Del Norte.
2 Mammals of Colorado, p. 219, 1900.

122

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

well-beaten runways ramifying through the tall grass near a creek.
Six, seven, and even eight young were found by Loring in single
nests, which were composed of fine dried grass and were said to
resemble the nest of the ovenbird. Bailey found this meadow
mouse very abundant in both dry and wet meadows along the Rio
Grande at Del Norte, where it was doing slight damage in clover and
alfalfa fields. At Wray,1 in May, 1909, these meadow mice were
feeding extensively upon the blossoms and leaves of the false Solo-
mon's seal (Vagnera stellata), and fragments of the blossoms of a
species of Senecio were also found scattered along the runways.

^^ M/CffOTOS (LAGVfiOSj PAUP£Aff//*t/S. 'W/yM/CPOTUS OCHPOG/1S7E?? WWfiV/

Fig. Mi.— Distribution in Colorado of Ilayden and pygmy field mice (Microtus paupcrrimus and M. ochro-

gaster haydeni).

In addition to the series mentioned above, the Biological Survey
has specimens of M. modestus from Denver, Loveland, Antonito,
and Fort Garland. A specimen in the National Museum is from
Twin Lakes; some from Fort Collins have been identified for S.
Arthur Johnson; and Warren has others from Colorado Springs,
Westcliffe, and Divide. The species is recorded from Estes Park.2

Microtus ochrogaster haydeni (Baird). Upland Mouse.

The upland mouse has been taken in Colorado at only a few locali-
ties along the eastern base of the foothills, and at Wray and Tuttle,

' Several specimens collected in the cool canyon bogs at Wray are abnormally dark, but can be matched
by a few specimens from elsewhere in the range of modestus.
a Mammals of Colorado, p. 250, 1906.

1011.] MAMMALS. 123

near the eastern border. (See fig. 16.) It is doubtless present, how-
ever, over most of the dry uplands and prairies east of the moun-
tains and north of the Arkansas Valley. Unlike M. modestus, which
inhabits damp meadows and marshes almost exclusively, haydeni is
usually, though not always, found on high grassy plains. On my
trip across the plains from Cheyenne Wells to Sterling in 1909, I col-
lected a young individual at Wray in a cold bog inhabited by a large
colony of modestus; while at Tuttle four upland mice were taken in a
marsh along the South Fork of the Republican River, and signs of them
were seen on a grassy flat on the dry upland 8 miles south of Seibert.
Other localities from which the Biological Survey has specimens are
Loveland, Canon City, and Fort Collins. The species is reported
from Greeley.1

Microtus mordax (Merriam). Rocky Mountain Field Mouse.

This large, long-tailed field mouse has been taken from an eleva-
tion of 4,600 feet (Grand Junction) to considerably over 12,000 feet
(Mount Kelso),2 and thus has the widest vertical range among the
Colorado species of Microtus. It is abundant throughout the Cana-
dian and Hudsonian zones of the mountains, and follows down cold
streams in places through the Transition zone. It is of little eco-
nomic importance, owing to the very limited agriculture carried on
within its range.

This species is fond of forests and of cool, damp situations where
the vegetation is rank. On Mount Kelso, near Grays Peak, several
large colonies were discovered in dense thickets of alpine willows
(Salix cMorophylla and S. glaucops) considerably above timberline.
Most of my specimens were taken under logs in heavy forests or in
cold mountain bogs grown up with willows. In many localities the
field mice were so abundant that all the traps would be thrown by
them during the early evening hours, and thus my chances for the
rarer mammals were spoiled. I found a small colony at Rangely in
a marsh bordering White River at 5,300 feet, and another on a small
tributary of the San Miguel River near Coventry at about 5,500 feet.
Tins species is represented in the Biological Survey collection by speci-
mens from a wide range of localities in the mountainous parts of the
State.

Microtus nanus (Merriam) . Dwarf Field Mouse.

In Colorado this small field mouse is largely an inhabitant of the
boreal zones and is common far above timberline on some of the
mountain ranges. It is especially numerous in the high mountain
parks of the northern two-thirds of the State, in dry, grassy sage-

i Mammals of Colorado, p. 251, 1906.

'Warren (The Mammals of Colorado, p. 100, 1910) states that he has seen a specimen from the Summit
llou.se on Pikes Peak, at 14,147 feet.

124 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

brush country. It does not appear to enter the surrounding forests
to any extent, but occasionally may be taken along streams and in
mountain meadows. I found several large colonies on the Front
Range just south of James Peak, at an elevation of 12,500 feet,
in October, 1906. An interminable labyrinth of runways extended
through the moss in copses of an alpine willow (Salix glaucops), and
many of the field mice could be seen darting from cover to cover.
This species was very abundant in the spruce belt on Mount Kelso,
at about 11,000 feet, and in places the mossy slope was almost honey-
combed by the burrows. It was impossible to catch pocket gophers
(Thomomys fossor) on Mount Kelso because of these mice, which used
the gopher tunnels and were continually getting into the traps.

M. nanus is found as low as 6,000 feet in the meadows along White
River, east of Meeker, and also near Coventry, Montrose County.
In the last locality it is very abundant in the irrigated alfalfa fields,
where it is considered very injurious. In the Hahns Peak region
and in the parks on the western slope of the Gore Range these field
mice were frequently observed in their runways in the daytime. At
Coulter, Middle Park, I often watched them feeding on grass among
the willows before the tent in the middle of the forenoon, and they
seemed quite oblivious of my presence. On the grassy plains east
of Como, South Park, this field mouse was using the abandoned
burrows and tunnels of Thomomys fossor to a large extent.

Mr. Morris M. Green writes of a colony winch he observed at Al-
mont (8,000 feet), Gunnison County, in August, 1909: "There was
a small colony of these animals in a little marsh, supporting a luxuri-*
ant growth of young cottonwoods, spearmint, and succulent, tender
swamp grasses. Their runways in several places had little piles of
tender grass stalks, cut to a length of 2 or 3 inches, which the little
animals could doubtless manipulate easily in their paws. Two
adults and three half- grown young were trapped. One runway led
to a ball-shaped nest of dead grass under a dead log. The nest had
not been frequented lately, and was doubtless a winter abode."

There are specimens from other localities as follows: Arrowhead,
Mount Whiteley, Arapahoe Pass, Rabbit Ear Mountains, Estes Park,
Cochetopa Pass, and Ruby Lake. Bailey records the species from
Twin River and Twin Lakes.1 Specimens taken by Warren at Crested
Butte and Irwin, Gunnison County, have been identified by the Bio-
logical Survey.

Microtus (Lagurus) pauperrimus (Cooper) . Pygmy Field Mouse.

In July, 1905, while traveling across the sage plains of eastern
North Park, I detected evidences of a small species of Microtus
(presumably a Lagurus) and later secured three specimens in the
sand hills at the west base of the Medicine Bow Range, east of Walden.

i N. Am. Fauna, No. 17, p. 31, 1900.

1911.] MAMMALS. 125

In 1906 an adult female was secured at the same locality; six speci-
mens were collected at Elk Springs, 8 miles south of Lily, Routt
County; eight were taken near Toponas, in Egeria Park; and the
bleached anterior part of a skull was found in the nest of a wood
rat near Douglas Spring, at the north base of the Escalante Hills.
The above specimens compared with typical M. pauperrimus from
northeastern Oregon show no differences.

This small, gray, short-tailed field mouse appears to have a some-
what interrupted distribution in northwestern Colorado. (See fig.
16.) Although much of western Routt County consists of sandy
sagebrush country, well suited to the species, it was found in but two
localities. In the sand hills east of Walden, North Park, the rim-
ways of these field mice were beneath the prostrate lowest branches
of large clumps of CJirysoihamnus, and that this is the chief food
plant was attested by the many neat little piles of the smaller steins
and leaves, cut into short lengths, here and there along the runways.
At Elk Springs, on the watershed between Bear and White Rivers,
a large colony occupied the grassy swale in which the springs are
located, and extended for a considerable distance into the surround-
ing sandy sage plain. This colony probably numbered many hun-
dreds, and the numerous runways ramifying in all directions formed
a perfect network. The small colony near Toponas was located
on the sage plain at the west base of the Gore Range, at an altitude
of 8,000 feet, and was apparently subsisting largely upon range
grasses. The members of this colony were very active during the
early evening hours. In less than ten minutes, just after sunset
one frosty October evening, three entered traps within a few feet
of where I stood. Warren has taken this species at Hot Sulphur,
in Middle Park. It has probably reached the open sage parks of
Grand County from North Park, as the Gore Range would seem
to be an effectual barrier on the west.

Allen has recorded this mouse from Kinney ranch, Sweetwater
County, Wyoming,1 which locality is within 30 miles of the Colorado
boundary.

Fiber zibethicus osoyoosensis Lord. Rocky Mountain Muskrat.

Muskrats are reported in most of the streams of central and west-
ern Colorado below 9,000 feet, but I have found them common
only in the marshes and lakes of the intermountain parks. In
the chain of bogs and sloughs in the low meadows along Tomichi
Creek, between Gunnison and Parlin, in October, 1907, muskrats
were living in tule houses, and the many open trails ramifying
through the moss and other vegetation on the surface of the ponds
were evidence of their abundance. Muskrats were abundant in

1 Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VIII, p. 248, 1896.

12 G NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

the San Luis Valley, especially in the San Luis Lakes. They were
common in marshes along Grand River, hi Middle Park, where I
collected three specimens; two were taken near Hebron on the
upper waters of the Platte, in North Park; and two more in a small
tributary of the San Miguel River, near Coventry. Other specimens
in the Biological Survey collection are from Tevebaugh's ranch, near
Cochetopa Pass, secured by Loring in 1892.

Fiber zibethicus cinnamominus Hollister. Great Plains Muskrat.

The muskrats of the eastern Colorado plains are referable to the
pale reddish plains form F. z. cinnamominus, recently described
from Kansas.1 They are smaller and paler and have smaller skulls
and teeth than the mountain form of central and western Colorado,
F. 2. osoyoosensis. Specimens from the eastern foothills are con-
sidered by Hollister to be cinnamominus;2 others from Middle and
North Park localities he refers to osoyoosensis.3 I have no records
of muskrats above 9,500 feet, and thus the high front ranges appear
to be an effective barrier between the two forms in Colorado.

On the plains scores of muskrat houses may often be seen on a
single marsh or lake. This is especially noticeable at Barr and
other points in the lake region northeast of Denver. Although
muskrats are present in most of the streams on the plains, their
numbers are small compared with those inhabiting lakes and marshes.
They are very troublesome in irrigated sections, as they are con-
tinually burrowing in the banks of ditches and reservoirs, often
causing serious leaks.

This form is represented in the Biological Survey collection by
specimens which I secured at Wray, Yuma County, and a female
which contained eight small fetuses, taken by Loring in a small
snow-fed lake at 9,500 feet, near Ward, Boulder County, June 8, 1893.

Castor canadensis frondator Mearns. Broad-tailed Beaver.

The identity of the Colorado beaver can not at present be deter-
mined, as no satisfactory specimens are available for study. Prob-
ably the beaver of the southern and western parts of the State is,
frondator, but those from the higher mountains in northern Colorado
may prove referable to canadensis. Skulls from Lake Moraine and
Crested Butte, sent to the Biological Survey for identification by
Warren, are referred to frondator.

Very few beavers remain in the streams of the eastern plains
region, where they were abundant in early times. Mr. A. E. Beards-
ley reports a few in the Platte River, 20 miles east of Greeley, accord-
ing to Warren.4 Throughout the mountainous parts of the State

i Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXIII, pp. 125-126, Sept. 2, 1910.

2 N. Am. Fauna No. 32, p. 31, 1911.

3 Ibid., p. 26, 1911.

* Mammals of Colorado, p. 244, 1906.

1911.]

MAMMALS. 127

they are holding their own very well and in many sections appear to
be increasing. This is due far more to the protection afforded them
by ranchmen than to protective laws, which are often disregarded
by trappers in the unsettled sections.

In 1905 and 1906 beavers were reported in fair numbers on the head-
waters of the Laramie River, the streams of Middle and North Parks,
and on the upper Snake, Bear, and White Rivers and their affluents.
The}T were said to be common also in the Ladore Canyon of Green
River and in the Yampa Canyon of Bear River, many being trapped
each winter. At Blanchard's ranch, 5 miles west of Boulder, in June,
1905, I found an aspen sapling freshly cut by a beaver, but was
told that very few of the animals remained on Middle Boulder Creek.
A thriving colony is located on Beaver Creek, a few miles above its
junction with the South Boulder. When I visited this colony in
October, 1906, it was being carefully protected by ranchmen. It
extended along the creek for several miles, and all the dams were in
good repair. A great many holes were discovered under the banks,
and the majority appeared to be inhabited. Only one beaver lodge
of recent construction was observed, and two or three dilapidated
structures were in neighboring ponds. It was evident that the
members of this colony were largely bank beavers.

In 1907 a few beavers were reported in the Cucharas River, a mile
or two east of La Veta, and others in the same stream 4 miles south of
La Veta. They were said to have formerly been abundant. Forest
Ranger E. E. Chapson says a colony of four or five are living in the
San Juan River on his ranch, 12 miles northeast of Pagosa Springs,
but that beavers are uncommon on the upper waters of the San Juan.
They have always been scarce in the streams heading on the western
slopes of the La Plata Mountains, according to Mr. Steve Elkins, of
Mancos, but were more common in some of the deep box canyons
along the Dolores River, south of Paradox Valley. A few are still
found on the lower Dolores, although a great many have been caught
during the past 5 or 10 years. Along the Los Pinos, from Vallecito
down nearly to Ignacio, beavers were reported as quite common,
but I did not get an opportunity to examine any of their colonies,
two or three of which are said to be located within a few miles of
Bayfield. The beavers on this stream are trapped to a considerable
extent despite protective laws. Mr. E. G. Bates, of Bayfield, con-
siders them a nuisance in the lower Los Pinos Valley, as they are
continually throwing dams across the large irrigation ditches, thus
flooding much land and preventing the proper utilization of the
water.

In 1892 Loring found beaver signs on Sangre de Cristo Creek,
Costilla County, but reported that none of the animals were left in
the vicinity of Fort Garland. In 1893 he found a large colony of

128 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

beavers on Fall River, in Estes Park, counting 10 dams in a distance
of 2 miles. Bailey reported a protected colony on the Alamosa
River in 1904, and saw beaver work in the canyon of Conejos River,
west of Antonito.

Allen reported beavers common in 1871 on the South Platte and
its tributaries, in Park County,1 and again in 1892 on the Florida,
Animas, Mancos, and San Juan Rivers of southwestern Colorado.2
In 1895 a colony of 8 or 10 beavers was living in a tule marsh within
a stone's throw of the Union Station at Pueblo.3 The Fur Trade
Review (p. 242, 1901) quotes the Denver Times as stating that D. D.
Finch, a ranchman living near Trinidad, found it necessary to apply
to the State game commissioner for a permit to kill a number of
beavers which had established themselves in the creek on his ranch.
It is stated that the beavers cut down many of his fruit trees and
dammed the creek so that it flooded the first floor of his house.
Warren mentions a colony in Grand River, below Grand Junction,4
and writes that in 1909, while passing through Hardscrabble Canyon,
in the Wet Mountains, he saw considerable beaver work.

The habits of the beaver are too well known to require extended
description. The quaking aspen is the tree most used by beavers
in the Colorado mountains, both in the construction of dams and for
food. The engineering skill in controlling water by means of dams
displayed by a large colony of beavers on the Slate River at Crested
Butte has been described in an extremely interesting article by
Warren.5 The work of beaver colonies on the Grand and White
Rivers has been described by Barber.6 The results of a close study
of the work of a colony of beavers in the South Platte River near
Littleton is given by Rockwell m the Denver Post of August 9, 1908.

Geomys lutescens Merriam. Yellow Pocket Gopher.

This interesting pocket gopher, the only representative of the
genus in Colorado, has a wide range over the plains of the eastern
half of the State. (See fig. 17.) It is very abundant in some sec-
tions and uncommon in others, the abundance and scarcity appar-
ently depending largely upon the nature of the soil. It is most
abundant in sandy areas, where the soft soil favors tunneling.

This species is the most injurious of the Colorado pocket gophers.
It seriously damages the alfalfa crop by eating the roots, while the
numerous mounds of earth thrown up by the animals in alfalfa
fields and meadows also dull the mowing machine sickles and cause-
great loss of time to ranchmen during the haying season. At Wray,

1 Bull. Essex Inst., VI, p. 5(1, 1S74. « Mammals of Colorado, p. 244, 1900.

2 Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., V, p. 81, 1S93. » Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., pp. 429-43S, 1904.

3 See Forest and Stream, pp. 43-44, 1895. « Am. Nat., XI, pp. 371-372, 1877.

1011.]

MAMMALS.

129

Yuma County, this gopher is reported very destructive to orchards
planted in sandy soil, as it cuts the roots of a great many young
trees and frequently kills even those of large size.

On the western end of the Arkansas Divide, in northern Weld
County, and perhaps elsewhere along the eastern base of the foot-
hills, G. lutescens occupies considerable territory adjacent to the
range of Thomomijs clusius. Both gophers were taken on the grassy
plateau north of the Chimney Cliffs in northwestern Logan County
within 2 miles of the Nebraska boundary at 5,100 feet. Geomys is
prevalent on the Arkansas Divide as far west as Eureka Hill, wlule
Thomomys is the gopher found south of Seibert. Over a wide area

Fig. 17.— Distribution in Colorado of yellow pocket gopher {Geomys lutescens).

on the southeastern plains G. lutescens occurs with Cratogeomys
castanops. In the vicinity of Lamar it is abundant in sandy country,
while Cratogeomys is largely restricted to hard-soil flats. Streator
found lutescens common in sandy river bottoms at both Pueblo
and Limon.

There are specimens of G. lutescens from Loveland, Valmont,
Sterling, Avalo, Seibert, Pueblo, Limon, Burlington, Hugo, Kit
Carson, Twin Buttes, Chivington, and Las Animas. Other localities
represented in the Warren collection are Monon (Baca County)
and Colorado Springs. A specimen collected at Denver by Mr.
W. D. Hollister has been identified by the Biological Survey.
90432°— 11 9

130

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

Cratogeomys castanops (Baircl). Chestnut-faced Pocket Gopher.

Pseudostoma castanops Baird, Rept. Stansbnry's Exped. to Great Salt Lake, p.
313, 1852. Type from near Bents Fort, Colorado (near present site of Las
Animas).

The large chestnut-faced gopher has not been taken much north
of the type locality, and the Arkansas Valley marks in a general
way the northern limit of its range. (See fig. 18.) Mr. C. E. Aiken,
of Colorado Springs, has a mounted specimen taken near the reser-
voirs several miles north of Lamar, but the species appears not to
reach Arlington and Chivington on the line of the Missouri Pacific
Railroad. From this latitude (about 38° 15') the species ranges
southward to Chihuahua, Mexico.

Fig. 18.— Distribution in Colorado of chestnut-faced pocket gopher ( Cratogeomys castanops).

The type specimen in the United States National Museum was
collected on the "prairie road to Bents Fort," which would be near
the present site of Las Animas, whence the Biological Survey has a
series of topotypes. Other specimens are from Olney and from
La Junta (18 miles south). Warren has the species from the follow-
ing localities: Lamar; Monon, Baca County; Irwin's ranch, Las
Animas County; and 3 miles west of Pueblo.

C. castanops may be distinguished at once from the yellow pocket
gopher (Geomys lutescens), which is found with it over most of south-
eastern Colorado, by its much larger size and unisulcate upper
incisors. It is usually found on hard-soil flats, while G. lutescens
prefers sand}' strips of country and soft soils. The characteristic

1911.] MAMMALS. 131

large flat earth heaps of Cratogeomys were seen in abundance on the
high plains from Lamar south to Springfield, in Baca County, and
thence northwest to Gaume's ranch, in Shell Rock Canyon, and
north to Caddoa Station, Bent County. This gopher came under
my observation in a cattle and sheep grazing region where there
is little land under cultivation and where it is not the pest that it is
in agricultural sections.

Thomomys talpoides agrestis Merriam. San Luis Pocket Gopher.

Thomomys talpoides agrestis Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXI, p. 144, June
9, 1908. Type from Medano ranch, San Luis Valley, Colorado.

This large pale gopher was found in abundance in the hay meadows
bordering Medano Creek at the Medano Springs ranch, near the San
Luis Lakes, in October, 1907. The piles of earth thrown up average
larger than those of any other species of TJiomomys found in Colorado,
a few being noted fully 4 feet in diameter and a foot high, and they
are so numerous as to give a dotted appearance to the closely mown
meadows. These large earth heaps prove a great hindrance in
harvesting hay, as they clog and dull the mowing machine sickles very
rapidly. A white, frosted appearance is presented by many of the
gopher hills which have been thrown up by animals tunneling in
extensive alkaline deposits, but over most of the meadows the piles
are of rich black loam. While most abundant on low ground at
Medano ranch, a few gophers inhabit the low, sandy, cactus-covered
hummocks which surround the marshes and meadows. I found
them very difficult to catch, as they nearly always covered my steel
traps with earth and stopped up the tunnels for some distance from
the traps.

In traveling northeast from Mosca to the Medano ranch we detected
no signs of gophers until we reached the meadow lands southeast
of the San Luis Lakes. The characteristic large hills were not seen
near Hooper nor in staging from Moffat northwest to Saguache,
but were tolerably common in the alkaline soil along the railroad
near Moffat and to a point 12 miles north of there. In 1909 Warren
secured specimens of T. agrestis at Crestone, at the western base of
the Sangre de Cristo Range, and others on Mosca Creek. The species
thus appears to have a restricted range in the northeastern part of the
open San Luis Valley (see fig. 19), but the limits and area of its dis-
persion are as yet unknown, as are also its food habits. Large
sandy areas in the valley appear to be entirely uninhabited by pocket
gophers. It is highly interesting to find in the large intermountain
San Luis Valley a gopher with relationships nearest talpoides of the
northern Great Plains. Careful collecting in the Rio Grande Valley
of northern New Mexico and on the high mountain barriers on the
east and north sides of San Luis Valley make it reasonably certain
that agrestis is entirely isolated.

132

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

The following characterization will serve to distinguish agrestis
(from original description, 1. c):

''Characters. — Size and general characters much as in talpoides,
but color very different — pale drab as in ocius instead of dark brown
as in talpoides; skull also different.

' ' Color. — Upperparts uniform drab, sometimes with a pale reddish
(dull ochraceous) cast on top of head and neck; ear spots conspicu-
ously dusky; underparts soiled whitish, the plumbeous underfur
showing through.

" Cranial characters. — Skull similar to talpoides, but averaging
longer and narrower; zygomata less spreading; nasals less regular,

5$$5$$$ T.C/.US/US.
TFUi-t/US.

Fig. 19. — Distribution in Colorado of pocket gophers (genus Thomomys).

less truncate posteriorly, less straight on outer side — tending to spread
outward on posterior third; premaxillse longer and broader poste-
riorly; maxillary root of zygomata longer and broader and swollen to
articulation with jugal so that the jugal part of arch is abruptly and
conspicuously narrower; bullse slightly more swollen.

"Measurements. — Type: Total length, 220; tail vertebra?, 57;
hind foot, 30. Average of 4 females from type locality: Total length,
212: tail vertebras, 55; hind foot, 29."

Thomomys clusius Coues. Coues Pocket Gopher.

This species extends into North Park from the north, and east of
the mountains is common on the high plains of northeastern Weld

1911.] MAMMALS. 133

and northwestern Logan Counties. Toward the south it is again
common on the higher western end of the Arkansas Divide, from a
point 8 miles south of Seibert west to the base of the mountains near
Colorado Springs. (See fig. 19.) The distribution on the plains
between the Arkansas Divide and northeastern Weld County is
unknown, there being no specimens from the intervening region.
Specimens from the lower foothills of Jefferson, Boulder, and Larimer
Counties are apparently intermediate in some respects between
T. clusius and fossor of the higher mountains, which indicates a
probable continuity of range on the plains at the eastern base of the
foothills from the AVyoming boundary south to the Arkansas Divide.
Throughout its range T. clusius is mainly an inhabitant of high plains
and open foothill country in the Transition zone.

This gopher was found sparingly in the sand hills east of Canadian
Creek, North Park, at the west base of the Medicine Bow Mountains.
In July it was feeding largely upon a species of lupine (Lupinus
alpestris?) , and large caches of the stems and leaves of this plant
were found hi some of the burrows. North Park specimens accord
weU with typical clusius from Bridgers Pass, Wyoming. This gopher is
apparently rare in North Park, since it was found at no other point.

The Coues gopher is the dominant species on the high plains of
northeastern Weld and northwestern Logan Counties. At Chimney
Canyon, some 30 miles northwest of Sterling, where I collected five
specimens on the grassy plateau which forms the summit of the
Chimney Cliffs, at 5,100 feet elevation, Geomys also was sparingly
present. Thomomys was the only gopher found at Pawnee Buttes,
some 30 miles southwest of Chimney Canyon, and thence westward
and northward to the Wyoming boundary north of Grover. It is prob-
ably the dominant gopher over all the high grassy watershed between
Horsetail and Lodge Pole Creeks, including a small area in extreme
western Nebraska.

On the Arkansas Divide the eastern limit of its range appears to be
8 miles south of Seibert, where a specimen was taken from a small
colony in hard soil on the north slope, at about 4,500 feet. From
this point the species has a continuous range westward on this high
watershed to the base of the foothills. Streator found it abundant
at Limon and Flagler, and Warren states that it is tolerably common
on the plains at Colorado Springs, occurring there with Geomys
lutescens.1

Thomomys clusius ocius Merriam. Green River Pocket Gopher.

On the sage plains of western Routt and Rio Blanco Counties this
pale grayish form is the only pocket gopher present. It is abundant
in the lower valleys of the Snake, Bear, and White Rivers, and in
Browns Park, on Green River. On the watersheds between these

i Mammals of Colorado, p. 252, 1906.

134 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

valleys, however, it occurs only in scattered colonies, usually in
sandy strips of country. At no point was this gopher found much
above 6,000 feet. Baggs Crossing appears to be the eastern limit of
its range in the Snake River Valley, while the boreal-capped escarp-
ment of the Book Plateau forms an effective barrier to its southward
dispersion. (See fig. 19.) In all the high mountainous country on
the south and east of its range T. ocius is replaced by T. fossor. The
ranges of the two do not appear to meet, however, and there is a
region of varying width in which no gophers were found.

Gopher hills were abundant on the divide southwest of Rangely,
and a few were seen near the Utah boundary in the valleys of Texas
and Evacuation Creeks. A specimen taken on Bear River, south of
Lay, August 8, and another from Snake River (15 miles northeast of
Sunny Peak), August 24, are in short reddish summer pelage. Sep-
tember specimens from Ladore, Lily, Elk Springs (8 miles south of
Lily), and Rangely are in the full grayish winter coat. The anterior
part of a bleached skull was found in a wood-rat nest at Douglas
Spring, at the north base of the Escalante Hills.

In the river valleys, where ocius is most abundant, ranchmen do
not consider it very injurious, since it prefers sandy and waste soil
and greasewood flats- to meadow land and alfalfa fields.

Thomomys fossor Allen. Colorado Pocket Gopher.

Thomomys fossor Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., V, p. 51, 1893. Type from
Florida, La Plata County, Colorado.

The general distribution of this dark-brown, medium-sized species
in the Colorado mountains is indicated by specimens from a wide
range of localities. It is the only gopher found in the higher moun-
tains and occurs regularly from 7,000 feet to 13,000 feet, both in
heavy forests and on the open slopes far above timberline. It is
common as low as 7,000 feet in the yellow pine forests of Archu-
leta, La Plata, and other southwestern counties, but at few points
does it range much below the Canadian zone. (See fig. 19.) The
greatest numbers are found in the aspen belt of the Canadian zone,
where the numerous fresh hills of earth thrown out each night attest
to the great activity of the animals in the rich black soil. (See fig.
20.) The lower limits of range are roughly indicated by Florida,
Pagosa Springs, Sapinero, Hayden, Meeker, Elkhorn (Larimer
County), and foothills near Boulder and Golden. Gophers from the
lower eastern foothills of the Front and Medicine Bow Ranges are
not typical, and they show an approach toward clusius of the higher
plains.

Ranchmen in the foothill valleys and mountain parks suffer con-
siderable loss through the depredations of these animals, and every
year a large acreage of alfalfa is killed by gophers cutting the roots
just beneath the surface of the ground. In the spring of 1905 Mrs.

1911.]

MAMMALS.

135

Blanchard, living 5 miles west of Boulder, discovered, 3 inches below
the surface, a cavity in which a gopher had a store of nearly 50
tiger-lily bulbs, evidently gathered, the previous fall. The cavity
was nearly full and the bulbs were scattered through loose earth,
which had been thoroughly worked over. A tunnel led directly from
the cache to the flower bed a rod or so distant. Near Golden this
gopher is said to make itself a nuisance by burrowing in the banks
of irrigation ditches and reservoirs, and this is probably true in other
sections along the lower edge of its range. The numerous hills of
earth and stones thrown up in hay meadows and grain fields dull the
sickles of mowing and harvesting machines.
As an offset to the

injury inflicted upon
agricultural inter-
ests along the lower
edge of its range, T.
fossor is an impor-
tant agent in the con-
servation of forests
and moisture in the
higher mountains ,
where it is most
abundant. The thor-
ough and continual
working and enrich-
ing which the soil re-
ceives through the
activities of gophers
is highly beneficial
to forest growth, and
at the same time a
large amount of
moisture which
would otherwise run
off the mountain slopes is retained in the numerous burrows and
underground tunnels which might properly be termed natural water
traps.

On the higher open mountain slopes, particularly above timber-
line, one often sees peculiar long serpentine ridges of earth, some-
times dry and hard packed, but more often partially disintegrated
through the action of moisture. These are formed by gophers during
the winter when snow covers the ground to a considerable depth.
The loose earth thrown out is packed into the ramifying tunnels
which the animal has made through the snow on the surface of the
ground.

Fig. 20.— Earth heaps of Colorade pocket gopher ( T ho mom ys fossor)
on Book Plateau, at 8,000 feet.

136 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

Thomomys fulvus (Woodhouse). Fulvous Pocket Gopher.

A female from Fisher Peak, southeast of Trinidad, is referable to
this species. It was collected September 15, 1903, at an elevation of
8,000 feet, by Mr. A. H. Howell, who states that gophers were toler-
ably common in the parks on the upper slopes of Fisher Peak, in the
Transition zone. This gopher probably reaches Colorado only in the
Trinidad region (see fig. 19), although it has been taken at a number
of points in the foothills of northern New Mexico just south of the
Colorado line.
Thomomys aureus Allen. Golden Pocket Gopher.

The golden pocket gopher is found in the low valleys of south-
western Colorado from the lower Grand River Valley southward in
the Upper Sonoran zone. In a general way it occupies the valleys
and lower flats south and west of the San Juan and La Plata Moun-
tains and the Uncompahgre Plateau (see fig. 19), but as it has been
taken at Grand Junction, it may cover a considerable area in the
lower Gunnison Valley. In 1907, however, I saw no signs of pocket
gophers at any point in either the Gunnison or Uncompahgre Valley.
Gophers seem to be absent or very scarce in the Grand Valley also, as
in following along Grand River from the Utah line to Rifle, a dis-
tance of 100 miles, I neither saw nor heard of any.

There are in the Biological Survey collection specimens of T.
aureus from Arboles; Bayfield; Mesa Verde, northern end, 8,100 feet;
Ashbaugh's ranch, near McElmo; Coventry; and Grand Junction.
The Grand Junction specimen, taken November 7, 1895, by Mr.
A. H. Howell, is an adult female in beautiful golden gray winter
pelage. The others from Colorado are all June and July specimens,
a June male from Arboles being darker than typical aureus.

At Bayfield, Ashbaugh's ranch, and Coventry these gophers are
abundant, and are reported to be very injurious in grain and alfalfa
fields. They are stated to be very destructive also to young orchards
near Bayfield, as they cut off the roots of the trees. They reach
their upper limit along the Los Pinos in the pinyon country near
Bayfield at 6,500 feet, all the yellow pine belt north of that point
being occupied by T. fossor. Along the San Juan River they are
found as far east as Arboles, where they are common in sandy soil
along the railroad track. In the Coventry region these gophers are
very numerous on the cultivated flats between the San Miguel River
and Naturita Creek, extending up to about 6,500 feet. They are
a great nuisance in this irrigated section, tunneling in the banks of
ditches and reservoirs and causing numerous and often serious leaks.
In the arid desert region along the lower San Miguel and Dolores
Rivers gophers are very scarce, the only signs noted being at the
Dolores River crossing in Paradox Valley and at Uranium in Sinbad

1911.] MAMMALS. 137

Valley, and these workings were not fresh. They are a pest at
Ashbaugh's ranch in the valley of McElnio Creek, but apparently
do not inhabit the bordering mesas. Many ranchmen keep a number
of cats purposely for killing gophers, and a great many of the animals
are drowned out when the fields are irrigated. Mr. George J. Ash-
baugh attributes to pocket gophers the holes which he occasionally
finds eaten into watermelons from beneath.

Gopher mounds were abundant on the northern end of Mesa Verde,
between 7,500 and 8,100 feet, in the Transition zone, and a specimen
collected June 14 at 8,100 feet is referred to aureus. This seems to
be the only Colorado record for this species in the Transition zone.
The workings were in soft soil, either among sagebrush or in the
small grassy parks scattered here and there among the dense chap-
arral of oak and June berry. No signs of gophers were found among
the pinyons on the southern end of Mesa Verde below 7,500 feet.
Gopher hills seen in alfalfa fields just west of Mancos, and also in the
bottom of the Dolores Canyon, 2 miles east of Dolores, were the char-
acteristic large earth mounds of aureus.

Thomomys aureus pervagus Merriam. Espanola Pocket Gopher.

This large species is the most richly colored of the Colorado pocket
gophers. It was described from Espanola, Santa Fe County, N. Mex.,
and is known to range north as far as Salida, in the lower end of
the upper Arkansas Valley. The distribution between these two
points has not been worked out in detail, but specimens from the
Huerfano Valley at Gardner and from Antonito and the Conejos
River Canyon, 10 miles west of Antonito, indicate a range in the
foothill valleys along the east sides of both the Sangre de Cristo and
San Juan Ranges, chiefly in the Upper Sonoran zone. (See fig. 19.)

It is impossible to state from present knowledge how this species
has reached the upper Arkansas Valley, or whether, indeed, continuity
of range exists. It is reasonably certain, however, that it does not
cross the 9,000-foot Poncha Pass from the San Luis Valley, as the
Poncha Pass region, which is practically hi the Canadian zone, is
occupied by T. fossor. The characteristic large hills of T. pervagus
were seen in abundance on the sandy flats in widenings of the Arkansas
Canyon from Salida down to Texas Creek Station; but the Grand
Canyon of the Arkansas, beginning a few miles below Texas Creek
and culminating in the stupendous chasm of the Royal Gorge, must
certainly separate pervagus from the gophers inhabiting the Upper
Sonoran country around Canon City, at the lower end of the canyon.
It remains to determine the species occurring in the Arkansas Valley
near Canon City, and thence south along the eastern base of the Wet-
Mountains, but logically it should be pervagus, as this is the gopher
abundant in the Huerfano Valley from Badito west to Gardner.

138 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

Apparently, also, this is the form whose large hills were so common
in the Cucharas Valley from Walsenburg up to La Veta, and between
Trinidad and Weston in the upper Las Animas Valley. In going
from Texas Creek to Westcliffe and thence overland south to Gardner,
the small hills of fossor were the only signs of gophers noted, and
these were found chiefly in the high Wet Mountain Valley. Over a
wide strip of mixed yellow pine and pinyon country south of the
Arkansas River at Texas Creek, and also on the southern slopes of
the divide connecting the Wet Mountains with the Sangre de Cristo
Range, no gophers appear to be present.

In the San Luis Valley, T. pervagus is known only about its southern
end. Just how far north it extends along the eastern base of the San
Juan Range is not known. The large gopher hills which Bailey
found abundant along the Rio Grande at Del Norte may have been
either pervagus or the pale T. agrestis described from Medano Springs
ranch, near the San Luis Lakes, the range of which also is very imper-
fectly known. I saw no gopher work near Saguache.

Throughout its range T. pervagus revels in the rich mellow soil of
the stream valleys, or occupies the sand flats along the lower border-
ing slopes, as in the Arkansas Valley above Salida. In the Cucharas,
Huerfano, and Las Animas Valleys these gophers frequent alfalfa
fields, throwing out the rich brown or reddish soil in large hills, often
3 feet or more in diameter, which must prove a great hindrance in
harvesting the crop, aside from the serious injury which the animals
inflict upon the alfalfa itself by eating the roots, of which they are
very fond.

The Salida specimens were collected at Sand Park, the sandy east-
ern slope of the Arkansas Valley a mile north of the town. The gopher
hills were common in this strip of country, both along the embank-
ments of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad near the river, at a little
over 7,000 feet, and up to the lower edge of the pinyons 400 or 500
feet higher, but they were not noted in the adjoining adobe soil.
They were usually thrown up among the bunches of prickly pear
(Opuntia polyacantha) or beneath Chrysoihamnus &nd~Atriplex bushes.
One of these shrubs *at least, Atriplex canescens, forms a part of the
animal's food, as in One of the underground tunnels was a cache of its
stems and leaves.

Specimens from Salida and Gardner, taken in early November, are
in beautiful full reddish-brown winter pelage, with a considerable
coal black area on chin, lips, and throat. An immature Gardner
specimen has the sides of the throat strongly suffused with reddish-
orange, and this suffusion is more or less indicated in all the adults.

1011.1

MAMMALS.

139

Perodipus montanus (Baird). San Luis Kangaroo Rat.

Dipodomys montanus Baird, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., VII, p. 334, 1855.
Type from old Fort Massachusetts (near Garland), Colorado.
This peculiar Upper Sonoran mammal inhabits the sandy areas in
the San Luis Valley (see fig. 21), and thence extends south into the
high valleys and parks of northern New Mexico. It is one of the
highest ranging species of the genus, in the San Luis Valley occurring
up to 7,900 feet and possibly a little higher, and throughout its range
it is restricted to the mountain valleys. The type of montanus, in
the National Museum, was collected in 1853 by F. Kreuzfeldt, on Capt.
Beckwith's expedition. In addition to a large series of topotypes

= P£ftOD/PUS lOA/G/P£S: ^^ f- MO/VTAMUS. gtffrj^M. fi/CHAPDSOW.

Fig. 21.— Distribution in Colorado of kangaroo rats (genus Perodipus).

from Fort Garland, the Biological Survey has specimens from Anto-
nito; Conejos River, 10 miles west of Antonito; and Medano Springs
ranch, near the San Luis Lakes. Warren has taken the species at
Crestone.

The characteristic burrows are tolerably common along the rail-
road at Moffat, and thence northwest to a point 6 miles southeast of
Saguache, and kangaroo rats are said to be occasionally plowed out
in the fields at Saguache. . In going north from Moffat the burrows
were often noted in the gravelly soil along the railroad near the hot
springs, but the only signs of kangaroo rats seen farther north were
two fresh burrows in sandy soil a mile south of Villa Grove, at an

140 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 83.

elevation of 7,900 feet — a point doubtless very near the northern
limit of the species. The high Poncha Pass country effectually sepa-
rates montanus from P. richardsoni of the upper Arkansas Valley.

At Fort Garland Loring found this species abundant in a cultivated
field, but absent from the sagebrush country. Bailey reported it
very common in the Rio Grande Valley at Alamosa and Del Norte
and in the Conejos River Canyon. A specimen taken on Conejos
River had its cheek pouches filled with the heads of gramma grass.
Del Norte is apparently very near the western limit of montanus along
the Rio Grande, as I saw no signs above that point.

Kangaroo rats are stated to have been very numerous at Mosca
some years ago when only small areas were under cultivation. At
that tune they were very injurious to crops, digging up large quanti-
ties of newly planted grain and caching it in their burrows along the
sandy margins of the fields, and also feeding extensively on tender
green stems of wheat. Of late years the rats have been largely
driven out of the central part of the San Luis Valley by extensive cul-
tivation and irrigation, and now are gathered in the sandy unculti-
vated parts, particularly in the sandhills along the western base of
the Sangre de Cristo Range from Garland north to Crestone. Accord-
ing to cowboys they are so numerous in the Luis Maria Baca grant,
south of Crestone, that their burrows and tunnels completely under-
mine the sandy ground in many places and make riding difficult and
even dangerous.

At the Medano ranch kangaroo rats were found chiefly in the sandy
hummocks just southeast of the headquarters. The burrows were
usually beneath Sarcobatus or Atriplex bushes, or in beds of prickly
pear (Opuntia), and more rarely under the large rabbit brush (Chryso-
thamnus patens). As with other species of kangaroo rats, there are
usually from three to six entrances to a nest, each entering the
ground at an angle of less than 45 degrees, sometimes nearly hori-
zontally, and usually from different directions. Kangaroo rats are
nocturnal as a rule, but I caught one individual in a trap during the
daytime at the Medano ranch, and early one morning before sunrise
saw another dart into its burrow, leaving a tiny cloud of dust behind.

Perodipus montanus richardsoni (Allen). Richardson Kangaroo Rat.
This interesting species is represented by a large series of speci-
mens, chiefly from east of the mountains on the plains, where it is
generally distributed. It occurs also over parts of the sandy sage
plains of northwestern Colorado, in Routt County, reaching that
region from the Wyoming plains on the north. (See fig. 21.) It
follows some of the warm Upper Sonoran valleys into the eastern
foothills of the front ranges, the upper limits being indicated by
Arkins, Larimer County: Twin Lakes; Salida; 8 miles west of Gard-
ner, Huerfano County; and La Veta.

1911.] MAMMALS. 141

In northwestern Colorado kangaroo rats occur sparingly in the
sandy bottoms along Bear River south of Lay; 'and also near the
Wyoming boundary, a few miles southwest of Baggs Crossing. In
the lower valley of Snake River and throughout the sandy sage
plains north of Bear River they were found in abundance. At no
point were they noted much above 6,000 feet. The greatest num-
bers were found on the east side of Snake River, near Sunny Peak.
Here a large colony occupied a sandy strip of country abounding in
blow-outs, and the burrows were either in the banks of these or be-
neath bushes of Atriplex confertifolia or Grayia spinosa. Specimens
from northwestern Colorado are referable to P. richardsoni, although
they average a little smaller than the typical form and have weaker
maxillary arches — in these two respects approaching P. montanus
of the San- Luis Valley.

During a trip from Cheyenne Wells northwest across the plains to
Sterling and Grover I found kangaroo rats generally distributed in
all sections having sandy and soft soils. Our night camp, June 2,
some 20 miles northwest of Sterling, was near an old sod corral, the
sides of which had tumbled down and partially disintegrated. The
soil here was soft and easily excavated and had attracted hundreds
of kangaroo rats, whose burrows fairly honeycombed the ground.
A small number of traps put out here secured 12 specimens.

Kangaroo rats are abundant at Gardner, in the Huerfano Valley,
both on sandy flats along the river and on the low adjoining benches.
The burrows at this point were usually beneath chico brush (Atriplex
canescens) , and after a 2-inch snowfall during the night of November
18 I saw the peculiar round tracks made by a few which had come
out of their burrows during the night and skipped about on the fresh
snow. The leaps taken when running are long, often 3 or 4 feet.
Kangaroo rats are reported along Muddy Creek, 8 miles west of
Gardner. In the Cucharas Valley they are common at Walsenburg,
and a very few burrows were found at La Veta.

In November, 1907, I found kangaroo rats exceedingly numerous
on the gently inclined sandy slopes lying along the east side of the
Arkansas River, just north of Salida; and I saw from the train near
Howard and Cotopaxi, farther down the river, burrows which I attrib-
uted to this species. Mr. J. W. Frey states that the rats are found north
to Browns Canyon, 7 miles above Salida, and west to Poncha Springs.
Kangaroo rats were most abundant at Salida among the CJiryso-
thamnus bushes, Russian thistles, and in beds of Opuntia polyacaniha,
on the upper sand slopes just below the edge of the pinyons, between
7,100 and 7,400 feet. The Salida series is not typical P. richardsoni,
but is much nearer to that species than to montanus of the San Luis
Valley. A Twin Lakes specimen recorded by Coues and Yarrow 1

lExpl. W. Of 100th Mer., V,p. 109, 1875.

142 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

as " Dipodomys phillipsi ordi" was collected by Dr. J. T. Rothrock
in August, 1873, and if correctly labeled is an important record
because of the high elevation. The Royal Gorge, and in fact much
of the Grand Canyon of the Arkansas, would seem to prevent con-
tinuity of range from the plains; but it is evident that the kangaroo
rats of the upper Arkansas Valley reached that region by way of
the Arkansas drainage area, apart from all physiographic considera-
tions, since their relationship is clearly with ricliardsoni.

The typical home of the kangaroo rat is in sandy river bottoms or
on the numerous sand ridges scattered here and there over the
plains. It is seldom found living in hard soils, but often takes up
its abode in cultivated fields. The more or less horizontal burrows
are excavated beneath bunches of prickly pear, yucca, and sage-
brush, or in the banks of blow-outs and railroad embankments.
The animals are nocturnal and most active during the latter part
of the night. During the day the burrows are often closed from
within, but early in the morning they are usually found open, with a
quantity of freshly ejected sand at the entrances. Their food con-
sists of various seeds, and the stems of grass and wheat are often
found in the capacious external cheek pouches. The pouches of a
specimen collected at Salida early in November contained about
equal quantities of the leaves of Atriplex canescens and the seeds of
a species of Chrysothamnus .

Perodipus longipes (Merriam). Mold Kangaroo Rat.

Kangaroo rats from Fruita, Grand Junction, Hotchkiss, and Ash-
baugh's ranch (McElmo Valley), show no departure from typical P.
longipes from the Painted Desert, Arizona. Others from Coventry and
Naturita in the San Miguel region, at a somewhat higher elevation,
average darker than typical specimens, but, as they accord well in
other essentials, are not considered separable.

The Mold kangaroo rat is a creature of the sandy desert areas of the
southwest and is normally restricted to the lowest and warmest parts
of the Upper Sonoran zone. It reaches Colorado along the Colorado
River Valley, the northern limit of range being marked by the Book
Cliffs (see fig. 21), which separate it from P. ricliardsoni of the northern
plains.

By reason of the extensive cultivation of the lower Grand Valley
during recent years, kangaroo rats now occupy less ground than for-
merly. They are found chiefly in the narrow strip of rough unculti-
vated country lying at the southern base of the Book Cliffs, and on
the desert northwest of Mack. In the arid valley of West Salt Creek,
between Mack and Carbonera, the characteristic burrows were often
noted in the banks of arroyos and on sand flats. In a large colony
on the sandy plain 3 miles northwest of Fruita, the entrances to the
burrows were usually in large bunches of prickly pear (Opuntia),

1911.] MAMMALS. 143

but were occasionally beneath bushes of Atriplex confertifolia. During
the time this colony was under my observation, toward the end of
September, the animals seemed inactive, and very few piles of fresh
earth were noted at the burrows. No signs of kangaroo rats were
seen in the Grand Valley above Grand Junction, and they probably
do not occur east of Palisade, where the valley narrows into a more or
less continuous canyon. They extend southeast in the Gunnison
Valley for some distance, apparently reaching their eastern limit near
Hotchkiss, on the North Gunnison River, where I collected an imma-
ture specimen in August. Burrows were often seen on the arid waste
between Rogers Mesa and Delta, but none were noted in the Montrose
region.

Kangaroo rats are reported abundant on the lower San Juan River,
and they extend as far east as Moqui in the McElmo Valley. In
June I found a few burrows on sandy flats along McElmo Creek at
Ashbaugh's ranch, midway between Moqui and McElmo, but the
animals were inactive here or else the burrows were deserted. Warren
has taken the species at Ashbaugh's ranch.

Near Coventry, at 6,800 feet, scattered colonies of kangaroo rats
are found in the rather hard clayey soil on the sagebrush flats, and
the rats become increasingly numerous toward the west, as the ele-
vation becomes lower, the soil sandy, and the region more desertlike.
At Dry Creek, 5 miles west of Naturita, and thence down the East
Paradox Valley and across the Dolores River to the head of West
Paradox Valley, they are very numerous on the sandy flats and hum-
mocks. On my return trip from the La Sal Mountains through the
Sinbad Valley and thence down the Dolores River to the mouth of
West Creek, however, no signs of kangaroo rats were seen, although
much of the region is suitable for them. North of San Miguel River
they are found at Nucla and nearly to Tabeguache Creek.

The burrows of this species average somewhat larger than those of
P. richardsoni, although the animals themselves are of nearly the
same size. The deserted burrows are often used by cottontails
(Sylvilagus a. warreni) in the lower San Miguel region, and occasionally
both animals are found living in the same colony.

Perog-nathus hispidus paradoxus Merriam. Kansas Pocket Mouse.

This large pocket mouse occurs sparingly on the plains of eastern
Colorado, from the base of the foothills in Boulder and Jefferson
Counties east and southeast to Baca County, in the extreme south-
eastern corner of the State. It has been taken at a few widely
separated localities over this region in the Upper Sonoran zone.

Specimens were collected at Sterling by Dr. A. K. Fisher, who
reports the species as tolerably common at that locality. Another
was secured at Hugo by Prof. Lantz, who found it common along

144

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

Big Sandy Creek. In the Merriam collection there is a specimen from
Boulder County, collected in 1889 by the late Denis Gale, of Gold
Hill, at 5,500 feet. The precise locality is not given on the label,
but was probably at the base of the foothills not far from Boulder.
I noted several of the characteristic auger-hole burrows of this pocket
mouse on the lowest foothill slopes a mile southwest of Golden, and
found the species common in southern Prowers and Baca Counties.
Specimens from Monon, Baca County, are recorded by Warren.1

P.AP/ICHE. = P.CAIUSWS. lilllHIIII P- FASCIATUS /A/FAALUTEUS. ^^ P- FLAVESCEA/S.
Fig. 22.— Distribution in Colorado of pocket mice (Perojnatkus fasciatus and P. apache groups).

Perognathus fasciatus infraluteus Thomas. Buff-bellied Pocket
Mouse.

Perognathus infraluteus Thomas, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 6, XI, p. 406,
May, 1893. Type from Loveland, Larimer County, Colorado.

Known only from the type locality, from which place the Bio-
logical Survey has a series of 10 specimens, collected in October,
1894, by Mr. Clark P. Streator. The type specimen in the British
Museum was taken by Mr. W. G. Smith April 4, 1892. (See fig. 22.)

The Loveland animal appears to be geographically separated from
its near relative, P. fasciatus of the northern plains, from which it
is distinguishable by the strong buffy suffusion on the underparts
in marked contrast to the pure white underparts of P. fasciatus.

> Mammals of Colorado, p. 253, 1906.

1911.]

MAMMALS. 145

Perognathus flavescens Merriam. Plains Pocket Mouse.

All the records for this pocket mouse are from the plains region
north of the Arkansas Valley, where it appears to occur only in sandy
strips of country, being most abundant in the northeastern counties.
(See fig. 22.) It has not been taken in the southeast, where P.
flavus replaces it. At Sterling Dr. A. K. Fisher found it common in
sunflower patches on sandy soil, and Loring found it at Greeley
occupying sandy strips of country with P. flavus and living in bur-
rows beneath Opuntia and yuccas. Specimens were secured by
Streator on the sandy bottoms along the Arkansas River at Pueblo
in December, when the animals were gathering their winter's supply
of seeds. At Tuttle I trapped a specimen beneath a yucca in a
sand blow-out on the north side of the valley of the South Fork of
the Republican River. A specimen from Boulder County was
found by the late Mr. Denis Gale in the nest of a long-eared owl
(Asio wilsonianus), at 5,500 feet, May 12, 1890. This record proves
that the range of this pocket mouse extends at least to the eastern
base of the foothills, and the animal may be found even in some of
the warm foothill valleys. Warren has taken specimens at Colorado
Springs, but thinks the species is uncommon at that point.

Perognathus flavus Baird. Baird Pocket Mouse.

This beautiful little pocket mouse is common on the Upper Sonoran
plains of eastern and southern Colorado between 4,000 and 7,500
feet elevation, the highest altitude being reached in the San Luis
Valley. (See fig. 23.) At a number of localities on the northeastern
plains it is associated with P. flavescens. The burrows of the two
species are not readily distinguished, but those of flavus average
smaller. A large series from eastern plains localities are typical
flavus, but specimens from Ashbaugh's ranch, Montezuma County,
are considerably darker, and approach P. f. bimaculatus.

At Antonito and along the Conejos River, Bailey found this species
abundant on the sandy sage plains, and I found it inhabiting similar
areas at the Medano Springs ranch, near the San Luis Lakes, and also
in weed patches and dry meadows. Most of the older gopher hills
near the Medano ranch had been tunneled more or less by pocket
mice, but I seldom found the burrows inhabited. These tunnels
usually entered the soft dirt of the gopher hill from one side, passing
horizontally through, and often connected with other horizontal
tunnels. One such burrow was inhabited by an immature pocket
mouse, which I caught in my hands. The hole reached a depth of
12 inches in the soft earth, ending in a small chamber 1 by 2 inches,
in which were stored a few grass seeds. Although pocket mice are
usually nocturnal, I caught one in a trap at the Medano ranch in the
daytime, and also saw another individual running in the grass near
90432°— 11 10

146

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

the same burrow at 2 p. m. on a bright day. They appear to be
inactive on damp or rainy nights.

At Ashbaugh's ranch two specimens were trapped beneath Atriplex
bushes on sandy flats. Mr. Ashbaugh thinks this is the little pinkish
mouse which does so much damage in the McElmo Valley at corn-
planting time by enlarging the hole left by the corn planter and
taking out the kernels; and also in the autumn, when it eats much
grain beneath the shocks.

Near Greeley Loring found P. fiavus abundant over a sandy strip
of country, living among clumps of yucca and prickly pear. Streator
collected a series of specimens in sunflower patches on waste land

Fig. 23.— Distribution in Colorado of Baird pocket mouse (Perognathus fiavus).

near Loveland in October, baiting his traps almost exclusively with
sunflower seeds, which appeared to be the chief food of these mice at
the time. Prof. Lantz found a large store of sunflower seeds in a
burrow which he dug out in southeastern Otero County in April, 1910.
He observes that the tail of this species is to some extent prehensile.
In the case of several which he carried alive in his hand, the tail at
times clasped a finger. In Shell Rock Canyon, northwestern Baca
County, I usually found the burrows beneath tree cactus (Opuntia
arborescms) in the sandy bed of the canyon or on the adjoining
benches.

There are specimens from Burlington, and Streator reported this
species at Olney and Flagler. I saw numerous signs of small pocket

1911] MAMMALS. 147

mice at Gardner and Walsenburg among bunches of prickly pear
(Opuntia polyacantha) on the sandy benches bordering the Huerfano
and Cucharas Valleys. Warren has specimens from Colorado
Springs, Lamar, Springfield, and Texas Creek between Rito and
Hillside. A specimen in the collection of the Colorado Agricultural
College, taken by Mr. S. Arthur Johnson in Spring Canyon, 4 miles
southwest of Fort Collins, has been identified by the Biological
Survey.

The distribution of P. Jlavus in the upper Arkansas Valley has not
been worked out. It may occur in the sand as far up as Buena
Vista, since it is common on the sandy slopes just above Salida.
This region is doubtless reached by way of the Arkansas drainage
area, although the Royal Gorge must prevent continuity of range in
the immediate river valley.

Perognathus apache Merriam. Apache Pocket Mouse.

Eight specimens from Rifle, Fruita, Coventry, and Medano Springs
ranch (San Luis Valley) are provisionally treated as P. apache,
although none of them are quite typical. All are darker than typical
P. apache, in this respect tending toward P. a. melanotis. The
Coventry specimen in particular is very richly colored, like melanotis,
but is larger, as are also three specimens from Bedrock, Montrose
County, identified for Warren. It is probable that the Coventry and
Bedrock specimens could be safely referred to melanotis, but, since
dark, richly colored specimens are of irregular occurrence throughout
the range of apache, it seems best to include all Colorado specimens
under this species. (See fig. 22.) A specimen from the Grand River
Valley near Rifle is very large for apache, but is equaled in size by one
from Espanola, New Mexico. More material from southern and
southwestern Colorado is needed before the status and distribution
of the apache group of pocket mice within the State can be satis-
factorily determined.

Little is known concerning the habits of these handsome, medium-
sized pocket mice. In the lower Grand River Valley in 1906 I found
them among the prickly pears on the sandy desert north of Fruita,
and also on a sandy piece of waste land near Morris, 7 miles west of
Rifle. A fair-sized colony was occupying a sandy knoll near Morris,
and the many freshly ejected sand piles showed its members to be
active. However, when I again # visited the locality the following
year, I noted very few signs. The distribution in the Grand Valley
appears to be very local, as no signs of pocket mice were seen between
Fruita and Rifle.

In the region of the lower San Miguel and Dolores Rivers the
characteristic burrows of pocket mice were noted on a sandy sage
flat near Uranium, in the Sinbad Valley. The extreme abundance of
white-footed mice at this point prevented my taking specimens, but

148 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

the large size of the sand heaps thrown out from the burrows pointed
to apache rather than to the small P. flavus. As is usual with pocket
mice., the entrances to the burrows were closed during the daytime.

In early November, specimens of apache were caught in traps set
for harvest mice in a sandy weed patch on the Medano ranch, near
the San Luis Lakes. They were taken beneath bushes of Chrysotham-
nus patens, but no burrows were found attributable to the species.
One specimen got into a trap between 9 a. m. and 4 p. m. on a bright
day. This individual evidently had been out foraging, as each of
its cheek pouches contained nearly a thimbleful of the seeds of a
honey plant (Peritoma sonorse). These seeds numbered 164, and
averaged about the size of No. 4 shot.

(?) Perognathus callistus Osgood. Red Desert Pocket Mouse.

While encamped on Snake River, southeast of Sunny Peak, Routt
County, in August, 1906, numerous signs of a medium-sized pocket
mouse were found on the first bench south of the river valley.
Characteristic small heaps of dry earth had been recently ejected
from most of the burrows, which were usually beneath bunches of
prickly pear (Opuntia polyacantha) . However, a large number of
traps kept out for several nights failed to yield a specimen, owing
chiefly to the abundance of white-footed mice, which were continually
getting into the traps during the early evening hours. Signs of
pocket mice were not observed elsewhere in northwestern Colorado,
or at any point north of the Grand River Valley, although much of
the region seems well suited to their needs.

The type locality of P. callistus is Kinney ranch, Wyoming, 40
miles northwest of Sunny Peak. The character of the country at
both localities is similar, and it seems reasonable to treat the Snake
River pocket mice as of this species. (See fig. 22.)

Zapus hudsonius campestris Preble. Prairie Jumping Mouse.

This Great Plains representative of the common northern jumping
mouse enters Colorado along the South Platte Valley. (See fig. 24.)
Thus far it has been found in this State only on the plains at the
eastern base of the foothills. In July, 1895, Preble trapped two
specimens in a dense growth of weeds along an irrigating ditch at
Loveland. One in the Merriam collection was taken at Denver by
A. W. Anthony, September 13, 1885. Warren says it is reported
from Greeley by A. E. Beardsley.1

Zapus princeps Allen. Rocky Mountain Jumping Mouse.

Zapus princeps Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., V, p. 71, 1893. Type from

Florida, La Plata County, Colorado.

In the Colorado mountains this large jumping mouse is chiefly an

inhabitant of the Canadian zone, but it also follows down some of the

streams into the Transition zone. It frequents the dense growth of

i Mammals of Colorado, p. 254, 1906.

1911.1

MAMMALS.

149

Heracleum lanatum and other rank vegetation bordering cold moun-
tain bogs and streams, but is also occasionally taken beneath logs in
heavy forest. The species has a wide distribution in the mountainous
parts (see fig. 24), but is nowhere abundant. Bailey says it is found
in some of the marshes of the San Luis Valley. Near Del Norte he
noted long lengths of grass stems which had recently been cut by
jumping mice, while a specimen from east of Antonito was taken
"in the grassy woods along the Conejos River, where most of the
plants are Transition zone species which follow the river bottoms
clown into Upper Sonoran zone." Ranchmen near Meeker, Rio

zapvs p/i/zvctPS^ W^k z/ipus v. cjAtPtsrp/s.

Fig. 24.— Distribution in Colorado of jumping mice (genus Zapus).

Blanco County, state that during the haying season jumping mice
are often seen in the meadows bordering White River. The vertical
distribution of this species is indicated by specimens from Meeker
(6,000 feet) and Arapahoe Pass (over 9,000 feet).

Erethizon epixanthum Brandt. Yellow-haired Porcupine.

Yellow-haired porcupines are more or less abundant throughout
the mountains, but are most often seen in the coniferous forests of
the Canadian zone. They occur regularly to timberline, and in the
Grays Peak region are said to be found occasionally among the
rocks far above the limit of trees. They are reported sparingly from
the yellow pine belt of the eastern and southern foothills, and even

150 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 63.

extend down into the juniper and pinyon country in some of the
sou thwestern counties .

Porcupines are reported to be common in the following localities:
Middle and North Parks; Elk Head Mountains; White River Plateau;
St. Elmo, Saguache Mountains; San Miguel Mountains; Lake City;
San Juan Mountains, north of Pagosa Springs and Vallecito; La
Plata Mountains, northeast of Mancos; and Culebra Mountains, near
La Veta. I saw parts of a skin, but recently removed, at Highbridge,
on Berthoud Pass, in October, 1906, and a dead porcupine was found
in the trail east of Lake San Cristobal in the San Juan Mountains at
10,000 feet, while I have found quills in a mountain rat's nest near
Mount Whiteley in northwestern Middle Park. In the foothills
west of Antonito, Conejos County, Bailey saw numerous Douglas
spruces and pinyons which had been partly divested of bark by
porcupines, and also found a great many porcupine pellets in caverns
beneath the broken lava rock; while farther north in the San Luis
Valley two or three porcupines are said to have been killed by cow-
boys in the open valley on the Medano Springs ranch, near the San
Luis Lakes.

The food of porcupines consists largely of the bark of coniferous
trees, and the lodgepole pine seems to be preferred to firs and spruces.
Occasionally such large areas of bark are gnawed from a tree that it
dies. A porcupine was seen in an Engelmann spruce on Lone Cone,
at an elevation of 11,000 feet, July 27, 1907, and I saw many spruces
between 10,000 and 11,000 feet from which the bark had been partially
stripped between 20 and 30 feet above the ground. Most of the
yellow pines seen along the railroad in the valley a mile south of
Vance Junction, San Miguel County, July 1, showed evidences of
porcupine work in large sections divested of bark, on both the main
trunks and the larger branches. The injury thus inflicted upon the
coniferous forests throughout the mountains must be considerable.
The animals feed to a small extent, at least, upon the aspen, since
in 1905 I saw a number of these trees, both in the Rabbit Ear Moun-
tains and on the White River Plateau, from which the bark had been
gnawed at a height of 10 or 12 feet.

Owing to their sluggish movements, porcupines fall an easy prey
to some of the larger predaceous mammals. On this point Warren
remarks: "In spite of its protecting quills, it is eaten by coyotes,
mountain lions, and bobcats, though possibly only in winter when
other food is scarce, that being the only season when the writer has
found remains of the animal so killed.1

Trippe records the porcupine as an inhabitant of Clear Creek County
in the early days;2 while Allen says it was common from foothills to

i Mammals of Colorado, p. 254, 1906. 2 See Coues, Birds of the Northwest, p. 225, 1874.

1911.1 MAMMALS. 151

timberline in Park County in 1871, and also reports it from the
regions bordering the headwaters of the Arkansas and Del Norte
[Rio Grande] Rivers.1

Ochotona saxatilis Bangs. Rock Cony; Pika.

Ochotonasaxatilis'BsLngs, Proc. N. Eng. Zool. Club, I, p. 41, 1899. Type fromnear
timberline, Snowy Range, Park County, Colorado.

The peculiar little rock cony is one of the characteristic mammals
in the timberline region of the high mountain ranges. It is most
abundant in the rock slides at or near timberline, but has been
found also near the summits of the highest peaks, and on some of
the western plateaus as low as 8,500 feet.

Conies are very abundant at 12,000 feet in the Grays Peak region
and on Rollins Pass, and a little lower on Berthoud Pass. I heard
of a small colony in slide rock near Arapahoe Pass, in the Rabbit Ear
Mountains, at 9,000 feet. Frank Hayes, a taxidermist of Glenwood
Springs, secured several specimens in rock slides near the head of
Noname Creek, Garfield County, at an elevation of only 8,500 feet.
Warren mentions seeing conies as low as 9,300 feet near Crested
Butte.2 They were reported from the San Juan Mountains, north of
Pagosa Springs and Yallecito; La Plata Mountains, northeast of
Mancos; Saguache Mountains, near St. Elmo; Lone Cone, San Miguel
Mountains; and on the Sierra Blanca group. Prof. Lantz found them
abundant on Pikes Peak between 12,000 and 1.3,500 feet.

The habits of conies are most interesting. As far as my observation
goes, they live entirely in slide rock, usually on steep slopes, but near
Silverton Loring found their characteristic haystacks in the crevices
of lumber and slab piles near an abandoned sawmill; while Mr. D.
Costello, of Gardner, tells of a cony which took up its abode beneath
the floor of a cabin in the mountains north of Crested Butte.3 The
haystacks of these industrious little animals, comprising their winter
food, are composed of many species of grasses and weeds, cut and
gathered in summer, and allowed to dry among the rocks. Thistles
are found in most of the stacks, and seem to be a favorite food.
Well-worn runways lead from one stack to another and extend to
neighboring rock slides. Conies are usually quite shy and would
be seldom observed were it not for the odd, complaining notes which
they utter continually when alarmed. The grayish color of the
animal closely matches the dull-colored rocks in which it is found,
and the notes often appear to come from a distant pile of rocks when
in reality the motionless animal is within a few feet; or, again, the
reverse may be true.

There are specimens from Mount Kelso; Longs Peak; Bald Moun-
tain, 5 miles west of Ward; Sand Mountain, near Hahns Peak; Lake

1 Bull. Essex Inst., VI, pp. 57 and 06, 1874. 3 See under Putorius streatori leptus, p. 188.

2 Mammals of Colorado, p. 254, 1900.

152 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

City; Cumbres; and Silverton. The type and a large topotype series
of 0. saxatilis were collected by an expedition of the Museum of
Comparative Zoology on the Snowy Range near Montgomery, Park
County, in 1871. Mr. E. Thompson Seton has collected the species
on Pagoda Peak, in eastern Rio Blanco County.

Lepus campestris Bachman. White-tailed Jack Rabbit.

This fine species is rather generally distributed over the eastern
plains, except south of .the Arkansas River, where it appears to be
absent in some sections and sparingly present in others. It occurs
also in considerable numbers in the mountain parks on the eastern
slope of the mountains, to an elevation of 10,000 feet, but not west
of the Continental Divide, being replaced there by the grayer form,
L. c. townsendi. It is far more abundant in northern than in southern
Colorado. At no point is it more numerous than in North Park, and
in tliis region and the San Luis Valley I found it far more abundant
than on the plains east of the mountains.

The white-tailed jack rabbits of the eastern plains are typical L. cam-
pestris, but those of the higher elevations are less yellowish and more
grayish, showing an approach toward townsendi. This departure is
well indicated in specimens from the immediate eastern slopes of the
Continental Divide, as in the upper Arkansas Valley and in the
northern and western parts of the San Luis Valley. Two females
which Warren collected at 12,000 feet on the summit of Boreas Pass
in early August are very gray, and are clearly referable to townsendi;
while a male which I collected August 22 at Como, on the grassy
South Park plains just below the eastern end of the Boreas Pass, at
9,800 feet, is nearest the campestris type.

In North Park white-tailed jack rabbits were very abundant in
1905. Early one morning in July, in a half hour's ride along Grizzly
Creek near Hebron, I counted 19, most of which were feeding in
alfalfa fields on the bottoms. Formerly jack rabbits were go numer-
ous and so destructive to crops in the San Luis Valley that prize
hunts were held each year and many thousands were killed. They
are still found throughout the valley, but are common only in
the sandy strip of country lying along the west base of the Sangre
de Cristo Range. At the Medano Springs ranch, near the San Luis
Lakes, I found them abundant in October, 1907, and shot six speci-
mens among the Sarcobatus and Chrysothamnus bushes on the sand
ridges. All of these, as well as others examined at the Medano ranch,
had the upper central area of the tail heavily shaded with plumbeous,
but the cowboys report that a lighter colored rabbit with the tail en-
tirely white is occasionally killed in that region.

White-tailed jack rabbits are said to be not uncommon near West-
cliffe, in the Wet Mountain Valley, and a few are reported near Brad-

1011.1

MAMMALS. 153

ford and La Veta, in western Huerfano County. One was collected
December 5, 1907, in the dense yellow pine forest west of Eastonville.
In some sections on the plains this species is becoming scarce of late
years, and the numbers are rapidly decreasing throughout the plains
region as the country becomes more settled. This is well illustrated
by the fact that in May and June, 1909, I saw only one individual in
the course of a wagon trip of over 300 miles, from Cheyenne Wells
northwest to the Wyoming line, north of Grover. At certain locali-
ties L. melanotis appears to be replacing campestris. I saw a white-
tailed jack rabbit just west of Fort Collins in 1906, and heard of a few
at Wray, Yuma County, in December, 1907, although the predominant
species at the last locality is melanotis. L. campestris was said in 1907
to occur very rarely along the east edge of Baca County, but I was
unable to verify the report. In 1909 I saw one on the Arkansas
Divide near Resolis. Among the eastern foothills of the Front Range
it ranges as high as Estes Park and Gold Hill.

Allen found this species common in the parks of Park County in
1871/ while Trippe recorded it as common in Clear C^eek County.2

Lepus campestris townsendi Bachman. Western White-tailed Jack
Rabbit.

Tins is the western gray form of the white-tailed jack rabbit, and
in Colorado, at least, is more an inhabitant of the mountains than its
eastern relative. Though not unlike L. campestris, and scarcely dis-
tinguishable in the Held, L. townsendi is much grayer, and a blackish
or plumbeous area on the upper central part of the tail is almost
always well indicated. It replaces L. campestris in the mountains
west of the Continental Divide, and may occur regularly along its
crest, since it has been taken at extreme timberline on Boreas Pass,
at 12,000 feet. Specimens from just east of the Rocky Mountain
watershed, in South Park and the upper Arkansas and San Luis
Valleys, are best referred to campestris, though evidently intergrades.3

This rabbit occurs sparingly in the sagebrush country at Norwood
and Coventry between 6,500 and 7,000 feet, but Mr. C. H. Smith says
that at both localities it is outnumbered fully 10 to 1 by the black-
tailed species L. c. texianus. During July, 1907, I saw only one at
Coventry, but another was seen at the west base of Lone Cone, in the
San Miguel Mountains, July 26. This was in a grassy opening among
the dense oak chaparral at about 9,000 feet. Mr. J. P. Galloway, of
Norwood, states that white-tailed jack rabbits are not uncommon on
the lower slopes of Lone Cone. Tracks of jack rabbits were seen in
the sandy, yellow pine country near the head of Dominguez Creek,
on the Uncompahgre Plateau, at 8,500 feet, July 15. The form

1 Bull. Essex Inst., VI, p. 58, 1874. 3 See Nelson, N. Am. Fauna No. 29, p. 81, 1909.

2 See Coues, Birds of the Northwest, p. 225, 1874.

154 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

represented on this plateau is undoubtedly L. townsendi, as the region
is too high for ttxianus.

The white-tailed jack rabbits inhabiting the sage plains of western
Routt County probably reach that region from the Wyoming plains
on the north. As no specimens from that region are at hand, it can
not be stated with certainty whether they are townsendi or campes-
tris. From geographical considerations alone they might be referred
equally well to either. In 190G one was noted in the Snake River
Valley west of Baggs Crossing, and tracks were noticed south of Sunny
Peak. Another rabbit was seen at Douglas Spring at the northern
base of the Escalante Hills, and the species was reported present
throughout the Snake and Bear River region. Rabbits reported from
the White River Valley above Meeker,1 Egeria Park, and on the Gore
Range, and others seen in Middle Park, can be referred without much
question to L. townsendi.

Warren gives the following data regarding this form in the higher
mountains : ' ' Two females killed near Boreas Pass, in Summit County,
each contained foetuses, one four, the other five; one lot would
probably have been born within a day or two, the other in about a
week. This was on the 5th day of August. It seems very late in
the season for young to be born at such high altitude, where winter
sets in so early, one might say in mid-October frequently, and these
rabbits are reported to live in these high regions the year round.
Mr. H. L. Curtiss writes me he has seen them in winter on Fairview
Mountain, near Pitkin, Gunnison County, at 12,000 feet."2 Warren
told me that the Boreas Pass specimens were jumped from beneath
the dwarfed and matted Engelmann spruces at extreme timberline
on Baldy Mountain, and that other hunters had found this rabbit in
similar situations along the crest of the Front Range, where the ani-
mals obtain in the stunted and matted conifers protection from the
icy winds which sweep the bleak and inhospitable summits. In the
high mountain districts both townsendi and campestris assume a
beautiful whitish winter coat, but do not become as white as the
snowshoe rabbit (L. bairdi).

Lepus bairdi Hayden. Rocky Mountain Snowshoe Rabbit.

The large furry-footed snowshoe rabbits are found throughout the
higher mountains from the lower edge of the Canadian zone at 8,500
feet to considerably above timberline. Along the lower edge of their
range they meet the mountain cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus n. pinetis),
but above 9,000 or 9,500 feet L. bairdi is often the only rabbit present.
I have seen very few of these rabbits on my trips through the moun-
tains, but the tracks of their large furry feet and the wrell-worn trails
in the snow which wind in and out of the dense willow copses in the

i Felger. Univ. of Colo. Studies, VII, p. 144, 1910.
2 Further Notes on Mammals of Colo., p. 79, 1908.

1911.] MAMMALS. 155

gulches just below timberline show that considerable numbers are
present in most sections.

Snowshoe rabbits are adepts at hiding in the cover of forest vege-
tation and easily escape notice. In the gloaming of an August
evening one was discovered feeding in the willows which fringed a
spring on the White River Plateau, 25 miles southeast of Meeker, at
8,500 feet, and it allowed a close approach before hopping uncon-
cernedly into a denser thicket. Another got into a trap set under a
cabin near Coulter, Middle Park, in the middle of October. The
weather was cold and wintry, but this specimen had just begun to
assume the white winter pelage on the legs and flanks. Lumbermen
at Fraser, Middle Park, report snowshoe rabbits abundant, and often
find them living under log piles and brush heaps. While following
a logging trail near Fraser I discovered the remains of a rabbit which
had been captured by a bobcat during the previous night. Bobcats
and coyotes living in the higher mountains feed quite extensively
upon this species, and on Berthoud Pass their tracks were often seen
in the snow where they had been hunting rabbits among the willow
copses near timberline. In June, 1905, rabbit signs were abundant
among the alpine willows far above timberline on Mount Kelso, near
Grays Peak. The species is said to be common in the forests of the
Gore Range, east of Toponas; at Hahns Peak; in the San Juan
Mountains, north of Pagosa Springs and Vallecito; on Lone Cone,
San Miguel Mountains; and on Veta Pass. I found it very rare in
the Saguache Mountains, near St. Elmo, Chaffee County. Accord-
ing to Preble it was tolerably common on Longs Peak in August,
1894, while Loring secured a fine series of 28 specimens at Silverton
in the latter part of October, 1893. The majority of the Silverton
specimens were collected in underbrush in the canyon, but a few were
taken on the mountain sides near timberline. All were changing
from brown summer pelage to the white winter coat, and Loring
states that the white pelage was farthest advanced on individuals
taken near timberline. Allen says snowshoe rabbits were reported
as common in the timbered parts of Park County in 187 1.1

Lepus californicus melanotis Mearns. Kansas Jack Rabbit.

Over the entire plains region of eastern Colorado black-tailed jack
rabbits are found in varying abundance. (See fig. 25.) Formerly
they were outnumbered by L. campestris in many sections on the
northern plains, but the reverse is now true. They become increas-
ingly numerous toward the south, where campestris is rare or absent.
In Huerfano County, and doubtless elsewhere, they follow some of
the widest valleys into the foothills, and may be found occasionally
among the junipers and pinyons as high as 7,500 feet. The species
seems to prefer open grassy plains to the foothill valleys grown up

i Bull. Essex Inst., VI, p. 58, ls74.

156

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

with Atriplex and Chrysothamnus and is most abundant at some
distance from the mountains.

Although present in much smaller numbers than formerly, bkek-
tailed jack rabbits are still sufficiently numerous in certain sections,
particularly in the rich agricultural region lying along the Arkansas
River, to injure seriously such crops as alfalfa, grains, cabbages, and
sugar beets. In early days jack rabbits were extremely abundant
in the Arkansas Valley, and for a number of years annual hunts were
organized at Lamar to lessen the pest. Many thousand jack rabbits
were sometimes killed in a single hunt.1

5 l fPe/s cal /rofiAt/CL/s rsx/^A/as.

Wtft, L . C AfSL/IA/OT/S.

Fig. 25.— Distribution in Colorado of black-tailed jack rabbits (Lepus californicus teiianus and L. c.

melanotis).

In driving from Cheyenne Wells northwest across the plains to
Cheyenne, Wyoming, in May and June, 1909, I found these jack rab-
bits common only in the sandy bunch grass country of Yuma County.
Elsewhere they appeared to be greatly reduced in numbers. A very
few were seen on the eastern end of the Arkansas Divide, and farther
west at River Bend and Ramah, while two immature individuals
were encountered near Pawnee Buttes, in northeastern Weld County.
Prof. Lantz found them abundant in the Purgatory Valley south of
La Junta in April, 1910.

1 For details of the Lamar rabbit hunts see Jack Rabbits of the United States, by T. S. Palmer, Bull.
No. 8, Biological Survey, pp. G3-G4, 1897.

1911.] MAMMALS. 157

Lepus calif ornicus texianus Waterhouse. Texas Jack Rabbit.

The black-tailed jack rabbits inhabiting the Upper Sonoran desert
valleys of western and southwestern Colorado (see fig. 25) are refer-
able to the Texas form, although intermediate in coloration between
texianus and melanotis} In some sections they are abundant, in
others very scarce, and their local abundance varies much from year
to year, as in other parts of their range.

In the summer of 1907 I found jack rabbits common at Bayfield,
La Plata County, and at Coventry, Montrose County. Small num-
bers were reported also on Mesa Verde, in McElmo Valley; near
Mancos and Dolores in Montezuma County; and between Naturita
and Paradox in western Montrose County. Early in June the
rabbits were quite common along the lower edge of the pinyons and
in the adjoining open sagebrush valleys and slopes southwest of
Bayfield, at 6,500 feet. During the heat of the day they were
usually resting quietly in the shade of the pinyons, but in the early
morning and toward sundown could be seen actively moving about
in the open, either nibbling at the short grass in the openings among
the sagebrush or more often feeding in the grain and alfalfa fields.
Several ranchmen southwest of Bayfield have small patches of grain in
the openings along the lower edge of the pinyons, and these suffer
most from the depredations of jack rabbits. One forenoon at 10 I
surprised an entire family of rabbits eagerly feeding in one of these
small isolated fields of young grain among the pinyons. This
family, consisting of two adults and three or four young about two-
thirds grown, had been levying heavy tribute upon the tender grain
shoots, and the field was in a fair way to be entirely destroyed. A
very little time and effort spent by the owner of this piece of grain
in shooting jack rabbits would in all probability have saved it. Mr.
E. G. Bates, of Bayfield, states that a diet of young alfalfa produces
the same bloating effect on jack rabbits as on cattle and usually
results fatally. No rabbits thus affected have come under my obser-
vation, unless it be in the case of a much bloated individual which I
found lying dead in the sagebrush a short distance from a large alfalfa
field near Coventry. In the Bayfield region jack rabbits are said to
be very injurious to orchards in winter, when green food is scarce
and the animals are forced to subsist by browsing and by eating the
tender bark of young trees.

Black-tailed jack rabbits are not common in eastern Montezuma
County, but toward the Utah boundary and thence west to the
Abajo (Blue) Mountains in eastern Utah, their numbers are said to
increase rapidly. I saw a single individual on a fhit in the McElmo
Canyon, near Moqui, June 22. North of the Montezuma Valley

i See Nelson, N. Am. Fauna No. 29, p. 145, 1909.

158 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

texianus follows the pinyon and sagebrush country around the western
ends of the Dolores and San Miguel Plateaus, chiefly west of the
Dolores River, and reaches the San Miguel and Naturita Valleys
through the Paradox Valley and Dry Creek Basin. It ranges east-
ward along San Miguel River to Coventry and Norwood and follows
Naturita Creek nearly to its head at the northwest base of Lone
Cone, where I saw one in a grassy opening in the oak chaparral at
8,500 feet, July 27, 1907. At the last three localities the range of
this species overlaps that of the white-tailed L. c. townsendi, texianus
being the common form in the lower elevations at Coventry and
Norwood, and townsendi predominating up around the base of Lone
Cone, in the Transition zone. I saw no jack rabbits while crossing
the Paradox Valley on my way to the La Sal Mountains in July, but
tracks were common in East Paradox Valley. Mr. C. H. Smith, of
Coventry, reports them very injurious to growing grain, alfalfa, and
vegetables, especially cabbages. Most of the cultivated land there
is surrounded by a dense growth of sagebrush, which affords the
rabbits effective concealment during the day and ample protection,
as I can testify after several days of hunting with poor success.

A few black-tailed jack rabbits are reported in the desert areas of
the lower Grand River Valle}r between Grand Junction and the
Utah boundary. They are said to occur in small numbers near
Douglas Spring, at the north base of the Escalante Hills, in western
Routt County, but this report lacks verification. Mr. J. H. Gaut saw a
black-tailed jack rabbit east of Antonito, in the Rio Grande Valley,
in September, 1904, but as it was not secured its species can not be
determined. On geographic grounds it should be texianus.

Sylvilagus floridanus similis Nelson. Nebraska Cottontail.

This small gray form of the small-eared floridanus group of cotton-
tail rabbits conies into the State from the northeast, along the valleys
of the South Platte and Republican Rivers and their tributaries, and
ranges to the eastern base of the foothills, as indicated by the follow-
ing localities at which specimens have been collected: Arvada, Jef-
ferson County; Littleton; Barr; Orchard, Morgan County; Masters,
Weld County; Dry Willow Creek, Yuma County; and Sterling. Mr.
W. L. Burnett states that a specimen has been taken near Loveland.

Little is known of the habits of this cottontail in Colorado aside
from the fact that most of the specimens have been taken in brushy
thickets along watercourses, just as farther east. S. a. baileyi occurs
on the plains on both sides of the Platte from the base of the foothills
to the Nebraska line; so similis doubtless inhabits the wild plum
thickets and the willow and cottonwood fringe along the river banks.

Cottontails wrere very scarce at Wray in December, 1907, but I
saw a few tracks in the dense plum and hackberry thickets in the

1911.] MAMMALS. 159

gulches south of Chief Creek, where similis should be found. A
skull, however, found at a hole beneath ;i rocky ledge along one of
the gulches had the characteristic large audital bullae of haileyi.
S. similis can be distinguished readily from haileyi by its much
smaller and shorter ears and small audital bullae. The only other
Colorado cottontail which shares these characters is S. pinetis, a
species restricted to the mountains. At Sterling, in June, 1909, I
found this cottontail restricted to the immediate valley of the Platte,
where one was occasionally jumped in the dense thickets of wild
cherry and snowberry along the river. They were very wild, and
the only one collected was a nursing female shot in an alfalfa meadow
along the roadside June 2.

Sylvilagus nuttalli pinetis (Allen). Rocky Mountain Cottontail.

This is the cottontail of the mountain districts of Colorado, where
it is generally distributed, mainly in the Transition zone. It is most
abundant in the yellow pine forests of the eastern foothills of the
front ranges, but is often found along the lower edge of the aspen
belt. In the Pikes Peak region it occurs as high as 11,500 feet.1
It is common on some of the pinyon-clad ridges and mesas of western
Colorado as low as 6,000 feet along the upper edge of the Upper
Sonoran zone ; and has been taken on the higher sage plains of Routt
County with haileyi. The favorite abode of the mountain cottontail
is on the cool north slopes in the upper part of the pine belt, where
it finds abundant cover in the creeping juniper (Juniperus sihirica)
and in dense thickets of aspens, as well as in and among fallen logs.
Ledges of rock and hollow logs are favorite retreats. This cotton-
tail, like grangeri, belongs to the short-eared nuttalli group, and can
not be easily confused with the long^-eared cottontails, haileyi and
warreni, of the surrounding Upper Sonoran plains and valleys. The
rich dark winter pelage of pinetis is usually strongly tinged with
vinaceous.

Sylvilagus nuttalli grangeri (Allen). Black Hills Cottontail.

E. W. Nelson, in his recently published monograph of the rabbits
of North America,2 refers to this form specimens of cottontails from
the Escalante Hills and Lay, in western Routt County, and from
Meeker. This is a northern member of the nuttalli group closely
related to pinetis, with which it intergrades in southern Wyoming.
S. a. haileyi, a member of the long-eared auduhoni group, is also found
over much of western Routt County. The cottontail rabbits of north-
western Colorado are not typical of any race, but appear to be inter-
grades— grangeri, pinetis, and possibly haileyi, being involved. A
specimen I shot on the sage plains near Lay in August, 1905, seems
to be intermediate between haileyi and grangeri. The cottontails of

i Warren, The Mammals of Colorado, p. 49, 1910. 2 N. Am. Fauna No. 29, p. 207, 1909.

160 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

the northwestern sage plains thus present a most perplexing problem.
To quote Mr. Nelson (1. c, p. 206): "One specimen in the Biological
Survey collection (No. 139098) from Lay, Colorado, is indistinguish-
able in external characters from three specimens of S. a. haileyi from
the same place, but its skull is that of grangeri, to which it has been
referred. Several other specimens of cottontails, some haileyi and
some grangeri, from northwestern Colorado are extremely puzzling,
and much more material from there and elsewhere in this State is
needed before the relationships and ranges of the several cottontails
can be satisfactorily determined."

In the Escalante Hills I found the short-eared cottontails in small
numbers at the edge of the yellow pines at about 7,000 feet, and
others were seen down among the dense pinyon and juniper growth
on the northern slopes.
Sylvilagus auduboni baileyi (Merriam). Plains Cottontail.

The common long-eared cottontails of the eastern plains of Colo-
rado are haileyi, the only other form occurring there being the short-
eared similis, which inhabits the brush patches and fringe along the
South Platte and other streams of the northeastern counties. These
two cottontails are quite unlike, and besides their structural differ-
ences have dissimilar habits. Thus haileyi inhabits the open grassy
plains, where it lives in abandoned prairie dog and badger holes, or
else takes up its abode in the rock ledges and bluffs bordering the
valleys; while similis, so far as known, does not dwell in the open
but in dense thickets along streams and in the bottoms of connecting
gulches. The plains cottontail has a wide range from Montana south
to the edge of the Llano Estacado of northern Texas. It occupies
practically all the plains of Wyoming, extending south in northwest-
ern Colorado on the sage plains and in the valleys of Routt and Rio
Blanco Counties, where the high escarpment of the Book Cliffs and
the White River Plateau separates it from warreni of the Grand Val-
ley and southward. The range of haileyi meets that of the mountain
cottontail (S. pinetis) at Meeker, Craig, and other points along the
bases of the Elk Head Mountains and of the White River Plateau,
as well as on the slopes of the higher divides between the river valleys.
This species follows up the drainage of the Arkansas Valley to Salida,
and probably occurs on the extensive Upper Sonoran flats farther up
the valley, but in other sections is not known to penetrate the eastern
foothills for any distance.

Throughout its range the plains cottontail is preeminently an in-
habitant of the semiarid Upper Sonoran plains, where it lives in holes
along the steep-cut banks of dry arroyos, in the deserted burrows of
prairie dogs and badgers, and often in holes beneath sagebrush, Atri-
plex, or prickly pear (Opuntia polyacantha) on the open plain. In

1911] MAMMALS. 161

rough and broken regions, as along the Snake, Bear, and White Riv-
ers, and in the juniper country of Baca and Las Animas Counties, it
lives chiefly along the rocky rims of canyons.

In August, 1905, cottontails were abundant in the Bear River Val-
ley south of Lay. In the evening and early morning, and often at
midday, numbers usually fed on the small grassy flats between the
river and the base of the bluffs. They were quite wild, despite their
abundance, and when alarmed scampered up the arroyos and dry
rocky slopes in all directions to their retreats in the ledges far above
the river. Sometimes fully 20 individuals, adults and young, were
in sight at once.

In traveling down the Snake River Valley in August, 1906, few
cottontails were observed as compared with the great numbers seen
on Bear River in 1905, and Mr. John Criss, of Baggs Crossing, Wyo-
ming, informed me that a disease which he termed cholera had been
thinning out their numbers very perceptibly throughout the region.
In common with other rabbits haileyi is subject to a periodical disease,
as yet very little understood, which invariably follows excessive
abundance. This disease seems to be nature's check to abnormal
increase, and did it not prevail, at least among the plains cottontails,
much of the cattle range in the vicinity of streams and gulches would
undoubtedly be ruined. As it is, the injury to the range is very con-
siderable when the rabbits reach their maximum numbers, as on Bear
River in 1905, and again on McElmo Creek and along the lower San
Juan River in 1907, where S. a. warreni was so abundant that scarcely
a spear of grass remained in the vicinity of the streams.

This species is fairly free from parasites and grubs and, except in
the years when it is suffering from disease, is excellent food. On the
sage plains of Routt County young cottontails were an important
item on our bill of fare, and they were well-flavored and tender.

Sylvilagus auduboni warreni Nelson. Colorado Cottontail.

Sylvilagus auduboni warreni Nelson, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XX, p. 83, July 22,
1907. Type from Coventry, Montrose County, Colorado.

This is the cottontail of the warm Upper Sonoran valleys and
lowest mesas of southwestern Colorado south of Grand River Valley.
The cottontails of the open plains of the San Luis Valley, although
not typical, are referable to this form and, especially toward the
northern end of the valley, approach haileyi in general paleness of
coloration. The ranges of these two closely related forms appear
to meet in this region, warreni doubtless extending around the
southern end of the San Juan Mountains in New Mexico and then
north into the San Luis Valley, while haileyi probably reaches the
region from the south and east by following around the southern
end of the Culebra Range. Under the Circumstances it seems best
90432°— 11 11

162 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

to refer all of the San Luis Valley cottontails to warreni, since this
type predominates. The northern boundary of the dispersion of
warreni is marked by the White River and Book Plateaus, the cot-
tontails found in the Grand Valley as far east as Rifle being fairly
t vpical, while those occurring in the White River Valley from Meeker
west are baileyi.

This form, like the other long-eared cottontails, is an inhabitant
of sage plains, Sarcobatus valleys, and Atriplex flats, and is often
found also among the rocks and pinyons. Cottontails were uncom-
* mon in the Grand Valley in both 1906 and 1907. Near Rifle, several
were seen in the greasewood along arroyos and irrigation ditches,
and north of Fruita, Mesa County, the rabbits were often started
from their forms beneath Atriplex confertifolia on the open desert,
or from the dense thickets of Chrysothamnus along the irrigation
ditches. They invariably took refuge in the deserted burrows of
badgers and white-tailed prairie dogs, in which apparently they
were living. They were abundant at Hotchkiss in August, 1907,
and one seen just east of Crawford, at the west base of the West
Elk Mountains, was probably this form. At Coventry I found
them abundant during July, both among the pinyons and out in
the sagebrush, and collected several topotypes. On my trip to the
La Sal Mountains they were seen in abundance in the Dry Creek
and Paradox Valleys, but were scarce in Sinbad Valley and thence
down the Dolores River to the mouth of West Creek. My camp
assistant shot 11 young cottontails from the tent while cooking
supper at our Dry Creek camp, 3 miles west of Naturita, July 19,
and there seemed to be fully as many more among the rocks and
sagebrush after his fusillade.

These rabbits were very abundant in the McElmo and San Juan
Valleys in June, 1907, where they were reported quite injurious.
Ranchmen stated that their numbers near Bluff City, Utah, were so
great that nearly all the range grasses in the vicinity of canyons had
been eaten by them before the middle of June. Mr. George J. Ash-
baugh, who lives in the McElmo Canyon west of Moqui, says the
cottontails are very injurious to his fruit trees during the winter.
On the Mesa Verde these rabbits are scarce, only two being seen
among the pinyons at 7,000 feet. They were fairly common at Bay-
field, La Plata County, early in June, and a single individual noted
in a willow copse along the San Juan River at Arboles may have
been this form.

The type of this interesting cottontail, a female in winter pelage,
measures: Total length, 375; tail vertebrae, 51; hind foot, 102; length
of ear from notch, in dried skin, 70. It was collected at Coventry
by Mr. C. H. Smith, January 4, 1907, and is in the Biological Survey
collection. Regarding the characters of warreni, Nelson says (1. c):

1911.] MAMMALS. 163

"Similar to baileyi in size, length of ears, and abundant pelage,
but darker colored with more distinct gray rump patch and darker
rufous on nape and legs." Its distribution is given as "south-
western Colorado and adjacent parts of Utah, New Mexico, and
Arizona."

Felis oregonensis hippolestes Merriam. Cougar; Mountain Lion.

The mountain lion was formerly present over at least all the rough
parts of the State, and in early times it was occasionally seen even
well out on the plains along the more heavily brush-fringed streams.
At present it is becoming rare east of the Continental Divide, although
holding its own fairly well in the rough canyon and mesa country
of the west and southwest. It is now most numerous in the pinyon
country of Montezuma and Dolores Counties, and in western Kio
Blanco and Routt Counties, the latter region being to-day perhaps
the best lion country in the United States.

Probably F. hippolestes is the only form represented in Colorado,
but a skin from Montezuma County, in the possession of Mr. Steve
Elkins, of Mancos, is considerably paler and less reddish than lions
from the Meeker region. Unfortunately there are no skulls or skins
from extreme southwestern Colorado available for study. A series
of 12 skulls from Meeker in the Biological Survey collection, collected
by Mr. Theodore Roosevelt in January and February, 1901, have
been referred to F. hippolestes.1

In some of the southern and western counties mountain lions are
sufficiently numerous to be very destructive to stock, especially
young colts. Near Lily Park, in western Routt County, calves also
are said to be often killed by lions. Through Mr. James Lowell, of
Dolores, a forest ranger, I learned that 16 colts had been killed by
mountain lions in that region during the spring of 1907 — 11 in the
yellow pine country between Plateau and Beaver Creeks, 20 miles
north of Dolores, and 5 in the high aspen and spruce country on Bear
Creek, an affluent of the Dolores River, about 20 miles east of Dolores.
In addition to colts and calves, the lions prey much upon wandering
bands of s'heep in the yellow pine forests of Archuleta County.

Among game mammals deer appear to suffer most from mountain
lions, and that they form the chief prey is evident from the fact that
the lions move up into the mountains or down into the low country
with the migration of the deer. Mr. E. E. Chapson, a forest ranger
in the San Juan National Forest, thinks the lions and coyotes are the
most important factors in the destruction of deer in the San Juan
Mountains. The lion tracks seen in winter are almost invariably
following deer trails, and, as the bodies of deer which have been
killed by mountain lions are often found, Mr. Chapson thinks they
kill many more deer than they require for food. Mr. Steve Elkins

i Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., Ill, p. 586, 1901.

164 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

states that lions are very destructive to deer in the Montezuma
National Forest. Mr. J. P. Galloway, of Norwood, relates that a
lion, the track of which he followed several years ago on Wild Steer
Mesa, south of East Paradox Valley, had dragged the carcass of a
freshly killed deer to a secluded rocky place among the pinyons and
left it covered with a pile of pinyon needles and cones fully 4 feet
high. This habit of caching carcasses for future consumption has
been noted by a number of Colorado hunters.

Mountain lions are much hunted with dogs in the regions of their
greatest abundance, as in the Keystone country northwest of Meeker
and in the Mancos region. When pursued by dogs, they are readily
treed, usually after a short dash, seeking refuge among the upper
branches of pinyons or junipers, where they are at the mercy of the
hunters. The Meeker region has long been a famous lion country,
and it was here that Roosevelt had his well-known hunt in the winter
of 1901, bringing out a fine series of specimens, besides gathering
important data on the habits of the species.

Although most abundant in the broken rocky pinyon and juni-
per country on the lower western slope of the Continental Divide,
lions are nevertheless found occasionally above timberline. On the
Saguache Mountains, 2 miles north of St. Elmo, I followed the track
of a medium-sized lion through the snow for some distance, October
9, 1907. It was first crossed at 12,000 feet, and as far as followed,
kept along the high wind-swept crests of the mountains above
timberline.

Mountain lions were reported in varying numbers at the following
localities in the northern mountains in 1905 and 1906:

Gore Range and mountains surrounding Middle Park: Small
numbers reported.

Park Range (headwaters of Grand Encampment River) : Reported
by lumbermen as not at all uncommon. Tracks seen in the trail
near the tie camps August 13, 1906.

Snake River region (Baggs Crossing to Escalante) : Formerly com-
mon, but none remain. Mostly poisoned by professional wolf
trappers some years ago, when there was a large bounty on wolves
in this region.1

Browns Park: Fair numbers reported in mountains south of Green
River, near Mount Cullom.

Escalante Hills: Three killed on south slope, 10 miles west of Lily,
in the winter of 1905-6.

Lily Park: Reported common in surrounding pinyon country in
winter.

1 This suggests that a liberal use of poison in a region where lions are troublesome would be the best
means of reducing their numbers. Old trappers and wolf hunters state that lions readily eat of poisoned
carcasses.

1911.] MAMMALS. 165

Rangely (lower White River): Not uncommon. Several killed
each winter.

Book Plateau (near Baxter Bass) : Reported as occasional in winter.

The following data on the abundance of lions in southern Colorado
were secured in 1907:

Culebra Range (south of La Veta) : Reported not uncommon in
wilder parts, but none recently killed. One killed on Cucharas
River several years ago.

Sangre de Cristo Range (Sierra Blanca group) : Reported rare.
Track seen on Sierra Blanca winter of 1906-7.

Sangre de Cristo Range (head Huerfano River) : A few reported.

Cochetopa Hills (near Saguache) : Said to be scarce.

Mancos region : Three killed by Mr. Steve Elkins during past year-
I saw a young lion's track in Navajo Canyon, on the Mesa Verde,
June 13.

Sierra el Late : A few reported around Ute Peak.

Lower San Miguel and Dolores Rivers: Becoming scarce.

Lone Cone (San Miguel Mountains) : Has never been common.

Coventry: Scarce. Several have been killed along the San Miguel
River, but none recently.

Uncompahgre Plateau: Rare.

Yallecito: Occasionally met with.

Over much of the eastern slope mountain lions are very rare, where
they were formerly common. Allen says, regarding its former presence
in Park County: "Not uncommon. Its cry was once heard near
our camp at Montgomery." l Trippe 2 records it as an early inhabit-
ant of Clear Creek County. It was reported from Estes Park during
the early nineties of last century. Coues mentions two mounted
specimens in the collection of Colorado mammals exhibited at the
Philadelphia Exposition in 1876 by Mrs. M. A. Maxwell, stating that
"one was killed near Boulder by poisoning the carcass of a young
horse which the panther had destroyed." 3

Lynx canadensis Kerr. Canada Lynx.

The Canada lynx inhabits the Canadian zone forests of the higher
mountains in Colorado, but in most sections its numbers are rapidly
decreasing. The scattering records at hand indicate a former gen-
eral distribution over the central and northern mountainous parts of
the State, while a few are still left in the San Juan and La Plata
Mountains of the southwest. At present the animal occurs chiefly in
the heavy forests of the Park and Gore Ranges, the Rabbit Ear and
Vasquez Mountains, and in southern Pitkin and Eagle Counties. It
is said seldom to wander below 8,000 feet,4 even in the heaviest snows
of winter.

i Bull. Essex Inst., VI, p. 53, 1874.

2 See Coues, Birds of the Northwest, p. 224, 1S74.

3 Dartt, On the Plains and Among the Peaks, p. 218, 1879.

4 A lynx reported to have been killed at Bayfield (0,500 feet) is an exception.

166 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

In 1905 lynxes were reported to be tolerably common in the moun-
tains surrounding Middle Park. Alpert & Co., of Kremmling, pur-
chased several skins taken in the winter of 1904-5 in the Williams
Mountains, near the headwaters of the Williams Fork of Grand
River; and Mr. Fred Selak, a fur buyer living near Coulter, annually
handles a small number of skins from both the Grand Lake region
and the Rabbit Ear Mountains. Lynxes are said to leave the higher
mountains in February and March and come down into the forested
country of the Grand Lake region, following the downward move-
ment of the grouse and ptarmigan. The North Park slope of the
Rabbit Ear Mountains is very good lynx country, and Mr. W. H.
Graham, of Spicer, informed me that he and his brother usually trap
from 10 to 15 each winter near the head of Arapahoe Creek. On
the Medicine Bow Range and in the lodgepole pine forests east of
the Laramie River lynxes are said to be uncommon. A few are
reported by lumbermen on the Park Range along the headwaters of
the Grand Encampment River, but little trapping appears to be
done in that section. Dr. Kerneghan, of Steamboat Springs, has
three fine lynx skins which were taken on the west slope of the Park
Range during recent years, and states that in the winter of 1904-5
he saw tracks of a lynx in the aspen thickets on a mountain 2 miles
south of Steamboat Springs at about 7,500 feet. Mr. J. R. Carron,
storekeeper at Columbine, near Hahns Peak, usually buys two or
three skins each year, but in 1906 none were brought in. A lynx
taken in the Elk Head Mountains in the winter of 1905-6 was sold
to Mr. Robert Mcintosh, of Slater. According to Mr. A. G. Walla-
han, a few are still found in the Williams River Mountains. Mr.
Dall DeWeese, of Canon City, has a mounted specimen from the
South Fork of White River, where he says lynxes were not at all
uncommon some years ago. Mr. Frank Hayes, a taxidermist of
Glenwood Springs, states that in the winter of 1903-4 he saw a lynx
track at Mud Springs, on White River Plateau, and in 1905 purchased
five skins which had been taken the preceding winter near Mount
Jackson, at the northern end of the Saguache Range. While located
at Aspen just previous to 1900, Mr. Hayes purchased six or eight
lynx skins each winter, taken in the three following regions: Italian
Mountain and Taylor Park, which are on the headwaters of Taylor
River; region about Snow Mass Peak; and Independence Pass, at the
head of the Roaring Fork of Grand River.

A very few lynxes were reported in 1907 in the mountains north
of Pagosa Springs, and Mr. Don C. Coulson, of Bayfield, has handled
a few skins from the high country in the Vallecito region, and also
one skin which was taken in the winter of 1905 on a ranch adjoining
the town of Bayfield (6,500 feet). Mounted specimens seen at Sil-
verton and Ourav were doubtless killed in the neighboring moun-

1011.] MAMMALS. 167

tains, but I could learn nothing definite concerning their history.
Apparently tins lynx is more numerous in the La Plata Mountains
than in the San Juans. Mr. Steve Elkins, of Mancos, has trapped
several in the spruce belt, and states that his hounds occasionally
tree one while following a bear trail. This species is known as the
snowshoe lynx in the La Plata Mountains.

A winter skin from Grand Lake, in northeastern Middle Park, is in
the Biological Survey collection.

On the occurrence of Lynx canadensis in Park County, Allen says:
"Represented as common. Saw skins of this species in the posses-
sion of hunters, taken in the vicinity of Mount Lincoln. " 1 Warren
mentions a skin which Air. C. E. Aiken, of Colorado Springs, received
from Beulah, and which is supposed to have come from either the
Wet Mountains or the Sangre de Cristo Range.3

Lynx baileyi Merriam. Plateau Wildcat.

The bobcats of the lower parts of southern and eastern Colorado
are referable to L. baileyi. The few Colorado specimens at hand do
not permit an accurate outline of the distribution, but this wildcat
appears to be most abundant in the Upper Sonoran zone. Along the
eastern slope the species ranges a short distance into the foothills,
and in the southwest, is found commonly over an extensive area of
rocky pinyon and juniper country. Bobcats are rare or entirely
absent over much of the plains region east of the mountains, where
the brush fringe and the few rocky ledges and bluffs along some of
the streams furnish the only suitable environment. A few have been
killed in the rocky canyons along Chief Creek, near Wray, Yuma
County, during recent years, and in May, 1909, I saw tracks of a
bobcat among the sandstone ledges near Tuttle, on the South Fork
of Republican River. The animals have never been common in
the Chimney Cliffs, northwest of Sterling, according to residents.
The extensive juniper country in western Baca, Las ^Animas, and
southern Otero and Bent Counties, however, is an ideal habitat, and
bobcats are abundant throughout that region. They are reported
common in the lower foothills from Fort Collins and Arkins south to
Gardner, La Veta, and Trinidad, and in the southwest I have seen
tracks at Arboles, Bayfield, on the Mesa Verde, near McElmo, East
Paradox Valley, Sinbad Valley, south of Grand Valley, Plateau
Creek, and on the desert north of Mack, lower Grand River Valley.3
Bobcats reported from the cottonwood-fringed streams along the east
side of the San Luis Valley are probably baileyi, as a specimen has
been taken on Conejos River at the southern end of the valley.

Bobcats prey much upon rabbits, wood rats, and other small cliff-
dwelling mammals, and in the open valleys sometimes subsist to a

1 Bull. Essex Inst., VI, p. 53, 1S74. * Some of the above notes may refer to L. uinta.

2 Mammals of Colorado, p. 25S, 190ti.

168 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

large extent upon prairie dogs and pocket gophers. Locally they are
probably to be considered useful animals, the balance in their favor
being due to the destruction of so many noxious rodents. On the
other hand, wherever poultry is within reach they commit serious
depredations, and near Pagosa Springs they are said to be very
destructive to sheep.

Lynx uinta Merriam. Mountain Wildcat.

Although represented by specimens chiefly from the northwestern
part of the State, this appears to be the species of the higher foothills
and mountains generally, where it replaces haileyi of the lower foot-
hills and canyons. It is a more robust animal than haileyi, with the
cranium proportionally larger, and in size approaches L. canadensis,
with which species it occurs at some of the higher elevations.

Bobcats are abundant in the rough pinyon and juniper country
of Routt, Rio Blanco, and Garfield Counties. In 1906 the greatest
numbers were reported northwest of Meeker and west of Snake
River between Baggs Crossing and Escalante. Dogs are often used
in hunting bobcats in the Meeker region, as the animals are readily
treed after a short run. A series of skulls from near Meeker was
collected by Mr. Theodore Roosevelt in 1901 and added to the Bio-
logical Survey collection.

Cottontails and snowshoe rabbits probably form most of the food
of this species. Just below timberline in the Saguache Mountains
near St. Elmo, and in other localities ranging between 10,000 and
11,000 feet elevation, I have followed the tracks of bobcats in the
snow as they crossed and recrossed the dense willow copses in the
trails of snowshoe rabbits, which they had evidently been hunting.
In the lower part of its range, as in western Routt County, prairie
dogs are next in importance on the summer bill of fare.

While walking along the railroad track near Rogers Mesa, in the
North Gunnison Valley, in October, 1907, I had an excellent oppor-
tunity to watch the method by which the bobcat hunts prairie dogs.
I was just emerging from a deep cut when I saw a large reddish bobcat
at a distance of not over 40 feet. It was sneaking through the
scattering greasewood bushes flat upon its belly, its short tail twitch-
ing nervously, and the excited chattering of prairie dogs on a neigh-
boring flat showed that its approach had been noted by the alert
animals. One large old prairie dog in particular, apparently the
cat's intended victim, was seated at its burrow on the edge of the
town, chattering in a bantering maimer and appearing less frightened
than the rest. The burrow was within leaping distance (about 10
feet) of the edge of the greasewood, and in making its approach the
cat took advantage of every bush, stopping in the cover of each for
a few moments. When it reached the last bush and was gathering

1911.] MAMMALS. 169

itself for the final leap, the old prairie dog disappeared, but only just
in time, as in another moment the cat landed on the rim of the bur-
row. Rapid, nervous jerks of the tail showed the cat's disappoint-
ment as it glared about in different directions. Up to tins time my
presence had not been noted, and not until I had thrown several
stones did the cat see me, whereupon it bounded away across the
dog town in long leaps. The section men working along the railroad
stated that they often saw a cat near tins colony, and it doubtless
had its den in the neighboring rock ledges along the North Gunnison
River, living easily on the fat denizens of the town.

On September 7, 1906, I saw two bobcats in the Sarcobatus brush
along Snake River, a mile north of Lily, and tracks were often seen
in the dry sandy beds of arroyos in the valleys of northwestern
Colorado.

Canis occidentalis Richardson. Gray Wolf.

Gray wolves were formerly abundant over practically the entire
State, except possibly the highest mountains, and were especially
numerous on the eastern plains, where large bands preyed upon the
buffalo. From this habit of hanging on the flanks of the large herds,
they were generally known as buffalo wolves. The mountain animals
are said to average much darker than those of the plains. Unfor-
tunately there are no specimens available from the mountains to
settle this point, but it is unlikely that two forms occur in the State.
Wolves are still found in considerable numbers in North Park and
in Routt and Rio Blanco Counties, where they kill a great many
range cattle. A few are probably found throughout the mountains
west of the main ranges, and small numbers are still present over
the more unsettled parts of the eastern plains region, particularly in
Baca and eastern Las Animas Counties, in the extreme southeast,
where, in 1907 and in 1910, they were said to be common and to kill
a great many sheep.

In 1906 wolves were common over most of Routt County, notwith-
standing the bounty of $15 authorized by the local stock associa-
tion, the additional $10 offered by the county, and the efforts of
several professional wolf trappers employed by the association.
The heaviest losses of stock were at that time incurred on the Iron
Springs Divide and south of the Elk Head Mountains, although
wolves were reported as unusually abundant in Browns Park on
Green River. In the latter region the stock association hired three
or four trappers to reduce their numbers, and about fifty were killed
during the winter of 1905-6, the majority being trapped. Mr. John
Criss, a trapper of many years' experience in the Snake River coun-
try, informed me that the wolves have been so persistently hunted,
trapped, and poisoned that they will now rarely come to a scent of

170 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

any description and seldom to a baited trap, while poisoning is unsuc-
cessful. He has had the best success with traps set blind and placed
in trails or near water holes in the badland country, several miles
back from the Snake River Valley. A method of fastening wolf
traps, used successfully by Mr. Criss in cold weather, seems worthy
of mention. The trap is securely chained to a bush or stake at the
edge of a steep-walled gully or wash so that the wolf in its struggles
to escape will leap over the edge and hang half suspended and
helpless, unable to regain the top of tlu? bank. Wolves thus trapped
in severe weather usually freeze to death in a few hours.

An impression prevails among stockmen in northwestern Colorado
that wolves retire to the mountains to whelp, but I find no evidence to
support this theory.1 In Dixon, Wyoming, I saw a nearly adult black
wolf in captivity, which had been captured as a cub in a den among
the Snake River bluffs, 20 miles west of Baggs Crossing, in the spring
of 1905. This individual was kept in a large cage in the back yard of
its owner in Dixon. A boy of 3 years was petting and stroking its
head through the bars, and the wolf's every movement betokened its
pleasure in the companionship of the little fellow. All playfulness
immediately left it, however, on the approach of a man, when the
wild, untamable wolf nature was revealed in bared fangs, curling
lips, and glaring eyes. The mother of this wolf was gray, as was
also one of the three cubs captured in the den. According to trappers
both black and white wolves occur, but white ones are said to be
extremely rare.

In the Lily Park region, on the lower Bear River, Mr. F. C. Barnes
states that wolves were numerous until 1902, but during the two years
following a trapper named Snyder killed 61. Since that time few
cattle have been killed in that section by wolves. In 1905 wolves were
reported in considerable numbers in the White River country, partic-
ularly in the valley of the Piceance, but were scarce near Rangely
in 1906. During the winter of 1904-5, 7 were killed out of a band of
nearly 25 which was ranging in North Park, but in 1906 wolves
were reported scarce in that region. I often saw wolf tracks in the
trail as we traveled through the parks on the divide east of the Lara-
mie River, in August, 1906, and the animals were then said to be very
troublesome in that section. Tracks were observed as high as 10,000
feet. Wolves are of rare occurrence in Middle Park, but two are said
to have been seen on the stage road near Coulter during the winter of
1903-4, and another near Grand Lake the following winter. One of a
band of three which ranged on the head of Willow Creek, in the
northern part of Middle Park, was killed early in the summer of 1906.
In Egeria Park and on the Gore Range wolves are reported as of rare

1 On this point, see Bailey, Wolves in Relation to Stock, Game, and the National Forest Reserves,
Bull. 72, U. S. Forest Service, 1907.

1011.] MAMMALS. 171

occurrence. They were uncommon over most of southern Co.orado
in 1907, particularly in the San Luis Valley, the Pagosa Springs
region, and in Montezuma County, where they are considered very
rare. According to Mr. Steve Elkins, of Mancos, none have been
reported in that region since the winter of 1904-5, when four or five
were seen between Cortez and Mancos. In the region contiguous to
the upper waters of the Vallecito and Los Pinos, in northeastern La
Plata County, they are said to be increasing during the past few years,
but no serious damage is reported. Forest Supervisor E. W. Shaw,
of Durango, states that a band of 12 was seen near Vallecito in the
winter of 1906-7. A few wolves were reported from the western part
of San Miguel and Montrose Counties, a large male having been
killed in the Dry Creek Basin in the winter of 1906-7, and a female
with four whelps was stated to be ranging the same region in the
summer of 1907. According to Warren, wolves were reported in
the fall of 1906 to be increasing on the Black Mesa, south of the West
Elk Mountains;1

Dr. A. K. Fisher reported wolves as common near Las Animas in
1892 and in the Estes Park region in 1894, and according to Streator,
numbers were to be found the same year on the Republican River,
north of Burlington, and in the vicinity of Olney. Prof. Lantz reports
that a band of three was often seen in the vicinity of Hugo during the
winter of 1904-5. The rough canyon country of Las Animas, Baca,
and southern Otero and Bent Counties was in early days resorted to
by large numbers of wolves for breeding purposes, and many still
breed in that region.

Ranchmen living in northwestern Logan and northeastern Weld
Counties stated in the summer of 1909 that wolves were very scarce
in that section, only one being known to inhabit the Horsetail Basin
south of the Chimney Cliffs. This is said to be a female, and is sup-
posed to be the mother of eight whelps which were dug out of a den in
the rough country on the head of Deadman Creek, 20 miles northeast
of Avalo, in the spring of 1909. In the spring of 1908 a litter of six or
seven was dug out in the same canyon, two of which were taken alive
to Nebraska, and another one was kept on a ranch north of Sterling
until it became vicious, when it was killed. In 1908 a cowboy named
Frank Jordan is stated to have roped an old male wolf on the open
plains in the same vicinity.

Allen states that "Canis lupus" was comparatively scarce in Park
County in 1871, although formerly abundant there.2 As " Cani
occi&entdlis'''' Trippe records the wolf as an early inhabitant of Clear
Creek County.3

i Further Notes on Mammals of Colorado, p. S2, 1908.

2 Bull. Essex Inst., VI, p. 54, 1874.

» See Coues, Hirds of the Northwest, p. 224, 1874.

172 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. S3.

Canis lestes Merriam. Mountain Coyote.

This large, dark, richly colored species occurs more or less abun-
dantly throughout the mountains, ranging from the lower foothills to
above timberline. Its habits are not unlike those of the coyotes of
the plains and valleys, but its prey is somewhat different, consisting
chiefly of dusky grouse, cottontails (Stjlvilagus n. pinetis), and snow-
shoe rabbits, and including also many deer and fawns. A small band
of these coyotes hunting together has even been known to kill several
mountain sheep which had been shut into a small pocket by an
avalanche.1 Fawns are of course preyed upon in summer and early
fall, bat the adult deer only in winter when the crust will sustain the
coyotes but not the deer. I am informed by forest rangers who have
seen coyotes pursuing deer in this manner that a band of five or six
will overtake a deer and hamstring it very quickly on a weak crust of
snow. Many calves also are killed by coyotes in the mountain parks,
and in certain localities it is almost impossible to raise chickens and
turkeys because of their depredations.

At the Medano Springs ranch, in the San Luis Valley, coyotes
were unusually abundant and destructive in October, 1907. Num-
bers were seen each morning on the broad hay meadows west and
north of the ranch buildings, where they mixed freely with the cattle,
and evinced little fear of man unless he carried a gun. Several were
noted lying quietly on the tops of haystacks, from which they could
detect anyone approaching. During the day one was in almost every
extensive weed patch or growth of rank marsh grass, ready to pick
up the turkeys and chickens which strayed too far from the ranch
buildings. On the meadows near Saguache coyotes have been seen
catching meadow mice and playing with them like a cat. In the
yellow pine forests of Archuleta County coyotes are very destructive
to sheep, notwithstanding the night fires kept burning by the Mexican
herders.

On the Saguache Mountains near St. Elmo I saw many fresh coyote
tracks in the snow above 11,000 feet, October 9, 1907. One track
followed a high ridge above timberline, at 12,500 feet. I have noted
tracks also on the summit of Berthoud Pass, and coyotes are commonly
reported on Grays Peak and in other sections of the high mountains.

Canis nebracensis Merriam. Plains Coyote.

The coyotes of the eastern plains region are referable to C. nebracen-
sis, the type of which is from Johnstown, Nebraska, and specimens
from the sage plains of North Park and Koutt County seem nearest
this species. This light-colored coyote inhabits the lower levels,
being replaced in the higher foothills and mountains by C. lestes, a
much darker animal.

1 See note under Ovis canadensis, p. f>4.

1911.] MAMMALS. 173

On my trips through the northern parts of the State I found co}^otes
most numerous on the extensive sage plains bordering the Snake and
Bear Rivers, in Routt County, although they are abundant in North
Park and at many points east of the mountains, especially in the
Wray region and northwest of Sterling. Wherever found in any
numbers in settled districts, coyotes kill a great many sheep, young
calves and pigs, and much poultry. They are heartily hated by
stockmen and fanners alike, who never lose an opportunity to kill
them. The stock association in Routt County was offering a bounty
of $1 on coyotes in 1906, but most of the professional wolf trappers
claimed that this was not sufficient remuneration, and hence coyotes
were increasing rapidly at that time. A few trappers, however, were
at work on coyotes in the Snake River region in 1906. Mr. John
Criss, of Baggs Crossing, Wyoming, who makes his winter head-
quarters near Sunny Peak, is said to trap and poison about 200 coy-
otes each winter. While I was traveling down the Snake River
Valley coyotes were numerous and bold, and were heard at all hours of
the day and night.

Coyotes partly compensate for the damage to live stock and poultry
by catching great numbers of noxious rodents, such as pocket gophers,
prairie dogs, ground squirrels, rabbits, and mice — particularly meadow
mice, of which they appear very fond. One noted in a hay meadow
near Lake Jolm in the western part of North Park, August 9, was
so busy hunting for meadow mice in the rank grass that it appeared
oblivious of the presence of eight teams at work in the field and did
not become alarmed until my companion shot at it.

Mr. W. O. Potter, of Avalo, states that once on the plains of north-
eastern Weld County he saw an eagle flying heavily with a captured
prairie dog, and under the eagle a coyote following along with the
apparent intention of pouncing on the quarry when the eagle became
wearied and alighted to eat it.

Canis estor Merriam. San Juan Coyote.

Doubtless all the coyotes inhabiting the warm Upper Sonoran
deserts and valleys of southwestern Colorado should be referred to
C. estor, which was described from Noland's ranch, San Juan River,
Utah. The Book Cliffs appear to separate this small pale desert
species from C. nebracensis of the Routt County sage plains.

Coyotes are abundant near Mancos, on the Mesa Verde, in the
McElmo Valley, in the region of the lower San Miguel and Dolores
Rivers, and in the lower Grand Valley. The chief damage appears to
be to sheep and poultry, although in the McElmo Valley they are
said to eat a great many watermelons and cantaloupes on the vines.
A coyote seen near McElmo June 20 was small and light-colored, and
in all the lower valleys the small pale coyotes are distinguished
locally from the large dark animals of the mountains.

174 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

Vulpes macrourus Baird. Western Fox.

This species, which is larger and darker than the eastern red fOx
(V. fulvus), is common in the Colorado mountains. It is subject to
a wide range of color variation, covering the red, cross, silver-gray,
and very rarely the black phase. The proportion of dark individuals
is much greater than with fulvus. This fox is found at the present
time chiefly in the forest belt of the higher mountains, above 8,000
feet. Its distribution in this region is general, and in some sections
considerable numbers are present. I have no data respecting its
range on the plains in early days, but, judging from its former occur-
rence on the plains of Nebraska and Wyoming, it was probably present
sparingly over eastern Colorado. In the canyon country in parts of
southwestern Colorado this fox is fairly common as low as 6,000 feet.
The species yields a fur of considerable value and is extensively
trapped in winter.

In 1905-6 it was reported as tolerably common in the Rabbit Ear,
Williams, and Williams River Mountains, on the Front, Park, and
Medicine Bow Ranges, and on the White River Plateau. Small
numbers were reported on the Gore Range and in the mountains
around Mount Cullom and Zenobia Peak, in western Routt County.
The red or tawny phase appears to predominate in the Elk Head
Mountains, since in a series of 17 skins handled by Mr. Robert
Mcintosh, of Slater, in 1906, 15 were red and only 2 were of the cross
phase. Mr. L. Wallace, of Granby, Middle Park, states that the ma-
jority of skins taken in the Grand Lake region are cross foxes. Ac-
cording to Warren, four out of six foxes killed near Crested Butte,
Gunnison County, were of the cross phase.1 Foxes were reported in
small numbers in the mountains of Clear Creek County in 1905. At
the Stevens Mill, on Mount McClellan, I learned of a young fox
which had been captured in the spring by Italian miners on Grays
Peak, at about 12,000 feet, and kept in confinement for a time.
Skins which Loringsaw at Grand Junction in 1893 probably came from
the Grand Mesa region, and during the same year he reported foxes
from Estes Park.

In the southern and southwestern mountains this fox appears to
have fully as wide a distribution as father north. In the San Juan
Mountains north of Pagosa Springs and Vallecito the cross phase is
most common, according to the best-informed hunters and trappers.
There are a few silver-grays, and very rarely a black fox is seen.
Cross foxes are said to predominate also in the Saguache Mountains
near St. Elmo, and a black fox has been seen near Tin Cup. Foxes
are reported in small numbers from the Cochetopa Hills, La Plata
Mountains, near Lone Cone in the San Miguel Mountains, and the
Uncompahgre Plateau. Mr. Case, a trapper, is said to have taken

i Mammals of Colorado, p. 259, 1906.

1911.] MAMMALS. 175

19 foxes along the Dolores River Canyon between the mouths of
Disappointment and Paradox Creeks during the winter of 1906-7.
Of these, several were cross foxes, while 2 were graded by the furrier
as silver-cross and brought $50 apiece. The western canyon country
seems to be especially frequented by foxes, although the altitude is
low. Both silver-gray and red foxes are reported sparingly from the
mountains on each side of the Wet Mountain Valley, and a black fox
is said to have been seen at the eastern base of the Sangre de Cristo
Range, west of Westcliffe, many years ago. Mr. E. W. Scott, of La
Veta, has seen a fox skm from Veta Pass, and several silver foxes are
stated to have been trapped on Sierra Blanca during recent years.

At Ward, Boulder County, in June, 1893, Loring found a fox den
among the rocks on a mountain side, and collected the female, whose
fur was badly worn, and four half-grown young. Scattered around this
den was a varied assortment of bones (including a fish bone), chicken
wings, bird feathers, and a pair of old buckskin gloves. Each time
the den was approached, the old fox barked and ran away a few rods
in an attempt to lure the intruder from its vicinity.

Allen states that in a series of 40 winter skins which he examined at
Montgomery, Park County, in 1871, nearly half were cross and one
individual was black.1 The only published color description of the
black phase of V. macrourus relating to a Colorado specimen appears
to be that given by Coues and Yarrow of a melanistic skin from Los
Pinos (now Bayfield), La Plata County, as follows:2

"A specimen, which we are inclined to refer to this species on
account of its great size and especially large tail, is jet black all over,
with a pure white tip to the tail; one of the finest examples of complete
melanism we have seen. The purity of the black is only interrupted
by a slight gray grizzle on the face and rump."

Warren has published the description of a dark silver skin from
Cumbres Pass, Conejos County, in the Colorado Museum of Natural
History.3 Coues says there were many specimens of this fox in Mrs.
M. A. Maxwell's mounted collection of Colorado mammals which was
on exhibition in Washington during the winter of 1876-77.4

Vulpes velox (Say). Kit Fox; Swift.

[Canis] velox Say, Long's Exped. to Rocky Mts., I, p. 487, 1823. Type from South
Platte River (in Logan County?), Colorado.

The small swift or kit fox was formerly common over the plains of
eastern Colorado, but has become rare in most sections. In 1892
Dr. A. K. Fisher says it was reported tolerably common in the
vicinity of Sterling (near type locality), and Mr. Edward A. Preble
states that it was considered very rare in the region about Love-

i Bull. Essex Inst., VI, p. 54, 1S74.

2 Expl. W. of 100th Mer., V, p. 55, 1875.

3 The Mammals of Colorado, p. 238, 1910.

* Dartt, On the Plains and Among the Peaks, p. 219, 1879.

176 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

land in 1895. On the plains of Boulder County very few, if any,
remain at the present time. The only record for this region in
recent years appears to be that of two which were killed on the
farm of Mr. Samuel Hays, 3 miles northeast of Boulder, in 1903.
Mr. W. II. Graham, of Spicer, says he has met with this fox but once
during a long residence in North Park. In 1893 he shot two near
their den, which was on an open sandy slope near Arapahoe Creek,
in the southern part of the park. Prof. Lantz found a dead swift
on the prairie near Cheyenne Wells in 1903, and was informed that
they were not uncommon in that region. In 1 907 swifts were reported
as common on the plains of Baca County and also in southern Bent
and Prowers Counties. In all probability they are now more com-
mon in southeastern Colorado than elsewhere in the State. A few
were reported in 1909 on the eastern end of the Arkansas Divide and
near Tuttle on the South Fork of the Republican River. There is
said to be a colony of them near Keota, southwest of Pawnee Buttes,
in northeastern Weld County.

Urocyon cinereoargenteus scotti Mearns. Gray Fox.

The range of the gray fox in Colorado is in the juniper and pinyon
foothills on both sides of the mountains, chiefly in the Upper Sonoran
zone. On the east side of the mountains it is known from Loveland
and the Estes Park region, the foothills from the Arkansas Valley
southward, and the rough country of Las Animas, southern Bent,
and western Baca Counties. (See fig. 26.) It is more common in
the rough pinyon country of western and especially of southwestern
Colorado, where it ranges north sparingly to the Escalante Hills in
western Routt County. Specimens examined from both sides of
the mountains are referable to this form.

Most of my notes are from west of the mountains. Mr. A. G.
Wallahan, of Lay, reports seeing two skins of gray foxes in Lily
Park in March, 1905, and Mr. F. C. Barnes, of Lily, killed one near
there the following winter. Members of a railroad surveying party
working in the Yampa Canyon of Bear River during the winter of
1904-5 are reported to have killed several gray foxes. In the Esca-
lante Hills, north of Bear River, as well as in the southwestern
counties, the animal is known as the pinyon fox. Ranchmen report
an occasional gray fox at Rangely, in the White River Valley, and
also at Mack, in the lower Grand River Valley. A few are said to
have been killed near Rifle during the past few years, and at Grand
Junction in 1893 Loring saw the skin of one which had been killed
in Mesa County.

The gray fox reaches its greatest abundance in the region from
Montezuma County north to the San Miguel River. Mr. Steve
Elkins states that in the Mancos region they are usually found in the
pinyon belt, but occasionally also among the yellow pines at the

1911.]

MAMMALS.

177

west base of La Plata Mountains. He often hunts foxes with dogs
and kills a good many in this manner. A ranchman living on McElmo
Creek, in western Montezuma County, is said to have caught 15 gray
foxes in one winter. I found a den near McElmo in June, 1907, which
had apparently just been vacated by a family of foxes. It was in
loose shaly earth near the summit of a bare hill in plain view of a
house and near a traveled road. There were a number of entrances
to this den several rods apart, and the ranchman living near by stated
that he often saw the old fox and three young ones frisking about
during the day. This fox is reported as common in the pinyon
country bordering the lower San Miguel and Dolores Rivers, and Mr.

Fig. 26. — Distribution in Colorado of gray fox ( Urocyon c. scotti).

C. H. Smith, of Coventry, traps a number each winter along the
Naturita Canyon just back of his ranch. In the Uncompahgre Valley
near Montrose these foxes are termed swifts. A mounted specimen
which I saw at Montrose was killed within 3 miles of that point and
a number of skins and rugs seen in stores there indicate that gray
foxes are common in that section.

Mr. J. W. Frey, of Salida, has a mounted specimen taken in that
vicinity and says a number have been killed in the pinyon hills
bordering the upper Arkansas Valley during recent years. In
Huerfano County gray foxes are found in the pinyon country at both
Gardner and La Veta, and Mr. E. W. Scott, of La Veta, has a mounted
specimen from the upper Cucharas Valley. A mounted specimen
90432°— 11 12

178 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

seen at Buffalo, Jefferson County, was probably killed in the neigh-
boring hills. In 1904 Bailey reported a few gray foxes among the
lava buttes east of Antonito, in the southern end of the San Luis
Valley, but I could learn of none in the northern and central part of
the valley in 1907. Loring saw two gray foxes among the rocks in
Estes Park in 1893 and shot one of them.

Mephitis hudsonica Richardson. Northern Plains Skunk.

This species, the largest of the Colorado skunks, comes into the
State from the north and inhabits chiefly the higher mountainous
sections. It is not known to occur south of Colorado Springs and
Salida. Unfortunately the specimens examined represent very few
localities, and therefore the distribution can not be accurately given.
At Arkins, Larimer County, judging from a large series of skulls, M.
hudsonica and the long-tailed skunk of the plains, M. m. varians,
occur in about equal abundance, apparently without intergradation.1
The ranges of the two species may overlap over a considerable area
along the lower eastern foothills, since Warren has taken both at
Colorado Springs. A series ol 19 skulls from Arkins and 1 skull from
Spicer, North Park, in the Biological Survey collection, are referable
to hudsonica. Specimens in the Warren collection from Colorado
Springs and Salida are doubtfully referred to this species, although
they are by no means typical.

All the records of skunks secured in the mountains of northern and
central Colorado are tentatively referred to hudsonica. In 1905 and
1906 I noted tracks near Coulter, on Grand River above Kremmling,
and along the upper Snake River at Honnold. A den was found among
the rocks on the north slope of the Elk Head Mountains, southeast
of Slater, and the remains of a skunk were seen at Hayden, on the
upper Bear River. Skunks were reported in Middle, North, and
Egeria Parks, and in the vicinity of Meeker and Glenwood Springs.
In 1893 Loring found skunks common in Estes Park, where they
were said to kill much poultry.

Allen found skunks common in Park County in 1871, and says they
range above timberline in that section.2

Mephitis mesomelas varians Gray. Long-tailed Skunk.

The long-tailed skunk is found on the eastern plains, and also enters
the State from the south in the Rio Grande Valley. It occurs at a
few points along the edge of the foothills with M. hudsonica, as
already stated, but over the lower eastern part of the State appears
to be the only large skunk present. The skunks reported at Brad-
ford, Gardner, and La Veta, in the foothills of Huerfano County, and
also along the pinvon-clad foothills bordering the San Luis Valley,
are doubtless M. varians. This species can be readily distinguished

i See Howell, N. Am. Fauna No. 20, p. 25, 1901. - Bull. Essex Inst., VI, p. 54, 1874.

1911.] MAMMALS. 179

from M. Jiudsonica by its smaller size, relatively longer tail, and by
the usual absence of the pencil of white hairs at the tip of the tail.

In addition to a large series of odd skulls and several skins from
Arkins, Larimer County, the Biological Survey has specimens of
varians taken at Loveland, Sterling, Canon City, Chivington, and
Antonito. The Merriam collection contains a female from Boulder
County. Howell records a specimen from Conrow (Chaffee County) ,
and two from Costilla County.1 A skull in the National Museum
from Cripple Creek may have been taken in the low Oil Creek Valley
west of that point, as varians is not known to occur at the higher
elevations or much above the upper edge of the Upper Sonoran zone.
Specimens from Colorado Springs and from Gaume's ranch and
Springfield, Baca County, have been identified by the Biological
Survey for Warren, and he has recently recorded the species from
Wray, Yuma County.2

The food of skunks consists chiefly of insects and the smaller
rodents. Near Higbee, Otero County, Prof. Lantz found them feeding
extensively upon the larvae of tiger beetles (Cicindela), which they
dug out of the sand on the banks of Purgatory River.

Mephitis mesomelas estor Merriam. Arizona Skunk.

The large skunks reported in the warm southwestern valleys, from
Grand River southward, are probably M. m. estor, since three speci-
mens from the pinyon country around Coventry are referable to this
form. Although veiy generally reported, the large skunks appear
to be less common in most sections of the southwest than the small
spotted species (Spilogale). Tracks of skunks were seen along Pla-
teau Creek, near Tunnel, Mesa County; in the mud along McElmo
Creek, Montezuma County; and along an irrigation ditch at Nucla,
western Montrose County. Loring saw the tracks of a skunk at
Silverton.

The distribution and relationships of the skunks of western Colo-
rado are imperfectly known, and additional specimens from many
localities in this region are greatly desired. It is not likely that estor
occurs north of the Book Cliffs. The skunks of the Routt County
sage plains are probably M. Jiudsonica, but there are no specimens
at hand from that region.

Spilogale interrupta (Rafinesque). Prairie Spotted Skunk.

This handsome dark species of spotted skunk ranges a shore dis-
tance into the central eastern part of the plains region of Colorado,
the only Colorado specimen known being one taken at Wray, Yuma
County, by Warren, and identified by the Biological Survey. While
at Wray in December, 1907, I was informed that small numbers of

1 N. Am. Fauna No. 20, p. 32, 1901. 2 Further Notes on Marnmals of Colorado, p. 83, 1908.

180 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

spotted skunks frequented the sandstone bluffs along the south side
of the Chief Creek Valley.

Prof. Lantz states that spotted skunks are reported common in
the vicinity of Hugo, Lincoln County. The specific identity of the
Hugo animal is uncertain, since there are no specimens available
from that section, and since S. tenuis, the species found along the
eastern foothills, probably ranges a short distance out on the plains
in the region of the Arkansas Divide. The prairie spotted skunk
may be distinguished from the other forms occurring in the State,
S. tenuis and S. g. saxatilis, by its larger size and darker coloration,
the white spots and bars being at a minimum. The tail also is usu-
ally wholly black except the white tip.

Spilogale tenuis Howell. Rocky Mountain Spotted Skunk.

Spilogale tenuis Howell, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, p. 241, Dec. 16, 1902. Type
from Arkitis, Larimer County, Colorado.

Little is known regarding the range of this species, all the infor-
mation at hand indicating a scattering distribution in both the Tran-
sition and Upper Sonoran zones among the lower foothills at the
eastern base of the mountains. Most of the records are from north
of the Arkansas Divide, in Larimer, Boulder, Jefferson, and Douglas
Counties. It has been collected in northeastern New Mexico, how-
ever, and no doubt ranges across the entire width of Colorado along
the eastern foothills.

In June, 1905, I saw the tracks in a dry gulch a mile or two south-
west of Golden, while at Arkins (the type locality) the animals were
reported tolerably common in the valleys below 6,000 feet. Mr.
Berry, a ranchman, is said to have killed one a mile southwest of
Arkins in July, 1906. Mr. Vernon Bailey caught one among the
rocks in the foothills 2 miles west of Boulder in October, 1903, but
it escaped. Several specimens have been collected at Boulder by
Mr. R. T. Young.1 Warren records a specimen from Sedalia, Doug-
las County, in the collection of Colorado College,2 and has an imma-
ture specimen from Colorado Springs in his own collection. A speci-
men from Estes Park is in the American Museum of Natural History,
and one from Loveland is in the National Museum.

In 1907 I was informed by Mr. William King, of the Medano
Springs ranch, near the San Luis Lakes, that he has seen a number
of spotted skunks among the foothills on the San Luis Valley side of
the Sangre de Cristo Kange, near Mosca Pass. The species may have
crossed the mountains through this low pass, as it is reported present
in the Muddy and Huerfano Valleys, on the east side of the range.
In the rough juniper country of Las Animas and western Baca Coun-
ties, in the extreme southeast, spotted skunks are reported much
more common than Mephitis.

1 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 406, 1908. 2 Further Notes on Mammals of Colorado, p. 83, 1908.

mil.] MAMMALS. 181

Spilogale gracilis saxatilis Merriam. Great Basin Spotted Skunk.

The small spotted skunks of the warm Upper Sonoran valleys west
of the Continental Divide are referable to saxatilis, although speci-
mens from Coventry, in western Montrose County, are not typical.
Over most of their range Mephitis occurs with them but in smaller
numbers. The spotted skunks are much more active and agile than
the large ones and readily climb pinyons and junipers. Rock ledges
along canyons are much frequented by them.

None were collected in northwestern Colorado during 1905 and 1906,
but they were reported as occurring in all the valleys entering the State
from the west. According to Mr. John Criss, a wolf trapper with head-
quarters at Baggs Crossing, Wyoming, the spotted skunk is tolerably
common on the lower Snake River, where it is the only skunk present.
It occasionally gets into his wolf traps in winter, and he has trapped
it as far east as the old Edwards sheep camp, 35 miles below Baggs
Crossing. Spotted skunks are reported common at Escalante, Routt
County; and in Lily Park, at the confluence of the Snake and Bear
Rivers, ranchmen often find them beneath houses and in cellars. At
Rangely, in the valley of White River, they are said greatly to out-
number the large striped skunks. They are reported also from the
upper White River country, according to Felger.1 The range of sax-
atilis probably extends in the Grand Valley as far east as Glenwood
Springs. I occasionally heard of it west of Rifle, Garfield County,
and Mr. Fred Baker, a taxidermist of Glenwood Springs, reports that
he has handled several skins taken during the past few years in the
Grand Valley east of Newcastle.

In 1907 spotted skunks were reported as common and greatly out-
numbering Mephitis in the Mancos and McElmo Valleys (Montezuma
County), in the region of the lower Dolores and San Miguel Rivers,
and at Coventry. A few were reported also in the vicinity of Bay-
field, La Plata County. At Ashbaugh's ranch, in the McElmo
Canyon, a female got into a small trap which I had baited with a
piece of potato and set among the rocks for wood rats. Mr. C. H.
Smith has caught a number of these skunks in the pinyons back of
his ranch at Coventry, one being taken in a tree trap set for gray
foxes 3 feet up on the trunk of a large pinyon standing on the upper
rim of Naturita Canyon. A male in the Biological Survey collection
was taken by Howell among rocks 2 miles south of Grand Junction.

Taxidea taxus (Schreber). Badger.

The badger is one of the most widely distributed mammals in the
State, occurring throughout the plains and deserts of the lower parts,
and in the mountains ranging with more or less regularity nearly to
timberline. Two forms may be present, there being a possibility of

! Univ. of Colo. Studies, VII, No. 2, p. 145, 1910.

182 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. S3.

T. berlandieri in extreme southern and southwestern Colorado, but
this can not be determined from the scanty material now available.

The numerous holes which badgers are continually digging on the
plains in search of their rodent prey make horseback riding in certain
sections somewhat hazardous. Aside from this, however, badgers
are most beneficial mammals, since their food consists chiefly of
prairie dogs, ground squirrels, and other noxious rodents, which they
secure by digging down to the nests. On the sage plains and in the
mountain parks of northwestern Colorado the badger feeds exten-
sively upon the white- tailed prairie dog (Cynomys leucurus), the
Wyoming ground squirrel (Citellus elegans), and pocket gophers
(Thomomys). Badgers are voracious, and one animal will open up a
large number of burrows in a night.

In 1905 and 1906 badgers were abundant in Middle, North, and
Egeria Parks and in the valleys of the Bear, Snake, Green, White,Grand,
and Eagle Rivers. A specimen shot among the White River bluffs,
20 miles east of Meeker, was running up the steep side of a canyon.
One was found dead in the trail near the head of Grand Encampment
River, on the Park Range, at an elevation of 10,000 feet. Warren
mentions that he killed a specimen in Gunnison County at about
11,500 feet.1 In 1907 badgers were reported common in southern
and southwestern Colorado, where they prey largely upon prairie
dogs {Cynomys gunnisoni). Loring secured a specimen near Coch-
etopa Pass, and Bailey reports them common in the Rio Grande
Valley near Antonito. The burrows are common on the South Park
plains east of Como, at 9,800 feet. Other members of the Biological
Survey have found badgers common at Sterling, Loveland, Estes
Park, Las Animas, Burlington, and Olney.

Lutra canadensis (Schreber). Otter.

Otters seem to have been always rare in the State, although the
reason is not apparent. The country is well watered, and nearly all
the lakes and streams are well stocked with fish and should offer a
satisfactory habitat. My notes refer for the most part to western
Colorado, and the otter of that region may be the southwestern form
described by Rhoads as L. canadensis sonora. This can not be con-
firmed at present, as there are no specimens available.

During the winter of 1902-3 four otters were trapped on Snake
River within a few miles of Slater, Routt County, by two trappers,
Messrs. James Coates and James Parsons, living at Slater. In 1905
Mr. A. G. Wallahan, of Lay, Routt County, reported a few still
present in the Yampa Canyon on Bear River.

Warren thinks the rarity of otters in mountain streams may be due
to the "freezing of their sources of supply" in winter.2 There are,

i Mammals of Colorado, p. 201, 1906. 2 Ibid, p. 265, 1906.

1911.] MAMMALS. 183

however, many fine lakes throughout the mountains well stocked
with fish and furnishing a most favorable environment for otters.
The following records are given by Warren (1. c): "Grand Junction
and Big Dolores River, a few (Dr. E. F. Eldredge); Platte River,
east of Greeley, one specimen (A. E. Beardsley) ; Julesburg, occasional
(H. G. Smith)." In a more recent publication Warren gives the
following data: "Mr. Henry Lehman, of Grand Lake, tells me there
are a few otter in the Grand River, in Grand County. Herman W.
Nash writes me that friends of his saw two in the Gunnison River, near
Sapinero, in August last.1 Felger records this species from the White
River Valley on the authority of Ball.2 Trippe records the otter
from Clear Creek County;3 and Coues mentions a specimen from
Boulder County, which he saw in the collection of Mrs. M. A. Maxwell.4
A skull in the National Museum is from Pueblo.

Lutreola vison energumenos (Bangs). Mink.

Minks occur in varying abundance on nearly all the larger streams
of Colorado, and in the unsettled parts the skins bring considerable
revenue to trappers. They are more abundant in the mountains
than on the plains, and are especially common in Middle and North
Parks, where their fondness for poultry makes chicken raising
most unsatisfactory on many ranches near streams. The minks of
the higher mountains yield a rich dark fur of good quality, but the
plains animal is said to be considerably paler and consequently less
valuable. As no specimens of minks from the eastern part of the
plains region are at hand, it is not certain that they are of the same
form as the mountain animal, but specimens from along the eastern
base of the foothills are identical with those from the higher moun-
tains.

A female which I collected on Boulder Creek, 5 miles west of
Boulder, in June, is very dark, the fur being full and heavy, even at
that late date. Other dark minks were observed on Mclntyre
Creek, Larimer County, and in the Elk Head Mountains, during
August, and I saw two rich dark skins from the upper Los Pinos in
a store at Bayfield. Mink tracks were observed on Snake River,
at Honnold; on Bear River, at Hayden and Lily; on White River,
at Meeker and Rangely; on Grand River, at Glenwood Springs,
Kremmling, and Hot Sulphur; on Plateau Creek, near Tunnel; on
Good Spring Creek, near Axial; and on Green River, near Ladore.
Minks were reported abundant on the Cucharas River at La Veta
and on the San Juan River at Pagosa Springs. Specimens from
Loveland, Cochetopa Pass, Pagosa Springs, and Arkins (Larimer

1 Further notes on Mammals of Colorado, p. 84, 1908.

2 Univ. of Colo. Studies, VII, No. 2, p. 146, 1910.
s See Coues, Birds of the Northwest, p. 224, 1874.
4 Fur-bearing Animals, p. 312 (footnote), 1877.

184

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 83.

County) are in the Biological Survey collection. Others in the
Warren collection from Crested Butte and Colorado Springs have
been examined by the Biological Survey.

In 1871 Allen found minks common along the streams of Park
County as high as 10,000 feet.1

Putorius nigripes And. and Bach. Black-footed Ferret.

This rare and little known mammal has been recorded from a
number of localities on the plains of eastern Colorado (see fig. 27),
but here, as elsewhere over its range, its numbers are small. Usually

PurOff/OS S7ff£ATOft/ J.SPTVS

PCW/f/OS A//6ff/P£S.

Fig. 27.— Distribution in Colorado of dwarf weasel (Putorius streatori leptus) and black-footed ferret

(P. nigripes).

it is found in prairie-dog towns, where it takes up its abode in an
abandoned burrow, and from this convenient base preys upon the
defenseless inhabitants of the colony. These ferrets are most
beneficial mammals, because their prey consists largely of prairie dogs.
In December, 1894, black-footed ferrets were reported to Streator
as present, but rare, at three points in the Arkansas Valley: Olney,
Otero County; Arlington; and Chivington, Kiowa County. Prof.
D. E. Lantz heard of a very few in the region about Hugo in 1905,
where they are known as prairie-dog ferrets. In 1907 I heard of
this species in the dog towns of Baca and southern Prowers Counties,

1 Bull. Essex Inst., VI, p. 54, 1874.

1911.] MAMMALS. 185

and it seems to be more generally known in that region than in other
sections on the plains. I did not hear of ferrets in the prairie-dog
country of northwestern Colorado, but Warren records two mounted
specimens at Meeker, said to have been taken near there, and men-
tions a specimen from the Laramie River, 12 miles south of the
Wyoming boundary, in the University Museum at Boulder.1

Two specimens in the Warren collection indicate a most remarkable
vertical range for this plains mammal. Warren says: "One speci-
men in my collection came from Divide, Teller County, at an ele-
vation of 9,800 feet, another was found dead in Lake Moraine, El
Paso County, altitude 10,250 feet. It is a mystery how the animal
came there, and when skinned there were no marks on its body to
indicate the cause of death. In the spring of 1004 C. E. Aiken
mounted one which came from near Clyde Station, El Paso County,
altitude 9,440 feet." 2

Others have been recorded by Coues,3 as follows: A specimen
taken in the Cache la Poudre Valley by Dr. Law and brought to
Washington by Dr. Hayden; another reported by Dr. Hayden as
having been kept in confinement at Greeley for a considerable period;
and two or three specimens procured by Mrs. M. A Maxwell in the
vicinity of Denver and forming a part of her exhibit of Colorado
mammals at the Philadelphia Exposition. All the above ferrets
were taken in prairie-dog towns, and one of Mrs. Maxwell's speci-
mens had been drowned out of a prairie-dog hole and captured alive.
This individual was kept in confinement for some time. "It became
quite tame, readily submitting to be handled, though it was furious
when first caught. It was kept in a wire cage and fed on beef.
When irritated it hissed and spat like an angry cat. It used to hide
by covering itself over with the material of which its nest was com-
posed, but at times, especially at night, it was very active and
restless." 4

Putorius longicauda (Bonaparte). Long-tailed Weasel.

The large long-tailed weasel of the plains should be present over
practically all of the State east of the mountains, but until thorough
collecting is done there, its abundance and distribution can not be
indicated. It is not known from the mountains of Colorado. Weasels
from the lower edge of the foothills are referable to the slightly
smaller P. arizonensis, so it is quite probable that P. longicauda is
restricted to the plains well out from the mountains. It probably
occurs over a considerable area in western Routt County, since a male
in the Warren collection from the sage plains at Lay, examined by
the Biological Survey, is referable to this species. Another Colorado
specimen of P. longicauda examined by the Biological Survey was

i The Mammals of Colorado, p. 194, 1910. 3 Fur-bearing Animals, pp. 150-151, 1877.

s Ibid., p. 2G4, 1906. < Dartt, On the Plains and Among the Peaks, p. 220, 1879.

186 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

taken at Wray, Yuma County, and is in the collection of the Colorado
Historical and Natural History Society in Denver. Weasels reported
present in Baca County are undoubtedly of the long-tailed species.
Warren, on the authority of A. E. Beardsley,1 records P. longicauda
from Platte River and Greeley.

Putorius arizonensis Mearns. Mountain Weasel.

This weasel is tolerably common in the mountainous parts of the
State, and replaces P. longicauda of the plains from the eastern base
of the foothills westward. It has a wide vertical range and occurs on
both slopes of the Continental Divide from 5,000 feet to timberline.
The only other weasel found in the Colorado mountains is the much
smaller P. s. leptus.

In 1005 and 1906 four specimens were collected at Steamboat Springs;
Meeker; Higho, North Park; and Tunnel, Mesa County. Another
weasel, which was not secured, ran across the trail in front of us at
Boulder Falls, on Middle Boulder Creek, and took refuge in a pile of
rocks. Mr. Frank Hayes, a taxidermist of Glenwood Springs, showed
me several skins from the head of Noname Creek, Garfield County.
Large weasels which can without much question be referred to this
species were reported in Middle and North Parks; Escalante Hills;
valleys of the Green, White, and Grand Rivers; Medano Springs
ranch; Westcliffe; Bradford; Gardner; La Veta; Pagosa Springs;
Rogers Mesa, near Hotchkiss; Placerville; and Lone Cone, San Miguel
Mountains. The lumbermen at Fraser, in eastern Middle Park,
report that a great many weasels live among the log piles, where
they prey upon chipmunks. Mr. T. J. McKenna, of the Stevens Mill,
at timberline on Mount McClellan, states that large weasels are
common and tame about the mill and often come into the cabins
during the heavy snows of winter. Mr. Edward A. Preble saw one
at timberline on Longs Peak in 1895. There are two white winter
specimens from Coventry. Warren has taken P. arizonensis at
Colorado Springs, and states that one was killed at Crested Butte,2
while another specimen which he sent to the Biological Survey
for identification came from Sapinero. A winter specimen from
Semper, Jefferson County, has been identified for Mr. W. D. Hol-
lister, of Denver, and another from the San Luis Valley (between
Monte Vista and Del Norte, November 24, 1903) for the Colorado
Historical and Natural History Society. The last specimen is a male
in nearly full winter pelage, and measures: Total length, 425; tail
vertebrae, 155; hind foot, 46.5.

This weasel frequents the piles of large bowlders and debris in
canyon bottoms and along mountain streams, where it preys chiefly
upon mice, chipmunks, and Say spermophiles. When surprised in

i Mammals of Colorado, p. 264, 1906. 2 Ibid., p. 265, 1906.

1011.] MAMMALS. 187

the open, it immediately seeks refuge among the nearest rocks, but
once in this safe retreat its curiosity overcomes its fear, and it is
seldom out of sight for more than a moment. It frisks in and out
among the rocks, stopping now and then to crane its long neck at the
observer, and even stands erect on its hind legs to get a better view
of the object of its curiosity. Occasionally it is found at a distance
from rocks. At Steamboat Springs I shot one as it ran past my
camp among the alders on the bank of Bear River, and one of two
specimens from near Cochetopa Pass was shot by Loring on a fence
rail in a cultivated field. One seen by Prof. Lantz near Edlowe,
Teller County, took refuge in a prairie-dog burrow. A weasel shot
among the White River bluffs east of Meeker was carrying a large
Callospermo'philus in its mouth.

This is doubtless the weasel noted by Allen in Park County in 1871
and recorded as P. ermineus / and also the species recorded by Coues
as P. longicauda from the "mountains of Colorado."2 A summer
skin from Fort Garland, recorded by Coues and Yarrow as P. longi-
cauda,3 is not available for examination, but may be referred to
arizonensis on geographic grounds.

Putorius streatori leptus Merriam. Dwarf Weasel.

Putorius streatori leptus Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVI, p. 76, 1903. Type
from Silverton, San Juan County, Colorado.

The meager data bearing on this beautiful little weasel indicate
a general distribution in the higher mountains over the State. (See
fig. 27.) Very little seems to be known of its habits. Judging
from verbal descriptions this is the small weasel which occasionally
proves such a nuisance to trappers in the heavy forests on the higher
mountain ranges by getting into marten traps in winter.

I saw a mounted specimen in winter pelage at Steamboat Springs
in 1905, but beyond the fact that it was killed in the neighboring
mountains the proprietor could tell nothing of its history. At Glen-
wood Springs, in August, 1907, Mr. William Cross, a taxidermist,
told me that he had recently seen one of these diminutive weasels in
brown summer pelage peering from beneath the sidewalk, but failed to
secure it. Mr. Cross showed me a winter skin which he had obtained
from a trapper in the Glen wood region. Mr. Anton Stark, agent
of the Colorado & Southern Railroad at St. Elmo, in the Saguache
Mountains, reports the dwarf weasel as not uncommon thereabouts.
One which he captured in winter and kept in confinement became
so tame that it was finally allowed its freedom, but remained about
the house for some time and proved an expert mouser.

Mr. D. Costello, of Gardner, Huerfano County, relates an incident
which occurred many years ago while he was prospecting in the

i Bull. Essex Inst., VI, p. 54, 1874. a Explorations W. of 100th Meridian, V, p. 5% 1875.

2 Fur-bearing Animals, p. 141, 1877.

188 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

mountains of northern Gunnison County, back of Crested Butte.
Soon after locating in a cabin adjacent to a large rock slide just
below timberline he discovered that a cony was occupying a large
grass nest beneath the cabin floor. It often appeared in the cabin,
coming up through a broken board in the floor, and in time became
very friendly. Finally a day came when the cony did not make
its usual appearance, but a tiny weasel wTas seen at the hole in the
broken board, peering in all directions and craning its long slim
little neck with the bold curiosity so characteristic of the larger
weasels. Fearing for the welfare of the cony, Mr. Costello killed
the tiny cutthroat, but apparently too late, as he saw no more of
his interesting companion. It seems probable that the cony is
often preyed upon by this weasel, as the same rock slide often harbor:;
both animals. P. leptus is only about 6 inches in length, exclusive
of the short black-tipped tail of 1 or 2 inches, and the body is little
larger around than that of a small mouse.

Mr. Walter Blanchard has presented the Biological Survey with
a brown summer specimen of P. leptus, which was killed on his
ranch 5 miles west of Boulder in June, 1902. The type specimen
from Silverton, in beautiful white winter pelage, was shot by Loring
October 20,- 1893, as it was peering from under a log. Another
immature specimen from the same locality was caught in a trap
set in the underground tunnel of a pocket gopher (Thomomys fossor) ,
which suggests that this gopher may form part of the weasel's bill
of fare. Another specimen in the Biological Survey collection
was obtained at Crested Butte February 17, 1902, by Warren,
wno gives the following observations on this species: "About Crested
Butte, judging from the tracks one sees after a fresh fall of snow,
it is quite common. It often burrows under the surface of the
light snow, and runs beneath for quite a distance, then reappears
on top, having been hunting down a mouse." 1 Recently P. leptus
has been recorded from Coventry, Montrose County.2 A male
winter specimen from Larimer County is in the collection of the
State Agricultural College at Fort Collins. One from Boulder County,
in the Field Museum of Natural History, is recorded by Elliot.3 A
specimen from near Boulder in the mounted collection of Colorado
mammals, exhibited by Mrs. M. A. Maxwell in Washington in 1876-77,
has been recorded by Coues as "the least weasel, Putorius vulgaris,"*
and was very likely the present form.

i Mammals of Colorado, p. 264, 1906.

* Warren, The Mammals of Colorado, p. 198, 1910.

3 Field Col. Mus. Pub., 115, VIII, p. 449, 1907.

4 Dartt, On the Plains and Among the Peaks, p. 220, 1879.

1011.]

MAMMALS.

189

Mustela caurina origenes Rhoads". Rocky Mountain Marten.

Mustela caurina origenes Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 458, 1902.
Type from Marvine Mountain, Garfield County, Colorado.

In the dense forests of lodgepole pine and spruce which clothe
the upper slopes of the higher mountain ranges of northern Colorado
the marten is still present in considerable numbers. It appears
to be uncommon on all the southern ranges except the San Juan
Mountains, where from a point northeast of Pagosa Springs west
to Silverton and Telluride it is reported in good numbers. Martens
are rarely observed below 8,000 or 8,500 feet, or the lower edge of the
Canadian zone forest belt. They range regularly to timberline, how-
ever, and have been seen 1,500 feet above timberline near Silverton.

Fig. 28.— Distribution in Colorado of marten ( Mustela caurina origenes).

Throughout their range (see fig. 28) martens are hunted and
trapped extensively, and consequently are not nearly so abundant
as formerly. Ski are often used in hunting them in winter, when
snow covers the mountains to a depth of several feet, and when
pursued in this manner the animals quickly take refuge in trees,
where they are easily shot. Hunting martens on ski is said to be
very exciting sport, and at times hazardous, owing to the roughness
of the country. This is a favorite method of hunting in Middle
Park and in the San Juan Mountains. Most of the martens secured,
however, are taken in either steel traps or deadfalls. Although
Colorado martens are somewhat paler than those farther north,
they nevertheless yield a valuable fur.

190 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

Most of my information on the present distribution and abundance
of martens relates to the northern half of the State. During the
period from 1900 to 1905 the following were considered the best
regions for martens: The mountain ranges surrounding Middle and
North Parks ; the Williams River Mountains and the eastern part of
the White River Plateau, west of Egeria Park; and the mountains
south of Aspen, Pitkin County. Mr. Fred N. Selak, of Coulter,
Middle Park, informed me in 1905 that he handled from 25 to 30
marten skins each year, taken chiefly in the Rabbit Ear and Williams
Mountains and along the western slope of the Front Range near
Arapahoe Peak. Alpert & Co., of Kremmling, receive a few skins
each year from the Gore Mountains. Mr. W. H. Graham, of Spicer,
North Park, states that he usually traps between 10 and 20 martens
each winter in the Rabbit Ear Mountains, near the head of Arapahoe
Creek. The animals are reported common on the Park Range but
very rare on the Medicine Bow Range. Many trappers market the
fur in Denver. A conservative estimate of the annual catch in the
Middle and North Park region would be 100 skins.

In August, 1905, Mr. Frank Hayes, a taxidermist of Glen wood
Springs, showed me skins of four martens trapped the previous
winter at Bennett's Well, on the head of Noname Creek, 8 miles north-
east of that point. He had also purchased a number of skins taken
on Divide Creek, south of Newcastle, and at Mud Springs, on the
White River Plateau. Mr. Hayes was located at Aspen about 1900,
and handled between 40 and 50 marten skins each year, nearly all of
which came from near the Montezuma mine, on the east slope of Hay-
den Peak. Two other fur buyers were located in Aspen at the same
time, and Mr. Hayes estimates that fully 100 skins were marketed there
annually. This region is probably at present the best marten country
in Colorado. Mr. Robert Mcintosh, of Slater, received 10 marten
skins from the Elk Head Mountains during the winter of 1905-6.
Martens are reported rare on the high timbered divide east of Laramie
River and on the headwaters of Grand Encampment River.

Mr. Steve Elkins, of Mancos, reports a few in the spruce belt of the La
Plata Mountains, and I am informed they are tolerably common in the
extensive forests of Engelmann spruce on the mountains west of Rico.
They seem to have been always rare on the Sangre de Cristo Range.
Mr. E. W. Scott, of La Yeta, has the skin of a marten killed in the
spruce belt on East Spanish Peak in the winter of 1904-5, and states
that he has seen three other marten skins from the same mountain.
Mr. T. J. McKenna, of Denver, states that 30 years ago he trapped a
great many martens near the Tin Cup mine, and on the headwaters
of the Cimarron River, in Gunnison County. Skins which Loring
saw at Grand Junction in 1893 probably came from the Grand Mesa
country.

1911.] MAMMALS. 191

The type and one topotype of M. origenes in the National Museum
were collected in Garfield County, near Mount Marvine, in Septem-
ber, 1901, by Mr. E. Thompson Seton. The skulls may be readily dis-
tinguished from those of M. americana by the small, flattened, rec-
tangular bullse and the peculiar saddle-shaped upper posterior molar.

(?)■ Mustela pennanti Erxleben. Fisher.

In his list of the mammals of Park County, Allen records the fisher
as " more or less common." 1 I have made careful inquiry of old
hunters and trappers throughout the heavily forested region of the
northern Colorado mountains and have yet to meet one who is
familiar with the fisher or who has even heard of the animal within
the State. Warren does not record it and it seems probable that
Allen's record was based on erroneous information.

Gulo luscus (Linnaeus). Wolverene.

In the high Canadian zone forests of the wilder parts of the moun-
tains the wolverene is still occasionally seen. While never common
in the State, it was formerly of general occurrence. At present it
appears to be restricted largely to the San Juan and La Plata Moun-
tains, the mountains of northern Gunnison County, and the ranges
surrounding North and Middle Parks.

Mr. W. H. Graham, of Spicer, North Park, states that wolverenes
are occasionally reported from the Rabbit Ear Mountains, but that
very few have been killed during recent years. He saw a track on
the head of Arapahoe Creek during the winter of 1904-5, and in the
fall of 1903 saw a wolverene which a trapper caught on Owl Mountain,
in southeastern North Park. The wolverene was considered very
rare in Middle Park in 1905. Mr. Fred Selak, of Coulter, reported
that one was killed in the fall of 1903 near the head of Ranch Creek,
on the western slope of the Front Range. Two skins, which were
purchased by Alpert & Co., of Kremmling, in 1903, were said to
have been trapped the previous winter in the heavy forests on the
head of the Williams Fork of Grand River. Mr. T. J. McKenna, of
Denver, states that while at the Tin Cup mine, in Union Park, Gun-
nison County, in the summer of 1883, he saw a wolverene which
had been killed in that vicinity. He says it was not at all rare in
the mountains of Gunnison County 25 or 30 years ago.

Mr. Wood Galloway, of Norwood, states that for many years his
father had a wolverene skin, taken in Antelope Park, Mineral County,
and says the animals were not at all uncommon in that section 30
years ago. A wolverene shot at the east base of Pagosa Peak in the
winter of 1905 was mounted and on exhibition in Pagosa Springs
until 1907, when it was sent to Denver with a miscellaneous mounted
collection. Mr. H. N. Wheeler, formerly supervisor of the Monter

« Bull. Essex Inst., VI, p. 54, 1874.

192 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

zunia National Forest, has a wolverene skin said to have been taken
in the spruce belt near Calico Mountain, west of Rico, in 1905, and
through other sources I learn that these animals are of occasional
occurrence in the La Plata Mountains. One is said to have been killed
near the Silver Picket mine, on Mount Wilson, in the vSan Miguel
Mountains, about 1895, and according to Mr. D. Costello, of Gardner,
one was killed on the head of Huerfano River many years ago.

Allen says the wolverene was not uncommon in Park County in
1871, and he saw the skin of one taken near Montgomery; 1 while it
formerly occurred in Clear Creek County, according to Trippe.2
Coues mentions a specimen in the collection of Colorado mammals
exhibited by Mrs. M. A. Maxwell at the Philadelphia Exposition.
It was caught in a steel trap in the mountains near Boulder.3 In
an interesting general account of the wolverene Mr. C. A. Cooper
describes his capture of an old male in the heavy forest on the summit
of Gore Pass, between Middle and Egeria Parks, during the winter
of 1883, and also mentions four beautifully marked wolverene skins
which he examined at Trappers Lake, Garfield County, in the winter
of 1889,4 while a companion of Cooper's reported seeing a wolverene
in Rock Creek Canyon, Egeria Park, in 1888. 5 Warren records a
wolverene taken near Irwin, Gunnison County, about 1890, and
states that he saw fresh tracks in the snow near Irwin in October,
1905, at an elevation of 11,000 feet.6 A specimen in the Carter
collection in the Colorado Museum of Natural History was taken
neat' Breckenridge, Summit County.

Bassariscus astutus flavus Rhoads. Civet Cat; Cacomistle.

The data at hand bearing on this handsome and interesting animal
are rather meager and unsatisfactory, and probably do not well
indicate its distribution and abundance in Colorado. The species
appears to be restricted to the Upper Sonoran zone, and with a single
exception all the records are from the rough canyon country in the
lower southwestern part of the State from the Grand River Valley
southward.

The civet cat is tolerably common on Mesa Verde and thence north
to the southern base of the Uncompahgre Plateau. In June, 1907,
I saw its small, round, cat-like tracks in the dust beneath many of
the overhanging rock ledges along Navajo Canyon, 25 miles south-
west of Mancos; while among the Spruce Tree Cliff Ruins at the
head of this canyon, and particularly in the darkest recesses of the
cavern behind the ruins, the footprints of civet cats, leading here

i Bull. Essex Inst., VI, p. 54, 1874.

2 See Coues, Birds of the Northwest, p. 224, 1874.

3 Dartt, On the Plains and Among the Peaks, p. 219, 1879.
* Big Game of North America, pp. 479-501, 1890.

6 Ibid., p. 492, 1890.

e Mammals of Colorado, p. 262, 1906.

1911. J MAMMALS. 193

and there among the numerous smaller tracks of cliff mice and wood
rats, were plainly discerned in the thick layer of fine rock dust.
However, none came to meat-baited traps which I scattered along
the ledges. Mr. Steve Elkins, of Mancos, states that he has seen a
civet cat which was killed in Mancos Cairyon. This species is not
reported in McElmo Canyon, and seems to be little known to the
hunters of Montezuma County, but this is not strange, since it is
nocturnal, and in hunting for cliff mice and wood rats rarely leaves
the caves and deeper recesses in the rocky walls of canyons. A
mounted specimen which I saw in Durango probably came from
either Montezuma County or southern La Plata County.

The civet cat is more generally known in the region bordering the
lower San Miguel and Dolores Rivers. Mr. Henry Huff, an Indian
living at Norwood, who trapped in the Dry Creek Basin, in western
San Miguel County, during the winter of 1906-7, states that the
" ring-tails" are not at all uncommon among the ledges of that region.
A fine adult civet cat caught by him and an immature individual
taken the same winter in the canyon of San Miguel River, a few miles
north of Coventry, are in the Warren collection. Civet cats are
reported from the Tabeguache Canyon, north of the San Miguel, and
Mr. J. P. Galloway, of Norwood, informed me of five which were killed
some years ago at the Sunrise copper mine in West Paradox Valley.

There are three Mesa County records of civet cats. In June, 1893,
Loring saw a skin in a fur buyer's store at Grand Junction winch was
said to have been taken the previous fall about 4 miles from that place.
A specimen which the National Museum obtained from Conductor
Tuttle of the Colorado Midland Railway, was caught by a trapper in
Mesa County a few years ago, and was mounted by Mr. C. E. Aiken,
of Colorado Springs. The history of tins specimen is given by Dr.
W. W. Arnold in Outdoor Life.1 Warren records Bassariscus from
Delta on the authority of A. E. Beardsley.2 An animal answering
its description was reported to Mr. C. E. Aiken from Beaver Creek,
Fremont County, some 25 miles south of Colorado Springs, in 1904.

Procyon lotor (Linnaeus). Raccoon.

The data on the distribution and abundance of the raccoon within
the State are somewhat limited and probably do not indicate the
extent of its range. It is tolerably common on the eastern plains,
along some of the larger foothill streams, and in the extreme south
from the San Luis Valley west to La Plata County. According to
Warren, the animal has been taken in Grand County, west of the Front
Range.3 It has not been found in the lower northwestern part of the
State. Whether the raccoons which reach the southern counties from
the south and southwest, along the Rio Grande and the San Juan River

1 Outdoor Life, p. 933, Nov., 1905. 3 Further Notes on Mammals of Colorado, p. S3, 1908.

2 Mammals of Colorado, p. 260, 1906.

90432°— 11 13

194 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

and tributary streams, are distinct from those east of the mountains
is not certain, as no specimens are available for comparison. It
seems probable, however, on geographic grounds, that the raccoons
occurring west and south of the San Juan Mountains, in Archuleta
and La Plata Counties, are P. mexicanus. The raccoons which were
reported in 1907 from the San Luis Lakes and the cottonwood-fringed
streams at the western base of the Sangre de Cristo Range may have
reached the San Luis Valley from the east by crossing over the low
Mosca Pass from the head of the Huerfano River.

Raccoons are stated to be common at a number of points on the
plains east of the mountains, and probably occur along all the larger
streams, which are well fringed with cottonwoods, and follow them
some distance into the foothills. There is a skull from the foothills
near Arkins, Larimer County, and the distribution in the foothills is
further indicated by reports from Gardner and La Veta, Huerfano
County. A specimen hi the Warren collection from the mouth of
the Platte Canyon, Douglas County, has been examined by the Bio-
logical Survey. Raccoons are said to be tolerably common in the
marshes and along streams in the Loveland region. Loring, who
secured a specimen at Loveland in 1897, states that he captured it in
a cat-tail marsh which was bordered by a fringe of cottonwoods, and
he thinks the animals were living in holes in the banks at that point,
rather than in hollow trees. At Las Animas in July, 1892, Dr. A. K.
Fisher noted along the Arkansas River and on the banks of irrigation
ditches a great many tracks made by raccoons searching for frogs.
Prof. D. E. Lantz reported a few raccoons on Big Sand}T Creek, near
Hugo, in 1905. Warren says they are found at Watervale, in south
central Las Animas County.1

In May, 1909, raccoons were abundant among the sandstone
ledges along the South Fork of the Republican River at Tuttle and
in similar situations at Wray, while many tracks were seen on sand-
bars in the South Platte River 2 miles northeast of Sterling. Several
dens were located among the rocks near Tuttle, at one of which;
within 50 yards of our camp, a large, dark-colored female raccoon
was trapped. Dismal howls and barks, not unlike those of a dog,
advised us of her capture one night about 10 o'clock. The raccoons
at Tuttle were feeding extensively upon grasshoppers, and the excre-
ment found near the dens consisted very largely of the remains of
th se insects.

Raccoons are said to follow up the Los Pinos as far as Bayfield,
La Plata County, and are found in small numbers along the San
Juan River to Pagosa Springs, but I was informed at both localities
that prior to 10 or 15 years ago none were present. At Arboles I saw
tracks in a dry arroyo extending north from the San Juan River.

i The Mammals of Colorado, p. 219, 1910.

1911.] MAMMALS. 195

Ursus americanus Pallas. Black Bear.

The black bear is still tolerably common in the wilder parts of the
mountains, especially in the ranges surrounding North, Middle, and
Egeria Parks, and in the Elk, Saguache, San Juan, and La Plata
Mountains, where the forests are most extensive. It is dichromatic,
as in other parts of the Rocky Mountains, and the numerous skins
examined and the statements of hunters and trappers indicate that
black, brown, and cinnamon animals frequently occur in the same
localities. The typical black phase is least common in the southern
mountains and at the lower elevations, but is more frequent in the
northern part of the State.

In a series of nine very large skins which I examined in the store
of Fred Selak, near Coulter, Middle Park, five were brown and four
black. They had been purchased from a trapper living in the
Vasquez Mountains, near the headwaters of the Williams Fork of
Grand River. Most of them had been taken in large log traps, and
as a consequence had mutilated their claws by their efforts to escape.
A number of bears are killed each spring in the lodgepole pine and
spruce forests on the mountain ranges bordering Middle Park, and
skins from this section brought about $25 each in 1905-6. In the
aspen forests on the White River Plateau, and near Arapahoe Pass,
in the Rabbit Ear Mountains, many of the larger trees were badly
scarred to a height of 8 feet or more by the claw marks of bears. In
October, 1906, I saw the tracks of a medium-sized bear in the snow
above timberline near Berthoud Pass. Bears were reported in vary-
ing numbers in 1905-6 on the Medicine Bow, Park, and Gore Ranges,
Elk Head and Williams River Mountains, Danforth Hills, and
Mount Cullom, west of Green River. Tracks are said to have been
seen among the pinyons near Douglas Spring, in the Escalante Hills,
in the winter of 1905-6. At Glenwood Springs I saw many skins
from the high country south of Grand River and others from the
White River Plateau.

Bears are now becoming scarce on the eastern slopes of the Front
Range. In 1893 Loring reported them common in the Estes Park
region, one trapper having killed 14 in three years; but the animals
are stated to be rare at present in the higher parts of Clear Creek
County (Floyd Hill and Grays Peak).

Bears were not considered uncommon in the mountains of southern
Colorado in 1907, being reported in greatest numbers in the Cochetopa
Hills, in the San Juan Mountains north of Pagosa Springs and Yalle-
cito, in the La Plata Mountains northeast of Mancos, and in the
San Miguel Mountains from Mount Wilson west to Lone Cone.
They occur more or less commonly the entire length of the Sangre de
Cristo and Culebra Ranges, particularly on the more heavily forested
eastern slopes, and also in the West Elk Mountains and on the

196 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

Uncompahgre Plateau. They are rare in the rough parts of Las
Animas County. Prof. Lantz heard of one which was killed 20 miles
south of Higbee about 1908.

In the Pagosa Springs region, as elsewhere, bears are usually found
in the aspen and spruce belt, but they occasionally come down from
these elevations into the yellow pine forests and kill many sheep.
The winter dens are left about May 1, or sometimes earlier, and, as
sufficient snow for tracking remains in the higher country for an-
other month, May is considered an excellent time for bear hunting.
Most of the hunting is done with hounds, and large packs of bear dogs
are owned at both Pagosa Springs and Mancos, which are probably
the best two outfitting points for bear hunts in the southern moun-
tains. A number of hunting parties were located in the mountains
north of Pagosa Springs at the time of my visit, late in May, 1907.
A large black bear was killed on Pagosa Peak May 30, and a little
earlier in the same month an old female and cub were killed on
Middle Mancos River, 10 miles east of Mancos. A brown cub was
roped at the Evans sawmill, near Vallecito, a few days before I
reached there, June 5. Mr. Steve Elkins, of Mancos, one of the most
successful bear hunters in southwestern Colorado, states that the
largest black bear which he has killed in the La Plata Mountains
weighed very nearly 500 pounds.

In the San Miguel region bears appear to occur regularly at a lower
altitude than elsewhere in Colorado, and are not uncommon
down into the piny on country. One is said to have been killed
within a mile of Placerville in the spring of 1907, while in the well-
settled country between Coventry and Norwood a large brown bear
was seen at the carcass of a cow in an open field a few days before
my arrival, July 1. The animals are occasionally seen along Naturita
Creek near Coventry. In the pinyon country of western San Miguel
and Montrose Counties the cinnamon phase prevails, and very light
colored individuals are not uncommon. Mr. Henry Huff, an Indian
living at Norwood, showed me the skin of a remarkably light colored
yearling cub which he had captured in the Dry Creek Basin by crawl-
ing into the den after killing the mother, an old cinnamon, and the
other cub. This skin was a pale creamy yellowish white throughout,
with the exception of the face and nose, which were very light brown.

Bear signs were abundant in the aspen belt on Lone Cone late in
July. A great many of the aspens were scratched and clawed, many
of the marks being recent. Two trees showed plainly where the
animals had climbed to the upper branches — sure evidence that they
were not grizzlies. The claw marks on these trees were very distinct
to a height of 30 feet or more. (See fig. 29.) Other bear signs —
chiefly overturned logs and rocks where the animals had been search-
ing for ants and beetles — were, abundant on Lone Cone, and indicated
that the region was one of bruin's favorite ranges.

1911.]

MAMMALS.

197

The Biological Survey has a series of 10 bear skulls which Mr.
Theodore Roosevelt secured on Divide Creek, Garfield County, in
April, 1905; also three from Pagosa Springs, taken in the summer of
1907. Skulls in the National Museum were collected by Mr. E.
Thompson Seton in the Rifle region and near Mount Marvine. Allen
found black and cinnamon bears in about equal numbers in Park
County in 187 1.1 Coues and Yarrow mention a specimen obtained
by Lieut. Marshall at Pagosa Springs in 1874.2

Ursus horribilis Ord. Grizzly Bear; Silver-tip.

At present grizzly bears are uncommon, if not rare, in the northern
mountains, but are
occasionally seen in
the wilder moun-
tains of southern
Colorado, parti c u-
larly in the San
Juan, La Plata, and
San Miguel Ranges.
Many of the data
respecting the griz-
zly (or silver-tip, as
it is generally known
to hunters) within
the State, past and
present, are unsat-
isfactory and some-
what conflicting,
many of the reports
undoubtedl}T refer-
ring to black bears,
or more often to
large cinnamon
bears.

In 1905-6 the best
informed hunters
and trappers in the
northern mountains considered the grizzly rare. The reports which
follow seem to refer beyond question to this species. A very large
old silver-tip was reported in the region about Strawberry and Grand
Lakes, in northeastern Middle Park, in 1905. This old fellow is said
to have ranged that part of the western slope of the Front Range
for a number of years, and is well known to the hunters of the region
as Old Saddleback — so called because of an area of light-colored fur

Fig. 29. — Claw marks of black bear on aspen (Populus tremulohles),
Lone Cone, San Miguel Mountains, at 10,000 feet.

i Buil. Essex Inst., VI, p. 54, 1874.

Explorations W. of 100th Meridian, p. 07, 1875.

198 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

near the middle of the back.1 Another very large bear was reported
the same year from Mount Baker, at the eastern end of the Rabbit
Ear Mountains, and according to well-informed hunters a few silver-
tips were yet to be found in the vicinity of Pyramid Peak, in the
mountains west of Egeria Park. The skin of a two-thirds-grown
silver-tip killed near Sleepy Cap, Williams River Mountains, in
October, 1S90, by Mr. Oscar Lampton, of Montrose, has front claws
3 inches in length, following the curve. Lumbermen at the tie
camps on the headwaters of Grand Encampment River, at the
northern end of the Park Range, stated that a large silver-tip often
came about the camps during the spring of 1906. Mr. William Cross,
the Glenwood Springs taxidermist, showed me a photograph of the
skin of a very large silver-tip killed in October, 1906, on the northern
side of the Book Plateau, in extreme western Garfield County, by
Mr. Harry Payne Whitney, of New Haven, Connecticut. This bear,
judging from the photograph, was a remarkably large one, and the
claws on the forefeet were very long and regular. The longest fore
claw (measured by Mr. Cross) was exactly A\ inches along the curve.
The skull in Mr. Cross's shop was very large and massive and indi-
cated an old animal. Mr. Cross stated that at least two silver-tips
have been killed in the mountains near Gypsum during recent years —
a large individual in the spring of 1903 on the head of Gypsum Creek
by Mr. Muckey; and another bear, nearly grown, in the same region
in the spring of 1907 by Mr. Jake Borah, the veteran Meeker hunter.

I have no data respecting the recent occurrence of this bear along
the eastern slopes of the Front Range, and it appears to be now
extremely rare or entirely absent. In the early seventies of last
century grizzlies were not uncommon along the higher crests of the
Front and Saguache Ranges. Brewer mentions six which he saw
above 13,000 feet in the mountains in close proximity to Grays Peak
and near Mount Yale, and says: "Judging from the few seen and
from skins examined in Denver, they are smaller than those of Cali-
fornia, the hair not so long and shaggy, the color more silvery, or
truly grizzled."2

In the summer of 1907 considerable information was secured on
the present range and abundance of the silver-tip in the southern
mountains. Small numbers are found in the San Juan Mountains
north of Pagosa Springs and Vallecito, and according to Forest Ranger
E. E. Chapson, an average of one or two had been killed north of
Pagosa Springs each spring until 1907, when none were killed.
Silver-tips kill a number of cattle in the southern foothills of the
San Juan some years, one having killed four head in the country
to the west of Pagosa Peak in May, 1907. This is doubtless the same

1 Doubtless an extreme of the ord inary grizzling or silver tipping of the hairs, which is normally heaviest
on the saddle and between the shoulders.

2 Am. Nat., V, p. 221, 1871.

1911.] MAMMALS. 199

individual which was reported as killing cattle on the middle fork of
Piedra River a few weeks later. Henshaw states that grizzlies were
quite common in the higher San Juan Mountains as late as 1873. As
far as could be learned, the silver- tip has a higher range than the black
bear, and is rarely met with as low as the yellow pine belt.

Mr. Steve Elkins, of Mancos, states that the silver-tip is encoun-
tered rather often in the La Plata Mountains and that he has
killed several during the past 10 years. Among these and other skins
from the La Plata region examined by Mr. Elkins, much individual
color variation was exhibited, some being a faded dirty yellowish,
with the hair long and shaggy, while others were dark clove brown
or blackish, with hair well silvered at the tip — sleek, short-haired, and
beautiful animals. The skin of a large silver-tip which was trapped
on West Dolores River in the spring of 1906 is owned by Mr. Harry
Pyle, of Dolores.

A silver-tip was shot on North Mesa, just west across the Naturita
Valley from Lone Cone, San Miguel Mountains, October 2, 1905, by
Mr. Oscar Lampton, of Montrose. In Montrose Mr. Lamp ton showed
me the skin of this bear hi the form of a beautiful full-head rug with
the skull inside. It was a good-sized animal with the longest fore
claws measuring 4 inches, but the unworn teeth indicated that it was
young. The foreclaws on the skin of a large old cinnamon hear from
the Uncompahgre Plateau, 15 miles west of Montrose, are markedly
smaller and shorter than those of the smaller of Mr. Lampton's two
silver-tips (from the Williams River Mountains) . The silver-tips are
both in good fur and agree precisely in color, being a uniform grizzled
black-brown on the back; the legs, a rich dark shade of the same
color without the grizzling; face, plain brown; nose, clay brown;
claws, black.

Mr. Henry Huff, an Indian, and Mr. J. P. Galloway, both of Nor-
wood, killed a very large old male silver- tip among the Engelmann
spruces just below timberline on the west slope of Lone Cone, San
Miguel Mountains, May 26, 1907, after a long chase from the lower
north slope of the mountain. A female bear seen at the same time
escaped, and is said still to range the Lone Cone country. The snow
was reported to have been 8 feet deep where the old male was dis-
patched, and hence it was with some misgivings that we set out on
July 27 to secure the skull. The Indian led us straight to the spot,
however, in a dense spruce thicket where the down timber was heaviest.
The snow had but recently melted, and the immense carcass had
settled across a large log. Mr. Galloway estimated the weight of the
bear when killed at between 800 and 1,000 pounds, and states that
the skin at the time of its removal from the body was so heavy that
he and his companion had great difficulty in packing it upon a horse.
The stomach of this bear, examined on the day it was killed, contained

200 NOBTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

nothing but a double handful of ants and the larvae of wood-boring
beetles. Fortunately, the skin was at a near-by ranch at the time
of my visit to Lone Cone, and I measured and photographed it.
The pelt was in prime condition, with a uniformly short, dense pelage,
shortest on the back between the shoulders, where the hair averaged
about 3 1 inches in length, and longest on the sides of the upper fore-
legs, where it averaged 6 1 inches. The Indian aptly likened the flaps
of long shaggy hair on the upper forelegs to a cowboy's chaps, and
said the resemblance in life was most striking. The fur was a dark,
rich clove brown at base throughout, shading into plain brownish
black on sides and on fore and hind legs; ears and face, dark brown;
nose, clay brown; dorsal area, from rump to between ears, a beautiful
silver}" clove brown, brightest between shoulders, owing to greater
length of silvered area at tips of hairs. The ears were comparatively
short, but could not be accurately measured on the dried skin. The
following skin measurements indicate the large size of this bear,
although they are probably somewhat exaggerated on account of
stretching: Distance between tips of fere claws, outstretched skin,
96^ inches; length from tip of tail to end of nose, outstretched skin,
87 inches; longest fore claw, along curve, 4J inches; across angle
(straight), 3 J inches; hind claws (badly worn), under 1 inch. Mr.
Galloway's flesh measurements of hind foot were: Heel to tip of claws,
12^ inches; across base of toes to edge of hair on side, 1\ inches. The
old age of this bear was indicated by the much-worn teeth and hind
claws. One of the massive upper incisors was a mere stub, having
been broken off for some time. Several rifle balls had penetrated
the posterior part of the skull and badly shattered it, but the anterior
part was in good condition.

Mr. E. R. Warren, of Colorado Springs, has in his collection the
skull of a medium-sized silver-tip which was killed some years ago
in the Dry Creek Basin, west of the San Miguel Mountains, by Mr.
Jack Watson, of Norwood. The Dry Creek Basin is Upper Sonoran
country, the altitude being not over 6,000 feet — an unusually low
elevation for the silver- tip.

While on Lone Cone, July 27, I photographed a large aspen which
plainly showed fairly fresh claw marks of a large bear, apparently a
silver-tip, to. a height of 13 feet. Several other aspens on the upper
slopes of Lone Cone were claw-marked by silver-tips, but most of
the scratching was old.

Grizzlies are becoming very scarce on the Sangre de Cristo and
Culebra Ranges, but are still occasionally encountered among the
Cochetopa Hills west of Saguache. A large individual is said to have
been taken in a trap on the head of Trinchera Creek in the spring of
1907 by Mr. George Wheeler, of Fort Garland. That the grizzly
was occasionally met with east of the mountains in early times is

1911.] MAMMALS. 201

shown by an account of a bear which killed Lewis Dawson, a mem-
ber of Jacob Fowler's party, at the mouth of Purgatory River in 182 1.1
The National Museum has the skin and skull of a grizzly killed
near Twin Lakes July 28, 1876; a skull from Burro Mountain, near
Elwood, in the San Juan Mountains; and two skulls of bears killed
on Miller Creek, in the Glenwood Springs region, in either 1896 or
1897. The Biological Survey has skulls from Pagosa Springs and
Lone Cone, and Coues and Yarrow mention a skin secured near
Pagosa Springs in 1874 by Lieut. Marshall.2

Scalopus aquaticus intermedins (Elliot). Plains Mole.

Moles enter the northeastern part of the State from the plains.
Thus far they are known only from Yuma County, but very likely
occur throughout the sand hill region from the Arickaree Valley
north at least to Holyoke. I found them abundant at Wray in
December, 1907, in the valley along Chief Creek, and especially
numerous in the young apple orchard of ]\lr. W. E. Wolfe, a mile east
of the town. The loose sandy loam soil of this orchard of several
acres was furrowed with a network of mole runways. Notwithstand-
ing the great abundance of moles on his ranch, Mr. Wolfe has detected
no injurious effects from their presence, and considers that they
confer a benefit by thoroughly working over the surface soil in search
of worms. A male was trapped in Mr. Wolfe's orchard December
13, when the ground was partially frozen and covered with a 3-inch
fall of snow, which is good evidence that moles are active in loose
soil during winter weather. I again visited Mr. Wolfe's orchard in
May, 1909, but found only one fresh mole runway. Several older
runways seen, however, indicated that the animals either were
inactive or were working at a considerable depth. In driving from
Wray to Yuma I saw mole runways in the sand at two points, 5 and
12 miles, respectively, west of Wray. At Yuma a small colony was
working in soft soil on the embankment along the Burlington Rail-
road a mile east of town. No signs of moles were seen in driving
northwest from Yuma to Sterling.

The Wray specimen agrees very closely with topotypes of S. a.
intermedins from Alva, Oklahoma, in small size, pale coloration, and
particularly in small size of skull. The skull of this specimen meas-
ures: Total length, 33.9; mastoid breadth, 17.4; palatal length, 15.
Skin measurements are: Total length, 145; tail vertebra?, 28; hind
foot, 23.

An alcoholic specimen from Dry Willow Creek, 12 miles southeast
of Wray, in the collection of the Colorado Historical and Natural
History Society, has been recorded by Warren.3

i Journal of Jacob Fowler. New York, 1898.

2 Explorations W. of 100th Meridian, V, p. 66, 1875.

3 Further Notes on Mammals of Colorado, p. 84, 1908.

202 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

Sorex personatus I. Geoff. St. Hilaire. Masked Shrew.

This species is apparently far less common and widely distributed
in the Colorado mountains than S. obscurus, although at one point —
St. Elmo, at ](),()()() feet in the Saguache Mountains — it was the
more common of the two. I have found it at only two localities in
the mountains of northern Colorado — an adult male being taken at
9,000 feet on Arapahoe Pass, Rabbit Ear Mountains, in a damp,
mossy place on a cold north slope; and a female being trapped in a
cold bog near Pearl, in the northern end of North Park, at 8,500 feet.
At St. Elmo, in October, 1907, eight specimens of 8. personatus were
taken in three nights' trapping, chiefly beneath mossy rotten logs
in the damp thickets of Engelmann spruce along Chalk Creek. The
above specimens are in all respects typical S. personatus, but one
from Loveland, at the eastern base of the foothills, shows an approach
to the paler and grayer plains form 8. p. haydeni.

Several specimens of S. personatus taken by Mr. R. T. Young in the
vicinity of Boulder, and at Buchanan Pass, Boulder County, are in the
National Museum. Others from Irwin, Gunnison County, at 10,700
feet; Lake Moraine, El Paso County, at 10,250 feet; and Mud Springs,
on the White River Plateau, at 8,850 feet, are in the Warren collec-
tion. Warren states that he has recently identified specimens from
the Summit House on Pikes Peak, 14,147 feet altitude.1 A specimen
from Marvine Lodge, Rio Blanco County, is recorded by Felger.2

Sorex obscurus Merriam. Rocky Mountain Shrew.

This is the common shrew of the high Colorado mountains in the
Canadian and Iludsonian zones. Specimens from timberline on
Longs Peak and Mount McClellan indicate its upper limits, while on
cold slopes and along streams, where the conditions are semiboreal, I
have taken it as low as 5,800 feet, and it has recently been recorded
from Boulder (5,400 feet).3 It is usually trapped in mountain bogs
and beneath moss-covered rotten logs in spruce and aspen forests. In
a grassy mountain park near Gore Pass, between Egeria and Middle
Parks, one was secured in a runway of Microtus nanus, at some dis-
tance from the forest; while Loring trapped a specimen in a cabin
near Silverton. Three of these shrews got into my traps set among
rank vegetation in an aspen bog near Uncompahgre Butte, on the
Uncompahgre Plateau, at 9,000 feet, July 17, 1907. At St. Elmo, in
the Saguache Mountains, at 10,000 feet, I collected two specimens in
October in the damp spruce thickets along Chalk Creek. This shrew
was not so common as 8. personatus at this point. The mountain
shrew is chiefly nocturnal, but Loring caught one at Gold Hill during
the daytime, and one afternoon at Baxter Pass, on the Book Plateau,

i The Mammals of Colorado, p. 263, 1910. s Young, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 407, 1908.

2 Univ. of Colo. Studies, VU, No. 2, p. 146, 1910.

1911.] MAMMALS. 203

I saw one running about under a spruce log. Specimens of this spe-
cies from a great many Colorado localities are in the Biological Survey
collection.

Sorex vagrans dobsoni Merriam. Dobson Shrew.

A specimen of the little Dobson shrew from Lake Moraine, El Paso
County, which Warren sent to the Biological Survey for determina-
tion in 1905, is the only Colorado record. It was collected at an
altitude of 10,250 feet.

Sorex tenellus nanus Merriam. Dwarf Shrew.

Sorex tenellus nanus Merriam, N. Am. Fauna No. 10, p. 81, 1895. Type from Estes
Park, Larimer County, Colorado.

This little shrew must be very rare, as not one was captured in my
three seasons' work on all the higher mountain ranges of the State.

In addition to the type, an adult female taken in Estes Park
August 3, 1895, by Mr. Edward A. Preble, the Biological Survey has a
skull from Westcliffe, Custer County. A third specimen from Colo-
rado, in the Warren collection, has been identified by the Biological
Survey. It was collected on Bear Creek, in the mountains near
Colorado Springs.

Neosorex palustris navigator Baird. White-bellied Water Shrew.

In the Colorado mountains the large water shrew is found chiefly
between 7,500 and 10,500 feet, in the Canadian zone, but I have
taken it at 6,400 feet, and it has been reported once from as low as
6,000 feet. The scattered localities at which specimens have been
taken indicate a general distribution over the mountainous sections.
The species is always found near water, and is usually taken in traps
set in the moss at the edge of mountain streamlets, or in the dense
vegetation of cold bogs or mountain meadows. Little is known of
its habits.

At St. Elmo, in the Saguache Mountains, I found these shrews
common along some small streams tributary to Chalk Creek, in
October, 1907. Three out of four specimens collected at this point
were taken in traps placed on moss-covered rocks behind a small
waterfall, where the vegetation was saturated by the dashing spray.
Mr. J. W. Frey, of Salida, reports water shrews as common on a
small stream heading on the east slope of Round Mountain, at the
northern end of the Sangre de Cristo Range; and they are reported
from the head of Muddy Creek, in northwestern Huerfano County.
In a long line of traps set along Maverick Creek, 2 miles northeast of
Coventry, the night of July 4, I secured three water shrews, all being
taken in traps beneath waterfalls. The elevation is 6,400 feet, excep-
tionally low for this shrew, and the pinyon and juniper clad bluffs
bordering the Maverick gave anything but a boreal environment to
this species, which is so closely associated with cold dashing mountain

204 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

streams, mossy jocks, and towering spruces. At Coventry I was
informed water shrews are occasionally seen at the Stephens ranch,
in the wesl era end of West Paradox Valley, at a little under 6,000 feet.
There are a number of cold springs, bordered with a dense growth of
water cress at this point, which is at the eastern base of the La Sal
Mountains.

Specimens in the Biological Survey collection are from Gold Hill;
Elkhorn, Larimer County; Cochetopa Pass; St. Elmo; Almont; Her-
mit ; Rico ; and Coventry. Loring saw the skin of one of these shrews
at Silverton. The National Museum has specimens from Black Hawk;
Middle Park; Mount Elbert; and old Fort Massachusetts, near Fort
Garland. Others from Crested Butte and Lake Moraine are in the
Warren collection.

Corynorhinus macrotis pallescens Miller. Big-eared Bat.

Very little information is at hand regarding the range of the big-
eared bat in Colorado. Thus far it appears to have been taken at only
five localities, all of them along the eastern base of the foothills. A
specimen in the collection of the Colorado Agricultural College,
secured at Fort Collins by Mr. S. Arthur Johnson, has been identified
by the Biological Survey. Miller records another specimen from
Larimer County,1 and Mr. A. E. Beardsley has taken two of these bats
at Trinidad, according to Warren.2 More recently Mr. R. T. Young
has recorded a specimen collected in Boulder Canyon, at an approxi-
mate elevation of 7,000 feet.3 Junius Henderson, curator of the
museum of the University of Colorado, Boulder, informs me of the
capture of a specimen in a tunnel at Crisman, Fourmile Canyon,
Boulder County, at an altitude of 7,000 feet, by John J. Blanchard,
November 1, 1909.

Nyctinomus mexicanus Saussure. Free-tailed Bat.

Four males of this austral species from Newcastle, Garfield County,
have been identified for Warren, who states that he secured them
along with a number of brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) , July 16, 1907,
"behind a sheet-iron shutter on a building where they had gone for
shelter during the day."4 The elevation of Newcastle is 5,374 feet.

Nyctinomus has not been taken elsewhere within the State, or
indeed anywhere in the neighboring parts of New Mexico, Arizona,
and Utah. The Newcastle record is therefore a very great northward
extension of known range for the Rocky Mountain region. The animal
must reach this point from the southwest through the warm Grand
Valley extension of the Colorado River Sonoran area; and it is note-
worthy that this Lower Sonoran species should be found near the
extreme upper edge of a narrow tongue of the Upper Sonoran zone,

i X. Am. Fauna No. 13, p. 53, 1897. 3 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. J'hila., p. 407, 1908.

2 Mammals of Colorado, p. 267, 1906. ' Further Notes on Mammals of Colorado, p. 85, 1908.

1911.] MAMMALS. 205

surrounded on all sides except the west by broad belts of boreal
country. The occurrence of the free-tailed bat at Newcastle sug-
gests that it may be found in the lowest and warmest valleys of the
southwestern counties, particularly in the Grand Valley between
Grand Junction and the Utah boundary, which is the lowest and
most truly desert-like part of the Upper Sonoran area in western
Colorado. Hitherto the northern known limit of range in the Colo-
rado Valley has been Grand Falls, Arizona, in the valley of the Little
Colorado.

Nyctinomus depressus Ward. Tacubaya Free-tailed Bat.

Through Mr. E. R. Warren, of Colorado Springs, the Biological
Survey has examined a Colorado specimen of this large free-tailed
bat. Dr. S. M. Bradbury, of Grand Junction, who owns the speci-
men, says it was killed by some boys at Grand Junction about 1900.
Warren has already placed this specimen on record.1

The type locality of N. depressus is Tacubaya, Federal District,
Mexico. A few individuals have been captured in the desert areas
of the southwestern United States, but the Grand Junction record
extends the known range of the species far to the east and north.

Antrozous pallidus (LeConte). Pale Bat.

The pale bat occurs in several of the lowest and warmest Upper
Sonoran valleys of extreme southwestern Colorado, but has not been
reported from north of the Grand River Valley. An extreme record
is that of a National Museum specimen taken at Pueblo, east of the
mountains, since the species is largely restricted to the desert regions
of the Southwest.

An excellent opportunity for observing this species was afforded
at Ashbaugh's ranch, in the Ale Elmo Canyon, 20 miles west of Cortez,
in June, 1907. At dusk each evening numbers of these large bats
appeared about the cliffs immediately north of the ranch, coursing
in great circles above the upper rim rock in quest of insect prey.
The large size, rapid sailing flight, and slow wing beats made these
bats most conspicuous in contrast with the hosts of small Myotis and
Pipistrettus which darted about in the gloaming in jerky, erratic
flight. The majority of the pale bats flew so high as to be out of gun
range from the base of the cliffs, but I managed to shoot two females
on the evening of June 21. These bats were rarely observed about
the ranch buildings, and invariably appeared first over the cliffs in
the early twilight. Although none were seen actually emerging from
the cliffs, the numerous cracks and crevices doubtless formed their
retreat during the day.

In the deep canyon of Tabeguache Creek, north of Nucla, Montrose
County, six or eight pale bats flew about the cliffs at a considerable

1 Mammals of Colorado, p. 2(58, 1900.

206 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

height above our camp in the gathering twilight, July 19. They
appeared in companies of two and three and coursed about with
characteristic steady, rapid flight. I have observed this species at
the following two points in the Grand River Valley, a single individual
at each locality: In the rock-walled canyon of Plateau Creek, 5 miles
east of Tunnel, Mesa County, September 30, 1906; and among the
cliffs along Grand River, 7 miles west of Rifle, August 14, 1907.
Neither bat was collected, but identification was reasonably positive.
A large light-colored bat, apparently Antrozous, is commonly reported
from the Grand River Valley near Crevasse, Mesa County, where it is
said to live in ranch buildings.

The first recorded instance of the capture of Antrozous in Colorado
is that given by Coues and Yarrow of a specimen taken at Pueblo by
W. D. Wheeler in October, 1S74, and deposited in the United States
National Museum.1 Dr. F. W. True informs me that this specimen,
which appears to have been mummified, was destroyed about 1905,
but that the skull is preserved.

Myotis subulatus (Say). Say Bat.

Vespertilio subulatus Say, Long's Exped. to Rocky Mts., II, p. 65, 1823. Type
from Arkansas River, near La Junta, Otero County, Colorado.

Warren records two specimens of the Say hat from Colorado
Springs.2 These and the type appear to be the only Colorado speci-
mens of this widely distributed species known at the present time.
The species should be present over much of eastern Colorado.

Myotis lucifugus longicrus (True). Long-legged Bat.

This western form of the little brown bat is not uncommon in west-
ern and southern Colorado. One shot at Steamboat Springs as it
was flying over Bear River at dusk August 1, 1905, is fighter colored
than normal M. longicrus. Two others in grayish pelage were se-
cured on the White River meadows, a few miles east of Meeker,
August 12. At the last locality large numbers of these bats were
flying over White River late in the evening. A dark female was
collected at Coventry August 1, 1907, in my bedroom at 2 a. m.
This form is also represented in the Biological Survey collection by a
specimen from Grand Junction, collected June 23, 1893, by Mr. J.
Alden Loring; and another collected on Conejos River, west of An-
tonito, by Mr. James H. Gaut, September 4, 1904.

Three specimens from the eastern part of the San Luis Valley have
been identified recently for Warren. Two were collected above
Herard, in Madenos Canyon, Saguache County, at an elevation of
8,700 feet, July 12, 1909. A third, from the Medano Springs ranch,
east of Mosca, June 22, 1909, has distinct whitish edgings to the

» Explorations W. of 100th Meridian, V, p. 85, 1875. 2 Mammals of Colorado, p. 267, 1906.

1911.] MAMMALS. 207

uropatagium, and is altogether paler than normal longicrus. Young
records a mutilated skin in the collection of the Academy of Natural
Sciences, Philadelphia,1 from Eldora, in the high foothills of Boulder
County.

Myotis evotis (H. Allen). Long-eared Bat.

The long-eared bat has been taken on both sides of the mountains
in the Upper Sonoran zone, and a specimen recently recorded by
Mr. R. T. Young from an elevation of nearly 7,000 feet, in the Steam-
boat Springs region,1 shows that the species occasionally ranges into
the Transition zone.

A series of 11 specimens was collected at the old L7 ranch, a few
miles southeast of Sunny Peak, Routt County, in August, 1906.
The bats had their abode in the deserted ranch house, and numbers
could be seen flying in and out of the open doorway at dusk. I se-
cured the specimens by entering the house after nightfall with a
candle. Some were caught with an insect net, while others were
knocked down with a hat. The above series presents considerable
color variation, due largely to age. Three are immature and in gray
pelage, but the majority are light yellowish brown. In 1907 this
species was tolerably common at Ashbaugh's ranch, in the McElmo
Canyon, Montezuma County, from June 20 to 23, where two were
caught in the house after dark. One which flew into a house at Do-
lores the evening of June 27, 1 captured with my hand. At Coventry
this was the most abundant bat about the ranch buildings in July.
Five were caught in a house after dark July 24 as they flew in at
the open window, attracted by the light. I have not taken this
bat about rocky ledges and cliffs, and it appears to frequent mainly
houses and outbuildings. Nearly all the above specimens are females.
Specimens from Loveland have been recorded by Miller.2

Myotis yumanensis (H. Allen). Fort Yuma Bat.

This pale southwestern species is at present known in Colorado
only from western Routt County, but eventually may be found at
other points along the western border of the State, in the Upper
Sonoran zone. It is represented by two females from Snake River,
south of Sunny Peak, August 28, 1906; and a male from near Lily,
at the confluence of the Snake and Bear Rivers, September 9, 1906.
I secured these bats in deserted ranch buildings after nightfall,
where they were not at all common, being greatly outnumbered by
M. evotis.

The above specimens accord well in color with typical yumanensis
from Fort Yuma, California, but have a somewhat longer forearm
and foot.

Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 408, 1908. 2 N. Am. Fauna No. 13, p. 80, 1897.

208 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. TNo. 33.

Myotis calif ornicus (And. and Bach.). Little California Bat.

This small bat has been taken thus far at several widely separated
localities in southern and western Colorado, and east of the moun-
tains is known from two points in the Arkansas Valley and from
Boulder Canyon. Its zonal distribution appears to be mainly Upper
Sonoran.

In the McElmo Canyon, Montezuma County, it was apparently
common in June, 1907, and I shot two at dusk as they were flying
about the rocky cliffs north of Ashbaugh's ranch and caught another
by lamplight in the house after dark. Another was captured in a
house in the Grand Valley near Morris, 7 miles west of Rifle, August
14. An adult male from the San Luis Valley, 7 miles east of Anto-
nito, Conejos County (8,000 feet), September 1, 1904, was taken by
Mr. James II. Gaut. Small bats which I saw at Pagosa Springs
May 28, 1907, and at the Paradox crossing of Dolores River July 7
were probably M. calif ornicus. Specimens in the Warren collection
from Bedrock (Montrose County), Salida, and Van Andert's Spring
on Little Fountain Creek (El Paso County) have been examined by
the Biological Survey.

Specimens of M. californicus from the highest elevations — Salida,
Van Andert's Spring, Antonito, and Rifle — are almost as dark as typical
californicus.. Others from Ashbaugh's ranch and Bedrock, in the low
desert valleys of southwestern Colorado, are considerably paler, agree-
ing precisely in coloration with specimens in the Biological Survey
collection from the deserts of Arizona and Nevada. They are not as
pale, however, as M. c. ciliolabrum.

Since the above was written Mr. Junius Henderson has written to
me as follows: "Two specimens of Myotis californicus were taken in
Marchioness Tunnel, Boulder Canyon, altitude 6,200 feet, by John J.
Blanchard, December 22, 1909, thus making a winter record. I did
not see these two bats until some ten minutes, perhaps, after he took
them, when one of them was squealing viciously, but the other was
quiet. In the warm cabin the former soon began to fly about the
room. Supposing the winter habits of the animals here to be well
known, Blanchard made no particular examination of them when he
found them, but says he believes they were dormant, which is my
impression from the condition of one of them when it reached me.
The further fact that this tunnel, unlike some, does not seem to be
infested with insects or other food for bats would tend to confirm the
idea of hibernation. Possibly the temperature may give you some
light on that subject. At the breast of the tunnel, where the bats
were taken, about 350 feet back into the mountain, the temperature
was soon after measured and found to be 46° F."

1911.] MAMMALS. 209

Myotis calif ornicus ciliolabrum (Merriam). Hairy-lipped Bat.

The only western Colorado specimens of this small pale form of
M. californicus appear to be two females from the old L7 ranch on
Snake River, a few miles southeast of Sunny Peak, Routt County,
taken August 28 and 29, 1906. Both the above bats I secured in the
deserted ranch buildings after nightfall. This form was uncommon
at that locality, being greatly outnumbered by M. evotis. In June,
1909, I found the hairy-lipped bat abundant in the badland cliffs at
Chimney Canyon, some 30 miles northwest of Sterling. It appeared
to be the common bat at this point, outnumbering Eptesicus, the
only other bat seen, fully 10 to 1. Two were shot as they issued from
the cliffs at dusk to feed on insects in the bottom of the canyon.

Pipistrellus hesperus (H. Allen). Western Bat.

These diminutive black-eared bats — the smallest species found in
the State — inhabit the Upper Sonoran zone in the western and south-
western valleys. So far as my observations go, they live only about
cliffs and in rock-walled canyons, where soon after sunset they issue
in large numbers from the rocky ledges, and with rapid, erratic flight
dart about in their nightly quest for insects, appearing in the gloaming
like large moths. Aside from its small size, P. hesperus in flight may
be easily distinguished by the very narrow wings.

In the lower McElmo Canyon, Montezuma County, I found this the
most numerous species in June, 1907, and it was common also in the
canyon of Tabeguache Creek, north of Nucla, Montrose County, in
July. One was seen flitting about the cliffs on Grand River, 7 miles
west of Rifle, August 14. At early dawn, October 1, 1906, a very
small bat , which I took to be this species, flew over our camp beneath
the steep cliffs in the canyon of Plateau Creek, 5 miles east of Tunnel,
Mesa County.

There are seven Colorado specimens of P. hesperus in the Biological
Survey collection, all females: One each from Ashbaugh's ranch (near
McElmo), June 21, and Tabeguache Creek, July 19, 1907; four from
Grand Junction, June 22 and 23, 1S93; and another from Rifle, August
25, 1908. Warren has this bat from Bedrock, Montrose County.

Eptesicus fuscus (Beauvois). Brown Bat.

The common brown bat has a wide distribution and probably
occurs over the whole State, except in the higher mountains above
the Transition zone. One was shot near Steamboat Springs, Routt
County, in August, 1905, as it was flying over Bear River; while
later in the same month another was secured on White River, a few
miles east of Meeker, Rio Blanco County. Bats which appeared to
be fuscus were seen flying in McElmo Canyon, Montezuma County,
in June, 1907, and others over the Dolores River in Paradox Valley,
July 7.

90432°— 11 14

210 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

This bat has been recorded by Miller from Loveland,1 and by Allen
from Florida, La Plata County.2 According to Warren, Mr. A. E.
Beardsley reports it common at Greeley.3 More recently Warren
mentions taking a specimen at Douglas Spring, Routt County, 1
at Colorado Springs, and 21 at Newcastle, and says: "Only one of
the brown bats [Newcastle series] was a male, all the rest being
females, one of the latter having a small young one attached to a
teat. This was on July 16, 1907. The Douglas Spring specimen,
taken June 26, contained a single good-sized embryo."4 E. fuscus
has also been taken in Boulder Canyon, at about 7,000 feet, according
to Young.5 All the above localities are in the Upper Sonoran zone
or in the Transition zone.

Considerable color variation is shown by specimens of E. fuscus
from different parts of Colorado, some being as dark as normal and
others much paler. A specimen in the Biological Survey collection
from the Chimney Bluffs, some 30 miles northwest of Sterling (June
7, 1909), is the only one examined, however, which shows a near
approach to the extremely pale coloration of E.f. pallidus. Although
nearly as pale as pallidus, this specimen has the measurements of
fuscus, to which it is referred. Another specimen from Steamboat
Springs has the dark coloration of fuscus, but in large size approaches
pallidus.

Eptesicus fuscus pallidus Young. Pale Brown Bat.

Eptesicus pallidus Young, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 408, 1908. Type from
Boulder, Colorado.

The exact status of this peculiar large pale bat will not be known
until much additional material is received from the plains region of
eastern Colorado. The type from Boulder in the National Museum
is larger than fuscus, and is very pale. It measures: Total length,
127; tail, 50; hind foot, 12. Other specimens from Boulder, the
measurements of which are given in the original description (1. c),
are nearly as large as the type. The skull of the type is like that of
fuscus, only larger, being about the size of E. miradorensis. The type
of pallidus can be closely matched in size by a dark specimen of
fuscus from Steamboat Springs, and in pallid coloration by a smaller
individual from the Chimney Cliffs, northwest of Sterling.

Mr. Junius Henderson, curator of the museum of the University
of Colorado at Boulder, writes me of the recent capture of three,
additional specimens of E.f pallidus at Boulder. Warren, who has
examined these bats, says that they are paler than his specimens of
E. fuscus and agree in measurements with the type of pallidus.

> X. Am. Fauna No. 13, p. 98, 1897. * Further Notes on Mammals of Colorado, p. 85, 1908.

"■ Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., V, p. 83, 1893. » Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 409, 1908 (footnote).
3 Mammals of Colorado, p. 268, 1906.

1911.] MAMMALS. 211

Lasionycteris noctivagans (LeConte). Silver-haired Bat.

During the breeding season the silver-haired bat is probably
restricted largely to the Canadian zone in Colorado, as it is elsewhere
in North America, but specimens taken in both the Transition and
the Upper Sonoran zones indicate that at certain seasons it performs
vertical migrations of some extent.

One evening in August, 1905, while encamped at the Widows Corral,
on the White River Plateau, 25 miles southeast of Meeker, I obtained
frequent glimpses of a small bat flitting about in the aspen forest.
It flew so near the ground that its course was very difficult to follow
in the fast-gathering twilight, but it was shot and proved to be a
specimen of the silver-haired bat. This locality is in the Canadian
zone, at 8,500 feet. The Biological Survey has a specimen of this
bat from Rifle, Garfield County, collected by Loring in 1893; while a
specimen taken by Dr. Elliott Coues in North Park at 10,000 feet,
September 16, 1876, is in the National Museum.

Warren has specimens from Green Mountain Falls, Newcastle, and
Salida, and records the species from Glen Eyrie (near Colorado
Springs) and Greeley.1

Mr. Junius Henderson informs me by letter of the capture of a
specimen at Boulder June 6, 1909.

I did not meet with this bat in southern Colorado, but it has been
recorded from Florida, La Plata County, where Charles P. Rowley
collected two specimens in 1892.2

Nycteris cinereus (Beauvois). Hoary Bat.

The large hoary bat has been taken only a few times in the State,
and consequently its local distribution is not well known. The
normal breeding range is in the Canadian zone, and therefore it may
be expected to breed in the mountains. Thus far, however, speci-
mens have been collected only in the eastern foothills and along their
immediate eastern bases and in the lower valley of Grand River. A
mounted specimen owned by Dr. S. M. Bradbury, of Grand Junction,
taken at that locality, has been examined, and there is a specimen
in the Merriam collection from Boulder County, secured by the late
Mr. Denis Gale September 16, 1889. Miller records three specimens
from Larimer County.3 Warren quotes the statement of Mr. A. E.
Beardsley that this bat is "frequent at Greeley/' 4 and states in a
recent letter that it has been taken at Salida and Boulder.

Nycteris borealis (Muller). Red Bat.

Biological Survey collectors have not met with this species in
Colorado, although it should be found over the eastern plains region.
The only record seems to be that of Mr. A. E. Beardsley, who says
the red bat is rare at Greeley.5

1 The Mammals of Colorado, p. 277, 1910. * Mammals of Colorado, p. 268, 1906.

3 Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., V, p. .83, 1893. 5 Warren, Mammals of Colorado, p. 268, 1906.

» N. Am. Fauna No. 13, p. 114, 1897.

212 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

PRINCIPAL TREES AND SHRUBS OF COLORADO.

The explorations of the Biological Survey in Colorado have resulted
in the accumulation of valuable notes on the distribution of many
species of plants, and those relating to the trees and shrubs are brought
together in the following briefly annotated list. No attempt is made
to give a complete list of Colorado trees and shrubs, and the species
included are chiefly those whose known ranges in the State have been
considerably extended by the work of the Biological Survey. Several
of those r.pporcntly have not been recorded previously from the
State. Most of the specimens collected have been identified by the
botanists of the United States National Museum.

The nomenclature followed is mainly that of Dr. Rydberg in his
Flora of Colorado (Bull. 100, Colo. Agr. Exper. Station, 1906). Dis-
tribution notes relative to a number of species of restricted range are
taken from this publication and, to avoid repetition, are unaccom-
panied by references.

Pinus aristata. Foxtail Pine.

The foxtail pine is a characteristic timberline tree on parts of the
Front, Kenosha, Saguache, and Sangre de Cristo Ranges, but was not
observed on the mountains of western or extreme northern Colorado.
On the Sangre de Cristo Range the southern limit appears to be near
Crestone Peak, but I again encountered it on the high Culebra Range
southwest of La Veta. On the Saguache Range it was found south
to a point northwest of Villa Grove, and scattering trees were observed
at timberline on the San Juan Mountains northeast of Pagosa Springs.
None of these pines were seen on the Front Range north of James
Peak. Foxtail pines are most abundant on the Saguache Range near
St. Elmo and in the Grays Peak region. A straggling and dwarfed
growth fringes the exposed ridges on both sides of Clear Creek Valley
above Silver Plume, between 11,000 and 11,500 feet.

Although largely confined to the timberline region between 11,000
and 12,000 feet, and perhaps more nearly restricted to the Hudsonian
zone than any other tree in the State, the foxtail pine is occasionally
found on bare exposed ridges as low as 9,500 feet. Near Como it is
common on many of the ridges bordering South Park at 10,000 feet.
Between Clyde Station and Cheyenne Mountain on the Cripple Creek
Short Line Railway the species forms a considerable forest. At this
point the pines are very regular in shape, few are branched near the
base, and many are 30 feet high. In the timberline region the trees
are usually under 15 feet in height, dwarfed and ragged, and the
majority are much branched. (See PL XI, fig. 1.) At a distance
they greatly resemble a ragged growth of juniper (Juniperus mono-
sperma), and are in marked contrast to the more symmetrical Engel-
mann spruces, which usually share the bleak timberline slopes with

1911.] TREES AND SHRUBS. 213

them. Foxtail pines usually grow on slopes having warm south or
west exposures and very rarely on cool slopes. This species forms the
highest recorded timberline in the State (12,300 feet), near St. Elmo,
on the Saguache Range.

Pinus flexilis. Rocky Mountain White Pine.

This small, bushy, much branched phie has a general but very scat-
tering distribution in the mountains of northern Colorado, at eleva-
tions between* 7,000 and 10,000 feet. Like the foxtail pine of the
timberline regions, which it greatly resembles, P. flexilis usually grows
along the crest of bare, outlying, gravelly ridges, and owing to its
wind-swept location usually grows straggling and one-sided. It is
most abundant on the open mountain slopes east of Fall River, Clear
Creek County, on the ridges of the South Park region, and on the
mountains east of Laramie River, but was noted at other localities as
follows: Mclntyre Creek, east slope of Medicine Bow Range; outly-
ing ridges north of Higho and east of Canadian Creek, North Park;
Halms Peak (8,500 feet) ; bluffs north of Snake River, 8 miles east of
Slater; Grand River Canyon, east of Glen wood Springs; Empire;
canyon on Grand River, west of Hot Sulphur; and valley of South
Boulder Creek. The species does not attain its maximum size in
northern Colorado, and no trees more than 30 feet high were observed.

P. flexilis was found at but few localities in the southern mountains
in 1907. Groves of considerable extent are on the partially open
slopes at the head of Wahatoye Creek, between the Spanish Peaks
and the Culebra Range, at about 9,000 feet elevation, and the species
is common throughout the La Veta region. A much larger growth is
attained here than farther north, many of the trees reaching a height
of 50 feet. This pine is not uncommon at Pagosa Springs, between
Needleton and Silverton, on the Rio Grande bluffs below Wagon Wheel
Gap, and at Divide.

Pinus scopulorum. Rocky Mountain Yellow Pine.

The yellow pine is a characteristic tree in the foothills of all parts
except northwestern Colorado. The eastern foothills of the Medicine
Bow and Front Ranges are clothed with a scattering growth from
their bases to the lower edge of the lodgepole pines at 8,000 or 9,000
feet, the heaviest forests being west of Loveland, on the western end
of the Arkansas Divide, and in the South Platte region. Farther
south there is a good stand on the Wet Mountains, becoming heaviest
in northwestern Huerfano County artd continuing southward in a
well-defined belt along the eastern foothills of the Sangre de Cristo
and Culebra Ranges. On the lower mountain slopes bordering San
Luis Valley the pines are restricted to narrow interrupted belts, which
converge at its northern end and connect over Poncha Pass with the
pine country along the Upper Arkansas.

214

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

West of the Continental Divide, P. scopulorum is largely restricted
to the region south of the Grand and Gunnison Rivers. Stately
forests of great extent occupy the southern and western slopes of the
San Juan, La Plata, and San Miguel Mountains, and the eastern slopes
of the La Sal Mountains, ranging between 6,500 and 8,500 feet, and a
moderately heavy growth extends to the northwestern end of the
Uncompahgre Plateau. In the Gunnison country yellow pines are
very local and scattering, except in the valley of the Lal^e Fork, where
they are tolerably common. In northwestern Colorado they are
rarely seen, and occur in widely separated areas of small extent as
follows: Medicine Bow Mountains, east of Canadian Creek, North

Fig. 30.— Distribution in Colorado of lodgepole pine {Pinus murrayana).

Park, lowest outlying spurs, 8,800 feet; north slope of Elk Head
Mountains, 20 miles southeast of Slater, rocky exposed ridges, 7,800
feet; Grand River Canyon to 6 miles west of Glenwood Springs;
southwest slope 8 miles north of McCoy, Eagle County, 7,800 feet;
and on the summits and northern slopes of the Escalante Hills, in
western Routt County, where there is a tolerably heavy growth
between 6,400 and 7,500 feet.

In the eastern and northern mountains the yellow pines seldom
attain large size, and in rocky situations they are often quite scrubby.
In the southwest, however, particularly in Archuleta County, there
are as large trees and handsome forests as can be.found in any of the
Rockv Mountain States. Lumbermen have exhausted some of the

1911.]

TREES AND SHRUBS.

215

best pine forests of southwestern Colorado, but there still remain
large areas, and fortunately these are now largely included in the San
Juan and Montezuma National Forests.

Pinus murrayana. Lodgepole Pine.

A broad belt of magnificent lodgepole pine forest with a vertical
breadth averaging 2,000 feet occupies the middle slopes of the high
mountain ranges of northern Colorado between 8,000 and 10,000 feet.
(See fig. 30.) This forest clothes the summits of the Laramie Divide
and of the lower parts of the Medicine Bow, Park, and Gore Ranges.
Farther south this pine covers an extensive area on the Saguache
Range and on the mountains of the Gunnison country. The southern
limit is reached on the Continental Divide at the head of the Saguache
River. On the Sangre de Cristo Range a narrow belt extends south
along the eastern
slope as far as Cres-
tone Peak, but the
species appears to be
entirely absent from
the western slope of
the same range. A
few of these pines are
found on the summit
of Veta Pass — the
southernmost point
at which the species
is known to occur
within the State.

The heaviest and
purest forests of
lodgepole pines were
traversed on the high
divide east of Lara-
mie River and on the Park and Gore Ranges, at an elevation of about
9,500 feet. (See fig. 31.) On most of the ranges, however, the pines
are mixed with aspens below 9,500 feet and with Engelmann spruces
above 10,000 feet.

To the west P. murrayana is the common forest tree in the Elk
Head Mountains and in the region bordering Egeria Park, but on the
White River Plateau it does not extend far west of the South Fork of
White River. A scattering growth is reported on Diamond Peak
and Mount Cullom, on opposite sides of Green River in extreme
northwestern Routt County. The lowest elevation reached within
the State appears to be on the northern slope of the Elk Head Moun-
tains near Honnold, where narrow tongues descend to the bank of

Fig. 31.— Forest of lodgepole pines (Pinus murrayana), eastern slope of
Park Range, west of Pearl, at 10,000 feet.

216 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No.:::;.

Snake River at 7,000 feet. The extreme upper limit on the Boreas
Pass is on a southwest slope at a little over 1 1 ,000 feet. This pine
appears to be absent from the mountains of southwestern Colorado.
The lodgepole pine is very largely restricted to the Canadian zone.
In the mountain districts of central Colorado much of the best growth
has been used for mining timbers, and farther north lumbering opera-
tions have depleted large tracts. At present a young and dense
growth covers much of these areas, which are practically all included
in National Forests.

Pinus edulis. Pinyon; Nut Pine.

The pinyon is found in abundance in the rough country of western
and southern Colorado at elevations varying from 5,000 to 7,500
feet. It clothes the rocky slopes and bluffs bordering the river
valleys and forms a dense growth on most of the rough intervening
watersheds and mesas. In the mountains of the San Luis Valley
region the pinyon belt reaches an elevation of 9,000 feet on warm
slopes.

This small pine is fully as common in the Upper Sonoran zone as
Juniperus monosperma, and marks this zone over extensive areas.
In many localities, however, it enters the lower edge of the Transition
zone, where it commingles to a certain extent with yellow pines and
Douglas spruces. It is nearly always associated with the juniper
{Juniperus monosperma) below 7,000 feet.

A very dense growth of pinyon covers the Mesa Verde and prac-
tically all the broken country from Montezuma County north to
Mesa County. A heavy and continuous belt is found on the lowest
flanks of all the mountains from the San Juans north to the Book
Cliffs, and in the Grand River Valley the species extends eastward
as far as McCoy, Eagle County. North of the Book Cliffs the distri-
bution is more restricted, as follows: Evacuation Creek Valley up
to 7,000 feet on north slope of the Book Cliffs; heavy growth in
Pinyon Valley and on the Rabbit Hills; divide between Bear and
White Rivers, south of Lily, to 6,000 feet; Escalante Hills, dense
growth on north slopes at 6,400 to 7,000 feet; scattering growth
southwest slope of Cross Mountain, and also on south slope of O-wi-
yu-kuts Plateau. Pinyons are found on- most of the mesas and
ridges of the San Luis Valley region, and form heavy belts on the
lower bordering mountain slopes north as far as Villa Grove. On
the eastern slope of the mountains they occur regularly north to
Manitou, and follow up the warm Arkansas Valley to considerably
above Buena Vista, the growth being especially dense and extensive
on the head of Huerfano River and in the adjacent country. The
species reaches its eastern limit in Colorado, and probably in the
United States, in Las Animas County, where a considerable growth

1911.] TREES AND SHRUBS. 217

is found on Mesa de Maya and on other high points in that rough
region.

Picea engelmanni. Engelmann Spruce; White Spruce.

The stately Engelnaann spruce forms a heavy forest belt just
below timberline on all the higher mountain ranges, and in a dwarfed
state is common at timberline. At this elevation it occurs in pros-
trate mats 1 to 3 feet in height and often 8 or 10 feet in diameter.
Its greatest development is reached along the upper edge of the
Canadian zone, where the spruce forest is either pure or mixed with
balsam firs, many of the trees being 3 or 4 feet in diameter and 100
feet in height.

The heaviest spruce forests were on the Park, Medicine Bow, and
Saguache Ranges, in the San Juan Mountains, and on both slopes
of the Front Range from Rollins Pass south to Berthoud Pass. A
moderate growth of Engelmann spruce is found on the Uncompahgre
and White River Plateaus, on Grand Mesa, and on other high plateaus
of western Colorado.

The upper limit of the Engelmann spruce varies with timberline
from 11,000 to 12,000 feet. The vertical width of the belt depends
much upon the steepness of slope, averaging between 1,000 and 1,500
feet on gradual slopes, but often narrowing to 500 feet, as is the
case just below timberline on a steep southwest exposure south of
Berthoud Pass. Below 10,000 feet P. engelmanni occurs only in
damp situations on cold slopes and in descending tongues along
streams, usually embraced by heavy forests of lodgepole pine or
aspen. It is found as low as 8,200 feet along Pass Creek, on the
eastern slope of the Park Range; while on the mountains east of
Laramie River it occurs at 8,500 feet. Scattering trees occur on
Middle Boulder Creek, 5 miles west of Boulder, at 6,000 feet, but
this low elevation is abnormal.

Picea parryana. Blue Spruce.

The blue spruce has a very scattering distribution in the lower
part of the Canadian zone on both slopes of the main ranges. In
northern Colorado in 1905 and 1906 small clumps and single trees were
noted here and there along streams at elevations of from 7,000 to 8,500
feet, as follows: West of Log Cabin, Larimer County, 7,500 feet;
Nederland, 8,200 feet; South Boulder Creek; northeast base of Floyd
Hill; Empire; Idaho Springs; Fall River, Clear Creek County; south
slope of Park Range; north of Hahns Peak, 8,500 feet; Snake River
bluffs; Honnold to 8 miles east of Slater; north slope of Piney Divide,
south of McCoy, 7,500 to 8,000 feet; Pass Creek, northwest of Kremm-
ling; Eagle River, Dotsero to Wolcott; and canyon of the Grand east
of Glenwood Springs. In the mountains of southern Colorado the

218 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

blue spruce has a general distribution between 8,500 and 9,500 feet,
being much more common than farther north.

This species is apparently never found away from the immediate
vicinity of streams,1 all the trees that I have observed growing either
on the banks of watercourses or on the nearest benches. It proba-
bly belongs to the Canadian zone, but in common with many other
boreal species finds a suitable environment in the cool conditions
which obtain along streams well down into the Transition zone.
The characteristic scattering distribution of the blue spruce along
watercourses is best seen along Eagle River between Wolcott and
Dotsero, on the Frying Pan River, and on the many streams of Clear
Creek County.

Pseudotsuga mucronata. Douglas Spruce; Red Fir.

The Douglas spruce is of comparatively small size in Colorado.
The largest trees are found along watercourses, where a height of 1 00
feet and a diameter of 3 or 4 feet are occasionally attained. The
average growth, however, is less than a third of these dimensions,
especially among the eastern foothills.

The species has a general distribution in the mountain districts,
being most abundant on the eastern slopes of the Medicine Bow and
Front Ranges and on the plateaus and higher mesas of western Colo-
rado. It is mainly a Transition zone tree, but occurs commonly in
the lower Canadian zone also, particularly in the western mountains.

On the eastern slopes of the main ranges the Douglas spruce is
occasionally found along streams as low as 5,800 feet. In the upper
part of the yellow pine belt it occupies most of the steep north slopes
between 6,000 and 8,000 feet. Near Fall River, in Clear Creek
County, it extends up southwest slopes to the 9,000-foot summits
of hills, whose northeast exposures are clothed with lodgepole pines
and aspens. The Douglas spruce thus occupies a position interme-
diate between the yellow and lodgepole pine belts east of the Conti-
nental Divide. Over most of western Colorado it is found just above
the pinyon belt, largely replacing the yellow pine in the Transition
zone, and with the aspen clothing the Canadian zone summits and
upper northern slopes of the plateaus and higher mesas. (See fig.
32.) On the crest of the Uncompahgre Plateau and elsewhere it
grows at an elevation of over 10,000 feet.

The following localities indicate the distribution of Pseudotsuga
in northwestern Colorado: North slope of Piney Divide, south of
McCoy, 7,000 to 8,000 feet; south slopes of mountains north of
McCoy, 8,000 to 8,500 feet; mountains south of Eagle; canyon of the
Grand above Glenwood Springs; Battlement Mesa; Great Hog Back;

1 At Saguache and elsewhere these handsome spruces grace many dooryards, where they have been
planted. As an ornamental tree the blue spruce has few equals.

1911.]

TREES AND SHRUBS.

219

southern slopes of White River Plateau; Grand Mesa; high country
on both sides of Grand River between Glenwood Springs and Grand
Junction, at elevations ranging from above 6,000 feet on cold slopes
to 7,000 or 8,000 feet on warm slopes; Book Cliffs, heavy growth on
north slope near Baxter Pass, 7,000 to 8,500 feet; hills bordering
Evacuation Creek Valley; sparse growth on northeast upper slopes
of Rabbit Hills; and Zenobia Peak, scattering growth reported. In
southwestern Colorado I observed the species as follows: Southern
slopes of La Plata Mountains between Durango and Mancos in the
Canadian zone; upper slopes of Ute Peak; steep upper rims of Sinbad

Fig. 32.— Pocket of Douglas spruce (Pscudotsuga mucronata) on northern escarpment of Mesa Verde,

7,500 to 8,000 feet.

and West Paradox Valleys (cool exposures); Unaweep Canyon;
Cimarron; Vernal Mesa; West Elk Mountains east of Crawford;
Roaring Fork of Grand River, Basalt to Aspen; Sapinero; and Lake
City.

Abies lasiocarpa. Balsam Fir.

The balsam fir is found throughout the Hudsonian zone and
along the upper edge of the Canadian zone. It is not so uniformly
distributed as the Engelmann spruce and does not form as extensive
forests. Occasionally, however, its growth is heavy, as on the west-
ern slope of the Front Range in the vicinity of Rollins Pass and on
the west side of the Saguache Range below Alpine Tunnel, where
extensive forests were traversed between 10,000 and 11,000 feet.

220 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No.33.

In a dwarfed state this fir often extends up to extreme timberline
with the Engelmann spruce. Its characteristic growth is in clumps
and thickets scattered here and there through the spruce forest,
and the smooth, light-colored trunks of the firs are very conspicuous
among the dark spruces. Occasionally the species is encountered
as low as 8,500 feet, and on the eastern slope of the Park Range
northwest of Kremmling I found it growing along streams at 8,200
feet. It formed heavy thickets at 10,000 feet on the divide east of
the Laramie River, and also on the Medicine Bow Range; and on
thi1 northern part of the Park Range it was common both on the
Buffalo Pass and on the headwaters of Grand Encampment River.
On the White River Plateau it was growing in dense thickets in the
aspen forests between 8,500 and 9,000 feet, chiefly on northern
exposures.

This tree appears to have fully as wide a range in southern as in
northern Colorado, but the growth is smaller and more scattered
toward the south. The species was observed in southern Colorado
on t;ffe summit of the Uncompahgre Plateau, at Rico and Ophir,
fromS-Needleton to Silverton, and between Vance Junction and
Sawpit.

Abies concolor. White Fir.

The white fir is found in the southern mountains, where it is
usually common between 8,500 and 10,000 feet, in the lower Canadian
zone. It does not occur far north of Colorado Springs on the eastern
slope, and Ouray marks the northern limit west of the Continental
Divide. The white fir forms considerable forests in the Wet Moun-
tains and on the southern slopes of the San Juan Mountains north
of Pagosa Springs, but usually the growth is somewhat scattering,
and is restricted either to the vicinity of streams or to cool exposures,
where the firs mingle with aspens. The largest trees observed were
at 9,000 feet on the southwest slope of Pagosa Peak, where a height
of 75 feet was not uncommon.

The white fir was noted at the following localities: Wet Mountains,
east of Westcliffe, 9,000 feet; mountains between Canon City and
Cripple Creek, above 8,500 feet; northern exposures on eastern slope
of Sangre de Cristo Range near Sand Hill Pass, 9,000 to 9,500 feet;
head of Wahatoye Creek, 9,000 feet; upper northern slope of Fisher
Peak, south of Trinidad; mountains near Saguache; Animas Canyon,
near Silverton; and lower mountain slopes surrounding Ouray.

Juniperus scopulorum. Rocky Mountain Juniper.

This juniper is common in the Upper Sonoran and Transition
zones throughout the mountains, and also often forms the only
coniferous growth in gulches and on rocky ridges and buttes on the
higher plains of northeastern Colorado. It has an extreme vertical

1911.] TREES AND SHRUBS. 221

range within the State from 4,500 to 10,000 feet, and is most abun-
dant in the higher foothills between 6,000 and 8,000 feet. I observed
it at the following localities: Boulder; Golden; Platte Canyon Sta-
tion; Pawnee Buttes; Bailey; Colorado Springs; La Veta; hills
north of Canon City; Promontory Bluffs; bluffs east of Grover;
Buena Vista; St. Elmo; Weston; Chimney Cliffs, northwestern
Logan Count}'; Book Plateau, sparingly above 7,500 feet; Glen-
wood Springs; Wolcott; McCW; Ohio City; Gunnison; Sapinero;
Lake City; Lone Cone; Beaver Mountain, Dolores County; Man-
cos; Mesa Verde, north escarpment; and Pagosa Springs.

Juniperus monosperma. Juniper.

This is the most abundant juniper in the State, and is a charac-
teristic Upper Sonoran species. It forms a well-defined belt cover-
ing most of the lowest foothill slopes of western and southern Colo-
rado and is prominent on the eastern foothills from the Arkansas
Valley southward. A heavy growTth covers a large area of rough
canyon country in Las Animas and western Baca Counties, and
many outlying ridges «and buttes in Otero County are clothed with
junipers. The species reaches a large size and dense stand on the
Escalante Hills and other low elevations of western Routt County,
and is abundant on Mesa Verde, in Montezuma County.

The vertical position of J. monos'perma is immediately below the
pinyon belt, although scattering junipers occur with the pinyons as
high as 7,500 feet in southern Colorado. It is most abundant
between 5,000 and 7,000 feet on arid slopes. The resinous one-
seeded berries of this juniper are much used as food by chipmunks,
wood rats, and other small rodents.

During my explorations in Colorado I have observed the species
as follows: Slater; bluffs bordering lower Snake River Valley;
Godiva Ridge; Cross Mountain; Escalante Hills; O-wi-yu-kuts
Plateau, southern slopes; Vermilion Bluffs; watershed between Bear
and White Rivers south of Lily; 5 miles southwest of Rangely to
base of Rabbit Hills; northern and southern slopes of Book Plateau
below 7,500 feet; hills south of Mack, Mesa County; lower slopes of
Grand Mesa; northeast slope of Little Book Cliffs; De Beque to
Glen wood Springs; bluffs along north side of Eagle River from
Dotsero nearly to Wolcott; McCoy; Basalt; Somerset; Ridgway;
Coventry; Placerville; western Montrose and San Miguel Counties;
Mesa Verde; McElmo Valley; Salida; Canon City; Walsenburg;
Pueblo: and Gaume's ranch, northwestern Baca County.

Juniperus sibirica. Low Mountain Juniper.

This beautiful procumbent shrub is conspicuous among the under-
growth of the forests hi the Canadian and upper Transition zones,
where it is almost omnipresent. It reaches its greatest abundance

222 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [Ho. 33.

along the upper edge of the yellow pine belt at 8,500 or 9,000 feet.
I have found it particularly common in the higher eastern foothills of
the Front Range; on the forested ridges near Como, South Park; in
the Wet Mountains east of Westcliffe; on the Sangre de Cristo Range
in western Huerfano County; and at St. Elmo, Saguache Range,
10,000 feet.

Juniperus prostrata. Creeping Juniper.

The creeping juniper or savin appears to be uncommon in the
Colorado mountains. I collected it on Lone Mesa, Dolores County,
at 9,200 feet, June 26, 1907; and saw dense patches of it on open
rocky ridges along Pass Creek, northwest of Kremmling, Middle
Park, in October, 1906. Rydberg records it from North Cheyenne
Canyon, Parlin, and Owl Canyon.

Ephedra antisyphylitica. Joint Fir.

The joint fir is a characteristic shrub on the warm rocky Upper
Sonoran slopes of western Colorado, extending eastward with the
junipers and pinyons for some distance into the mountains along the
warm north sides of the river valleys. E. antisyphylitica is the com-
mon species of widest range, but two other forms are present in the
southwestern valleys.

I have observed this joint fir at the following localities: Escalante
Hills, 7,000 feet; White River bluffs east of Rangely; pinyon country
southwest of Rangely; juniper-covered hills at north base of the Book
Cliffs; Glen wood Springs; Basalt; Mesa Verde; McElmo; lower San
Miguel and Dolores River regions (omnipresent below 7,000 feet) ;
Placerville; and Coventry.

Ephedra torreyana.

I have taken tins species only on the warm juniper slopes along the
north side of North Gunnison River at Somerset, 6,000 feet. It is
recorded by Rydberg from Deer Run, Mesa County.

Yucca glauca. Yucca.

This yucca is one of the most characteristic Upper Sonoran plants
in the State, being almost omnipresent below 6,000 feet, and extend-
ing often to 8,000 feet on exceptionally warm slopes in the foothills.
It occurs in abundance on both sides of the mountains (see fig. 33),
but the densest growth is on the eastern plains, particularly in the
southeastern counties. The tall spikes of greenish white flowers are
very prominent on the plains during June.

Following are some of the localities at which Yucca glauca was
observed on my trips over the State: Gaume's ranch, northwest
Baca County; Limon; Cheyenne Wells; Tuttle; Wray; Sterling;
Pawnee Buttes; Grover; east of Boulder; near Fort Collins; Bailey;
Gardner; La Veta; Buena Vista; Wet Mountain Valley; Poncha Pass,

1911.]

TREES AND SHRUBS.

223

summit; Salida; Cascade; Pueblo to Walsenburg; Saguache and San
Luis Valleys generally; Gunnison; Hotchkiss; Montrose region;
Placerville; McElmo Valley; lower Dolores River region up to 7,000
feet; Unaweep Canyon; Rifle; De Beque; Plateau Creek; and hills
between Carbonera and Mack.

Yucca harrimanise. Harriman Yucca.

Locally common at several points in the juniper belt of southwestern
Colorado below 7,000 feet. I found it in 1907 near Ridgway; on the
slopes of Cerro Ridge east of Montrose; and on the rocky slopes along

Fig. 33. — Distribution in Colorado of common yucca ( Yucca glauca).

the west side of Sinbad Valley. Rydberg records the species from
Cimarron and Durango.

Yucca baccata. Spanish Bayonet.

This large-leaved yucca is a characteristic Upper Sonoran plant in
parts of southwestern Colorado, growing chiefly among rocks on
warm juniper slopes and in the lowest valleys. It was flowering on
Mesa Verde at 7,000 feet June 13, 1907, the spikes of large greenish
white flowers dotting the rocky rims of Navajo Canyon just above
the Spruce Tree Cliff Ruins. (See fig. 34.) I observed this yucca at
Arboles, Bayfield; McElmo; Coventry; on slopes bordering Paradox
and Sinbad Valleys; and along the canyon of Dolores River between
Salt Canyon and the mouth of West Creek. There appears to be

224

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

only one Colorado record for Y. baccata east of the mountains —
Rydberg recording it from Trinidad.

Populus tremuloides. Aspen; Poplar.

Extensive aspen forests clothe the summits and northern slopes
of nearly all the western plateaus and mountains between 8,000 and
10,000 feet, but on the eastern slope of the main ranges the trees are
usually small, and form dense thickets rather than open forests.
This boreal poplar is restricted to the Canadian zone, the center of
abundance being at about 9,000 feet. Small thickets sometimes
occur on cold northeast slopes as low as 7,000 feet, while on warm
southern slopes a dwarfed growth usually extends to at least 10,500

Fig. 34. — Yucca baccata in flower, Navajo Canyon, Mesa Verde.

feet. The best aspen forests were encountered on the White River,
Book, and Uncompahgre Plateaus, and on the north slope of the
Rabbit Ear Mountains near Arapahoe Pass, where trees fully 2 feet
in diameter and 50 feet in height were not at all uncommon. On the
crest of the Uncompahgre Plateau, near its northern end, beautiful
aspen groves alternate with reaches of open grassy country, the
coniferous element so common elsewhere being very largely absent.
The aspen forest is often tolerably clear of large undergrowth, but
is mixed here and there with thickets of balsam firs or lodgepole
pines. Throughout the mountains are areas which formerly sup-
ported coniferous forests, but have been devastated by forest fires.

1911.] TREES AND SHRUBS. 225

These are now mostly covered with a young growth of aspens, which
seem to secure a foothold much more quickly than any of the conifers.

Populus angustifolia. Narrow-leaf Cottonwood.

There is scarcely a foothill stream in the State which is not fringed
with more or less of these cotton woods. It is a characteristic Transi-
tion zone species, with a vertical range from 5,500 to about 9,000 feet.
Its vertical position is intermediate between the aspen of the Canadian
zone and the broad-leaved cottonwoods of the Upper Sonoran zone.
It attains its largest size along the lower edge of its range at the base
of the foothills, where it often mingles for a short distance with the
broad-leaved species. Scattered clumps of large size are found the
entire length of the Snake River Valley, in northwestern Colorado.

Populus occidentalis. Broad-leaf Cottonwood.

This is the cottonwood which fringes most of the streams on the
eastern plains, the heaviest and largest growth being found along
the Platte and Arkansas Rivers and on many of the streams near
the base of the foothills from Denver north to Fort Collins. The
growth is particularly large in the Arkansas Valley between Las
Animas and the Kansas boundary. It is found on only a few streams
in the foothills, but near Livermore, Larimer County, I found it up
to 6,000 feet along Lone Pine Creek, and a single tree was growing
on Middle Boulder Creek at 5,800 feet. On the dry plains of Baca
County the beds of the streams, few of which are perennial, are
fringed by a gnarled and stunted growth of cottonwoods.

Populus wislizeni. Southwestern Cottonwood.

This is the predominant broad-leaved cottonwood of southwestern
Colorado, where it occurs along most of the watercourses below 6,000
feet. I found it common at Arboles; Grand Junction; along McElmo
Creek; on San Miguel River below Naturita; Dolores River between
Paradox Valley and the mouth of West Creek; Smith Fork below
Crawford; and North Gunnison River to 5 miles below Somerset;
and it was probably the species growing along the Rio Grande at
Alamosa. East of the mountains it is found on the plains at Colorado
Springs, according to Rydberg.

Populus acuminata. Smooth-bark Cottonwood.

During my explorations in Colorado I observed this cottonwood
only in the Upper Sonoran stream valleys of the northwestern
counties from the Wyoming boundary south to Mesa County, as
follows: Scattering fringe along Snake River for 8 miles above Lily;
dense growth of large size on Green River from Browns Park to
northern end of Ladore Canyon; lower Vermilion Creek, western
Routt County; scattering fringe along White River from Utah
90432°— 11 15

226 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

boundary east to Angora; Plateau Creek, Mesa County; and Dolores
lliver, at the mouth of West Creek (growing with P. wislizeni).
This cottonwood occurs east of the mountains, as Rydberg records
it from Fort Collins, Denver, and Walsenburg.

Salix amygdaloides. Peach-leaved Willow.

A common willow along streams in the Upper Sonoran zone on
both sides of the mountains. Observed at Boulder; Livermore; on
Green River near Ladore; and in the lower valleys of Snake and
White Rivers.

Salix perrostrata.

Taken in June, 1905, in the foothills near Golden, where small
clumps were growing in bogs on the higher slopes between 6,500
and 7,500 feet in the upper Transition zone.

Salix nuttalli. Nuttall Willow.

Scattered clumps were growing with S. perrostrata, between 6,500
and 7,500 feet, around springs and in bogs among the foothills near
Golden. Willows noted in September, 1906, at springs on the north-
ern slope of the Book Plateau, between 7,500 and 8,000 feet, were
probably S. nuttalli.
Salix geyeriana.

Dense thickets of this low willow fringe most of the streams and
bogs in Middle and Egeria Parks and near Halms Peak. It was
the prevailing species near Coulter in Middle Park and at the eastern
end of the Elk Head Mountains near Columbine. It was not observed
in the mountains of southern Colorado.

Salix glaucops.

Tins is perhaps the most abundant alpine willow in the mountains.
(See fig. 35.) In June, 1905, I found dense copses on the higher
slopes of Mount Kelso between 11,000 and 12,500 feet, and in 1906 it
was common on the streams of Egeria Park and the Gore Range.
The usual growth of tins willow varies from about 4 feet in the lower
part of its range in the Canadian zone to 2 feet or even less above
timberline. The glabrous-leaved form (S. g. glabrata) is common
in bogs on the alpine slopes of Mount Kelso.

Salix chlorophylla.

I have found tins alpine willow only on Mount Kelso, where it
grows on the boggy slopes between 11,000 and 12,500 feet in dense
copses from 2 to 4 feet high. It was more abundant above than
below timberline.

Betula fontinalis. Rocky Mountain Birch.

This handsome birch forms a conspicuous fringe along foothill
streams throughout tile State, and often extends out on the plains

TREES AND SHRUBS.

227

for some distance. It is usually associated with narrow-leaved
cottonwoods and willows, and I have seen it only near stream banks.
In July, 1907, I found several large clumps fully 20 feet in height on
Dolores River near the mouth of West Creek, at 5,000 feet. The
species occurs regularly up to 8,000 and occasionally to 9,000 feet
through the entire width of the Transition zon'e. I did not observe
it in the Canadian zone.

I found B. fontinalis common at the following localities : Streams
of Routt County; North Park; Plateau Creek; Bailey; Lake George;
St. Elmo; Frying Pan River, Basalt to Peachblow; head of Smith
Fork, West Elk Mountains; Unaweep Canyon; Placerville; Durango;
Rico; Mancos; Bay-
field ; and La Veta.

Betula glandulosa.
Dwarf Birch.

The habitat of the
dwarf birch is along
the borders of cold
bogs and streams in
the higher moun-
tains, .between 9,000
and 11,000 feet, in
the upper Canadian
and lower Hudson-
ian zones. It has
been found on prac-
tically all the higher
mountain ranges of
the State. The nor-
mal growth is from
3 to 5 feet high, but
in the Hudsonian
zone at about 11,000
feet the species is
dwarfed, rarely exceeding 2 feet. It was particularly abundant in
1906 in the mountain meadows on the Park Range and on the
mountains east of Laramie River, where a low, dense growth fringed
most of the bogs between 9,000 and 10,000 feet. I saw it on Grand
River, 5 miles east of Hot Sulphur; on the San Juan Mountains near
Ophir, at 10,500 feet; and southeast of Lake City, 9,000 to 11,000
feet. The leaves were falling near Lake City, October 18, 1907.

Alnus tenuifolia. Alder.

Alders form a dense fringe along cold streams throughout the
Colorado mountains. Thev are most abundant in the Canadian

Fig. 35. — Alpine willows in Arctic-Alpine zone, Front Range, near Ber-
thond Pass.

228 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

zone up to 10,000 feet, but occur regularly as low as 7,000 feet and
occasionally to 6,000 feet. The species attains its maximum size
along the smaller streams flowing from the Medicine Bow Mountains
into North Park, a tributary of Canadian Creek being fringed with
alders fully 20 feet in height.

The following localities at which I have noted alders indicate a
wide and uniform distribution: Log Cabin, Larimer County; North
Park; Halms Peak; Snake River, Honnold to 10 miles above Slater;
Gore Mountains; Fraser River, Middle Park; Smith Fork of Gunni-
son River, West Elk Mountains; Frying Pan River; Gunnison;
Crested Butte; Pitkin; vSapinero, Lake Fork of Gunnison River;
Wagon Wheel Gap; Poncha Pass; Creede; Manitou; Bailey, South
Platte River; Lake George; Buena Vista; St. Elmo; Lone Cone;
Unaweep Canyon; Rico; Silverton; Bayfield; Pagosa Springs; Pagosa
Junction; La Veta; and Las Animas River, Segundo to Weston.

Corylus rostrata. Beaked Hazelnut.

Small thickets of hazel are common on Middle Boulder Creek, at
Blanchard's ranch, 5 miles west of Boulder, at an elevation of nearly
6,000 feet. I did not observe the beaked hazel elsewhere in Colorado,
but Rydberg records it from other points in the eastern foothills
from North Cheyenne Canyon north to Larimer County.

Celtis reticulata. Hackberry.

The hackberry has a scattering distribution in the Upper Sonoran
zone on both sides of the mountains, being most common on the
eastern plains in gulches leading back from stream valleys. Small
clumps are found in most of the canyons of the lowest eastern foot-
hills from Boulder north to Fort Collins. I have not found it above
5,500 or 6,000 feet. Its growth in Colorado is uniformly scrubby,
and only occasionally does it attain the stature of a tree. Hack-
berries are common on the bare foothill slopes near Platte Canyon
Station, at Golden, Boulder, Arkins, and at a point 8 miles west of
Fort Collins. wSeveral large clumps grow in Shell Rock Canyon, north-
western Baca County. At Wray, Yuma County, the species is very
common in the gulches leading back from Chief Creek Valley.

Few hackberries were met with in western Colorado. Scattering
trees grow on the slopes along Plateau Creek, 5 miles east of Tunnel,
Mesa County, and others on West Creek, near its junction with Dolores
River, in southwestern Mesa County.

Atriplex canescens. Orache; Gray Saltbush.

This species has a wide range in the Upper Sonoran zone on both
sides of the mountains, but is most abundant in western and southern
Colorado. I have not observed it much above 7,000 feet. It is a
characteristic shrub in the warmer valleys of the eastern foothills
south of the Arkansas Valley, where it is locally termed "chico brush."

11)11.]

TREES AND SHRUBS.

229

tffetei

It often grows to a height of several feet on sandy or alkaline flats in
the bottoms of valleys. Pocket gophers appear to feed extensively
upon its leaves, which I have often found in their tunnels.

It was noted at the following localities : Lily Park ; Midland Basin,
Routt County; southwest of Rangely; Escalante Hills; desert north
of Alack; Hotchkiss; Montrose; Paradox Valley; Dolores River, near
mouth of West Creek; McElmo Valley; Medano Springs ranch, San
Luis Valley; Salida; Gardner; La Veta; Limon; and 30 miles northwest
of Sterling.
Atriplex confertifolia. Round-leaved Saltbush.

The round-leaved saltbush is a characteristic Upper Sonoran slirub
of the desert stretches of western Colorado, growing principally upon
dry alkaline flats, but often on sandy areas. Occasionally it forms
a dense growth like sagebrush, as on the plains of extreme western
Routt County, be-
tween the Escalante
Hills and Vermilion
Bluffs. (See PI. Ill,
fig. 2.) I observed
the species at locali-
ties as follows: Lower
Snake River Valley
east to Baggs Cross-
ing ; plains north of
Escalante Hills;
Browns Park; Lily
Park; Midland Basin;
M a y b e 1 1 ; badlands
near Rangely; Evac-
uation Creek Valley; desert north of Mack; southern slopes of Book
Cliffs to Atchee, 7,000 feet; Plateau Creek; Fruita; De Beque; New-
castle; Hotchkiss; Montrose; Paradox Valley; and McElmo Valley
east to north base of Mesa Verde at Point Lookout. This species
occurs also east of the mountains, as Rydberg records it from Denver
and Pueblo.

Atriplex nuttalli. Saltbush.

This small shrub, often called salt sage, is a characteristic Upper
Sonoran species, found chiefly on alkaline flats in the desert valleys of
western Colorado. In some of the dry desert basins it forms the
principal shrubby vegetation, although it is of small size and usually
more or less prostrate. It is the most conspicuous shrub in Midland
Basin, western Routt County; on the desert north of Mack (see fig.
36); and on the alkaline stretch of country between Hotchkiss and
the West Elk Mountains. I found it abundant in Browns Park;

^toui

.**£•*§

" :0„>-

Fig. 30. — Desert vegetation (Atriplex nuttalli and Sarcobatus vcrmkulatus)
in lower Grand River Valley, north of Mack, at 4,500 feet.

230 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. I No. 33.

along Snake River west of Baggs Crossing; southwest of Rangely;
and in McElmo and Uncompahgre Valleys.

Grayia spinosa. Common Grayia.

This low, spiny, mealy shrub is a characteristic plant in the sandy
and alkaline Upper Sonoran tracts of northwestern Colorado, where it
grows in profusion in river valleys and on the lowest bordering
benches up to a little over 6,000 feet. Together with Atriplex con-
fertifolia, it forms the principal shrubby growth in some of the river
valleys of western Routt and Rio Blanco Counties (see PL III, fig. 2).
I found it common in the Snake River Valley from 20 miles west of
Baggs Crossing to Lily; on the flats between the Escalante Hills
and Browns Park; in Midland Basin; in White River Valley from
Angora westward to the Utah boundary; on rocky slopes along Bear
River at Maybell; on the desert north of Mack, Mesa County; at
Rifle, Hotchkiss, and Somerset. In the Browns Park region the leaves
had nearly all fallen by the 1st of September.

Grayia brandegei.

The shrubby growth observed on the tops of low mesas along the
McElmo Valley near Moqui was probably G. brand er/ei, recorded by
Rydberg from the McElmo Valley.

Sarcobatus vermiculatus. Greasewood.

The zonal range of the greasewood is mainly Upper Sonoran. Its
wide range over*the lower parts of the State is well indicated by the
following localities at which it was observed during my explorations:
North Park in alkaline situations ; Snake River Valley to 5 miles east
of Slater at 6,800 feet; Bear River Valley east to Craig and Steamboat
Springs; Browns Park (very rank growth, sometimes 12 feet in
height); Lily Park; Midland Basin; Rangely; Texas Creek; Evacua-
tion Creek; north of Atchee, southern slope Book Plateau, to 7,500
feet; desert north of Mack (see fig. 36); Plateau Creek; De Beque;
Rifle; Dotsero to Eagle; Kremmling and Muddy Creek Valley, Mid-
dle Park; Hotchkiss; Montrose region; Dallas Creek near Ridgway;
lower valleys of San Miguel and Dolores Rivers; McElmo Valle}7;
Montezuma Valley east to north base of Mesa Verde at Point Lookout;
Bayfield; Salida; Gardner; San Luis Valley generally — Alamosa,
Saguache, Hooper, Villa Grove, Mosca, and Medano ranch.

Berberis fendleri. Barberry.

In Colorado the barberry appears to be confined to dry rocky slopes
and ridges in the region south and west of the San Juan and La
Plata Mountains. I found a scattering growth on rocky ridges in
the yellow pine forest at Pagosa Springs (7,000 feet), and later met
with the species on dry, open slopes at Durango. Rydberg records
B. fendleri from Durango, Arboles, Mancos, and Mancos Canyon.

1911.] TREES AND SHRUBS. 231

Odostemon aquifolium. Oregon Grape.

The Oregon grape has a wide distribution in the Colorado moun-
tains from the foothills to about 10,000 feet. I found it most abun-
dant on cool, shaded slopes in the upper part of the yellow pine belt,
where with Arctostaphylos it forms the characteristic lower under-
growth. The ripe clusters of bluish berries remain on the shrubs for
some time in the autumn. The Oregon grape is abundant at Boulder;
Coulter, Middle Park; Floyd Hill; Honnold; northern slopes of Elk
Head Mountains; northern slopes and summit of Escalante Hills,
7,000 feet; canyon of the Grand above Glen wood Springs; Unaweep
Canyon; Cerro Ridge; Somerset; West Elk Mountains, head of Smith
Fork; Sapinero; Dolores; Mesa Verde; Bayfield; Pagosa Springs;
Wet Mountains east of Westcliffe; and hills near La Veta.

Odostemon fremonti.

In August, 1907, I found this large prickly -leaved shrub abundant
along the Smith Fork of Gunnison River, at the western base of West
Elk Mountains, a few miles east of Crawford, Delta County. At this
point it was growing among junipers and pinyons on the warm rocky
slopes near the stream. Many of the shrubs were 6 or 8 feet in height.
Rydberg records 0. fremonti from Smith Fork Canyon, and it is not
known to occur elsewhere in the State.

Edwinia americana.

I have not observed this species west of the Continental Divide,
but it is a conspicuous shrub on cliffs and rock ledges on the eastern
slope across the State from north to south, chiefly in the Transition
zone. It was in full bloom in the foothills west of Boulder June 10,
1905, and the white-flowered cymes were very handsome. It is par-
ticularly common in the hills along the South Platte near Bailey,
and between Manitou and Woodland Park.

Fendlera rupicola.

In Colorado this low shrub is confined to the southwestern coun-
ties, where it is tolerably common on dry slopes and low mesas in the
Upper Sonoran and lower Transition zones. It was abundant on
the pinyon slopes along the Los Pinos at Bayfield, La Plata County
(6,500 feet), and a few of the shrubs were in flower June 5, 1907. It
was common in July, 1907, on the low benches along Dolores River
between Salt Canyon and the mouth of West Creek, at 5,500 feet, and
I noted it for some distance up the valley of West Creek. Ryd-
berg records the species from Durango, Mancos, Cerro Summit,
Dolores, Hotchkiss, and Los Pinos.

Ribes cereum. Red Currant.

This is a common currant on dry rocky slopes up to at least 10,000
feet, but is most abundant in the yellow pine belt. Observed at

232 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

Boulder; Golden; Pawnee Buttes, northeastern Weld County;
Bailey; Manitou; Buena Vista; Como; St. Elmo; Thomasville;
Wagon Wheel Gap; Coulter; Escalante Hills; and Pagosa Junction.

Ribes wolfi.

This high-ranging currant is not uncommon in the Canadian and
Hudsonian zones, growing even on rocky slopes to a short distance
above timberline. It was not observed at any point below 8,000 feet.
The black viscid berries were still on the bushes on the summit of the
Book Plateau September 22, 1906. It is a common shrub on Lone
Cone, San Miguel Mountains; at Thomasville; and on McClellan
Mountain between 11,000 and 12,000 feet.

Ribes longinorum. Golden Currant.

The zonal range of this flowering currant is mainly Upper Sonoran.
Its yellow bloom was conspicuous at Boulder June 8, 1905, and along
the San Juan River at Pagosa Springs May 27, 1907. This currant
was observed also at Golden and at Wray. Vernon Bailey reports it
common along streams in the southern end of San Luis Valley.

Opulaster intermedins. Nine bark.

In early June, 1905, I found this handsome flowering shrub in full
bloom on Middle Boulder Creek at 5,800 feet, in the Transition zone.
Rydberg records it from other points in the eastern foothills of the
Front Range.

Opulaster monogynus.

Common in June, 1905, in the foothills near Boulder and Golden
between 6,500 and 7,500 feet. This species does not grow along
streams like 0. intermedins, but on dry rocky slopes. Rydberg gives
O. monogynus a wide distribution in the eastern and central mountain
districts.

Rubacer parviflorus. Salmonberry.

The large-leaved salmonberry is conspicuous on cool forested slopes
in the Canadian zone throughout the mountains of western and
central Colorado, but is uncommon east of the Continental Divide.
The large juicy red fruit has a delicious flavor and is usually ripe by
the end of August. Salmonberries were found in great abundance
on the western slopes of the Park Range east of Steamboat Springs;
near Halms Peak, 8,000 to 8,500 feet; on the Book Plateau; on Lone
Cone; and at Thomasville.

Oreobatus deliciosus. False Raspberry.

This is a characteristic shrub in the eastern foothills up to 9,000 or
10,000 feet, but was not observed in the western mountains. In the
foothills west of Boulder the large showy white flowers were out June 6,
1905, and the species was flowering at Georgetown June 20. It is

1911.] TREES AND SHRUBS. 233

particularly abundant in the yellow pine belt at Bailey and on the
slopes near Buena Vista. The dark purplish fruit of tins shrub is
inedible.

Rubus strigosus. Red Raspberry.

Red raspberries were fully ripe on cool north slopes in the yellow
pine belt near Arkins July 26, 1906. At this locality they were grow-
ing in profusion at 6,000 feet. The species is common at Ophir, St.
Elmo, Thomasville, and on the eastern slopes of the Sangre de Cristo
Range in western Huerfano County. It is usually found in slide rock
or in areas which have been swept by forest tires.

Dasiphora fruticosa. Shrubby Cinquefoil.

The shrubby cinquefoil is one of the most showy flowering shrubs
in mountain meadows and on open slopes between 8,000 and 11,000
feet. It occurs in greatest abundance in wet meadows in the high
mountain parks at 9,000 or 10,000 feet in the Canadian zone. The
large yellow flowers dotted the upper slopes of Mount McClellan
between 10,500 and 11,000 feet during the middle of June, 1905, and
the species was flowering at 10,000 feet on the South Park plains at
Como as late as August 21, 1907. Above 11,000 feet Dasiphora oc-
curs in a dwarfed state not over a foot high — about half its normal
growth. It is an abundant shrub near Pearl, in northwestern North
Park, at 8,700 feet, where it was flowering August 8, 1906. I observed
the species on the White River and Uncompahgre Plateaus; at Divide,
Teller County; in Slate River Valley between Almont and Crested
Butte; and in the meadows along the headwaters of Cebolla Creek,
southeast of Lake City, up to 11,000 feet.

Holodiscus dumosus.

This handsome flowering shrub is conspicuous among rocks in the
foothill districts up to 9,000 feet on both slopes of the mountains.
The species occurs mainly in the Transition zone. It was in flower
July 12, 1905, in the canyon along Grand River just west of Hot
Sulphur. I have found it common in the canyon of the Grand
above Glen wood Springs; in Unaweep Canyon; on the Uncompahgre
Plateau, head of Dominguez Creek; at Ouray; Buena Vista; and in
the Wet Mountains east of Westcliffe, 9,500 feet.

Kunzia tridentata.

Tins species is generally distributed over the mountainous sec-
tions of the State from 6,000 to 9,500 feet. It is usually present
on dry open hills and was not observed in heavy forests. It forms
dense thickets in the sand dunes along the western base of the Medi-
cine Bow Range in North Park, and in the sandy yellow pine country
on the head of Dominguez Creek, at the northern end of Uncompah-
gre Plateau. At a little distance this species bears a close resemblance

234 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

to sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), but is darker green and seldom
grows to a height of more than 2 feet. It is usually in full bloom by
the 1st of July.

K. tridentata was observed at the following localities: Nederland;
Elkhorn, Larimer County; bare hillsides along Snake River at Slater;
Canadian Creek, North Park; Coulter, Middle Park; river bluffs near
Baggs Crossing; watershed between Snake and Bear Rivers; O-wi-yu-
kuts Plateau ; Escalante Hills ; Book Plateau (a little on 8,500 foot
summit at Columbine) ; canyon of the Grand above Glenwood Springs ;
Somerset; Dillon; Sapinero; Arboles; East Paradox Valley (rare);
and Uncompahgre Plateau.
Cowania mexicana. Cliff Rose.

The handsome cliff rose is restricted in Colorado to the warm
valleys and lower mesas of the southwestern counties, where it has
an irregular distribution from the Mesa Verde north to UnawTeep
Canyon. The growth is usually from 4 to 6 feet. The species forms
the most conspicuous shrubbery on the warm open rocky slopes along
the north side of Unaweep Canyon, at the northern end of the Uncom-
pahgre Plateau, where it occurs up to 7,000 feet. By the end of
July, 1907, it had ceased blooming in Unaweep Canyon and also on
the lower slopes of Salt Canyon, between Sinbad Valley and Dolores
River, at 5,500 feet. Cliff roses were a mass of yellow bloom June
13, 1907, along the rocky rims of Navajo Canyon, Mesa Verde, at
7,000 feet. Here they were growdng commonly among junipers and
pinyons, often on rocks where there was scarcely any soil.

Cercocarpus parvifolius. Mountain Holly.

The mountain holly is almost omnipresent on the warmer foothill
slopes from the lowest edge of the pinyon belt to the upper edge of
the yellow pine belt, on both slopes of the mountains. It forms a
dense growth, covering many of the open slopes along the lowest edge
of the foothills, and it is common on the higher rocky ridges on the
plains of northeastern Colorado at a little over 5,000 feet.

The following localities show the wide range of C. parvifolius:
Livermore; Pawnee Buttes, Weld County; Platte Canyon Station;
Bailey; Salida; Golden; Boulder; Manitou; Eastonville; Walsen-
burg; Gardner; Trinidad; Slater; Godiva Ridge; Escalante Hills;
O-wi-yu-kuts Plateau; south of Lily; southwest of Rangely; Plateau
Creek; De Beque; Meeker; West Elk Mountain^ east of Crawford;
Somerset; Cerro Summit; Ouray; Placerville; Naturita; Sinbad
Valley, above 6,000 feet; Dolores; Ute Peak, lower slopes; Mancos;
Mesa Verde; Arboles; Bayfield; and Wagon Wheel Gap.

Cercocarpus ledifolius. Mountain Mahogany.

The mountain mahogany was noted on the 7,000-foot crest of the
Escalante Hills near Douglas Spring, in western Routt County, where

1911.] TREES AND SHRUBS. 235

I found it growing commonly on rocky ridges among the yellow
pines in September, 1906. Apparently it does not occur elsewhere
in Colorado.

Rosa manca. Rose.

This handsome rose grows in profusion in openings along the crest
of the Uncompahgre Plateau at about 9,000 feet. The bushes were
a mass of pink bloom near Uncompahgre Butte July 16, 1907.

A great variety of wild roses grow in the Colorado mountains up to
10,000 feet, and are in flower nearly all summer. Since few speci-
mens were collected, I am unable to correlate my notes with the vari-
ous species and can give no data of consequence on their distribution.

Amelancliier bakeri. June Berry.

This June berry was collected on West Creek, near its junction with
Dolores River, in western Mesa County. Tt is a common shrub in
the Unaweep Canyon and also on the summit and upper slopes of
Mesa Verde, where it forms a dense chaparral. This is probably
the species so abundant over most of the mesas from western Mon-
tezuma County north to Mesa County, in the Transition zone.

Amelanchier oreophila.

An Amelanchier which I collected on Lone Mesa, Dolores County,
in June, 1907, proves to belong to this species. Scattering shrubs of
small size were growing among the oak chaparral on the dry upper
slopes at 9,400 feet, in the lower Canadian zone. I did not collect it
elsewhere, but Rydberg gives it a wide range on the western slope.

Amelanchier alnifolia. Common June Berry.

As few specimens of June berries were preserved, the distribution
data given below doubtless refers to several species. A. alnifolia is,
however, the widest ranging species in the State. June berries are
abundant on the dry, partially open Transition slopes throughout the
mountains, and on many of the western mesas they often form a
dense chaparral. Some years they bear an abundance of fruit, but
usually it is rather scanty and of poor quality. The berries are
eagerly eaten by birds and chipmunks. I observed the shrubs in
abundance at the following localities: Halms Peak, below 8,500 feet;
slopes along Snake River between Honnold and Baggs Crossing;
Godiva Ridge; O-wi-yu-kuts Plateau; Escalante Hills, above 6,400
feet; south of Lily; southwest of Rangely; Book Plateau, every-
where above 6,500 feet; Plateau Creek; south of De Beque; canyon
of the Grand above Glenwood Springs; bluffs between Dotsero and
Wolcott; summit of Piney Divide, 8,500 feet; Transition slopes
bordering Sinbad Valley; Lone Cone; Dolores; Mancos; Durango;
Bayfield; Pagosa Springs; Pagosa Junction; and La Veta.

236 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

Peraphyllum ramosissimum. Dwarf Apple.

I found this shrub in great abundance on dry open hillsides south
and west of the San Juan and La Plata Mountains, chiefly between
6,500 and 7,500 feet. The dry slopes along the Los Pinos at Bay-
field were covered with a mass of its pale roseate blossoms the first
week in June, 1907, and it was in flower up to the middle of the
month on the Mesa Verde. It was noted as follows: South slope
of Book Plateau above Atchee, 8,000 feet; Newcastle; East Fork
of Rifle Creek; canyon of the Grand above Glenwood Springs; Basalt;
Somerset; rocky slopes near Hotchkiss; Montrose region above
7,000 feet; north base of Lone Cone at 7,000 feet; Sinbad Valley
rim above 6,000 feet; Dolores; McElmo Valley; Arboles; and Bay-
field.
Prunus americana. Wild Plum.

This species occurs sparingly in gulches on the eastern plains and
at the eastern base of the foothills in the Upper Sonoran zone. Thick-
ets of wild plum were observed at Wray; Gaume's ranch, north-
western Baca County; Arkins; and Boulder. Rydberg records the
species from a number of localities extending across the State from
north to south at the base of the foothills.

Prunus pennsylvanica. Red Cherry.

Rydberg gives the red cherry a wide range in the eastern foothills
of the Front Range up to 9,500 feet. I found it common in the foot-
hills at Boulder and Manitou.

Prunus melanocarpa. Chokecherry.

This species appears from my observations to be the common
wild cherry of the mountains, particularly in western Colorado.
The growth is uniformly scrubby, often forming a dense chaparral
on the Transition zone summits and upper slopes of plateaus and
mesas in the western counties. It is sparingly present in gulches
on the eastern plains. The following are localities at which P.
melanocarpa was observed: Northern slopes Elk Head Mountains,
7,800 feet; Slater to Baggs Crossing; White River below Angora;
Book Plateau, dense chaparral 7,000 feet to summit; Glenwood
Springs; summit of Piriey Divide, 8,000 feet; Pitkin; Somerset;
lower slopes of Lone Cone; Uncompahgre Plateau; Placerville;
Ouray; Vernal Mesa; West Elk Mountains east of Crawford; Frying
Pan River, Basalt to Thomasville; Dolores; Mancos; Hermosa;
Arboles; Pagosa Springs; Sterling; Wray; and Tuttle.

Robinia neomexicana. Locust.

A very few of these locusts were observed on the rocky banks of
Grand River near Tunnel, Mesa County, at about 5,000 feet. Re-
corded by Rydberg from Denver, Walsenburg, La Veta, and Trinidad.

1911.]

TREES AND SHRUBS. 237

Rhus rydbergi. Poison Ivy.

The poison ivy is common in canyons on the eastern plains and
also in the lower eastern foothills of the Front Range. It was
observed at Tuttle; Wray; Pawnee Buttes; in gulches along the
southern escarpment of the Chimney Cliffs, 30 miles northwest
of Sterling; in the foothills at Boulder and Golden; and it was col-
lected in Navajo Canyon, Mesa Verde, southwest Colorado.

Schmaltzia glabra. Sumac.

This sumac I have found sparingly up to 6,000 feet in the foothills
west of Boulder and Golden, and also near Livermore and Platte
Canyon Station. Its brilliant reddish autumnal foliage was very
conspicuous on the slopes along Middle Boulder Creek October 20,
1906, when the leaves had just commenced to fall.

Schmaltzia trilobata. Skunk Bush.

The zonal range of this sumac is mainly Upper Sonoran, and it is
equally abundant on both sides of the mountains. In the foothills
it usually grows on the warm sides of canyons and along streams.
In the warm desert valleys of western Colorado it is often found
with sagebrush in the open, but also forms a good growth along
watercourses, where it sometimes attains a height of 8 or 10 feet.
East of the mountains this sumac occurs chiefly in gulches in the
rougher parts of the plains.

S. trilobata was observed as follows: Tuttle; Wray; bluffs east of
Sterling; Chimney Cliffs; Pawnee Buttes; Gaume's ranch, north-
western Baca County ; Livermore, dry slopes up to 6,500 feet; Boulder;
Golden; Platte Canyon Station; Segundo; Buena Vista, up to 8,500
feet; bluffs along Snake River below Baggs Crossing; Plateau Creek;
Basalt; Hotchkiss; Naturita; Sinbad Valley; West Creek; McElmo;
and Pagosa Springs.

Pachystima myrsinites.

This little evergreen shrub is abundant throughout the moun-
tains, growing in dense clumps in wooded gulches and on shaded
north slopes between 6,000 and 9,000 feet. It was found in abun-
dance at the following localities: Northern slopes of Elk Head
Mountains at 7,800 feet; Park Range up to 9,000 feet; canyon of the
Grand above Glenwood Springs; summit of Escalante Hills; Book
Plateau, 8,000 feet; Navajo Canyon, 7,000 feet; and northern escarp-
ment of Mesa Verde.

Acer glabrum. Mountain Maple.

The mountain maple is common and widely distributed in the
mountains of Colorado, growing in greatest profusion on damp
shaded slopes between 5,500 and 9,000 feet and forming dense
clumps on the borders of streams and bogs. The bright yellow

238 NOKTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

autumnal foliage gives a brilliant coloring to the mountain slopes
in late September. The average height is not over 8 feet, although
12 feet is sometimes attained. I have found this species especially
common among the eastern gulches of the Front Range and on
both slopes of the Saguache Range. It occurs on the northern
slope of the Book Cliffs and is abundant at Aspen and in most of the
mountains of southern Colorado.

Acer negundo. Box Elder.

Box elders are common trees on most of the streams of the eastern
plains and scattered clumps are often met with on foothill streams
to elevations of 7,000 or 8,000 feet on both sides of the mountains.
The zonal distribution is mainly Upper Sonoran. In my trips over
the State I have found box elders at the following localities: Snake
River, from 5 miles east of Slater to Baggs Crossing ; southern slopes
of Book Cliffs near Atchee at 7,500 feet; Rifle Creek; canyon of
Plateau Creek ; canyon of the Grand above Glen wood Springs ; Frying
Pan River, Basalt to Peachblow; Ouray; Unaweep Canyon; Wray;
Platte Canyon Station; Las Animas River, Segundo to Weston; and
Shell Rock Canyon, northwestern Baca County.

Rhamnus smithi. Buckthorn.

This species is known apparently from only two localities in the
State. It was abundant and in flower May 27 on the banks of San
Juan River at Pagosa Springs (7,000 feet), and was again encoun-
tered in the hot canyon of Dolores River between Salt Canyon and
the mouth of West Creek at about 5,000 feet. Dense spreading
thickets of buckthorn, often 10 or 12 feet high, fringed Dolores River
for most of this distance and extended eastward in the West Creek
Valley to an elevation of 5,500 feet. The black-green foliage of
R. smithi was in marked contrast to the predominant gray-green
desert vegetation along the Dolores and on the bordering canyon
sides. The fruit of this shrub had nearly all turned to a rich pur-
plish black, July 13, 1907, but some was still green or only partially
colored. This species has been recorded from Pagosa Springs by
Rydberg.

Ceanothus velutinus. Mountain Balm.

This shrub forms a dense chaparral about 2 feet in height on the
central slopes of most of the mountain ranges of northern Colorado,
extending south to Thomasville on the western slope of the Saguache
Range. I did not see it on any of the mountains of southern Colorado.
The rankest growth was observed in the Middle Park region, on the
Park Range, and on the hills around Steamboat Springs, where in
places the dense thickets were well-nigh impassable. The species is
occasionally found as low as 6,500 feet, but usually grows between

1911.] TREES AND SHRUBS. 239

7,500 and 9,500 feet. It is most abundant on dry, partially open
slopes which have been burned over by forest fires. The oval bright
green leaves are remarkably shiny and glabrous, giving ;i peculiar
brilliance to this chaparral on a bright day.

Other points where I observed C. velutinus are: Northern slopes of
Elk Head Mountains; bluffs along Snake River, 10 miles east of
Slater; Escalante Hills, 7,000 feet; watershed between Bear and
White Rivers, north of Midland Basin, 6,500 feet; juniper slopes at
McCoy, 7,000 feet; northern slopes of Piney Divide, 8,000 feet; Coul-
ter, Middle Park; northern slopes of Book Plateau; and Dillon.

Ceanothus pubescens.

This is a common shrub on dry rocky slopes in the eastern foothills
of the front ranges, chiefly in the Transition zone. I found it abun-
dant also in sandy yellow pine forest near the head of Dominguez
Creek on the Uncompahgre Plateau, at 8,000 feet. It is common in
the foothills near Boulder and La Veta.

Ceanothus fendleri.

This species is common in the Transition zone over most of the
State, according to the range given by Rydberg. I have met with it
only in the southwest on the summit of Lone Mesa, 0,400 feet, and
on the open gravelly benches along McElmo Creek in western Mon-
tezuma County, 5,500 feet.

Cactus missouriensis. Ball Cactus.

The common ball cactus is abundant on the high plains from the
Arkansas Divide near Cheyenne Wells northwest to Weld and Logan
Counties. I have found it common on the South Park plains near
Como up to 10,000 feet, in the yellow pine belt at Bailey, and on the
sage plains of western Routt County.

Cactus radiosus.

This ball cactus is tolerably common among rocks in the pinyon
belt at Coventry, in western Montrose County, where I collected
specimens in July, 1907, at an elevation of 6,500 feet.

Echinocactus simpsoni. Snake Cactus.

This peculiar cactus is found chiefly at the higher elevations. In
November, 1907, I found it common in Wet Mountain Valley; in the
Wet Mountains east of Westcliffe between 9,000 and 9,500 feet; and
on the eastern slopes of the Sangre de Cristo Range near Mosca Pass —
both in yellow pine forest and in the open.

Echinocereus viridiflorus. Cereus.

This greenish flowered cereus is abundant in the eastern foothills
of the front ranges across the State from north to south. It ascends

240 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

to at least 9,000 feet in the Wet Mountains east of WestclifTe, where
in November, 1907, I found it in rocky soil among the yellow pines.
It was common at Walsenburg, 7,000 feet; and at Gaume's ranch,
in Shell Rock Canyon, northwestern Baca County, it was abundant
among rocks at 4,600 feet. The species was not observed in western
Colorado.

Echinocereus paucispinus.

This cereus is not uncommon in the rocky piny on and juniper
country of southwestern Colorado, chiefly below 7,500 feet. It was
taken north of Dolores at 7,500 feet, and was very common at Cov-
entry. It is recorded from Durango by Rydberg.

Opuntia polyacantha. Prickly Pear.

This is an Upper Sonoran species, occasionally growing to 7,000
feet on warm slopes in the foothill valleys. It is of general occurrence
on the plains east of the mountains, where it is the common prickly
pear, and it is present on the sage plains of Routt County. The yel-
low flowers usually dot the plains during the first two weeks in June.
It is common at Slater; Snake River Valley; Maybell; Boulder; Fort
Collins; Sterling; Pawnee Buttes; Platte Canyon Station; Limon;
Wray; Cheyenne Wells; Pueblo; Walsenburg; Salida; and Gaume's
ranch, northwestern Baca County.

Opuntia rhodantha.

This handsome red-flowered prickly pear is abundant in the warm
valleys of extreme southwestern Colorado. At McElmo it was in
bloom during the middle of June, 1907. Rydberg records it from
Grand Junction and Boulder.

Opuntia camanchica.

A large-jointed species, chiefly of southwestern Colorado — McElmo,
Cortez, Dolores, Coventry, and Paradox Valley. It was in flower in
McElmo Valley June 15 to 22, 1907. Rydberg records it from
Colorado Springs.

Opuntia fragilis.

This small-jointed species is not uncommon in the foothill districts
between 6,000 and 8,500 feet, in the Transition zone. It was growing
in rocky situations in the yellow pine forest near Pagosa Springs, and
also on the northern end of the Uncompahgre Plateau, and was
occasionally noted on the high plains near Pawnee Buttes, in north-
eastern Weld County. It was observed on rocky juniper slopes along
the head of Smith Fork, West Elk Mountains; at Somerset; Buena
Vista; Plateau Creek, Mesa County; and Unaweep Canyon. Ryd-
berg records it from Denver and Boulder.

1011.]

TREES AND SHRUBS.

241

Opuntia arborescens. Tree Cactus.

The tree cactus is a characteristic Upper Sonoran species from the
Arkansas Valley southward (see fig. 37), and over much of south-
eastern Colorado is the most prominent shrub on the level plains.
It extends some distance into the foothills along the warmest slopes
of the valleys, reaching its western limit in the Arkansas Valley at a
point 5 miles east of Salida, and in the Huerfano Valley a short
distance above Gardner. It reaches at Fountain its northern limit
along Fountain Creek, and it occurs near Trinidad in the Las Animas
Valley, and at Walsenburg in the Cucharas Valley. It is particularly
abundant in the canyons of Las Animas and western Baca Counties.

Fig. 37.— Distribution in Colorado of tree cactus {Opuntia arborescens).

Lepargyrea argentea. Buffalo Berry.

Dense thickets of buffalo berry are present along many of the
streams of the plains on both sides of the Continental Divide, and
the species extends into the foothills along some of the watercourses
to an elevation of from 6,000 to 7,000 feet. The zonal distribution
is mainly Upper Sonoran. Sandy river banks are especially suited
to the growth of the buffalo berry. The brilliant scarlet clusters of
berries are usually ripe by the middle or end of August, and are
eagerly eaten by sage thrashers and many other birds. In late
August, 1907, chipmunks (Eutamias minimus) were feeding exten-
90432°— 11 16

242 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 33.

sively upon the ripe buffalo berries in the Snake River Valley. We
found the berries when cooked and used as sauce a welcome addition
to our camp fare, but uncooked they are extremely acid. Observed
at La Porte; Snake River Valley, Slater to Lily; Browns Park; White
River Valley, Angora to Rangely; Dotsero to Eagle; Newcastle;
Dallas Creek, near Ridgway ; Basalt; Hotchkiss; near Montrose; Natu-
rita; Pagosa Junction; Arboles; and along most of the streams on
the eastern plains.

Lepargyrea canadensis. Canadian Buffalo Berry.

This is a characteristic Canadian zone shrub in the mountains of
northern and central Colorado, becoming less common toward the
south. It is conspicuous in the undergrowth of the dry lodgepole
pine forests of the central mountain slopes between 8,000 and 10,000
feet, but I have not observed it much lower. Above 10,000 feet it
becomes decumbent, often not more than a foot high, and is of rare
occurrence above 11,000 feet. The bright red berries of this buffalo
berry have an attractive appearance, but are unpalatable and very
bitter. They are ripe by the 1st of August, and usually remain on
the bushes during most of that month. The leathery leaves had
nearly all fallen at St. Elmo, in the Saguache Range, at 10,000 feet,
October 9, 1907.

I found L. canadensis at the following localities: Eight thousand
five hundred to ten thousand feet on the Medicine Bow and Laramie
Mountains ; Park Range, west of Pearl, 9,000 to 10,000 feet; Ophir, to
10,500 feet; Culebra Range, near La Veta; Thomasville; Floyd Hill;
Como ; Dillon ; and St. Elmo. Rydberg mentions its occurrence in the
southwestern mountains — near Ouray and on Bear Creek Divide in
the West La Plata Mountains.

Svida stolonifera riparia. Red-osier Dogwood.

The dogwood or cornel is a prominent shrub along streams in the
Transition zone nearly throughout the mountains, and its clusters
of white berries are very conspicuous in autumn. Rydberg records
another species (S. interior) from several points in the foothills,
but in my trips through the mountains I have met with only the
present species. I observed the cornel on Plateau Creek, east of
Tunnel; along White River at Meeker; on the upper reaches of
Smith Fork, in the West Elk Mountains; along streams heading in
Book Cliffs, above 7,o00 feet; and on most of the streams on the
eastern slopes of the Front Range.

Arctostaphylos uvaursi. Red Bearberry.

This handsome bearberry is one of the most widely distributed
mountain shrubs in Colorado, growing on practically all the ranges
from 6,000 to 10,000 feet. It grows luxuriantly on dry shaded
slopes beneath lodgepole and yellow pine forest, and the trailing

1911.] TREES AND SHRUBS. 243

mats of rich dark green are usually very dense and of considerable
extent.

I found the red bearberry abundant at Thomasville; Dillon;
Como; St. Elmo; Escalante Hills, summit at 7,000 feet; Wet
Mountains, east of Westcliffe; Bradford, Huerfano County; foot-
hills west of Boulder; Coulter, Middle Park; Divide; and in the
yellow pine forest on the Arkansas Divide at Eastonville.

Arctostaphylos pungens platyphylla. Manzanita.

The manzanita is found on the dry slopes of the Uncompahgre
Plateau and on the eastern slopes of the La Sal Mountains in western
Montrose County. It appears not to have been recorded previously
from the State.

In July, 1907, 1 noted a scattering growth on the head of Dominguez
Creek, at the northern end of the Uncompahgre Plateau, and in
descending the steep southwestern escarpment north of Is abeguache
Creek a dense chaparral of this manzanita was traversed on the
rocky slopes immediately below the aspen belt, at about 8,000 feet.
I found it a common undershrub in the yellow pine forest just above
the western rim of West Paradox Valley, between 7,000 and 8,000
feet. The species came under my observation only in the Transition
zone and appears to grow principally on dry, partially open slopes.

Vaccinium csespitosum. Huckleberry; Blueberry.

This blueberry is common from Yankee Doodle Lake (10,500
feet) to timberline on Rollins Pass; at Ophir (10,500 feet) to timber-
line; and on the upper slopes of Lone Cone. It is most abundant
on the mossy floor of the Canadian zone forests.

Vaccinium oreophilum. Bilberry.

The bilberry forms low, dense carpets 8 or 10 inches high in the
lodgepole pine and Engelmann spruce forests between 8,000 and
11,000 feet, and is particularly abundant on the Front, Park, and
Gore Ranges. (See fig. 38.) I found it on Mount McClellan and
near Berthoud Pass at 11,000 feet altitude.

Vaccinium erythrococcum. Small-leaved Bilberry.

This diminutive small-leaved bilberry occurs on Mount McClellan
between 11,000 feet and timberline, and was observed on Berthoud
Pass, Buffalo Pass, and on the Park Range along the headwaters
of Grand Encampment River. Rydberg records it from a number
of localities on the Front, Saguache, Park, and Sangre de Cristo
Ranges.

Fraxinus anomala. Ash.

This small Sonoran species I saw only in the warmer parts of
southwestern Colorado, where it was observed at several localities
from Mesa County south to Montezuma County at elevations varying

244

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

from 5,000 to 5,500 feet. It usually grows to a height of from 6 to
10 feet, and single trees or small clumps are scattered here and there
in gulches and on the warm rocky slopes in canyons. It was observed
in the following places: Slopes bordering McElmo Valley, between
Moqui and McElmo; Salt Canyon, the outlet of Sinbad Valley;
canyon of Dolores River down to the mouth of West Creek; western
(lower) part of Unaweep Canyon; and lower slopes bordering West
Paradox Valley. Rydberg records this species from Grand Junction,
Deer River, and between Hotchkiss and Smith Fork.

Lycium pallidum. Matrimony Vine.

This species is restricted in Colorado, so far as known, to the low
arid Upper Sonoran stretches of the extreme southwest. I found a

scattering growth in
the partially open
sage and pinyon coun-
try between Bayfield
and Ignacio, La Plata
County. It is re-
corded by Rydberg
from McElmo Creek
and San Juan Valley.
Sambucus micro-
botrys. Elder.
This elderberry is
abundant in the Ca-
nadian zone forest
throughout the
mountains between
8,000 and 10,500 feet.
I have seldom ob-
served it in the Tran-
sition zone, but occa-'
sionally it occurs
nearly to timberline.
The red berries are usually ripe by the middle of August or the first
of September. S. microbotrys is abundant on both slopes of the Front
Range; at Pearl, North Park; Buffalo Pass, Park Range; summit of
Continental Divide; north of Ilahns Peak; Arapahoe Pass, Rabbit
Ear Mountains; Thomasville; Dillon; St. Elmo; headwaters of Cebolla
Creek southeast of Lake City; and Lone Cone.

Sambucus melanocarpa.

This is a lower ranging species than S. microbotrys, and grows more
in the open and chiefly in the Transition zone. I met with it only in

Fig. 38. — Vaccinium orcnphilum on the iloor of lodgepole pine forest,
Park Range, west of North Park, 10,000 feet.

1911.] TREES AND SHRUBS. 245

western Colorado, but Rydberg records it from several points in the
eastern foothills of the Front Range. It was noted as follows : West-
ern slope of Continental Divide north of Halms Peak, 9,000 feet;
Halms Peak; Escalante Hills, 6,400 to 7,000 feet; and Uncompahgre
Plateau, 8,000 feet. It was growing in profusion on the rocky north-
ern slopes and along the crest of the Escalante Hills, where the black
berries were fully ripe September 3, 1906.
Viburnum pauciflorum. Few-flowered Viburnum.

This small viburnum was observed only at Arapahoe Pass, Rabbit
Ear Mountains, at an elevation of 9,000 feet. Rydberg records it
from Grand Lake, Minnehaha, and Clear Creek.
Linnsea americana. Twinflower.

The twinflower occurs on the higher slopes of the front ranges
nearly across the State, according to Rydberg. I collected it at
10,000 feet near Idlewild on the Middle Park slope of the Front Range,
and observed it near Mount Whiteley in northwestern Middle Park,
at about 8,500 feet — both localities being in the Canadian zone.
Near Idlewild this small trailing vine was abundant on mossy slopes
in the damp Engelmaim spruce forest.
Symphoricarpos occidentalis. Wolfberry.

The wolfberry is a very abundant shrub on the banks of the South
Platte River near Sterling, where it forms dense thickets about 2
feet high. I found it also at Golden. R}Tdberg records it from a
number of localities along the eastern base of the foothills.
Symphoricarpos oreophilus. Snowberry.

A dense scrubb}" growth of this small-leaved snowberry covers
many open mountain slopes in the Transition zone, particularly in
western Colorado. It is rarely found in forests or damp situations,
but grows rampant on dry, rocky hillsides and mesas. It occurs
in abundance in the following localities: Hahns Peak region below
8,500 feet; Escalante Hills; divide between Bear and White Rivers;
southwest of Rangely; Book Plateau above 6,500 feet; canyon of
the Grand above Glen wood Springs; Mount Whiteley; West Elk
Mountains east of Crawford; Vernal Mesa; Somerset; Uncompahgre
Plateau; Lone Cone; and Ute Peak.
Distegia involucrata. Involucred Fly Honeysuckle.

Throughout the mountains this honeysuckle is a common and
conspicuous undershrub in the forests of the middle slopes. It usu-
ally grows in damp situations and is particularly common along
streams, where it reaches its rankest growth. I have found it as
low as 7,000 feet along cold streams in various parts of the moun-
tains, and it was common at 10,500 feet on the upper reaches of
Cebolla Creek in the San Juan Mountains southeast of Lake City.
The dark purplish or blackish berries usually fall in late August.

246

NOETH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 33.

Artemisia tridentata. Sagebrush.

The common sagebrush is almost omnipresent on the higher plains
of western Colorado and also in most of the higher mountain parks
up to 10,000 feet, but was not noted on the plains east of the moun-
tains. It grows on an average about 2 feet high, but under favor-
able conditions attains a height of 6 feet or more. The rankest
growth I have observed was on .the banks of sandy arroyos near Lay,
Routt County, where many of the shrubs were 8 or 10 feet in height.
A. tridentata is abundant at the following localities: Glendevey, Lara-
mie Valley; Livermore; North Park plains (see fig. 39); Ilahns Peak
to Slater; Snake River Valley; Iron Springs Divide; Lily Park; south-
west of Rangely; Plateau Creek; De Beque to Glenwood and Dot-
sero, Grand River Valley; Wolcott; Piney Divide; McCoy; Egeria
Park; parks in Gore Mountains; Middle Park; Roaring Fork Valley

Fig. 39.— Desert sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) on plains near Higho, North Park. (Park Range in the

distance. )

to Aspen; Uncompahgre Plateau; Lone Cone; Lone Mesa; Naturita;
Coventry; Cerro Ridge; Somerset; Sapinero; Gunnison; Creede;
Poncha Pass; Buena Vista; Leadville; Hotchkiss; Saguache; Bay-
field; Arboles; and McElmo.
Artemisia cana.

This sage occurs in Colorado at a somewhat higher average eleva-
tion than A. tridentata, although at many points the two species
grow together. It was found in abundance at Coulter, Middle Park;
near Toponas, Egeria Park; on the Uncompahgre Plateau; and on
the lower slopes of Lone Cone, in the San Miguel Mountains. Ryd-
berg records it from Breckenri'dge; Marshall Pass; Hay den Flats,
Routt County; Hebron, North Park; and Timnath.

INDEX.

[Synonyms in italics; pages containing the principal reference to a species in bold-faced figures.]

Abies concolor, 41, "220.

lasiocorpa, 45, 40, 121, 219-220.

Accipiler velox, 37.
Acer glabrum, 34, 45, 237.

negundo, 20, 288.
Acknowledgments, 11-12.
Actaca viridifiora, 45.
Aeronautes melanoleucus, 37.
Agelaius phceniceus fortis, 20.

phceniceus neutralis, 23.
Agriculture, Canadian zone, 43.

Transition zone, 40-41.

Upper Sonoran zone, 20-33.
Agropyron smithi, 21.
Alder, 39, 45, 227-228.
Alnus tenuifolia, 39, 45. 227-228.
Ambystoma tigrinum, 22. 40.
Amelanchier alnifolia, 36, 38, 235.

bakeri, 3S, '2:55.

oreophila, 235.
Ammodramus savannarum bimaculatus, 20.
Aminospermophilus leucurus cinnamomeus, 24,

84-86.
Amorpha angnstifolia, 20.
Amphispiza bilineata, 24.

nevadensis, 23.
Anas platyrhynchos, 38.
Andropogon furcatus, 21.

halli, 21.

scoparius, 21.
Androsace, 49.
Antelope, 19, 23, 58-60.
Anthus rubescens, 50.
Antilocapra, 27.

ampricana, 19, 37, 58-60.
Antrozous pallidus, 24, 205 206.
• Apheloeoma woodhousei. 29.
Apple, dwarf, 236.
Aquilegia cferulea, 45.
Aragallus lamberti, 21.
Archibuteo ferrugineus, 20.
Arctostapbylos pungens platyphylla, 39, 243.

uvaursi, 39,242-24:',.
Ardea herodias, 38.
Aristeda longiseta, 21.
Artemisia, 27.

cana, 246.
filifolia, 21.

tridentata, 22, 23, 39, 43, 234, 246.
Asclepias, 21.
Ash, 243-244.
Asio wilsonianus, 145.
Aspen, 35, 41, 45, 224-225.
Astragalinus psaltria, 24.
Astragalus crassicarpus, 21.
mollissimus, 21.

Asyndesmus lewisi, 37.
Atriplex, 27, 86, 140, loo.

canescens, 21, 23, 25, 29, 138, 141, 228-229.

confertifolia, 23, 25, 1 10, 141. 143, 162, 229.

nuttalli, 23, 25, 98, 229-230.

occidentalis, 78.

Badger, 19, 90, 162, 181-182.
I3a?olophus inomatus griseus, 29.
Balm, mountain, 238-239.
Balsam, 45, 47, 48, 49, 121, 219-220.
Barberry, 230.'
Bartramia longicauda, 20.
Bascanion constrictor, 21.
tseniatum, 27.
Bassariscus astutus flavus, 24, 28, 192-193.
Bat, 24.

big-eared, 204.
brown, 20, 209-210.
Fort Yuma, 23, 207.
free-tailed, 204-205.
hairy-lipped, 19, 209.
hoary, 211.
little California, 208.
long-eared, 19, 23, 207.
long-legged, 206-207.
pale, 205-206.
pale brown, 210.
red, 211.
Say, 20, 206.
silver-haired, 44, 211.
small brown, 36.
Taeubaya free-tailed, 205.
western, 209.
Batrachians, Transition, 39.

Upper Sonoran, 21, 23, 25.
Bayonet, Spanish, 223-224.
Bear, black, 44, 195-196.
grizzly, 50, 197-201 .
silver-tip, 197-201.
Bearberry, 39.

red, 242-243.
Beaver, broad-tailed, 126-128.
Beetle, tiger, 179.
Berberis aquifolium, 39.
fendleri,230.
fremonti, 25.
Berry, bilberry, 243.

blueberry, 45,243.

buffalo, 20, 22, 15. 77. 80, 110, 111,241-242.

Canadian buffalo, 45, 242.

huckleberry, 243.

June, 38, 39, 80, 235.

small-leafed bilberry, 243.

snowberry, 80, 245.

wolfberry, 20, 245.

247

248

INDEX.

Besseya alpina, 51.
Betula glandulosa, 45, 49,227.
fontinalis, 3*), 220 '2-27.
Bighorn, 62-64.

Bilberry, '243.

small-leaved, "243.

Birch, dwarf, 45, 227.

Rocky Mountain, 39, 226-227.

Bird list, Canadian zone, 44.

Hudsonian zone, 48.

Transition zone, 37, 38.

Upper Sonoran zone, 2(>, 23, 24, 29.
Bison, American, 60-62.
Bison bison, 60 62.
Blueberry, 45, 243.
Bluebird, chestnut-backed, 37.
Blue grosbeak, 20, 24.
Branta canadensis, 38.
Brewer sparrow, 20, 23.
Brown thrasher, 20.
Brush, chico, 7,s, 141.

rabbit, 27, 39, 108, 140.
Bobwhite, 20.
Bouteloua oligostachya, 21.
Box elder, 20.

Bubo virginianus pallescens, 38.
Buchloe dactyloides, 21.
Buckthorn, 2.38.
Buffalo, 60-62.
Buffalo berry, 20, 22, 45, 77, 80, 110, 111, 241-242.

Canadian, 45, 242.
Bufo lentiginosus woodhousei, 27.
Bullock oriole, 20, 23.
Bull snake, 21, 27, 94.
Bunting, lark, 20.

lazuli, 20.
Bush tit, lead-colored, 29.
Bushy-tailed wood rat, Arizona, 113.

Colorado, 111-113.
pallid, 114.
Buteo borealis calurus, 51.

Cacomistle, 24, 28, 192-193.
Cactus, 39.

ball, 239.
prickly pear, 118.
snake, .'ill. 239.
tree, 11(1, 146,241.
Cactus missouriensis, 21, 39. 239.

radiosus, 29, 239.
Calamospiza melanocorys, 20, 38.
Calamovilfa longifolia, 21.
Callospermophilus lateralis, 37, 48, 81-84.

lateralis worttnani, 22, 84.
Caltha leptosepala, 49.
Canadian zone, 41-45.
Cani occidentalis, 171.
Canis estor, 24, 173.

lestes, 37, 48, 50, 172.
lupus, 171.
nebracensis, 19, 23.
occidentalis, 37, 169-171.
velox, 175.
Canyon mouse, golden-breasted, 24, 107.
Carpodacuscassini, 44.

mexieanus frontalis, 24.
Castilleja, 45.

Castor canadensis frondator, 37, 126-128.
Catbird, 20.

Catherpes mexieanus conspersus, 24.
Ceanothus feodleri, 118, 239.
pubescens, 39, 239.
velutinus, 38, 238-239.
Celtis reticulata, 20, 29, 228.
Centrocercus urophasianus, 23, 37.
Cercocarpus ledifolius, 38, 234-235.

parvifolius, 29, 34, 38, 73, 234.
Cereus, 239-240.
Certhia familiaris montana, 48.
Cervus canadensis, 37, 48, 53-54.
leucurus, 50.
macrotis, 58.
Chat, long-tailed, 20.
Cherry, chokecherry, 20, 38, 236.
red, 236.
wild, 80.
Chickaree, 69-70.

Fremont, 44.
New Mexico, 70-71.
Chico brush. 78, 141.
Chipmunk, 50.

Colorado, 76-78.
Hopi, 28, 74-76.
Las Animas, 73-74.
least, 22, 77-78.
San Luis, 78-79.
Say, 36, 71-73.
Utah, 29, 80-81 .
Wasatch, 79-80.
Chokecherry, 20, 38, 236.
Chondestes grammacus strigatus, 20.
Chordeiles virginianus henryi, 51.
Chorophilus triseriatus, 27, 40.
Chrysothamnus, 23, 39, 125, 138, 141, 162.
bigelovi, 39.
elegans, 39.

paten:;, 78, 108, 140,148.
plattensis, 21.
Cicindela, 179.

Cinclus mexieanus unicolor, 44.
Citellus elegans, 23, 36, 89-90, 182.
obsoletus, 19,93-94.
spilosoma major, 19, 94.
tridecemlineatus pallidus, 19, 91-92.
tridecemlineatus parvus, 23, 27, 92-93.
variegatus grammurus, 28, 87-88.
Civet cat, 192-193.
Clementsiarhodantha, 49, 51.
Cliff mouse, Kstes Park, 106.
Rowley, 106-107.
True, 104-105.
Cnemidophorus gularis, 21, 27, 40.

tigris, 26.
Coccyzus americanus occidentalis, 20.
Colaptes cafer collaris, 3S, 48.
Coleogyne ramosissima, 25.
Colinus virginianus, 20.
Columbine, 45.
Cony, rock, 151-152.
Coot, 38.

Corvus corax sinuatus, 51.
Corylus rostrata, 39, 228.
Corynorhinus macrotis pallescens, 204.
Cottontail, Bailey, 19.

INDEX.

249

Cottontail, Black mils, 159-160.
Colorado, 161-163.
Nebraska, 158-159.
plains, 160-161.
rabbit, 24.

Rocky Mountain, 37, 159.
Cottonwood, 20.

broad-leaf, 225.
narrow-leaf, 39, 225.
smooth-bark, 225-226.
southwestern, 225.
Cougar, 163-165.
Cowania mexicana, 25, 29, 234.
Coyote, 19, 24, 50, 64.

mountain, 37, 172.
San Juan, 173.
Cratfegus, 118.

saligna, 39.
wheeleri, 39.
Cratogeomys castanops, 19, 129, 130-131.
Crops, Canadian zone, 43.

Transition zone, 40-41.
Upper Sonoran zone, 29-33.
Crotalus confluentis, 21, 23, 27.
Crotaphy tus collaris, 21 .

collaris baileyi, 25.
Cryptoglaux acadica, 37.
Cuckoo, California, 20.
Curlew, long-billed, 20.
Currant, 39, 45, 83.

red, 231-232.
golden, 20, 232.
Cyanocephalus cyanocephalus, 29.
Cyanocitta stelleri diademata, 44.
Cynomys gunnisoni, 37, 95-97, 182.
leucurus, 23, 37, 97-98, 182.
ludovicianus, 19, 94-95.
Cytherea bulbosa, 45.

Dasiphora fruticosa, 45, 233.
Deer, mule, 56-58.

white-tailed, 55-56.
Delphinium, 45.
Dendragapus obscurus, 38, 44.
Dendroica aestiva, 20.

auduboni, 38, 44.

graciae, 38.
Didelphis virginiana, 52-53.
Dipodomys montanus, 139.

phillipsi ordi, 142.
Distegia involucrata, 39, 245.
Dogwood, 39.

red-osier, 242.
Dondia erecta, 23, 25.
moquini, 98.
Dove, mourning, 20.
Dryobates villosus monticola, 37.
Dumetella carolinensis, 20.

Echinocactus simpsoni, 39, 239.

whipplei spinosior, 25.
Echinocereus aggregatus, 29.

paucispinus, 25, 240.

viridiflorus, 29, 39, 239-240.
Edwinia americana, 39, 231.
Elder, 244.

box, 238.

Elderberry, 45.

Elk, 53-54.

Empidonax wrighti, 37.

Ephedra antisyphilitica, 23, 25, 29, 222.

torreyana, 25, 29, 222.
Epilobium, 45, 49.
Epimys norvegieus, 99.
Eptesicus fuscus, 20, 37, 204, 209-210.

fuscus pallidus, 210.
Erethizon epixanthum, 37, 4S, 50, 149-151.
Eriogonum, 23.
Erysimum radicum, 49.
Euphagus cyanocephalus, 38.
Eurotia, 27.

lanata, 23, 25.
Eutamias amoenus operarius, 37, 48, 50, 76-78.

dorsalis utahensis, 29, 80-81.

hopiensis, 28, 72, 74-76, 79.

minimus, 22, 77-78, 241.

minimus caryi, 12, 27, 78-79.

minimus consobrinus, 37, 48, 50, 72, 79-80.

quadrivittatus, 36, 71-73.

quadrivittatus animosus, 73-74.
Evotomys gapperi galei, 44, 48, 120-121.

Falco sparverius phalsena, 38.

Fallugia acuminata, 29.

False indigo, 20.

Felis oregonensis hippolestes, 37, 48, 163-165.

Fendlera rupicola, 29, 231.

Ferret, black-footed, 20, 184-185.

Festuca octoflora, 21.

Fiber zibethicus cinnamomeus, 126.

zibethicus osoyoosensis, 125-126.
Field mouse, dwarf, 123-124.
pygmy, 124-125.
Rocky Mountain, 44, 123.
Finch, brown-capped rosy, 50.

house, 24.
Fir, balsam, 45, 47, 48, 49, 121, 219-220.
joint, 222.
red, 218-219.
white, 41,220.
Fisher, 191.
Flycatcher, olive-sided, 44.

Wright, 37.
Fly honeysuckle, involucred, 245.
Food of Ammospermophilus leucurus cinnamom-
eus, 86.
Asio wilsonianus, 145.
Bassariscus astutus flavus, 193.
bobcat, 150, 155.
Callospermophilus lateralis, 83.
("anis occidentalis, 169.
Canis lestes, 172, 173.
Citellus elegans, 90.
Citellus tridecemlineatus pallidus, 92.
Citellus variegatus grammurus, 88.
coyote, 64, 103, 150, 155.
Cynomys gunnisoni, 96.
Cynomys leucurus, 98.
eagle, 173.

Erethizon epixanthum, 150.
Eutamias dorsalis utahensis, 81.
Eutamias hopiensis, 76.
Eutamias minimus, 78, 241.
Eutamias minimus caryi, 78, 79.

250

TNDEX.

Food of Eutamias minimus consobrinus, 80.

Eutamias quadrivittatus, 7:!.

Felis oregonensis hippolestes, 163, L64, L65.

< Jeomys lutescens, 129.

Lepus californicus melanotis, 155-156.

Lepus calif ornicus texianus, 157.

Lepus campestris, 152.

Lynx bailey i, L67, 168.

Lynx canadensis, 166.

Lynx uinta, L68, 169.

Mephitis hudsoniea, 178.

Mephitis mesomelas varians, 179.

Microtus nanus, 124.

Microtus pauperrimus, 125.

Microtus pennsylvanicus modestus, 122.

mountain lion, 150.

Neotoma albigula warreni, 116.

Neotoma fallax, 118.

Ochotona saxatilis, 151.

Onychomys leucogaster pallescens, 101.

Perodipus montanus, 140.

Peromyscustruoi, 105.

Proeyon lotor, 194.

Putoriusarizonensis, 186, L87.

Putorius nigripes, 184.

Putorius streatori leptus, 1S7, 188.

sage thrasher, 241.

Sciurus aberti ferreus, 65, 66.

Sciurus aberti niimus, 68.

Sciurus fremonti, 70.

Sylvilagus auduboni warreni, 162.

Taxidea taxus, 1S2.

Thomomys aureus, 137.

Thomomys aureus pervagus, 138.

Thomomys clusius, 133.

Thomomys fossor, 135.

Ursus americanus, 196.

Ursus horribilis, 198, 200.

wolf, 54.
Fox, gray. 28, 176-178.
kit, 175-176.
swift, 19, 175-176.
western, 44.50,174-175.
Fox squirrel, western, 64.
Frasera speciosa, 45.
Fraxinus anomala, 25,243-244.
Frog, 27.40.

leopard, 24.
Fulica americana, 38.

Gaura coccinea, 21.

Geococcyx californianus, 29.

Geomys lutescens, 19, 128-129, 133.

Geothlypis trichas occidentalis, 20.

Gnatcatcher, western, 29.

Goldfinch, Arkansas, 24.

Gopher, chestnut-faced pocket, 130-131.

Colorado pocket. 14, 50, 131-135.

Coues pocket. 132-133.

Espanola pocket . 137-138.

fulvous pocket. 136.

golden pocket, 24. 136-137.

Green River pocket, 23, 133-134.

mountain pocket, 83.

pocket, 19, 124. 1S2.

San Luis pocket, 131-132.

yellow pocket. 128-129.

Grackle, bronzed, 20.
Grape, Oregon, 39, 231.
Grasses of Great Plains, 21.
( Irasshopper mouse. 19.

Idaho, 23, 101.

pale. 19, 24, 100-101.
Grasshopper sparrow, 20.

< Irayia, common, 230.

( iraviu brandegei, 230.

spinosa, 23,25,141,230.
G rease wood , 27 , 230 .

< irindelia, 27.

Grosbeak, western blue, 20,24.
Ground squirrel, golden-mantled, 82.

Kennicott, 93-94.

large spotted, 94.

little striped, 23, 92-93.

pale striped, 91-92.

Say, 81-84.

striped, 23.

Wortman, 22, 84.

Wyoming, 36, 89-90, 182.
Guiracacajrulea lazula, 20, 24.
Gulo luscus, 44, 48, 191-192.
Gutierrezia, 27.

lepidota, 21.

Hackberry, 20, 228.
Harvest mouse, 19.

big-eared, 24, 110-111.

mountain, 108-110.

Nebraska, 110.

pallid, 110.
Haw, 39, 118.
Hawk, ferruginous rough-legged, 20.

sharp-shinned, 37.
Hayden vole, 19.
Hazel, 39.

Hazelnut, beaked, 228.
Helianthus, 27.

lenticularis, 21.
Heracleum lanatum, 149.
Heron, black-crowned night, 20.

great blue, 38.
Heterodon nasicus, 21.
Holly, mountain, 39, 234.
Honey plant, 148.
Honeysuckle, involucred fly, 245.
Holodiscus dumosus, 39, 233.
Horned lark, desert, 23.
Horned toad, 21, 23, 40.
House finch, 24.
Huckleberry, 243.
Hudsonian zone, 45—49.
Hylocichla guttata auduboni, 44, 48.

Icterus bullocki, 20, 23.
Icteria virens longicauda. 20.
Indigo, false, 20.
Ipomaea leptophylla, 21.
Iridoproene bicolor, 44.
Ivy, poison, 237.

Jack rabbit, black-tailed, 19
Kansas. 155-156.
Texas, 24, 157-158.

Townsend. 37.

western white-tailed, 153-154.

white-tailed, 37, 152-153.

INDEX.

251

Jay, pinyon, 29.

Rocky Mountain, 44.
Woodhouse, 20.
J unco phseonotus caniceps, 44, 48, 51.
June berry, 38, 39, 80, 286.
Juniper, 15, 22, 28, 35, 81, 160, 216, 221.
creeping, 150, 222.
low mountain, 221-222.
mountain, 45.
Rocky Mountain, 220-221.
Juniperus monosperma, 15, 23, 28, 20, 35, 116,212,
216, 221.
prostrata, 222.
scopulorum, 28, 220-221 .
sibirica, 45, 159, 221-222.
utahensis, 20.
Jumping mouse, prairie, 148.

Rocky Mountain, 44, 148-149.

Kalmia microphylla, 49.
Kangaroo rat, 19, 104.

Moki, 24.

Richardson, 140-142.

San Luis, 139-140.
Kennicottspermophile, 19.
Kingbird, 20.

Arkansas, 20.
Koeleria cristata, 21.
Kunzia tridentata, 23, 38, 30, 233-234.

Laciniaria punctata, 21 .

Lagopus leucurus, 50.

Lagurus, 124-125.

Lanius ludovicianus excubitorides, 20, 23.

Lanivireo solitarius plumbeus, 37.

Lark, desert horned, 23.

Lark bunting, 20.

Lark sparrow, 20.

Lasionycteris noctivagans, 44, 211.

Lazuli bunting, 20.

Lepargyrea argentea, 20, 23, 25, 77, 80, 110, 241-242.

canadensis, 45, 242.
Leptasea austromontana, 51.
Lepus bardii, 44, 48, 50, 154-155.

californicus melanotis, 19, 155-156.
californicus texianus, 24, 27, 157-158.
campestris, 37, 152-153.
campestris townsendi, 23, 37, 48, 153-154.
Leucocrinum montanum, 21.
Leucosticte australis, 50.
Life zone, 13, 31.

Canadian, 41-45.
Hudsonian, 4.5-49.
Transition, 33-41.
Upper Sonoran, 14-33.
vertical limits, 14.
Linnsea americana, 45, 245.
Lion, mountain, 163-165.
Liopeltis vernalis, 40.
Lithospermum linearifolium, 21.
Lizard, gray rock, 39.

ring-necked, 21.
whip-tailed, 21.
Locust, 236.

Lophortyx californicus, 24.
Loxia curvirostra minor, 44.
Lupinus alpestris, 133.
pusillus, 21.

Lutra canadensis, 182-183.

canadensis sonora, 182.
Lutreola vison energumenos, 37, 183-184.
Lycium pallidum, 25, 244.
Lynx, Canada, 44, 165-167.

snowshoe, 167.
Lynx baileyi, 167-168.

canadensis, 44, 48, 165-167.

uinta, 37, 48, 168-169.

Macronema discoideum, 51.
Mahogany, mountain, 234-235.
Malvastrum coccineum, 21.
Mammal list, Canadian zone, 44.
Hudsonian zone, 48.
Transition and Canadian, 37.
Transition, Canadian, and Upper

Sonoran, 37.
Transition and Upper Sonoran, 37.
Upper Sonoran, 19, 27.
Manzanita, 243.
Maple, mountain, 45, 237.
Marmot, 50,98-99.

Marmota engelhardti, 44, 48, 50, 98-99.
Marten, 44, 50, 189-191.
Matrimony vine, t44.
Meadowlark, western, 20.
Meadow mouse, Saguache, 121-122.
Melospiza lincolni, 44.
Mephitis estor, 24, 20.

hudsonica, 37, 178.
mesomelas estor, 179.
mesomelas varians, 10, 178-179.
Meriolix serrulata, 21.
Mertensia alpina, 40, 51.
Micranthes rhomboidea, 51.
Microtus, 107.

mordax, 44, 48, 50, 123.
nanus, 37, 48, 50, 123-124.
ochrogaster haydeni, 10, 122-123.
pauperrimus, 36, 124-125.
pennsylvanicus modestus, 37, 121-122.
Mimus polyglottos leucopterus, 20.
Mink, 183-184.
Mockingbird, western, 20.
Mole, plains, 201.
Mouse, 173.

Apache pocket, 24, 147-148.
Baird pocket, 145-147.
big-eared harvest, 24, 110-111.
buff-bellied pocket, 144.
cliff, 28, 36, 193.
dwarf field, 123-124.
Estes Park cliff, 106.
field, 50.

golden-breasted, 28.
golden-breasted canyon, 24, 107.
grasshopper, 24.
harvest, 19.
house, 99-100.
Idaho grasshopper, 23, 102.
Kansas pocket, 143-144.
mountain harvest, 108-110.
Nebraska harvest, 110.
Nebraska white-footed, 102-103.
_ pale grasshopper, 19, 24, 100-101.
pallid harvest, 110.

252

INDEX.

Mouse, plains pocket, 145.

pocket, 19.

prairie jumping, 148.

pygmy field, 124-125.

Red Desert pocket, 23, 148.

Rocky Mountain field, 44, 123.

Rocky Mountain jumping, 44, 148-149.

Rocky Mountain red-backed, 44, 120-121.

Rowley cliff, 106-107.

Saguache meadow, 121-122.

tawny white-footed, 44, 103-104.

Texas white-footed, 102.
True cliff, 104-105.

upland, 122-123.

white-footed, 19.

yellow white-footed, 103.
Muhlenbergia gracillima, 21.

pungens, 21.
Munroa squarrosa, 21.
Mus musculus, 99-100.
Muskrat, Great Plains, 126.

Rocky Mountain, 125-126.
Mustela americana, 191.

caurina origenes, 44, 48, 50, 189-191.
pennanti, 191.
Myadestes townsendi, 48.
Myiochanes richardsoni, 38.
Myosotis alpestris, 51.
Myotis californicus, 24, 208.

californicus ciliolabrum, 19, 23, 208, 209.

evotis,19, 23, 24,207.

lucifugus longicrus, 36, 206-207.

subulatus, 20, 206.

yumanensis, 23, 207.
Myiarchus, californicus, 24.

Neotoma albigula warreni, 12, 29, 116-117.

campestris, 115.

cinerea arizonae, 28, 113.

cinerea orolestes, 23, 48, 111-113.

cinerea rupicola, 19, 114.

desertorum, 24, 118-119.

fallax, 36, 117-118.

floridana baileyi, 19, 114-115.

micropus canescens, 19, 115-116.
Neosorex palustris navigator, 44,203 204.
Night heron, black-crowned, 20.
Ninebark, 39, 232.
Nucifraga Columbiana, 48.
Numenius americana, 20.
Nuthatch, pygmy, 37.

Rocky Mountain, 37.
Nuttallornis borealis, 44.
Nycteris cinereus, 211.
Nycticorax n. naevius, 20.
•Nyctinomus depressus, 205.

mexicanus, 24, 204-205.

Oak, 38.

Ochotona saxatilis, 48, 50, 151-152.

Odocoileus hemionus, 37, 48, 56-58.

virginianus macrourus, 37„55-56.
Odostemon aciuifolium, 231.

fremonti, 231.
Oenothera, 21.
Onychomys brevicaudus, 37.

leucogaster brevicaudus, 23, 102.

leucogaster pallescens, 19, 24, 100-101.

Opossum, Virginia, 52-53.
( Ipulaster intermedius, 232.
monogynus, 232.
ramaleyi, 39.
Opuntia, 27, 73, 111, 118, 119, 142, 145.

arborescens, 21, 29, 116, 118, 146, 241.

camanchica, 25, 240.

fragilis, 39, 240.

polyacantha, 21, 23, 138, 141, 146, 148, 160,
240.

rhodantha, 25, 240.

whipplei, 25, 29.
Orache, 228-229.

Oreobatus deliciosus, 39, 232-233.
Oreoscoptes montanus, 23, 38.
Oreospiza chlorura, 37.
Oriole, Bullock, 20, 23.
Otocoris alpestris leucolrema, 23, 38.
Otter, 182-183.
Ovis canadensis, 48, 50, 62-64.
Owl, burrowing, 20.
saw-whet, 37.

Pachystimamyrsinites, 45, 237.

Panicum virgatum, 21.

Passerculus sandwichensis alaudinus, 38.

Passerina amcena, 20.

Pear, prickly, 138, 142, 147, 148, 160, 240.

Pedicularis grcenlandica, 51.

Penthestes gambeli, 38.

Peraphyllum ramosissimum, 29, 38, 236.

Perisoreus canadensis capitalis, 44, 48.

Poritoma, 27.

serrulatum, 21.
sonorse, 27, 79, 108, 148.
Perodipus, 86.

longipes, 24.
montanus, 27, 139-140.
montanus richardsoni, 19, 23, 140-142.
Perognathus apache, 24, 27, 147-148.
callistus, 23, 148.
fasciatus infraluteus, 144.
flavescens, 19, 145.
flavus 19, 27, 145-147.
hispidus paradoxus, 19, 143-144.
Peromyscus boylei rowleyi, 28, 106-107.

crinitus auripectus, 24, 28, 107.
leucopus tornillo, 19, 102.
maniculatus lutcus, 103.
maniculatus nebrascensis, 19, 23, 102-

103.
maniculatus rufinus, 44, 48, 103-104.
nasutus, 36, 106.
truei, 28, 104-105.
Petalostemon oligophyllus, 21.
purpureus, 21.
villosus, 21.
Phalamoptilus nuttalli, 38.
Phenacomys, mountain, 44, 119-120.

Preble. 44, 119-120.
Phenacomys orophilus, 44, 119-120.

preblei, 44, 119-120.
Philadelphus microphyllus, 29.
Phlox condensata, 51.
Phrysonoma ornatissimum, 21. 23, 26.
Pica pica hudsonia, 38.
Picea engelmanni, 45, 49, 217.
parryana, 43, 217-218.

INDEX.

253

Picoides americanus dorsalis, 44, 48.
Pika, 50, 151-152.

Pine, foxtail, 43, 47, 49, 72, 80, 212-213.
lodgepole, 35, 41, 215-216.
nut, 216-217.

pinyon, 15, 28, 35, 88, 141, 160, 216-217.
Rocky Mountain white, 45, 213.
Rocky Mountain yellow, 213-215.
yellow, 38.
Pinicola enucleator montana, 48.
Pinus aristata, 43, 47, 49, 72, 80, 212-213.
edulis, 15, 28, 29.
flexilis, 34, 45, 213.
murrayana, 34, 41, 215-216.
scopulorum, 34, 35, 36, 38, 213-215.
Pinyon, 15, 28, 35, 88, 141, 160, 216-217.
Pipilo fuscus mesoleucus, 29.

maculatus montanus, 37
Pipistrellus hesperus, 24, 209.
Pipit, 50.

Pituophis sayi, 21, 27.
Planesticus migratorius propinquus, 38, 48.
Plantago purshi, 21.
Plant list, Canadian zone, 45.
Great Plains, 20.
Hudsonian zone, 49.
Transition zone, 38-39.
Upper Sonoran, 23, 25, 27
Plover, upland, 20.
Plum, wild, 20, 236.
Pocket gopher, 19, 124, 173, 182.

chestnut-faced, 130-131.
Colorado, 44, 50, 134-135.
Coues, 132-133.
Espanola, 137-138.
fulvous, 136.
golden, 24, 136-137.
Green River, 23, 133-134.
mountain, 83.
San Luis, 131-132.
yellow, 128-129.
Pocket mouse, 19.

Apache, 24 147-148.
Baird, 145-147.
buff-bellied, 144.
Kansas, 143-144.
plains, 145.
Red Desert, 23, 148.
Podasocys montanus, 20.
Polemonium, 49.

confertum, 51.
Polioptila cserulea obscura, 29.
Polygonum viviparum, 51.
Pocecetes gramineus confinis, 20, 38.
Poplar, aspen, 35, 41, 45, 224-225.
Populus acuminata, 23, 25, 225-226.
angustifolia, 39, 67, 225.
occidentalis, 20, 225.
tremuloides, 41, 45, 224-225.
wislizeni, 25, 225.
Porcupine, 50.

yellow-haired, 149-151.
Prairie dog, 19, 94-95, 173, 184.
Gunnison, 95-97.
white-tailed, 92, 97-98, 162, 182.
Prickly pear, 138, 142, 147, 148, 160, 240.

Procyon lotor, 193-194.
Prunus americana, 20, 236.
besseyi, 21.

melanocarpa, 20, 38, 236.
pennsylvanica, 236.
Psaltriparus plumbeus, 29.
Pseudostoma castanops, 130.
Pseudotsuga mucronata, 34, 36, 38, 218-219.
Psoralea hypogea, 21.

lanceolata, 21.

tenuiflora, 21.
Ptarmigan, white-tailed, 50.
Putorius arizonensis, 37, 48, 186-187.

ermineus, 187.

longicauda, 20, 185-186.

longicauda, 187.

nigripes, 20, 184-185.

streatori leptus, 44, 48, 187-188.

vulgaris, 188.
Pyrola, 45.

Quail, California, 24.

scaled, 29.
Quercus, 29.

fendleri, 38.

gambeli, 38.
Querquedula discors, 38.
Quiscalus quiscula seneus, 20.

Rabbit, 173.

Black Hills cottontail, 159-160.
black-tailed jack, 19.
Colorado cottontail, 161-163.
Kansas jack, 155-156.
Nebraska cottontail, 158-159.
plains cottontail, 160-161.
Rocky Mountain cottontail, 37, 159.
Rocky Mountain snowshoe, 154-155.
snowshoe, 44,50.
Texas jack, 24, 157-158.
Townsend jack, 37.
western white-tailed jack, 153-154.
white-tailed jack, 37, 152-153.
Raccoon, 193-194.
Racer, blue, 21.
Rana pipiens, 24.
Ranunculus unguiculatus, 49.
Raspberry, false, 232-233.
flowering, 39.
red, 233.
Rat, Arizona bushy-tailed, 113.
Arizona wood, 28.
Bailey wood, 114-115.
Colorado bushy-tailed wood, 111-113,
desert wood, 24, 118-119.
Gale wood, 30, 117-118.
hoary wood, 115-116.
kangaroo, 19, 104.
Moki kangaroo, 24.
Norway, 99.

pallid bushy-tailed wood, 114.
Richardson kangaroo, 140-142.
San Luis kangaroo, 139-140.
Warren wood, 29, 1 16-1 1 7 .
wharf, 99.
wood, 19, 134, 193.
Ratibida columnaris, 21.

254

INDEX.

Rattlesnake, 21,23,27.

Red-backed mouse, Rocky Mountain, 44, 120-121.

Redfleldia Qexuosa, 2] .

Redwing, San Diego, 23.

thick-billed, 20.
Regains calendula, Is.

salrapa, 48.
Iirittirodon montanus, 108.
Reithxodontomys dychei nebrascensis, 110.
megalotes, 24, 110-111.
montanus, 27, 108-110.
montanus albescens, 110.
nebrascensis, 19.
Reptiles, Canadian zone, 45.
Transition zone, 39.
Upper Sonoran, 21, 23, 25.
Rhamnus smithi, 25, 238.
Rhodiola integrifolia, 49.

polygama, 49, 51.
Rhus rydbergi, 237.
Ribescereum, 83, 231-232.
inebrians, 39.
longiflorum, 20, 28, 232.
pumilum, 39.
wolfij 45, 232.
Road runner, 29.
Robinia neomexicana, 236,
Rosa manca, 45, 235.
Rose, 235.

cliff, 234.
Rosy finch, brown-capped, 50.
Rubacer parvifiorus, 45, 232.
Rubus strigosus, 233.

Sage, 27.

salt, 229-230.
Sagebrush, 43, 240.
Sage hen, 23, 37.
Sage sparrow, 23.
Sage thrasher, 23, 241.
Salamander, 22, 40.
Salicornia herbacea, 23.
Salix amygdaloides, 23, 226.

chlorophylla, 5, 49, 123, 226.

geyeriana, 45, 226.

glaucops, 49, 51, 123, 124, 2

glaucops glabrata, 51.

nuttalli, 39, 226.

perrostrata, 39.

petrophila, 51.

pseudolapponum, 49.

saximontana, 49.
Salmonberry, 232.
Salpinctes obsoletus, 38.
Saltbush, 229-230.

gray, 228-229.
round-leaved, 229.
Sambucus melanocarpa, 45, 244-245.

microbotrys, 45, 244.
Sand swift, 21..
Sarcobatus, 27, 77, 92, 108, 140.

vermieulatus, 23, 25, 39, 78, 230.
Saxifraga debilis, 51.
Sayornis say a, 38.

Scalopus aquaticus intermedius, 201.
Scaphiopus hammondi. 27.
Sceloporus consobrinus, 21, 26.

Sceloporus elongatus, 26, 40.
graciosus, 23, 26.
Schedonnardus panieulatus, 21.
Sehmaltzia glabra, 237.

trilobata, 20, 25, 28, 29.
Sciurus aberti concolor, 64.

aberti f erreus, 36, 64-67.
aberti mimus, 36, 66, 67-69.
fremonti, 44, 48, 69-70.
fremonti neomexicanus, 70-71.
grammurus, 87.
lateralis, 81.
niger rufiventer, 64.
quadrivittatus, 71.
Sedum stenopetalum, 49.
Selasphorus platycercus, 51.
Senecio, 122.
Sheep, domestic, 62.

mountain, 50, 62-64.
Shrew, 44.

Dobson, 203.
dwarf, 203.
masked, 202.

Rocky Mountain, 202-203.
water, 44.

white-bellied water, 203-204.
Shrike, white-rumped, 20, 23.
Sialia currucoides„38, 48.

mexicana bairdi, 37.
Silene acaulis, 51.
Silversia turbinata, 51.
Sitanion hystrix, 21.
Sitta canadensis ,.44.

carolinensis nelsoni, 37.
pygmaea, 37.
Skunk, Arizona, 24, 29, 179.

Great Basin spotted, 24, 28-29, 181.
long-tailed, 19, 178-179.
northern plains, 37, 178.
prairie spotted, 179-180.
Rocky Mountain spotted, 180.
Skunk bush, 237.
Snake, bull, 21, 27, 94.
garter, 27, 40, 45.
green, 40.
hog-nosed, 21.
rattlesnake, 21, 23, 27.
Snowberry, 80, 245.

Snowshoe rabbit, Rocky Mountain, 154-155.
Solomon'sseal, false, 122.
Sorex obscurus, 44, 48, 202-203.
personatus, 44, 202.
tenellus nanus, 44, 203.
vagrans dobsoni, 44, 203.
Sparrow, black-throated, 24.
Brewer, 20, 23.
Lincoln, 44.
sage, 23.

western grasshopper, 20.
western lark, 20.
western vesper, 20.
white-crowned, 50.
white-throated, 83.
Spatula clypeata, 38.
Speotyto cunicularia hypugaea, 20.
Spermophile, Kennicott, 19.
striped, 19.

INDEX.

255

Spermophilus gunnisoni, 95.
Sphyrapicus thyroideus, 44.

varius nuchalis, 44.
Spilogalc gracilis saxatilis, 24, 181.
intcrrapta, 19, 179-180.
tenuis, 37, 180.
Spinus pinus, 44, 48.
Spizella breweri, 20. 23, 3S.

passerina arizonse, 38.
Sporobolus cryptandrus, 21.
Spotted skunk, Great Basin, 24, 28-29, 181.
prairie. 179-1SO.
Rocky Mountain, 180.
Spruce, blue, 43, 217-218.

Douglas, 38, 218-219.
Engelmann, 41, 43, 45, 47, 4*, 19, 154, 217.
white, 217.
Squirrel, antelope, 24, 84-86.
Fremont, 69-70.
ground, 173.

Kennicott ground. 93-94.
large spotted ground. 94.
little striped ground. 23, 92-93.
northern tuft-eared, 64-67.
pale striped ground, 91-92.
rock, 2 s, 87-88.
Say ground, 81-84.
tuft-eared. 67-69.
western fox, 64.
Wortman ground, 22, 84.
Wyoming ground, 30, 89-90, 182.
Steganopus tricolor, 38.
Stipacomata, 21.
Sturnella neglecta, 20, 38.
Sumac, 20,237.
Swertia palustris, 51.
Swift, 17.3-176, 177.
sand, 21.

white-throated, 37.
Svida interior, 242.

stolonifera riparia, 39, 242.
Sylvilagusauduboni baileyi, 19.23, 160-161.

auduboni warreni, 24, 27, 143, 161-16:?.
floridanus similis, 158-159.
nuttalli grangeri, 159-160.
mittallipinetis, 37, 1S4, 159.
Symphoricarpos occidentalis, 20, 245.

oreophilus, 36, 38, 80, 245.

Tachycineta thalassina lepida, 38.

Tamitis quadrivittatus, 80.

Taxidea taxus, 19, 37, 1S1-182.

Tea, New Jersey, 39.

Thamnophis elegans vagrans, 27, 40, 45.

Thlaspi purpurascens, 51.

Thomomys, 36, 182.

aureus, 24, 136-137.

aureus pervagus, 27. 137-138.

clusius, 30, 132-133.

Clusius ocius, 23, 133-134.

fossor, 44, 48, 50, 83, 92, 124, 134-135.

fulvus, 36, 136.

talpoides agrestis, 12, 36, 131-132.
Thrasher, brown, 20.

sage, 23,241.
Thryomanes bewicki bairdi, 29.
Tit , lead-colored bush, 29.
Titmouse, gray, 29.

Toad, 27.

horned, 21, 23, 40.
Touterea nuda, 21.
stricta, 21.
Towhee, canyon, 29.

green-tailed, 37.
spurred, 37.
Townsendia, 21.
Toxostoma rufum. 20.
Transition zone, 33-41.
Trifolium, 49.

namim. 51.
Troglodytes aedon parkmani, 38.
Trollius albiflorus, 49.
Tuft-eared squirrel, 64-69.
Twinflower, 45, 245.
Tyrannus tyrannus, 20.
verticalis, 20.
vociferans, 23.

Upland plover, 20.

Upper Sonoran zone, 14-33.

Urocyon cinereoargenteus scotti, 28, 176 17£

Ursus americanus, 37, 44, 48, 195-196.

horribilis, 48, 50, 197-201.
Uta ornata,26.

stansburiana, 26.

Vaccinium csespitosum, 45, 243.

erythrococcum, 49, 243.
oreophilum, 243.
Vagnera stellata, 122.
Verbena bracteosa, 21 .

hastata, 21.
Vesper sparrow, 20.
1 < spt rtilio subulatus, 206.
Viburnum, few-flowered, 245.
Viburnum pauciflorum, 45, 245.
Viola canadensis neomexicana, 45.
Vireo, Bell, 20.

plumbeous, 37.
Vireo belli, 20.

Vireosylva gilva swainsoni, 38.
Vole, Hayden, 19.
pygmy, 36.
Vulpes macrourus, 37, 44, 48, 50, 174-175.
velox, 19, 175-176.

Wapiti, 53-54.
Warbler, Grace, 38.

Macgillivray, 37.
pileolated, 50.
western yellowthroat, 20.
yellow, 20.
Weasel, dwarf, 44, 187-188.

long-tailed, 20, 185-186.
mountain, 186-187.
White-footed mouse, 19.

Nebraska, 102-103.
tawny, 44, 103-104.
Texas, 102.
yellow, 103.
White pine, Rocky Mountain, 45, 213.
Wildcat, mountain, 37, 168-169.

plateau, 167-168.
Willow, 39, 45.

alpine, 123.
Nuttall, 226.
peach-leaved, 226.

256

INDEX.

Wilsonia pusilla pileolata, 18,50.
Wolf, 54.

gray, 23, 169-171.
Wolfberry, 20, 245.
Wolverene, 44, 191 192.
Woodchuck, 44.

Kngelhardt, 98-99.
Woodpecker, alpine three-toed, 44.
Lewis, 37.

Rocky Mountain hairy, 37.
Wood rat, 19, 134, 193.
Arizona, 28.

Arizona bushy-tailed, 113.
Bailey, 114-115.
Colorado bushy-tailed, 111-113.
desert, 24, 118-119.
Gale, 3(5, 117-118.
hoary, 115-116.
pallid bushy-tailed, 114.
Warren, 29, 116-117.
Wren, Baird, 29. ■
canyon, 24.

Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus, 38.
Ximenesia, 27.

exauriculata, 2f).

Yellow pine, Rocky Mountain, 213-215.
Yellowthroat, western, 20.
Yucca, 27, 118, 222-223.
Ilarriman, 223.
Yucca baccata, 25, 29, 223-224.

glauca, 21, 23, 222-223.

harrimaniffi, 25, 29, 223.

Zapus hudsonius campestris, 148.

princeps, 37, 44, 148-149.
Zenaidura macroura carolinensis, 20.
Zone, Canadian, 41-15.

Iludsonian, 4.V49.

Transition, 33-41.

Upper Sonoran, 14-33.
Zones, crop, 29.

life, 13, 31.
Zonotrichia leucophrys, 48, 50.

o

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

HENRY W. HENSHAW, Chief

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA

No. 34

O
[Actual date of publication, September 7, 1911]

REVISION OF THE SPINY POCKET MICE

(Genera HETEROMYS and LIOMYS)

BY

EDWARD A. GOLDMAN

FIELD NATURALIST, BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

1911

I

W \C\0.

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

U. S. Department of Agriculture,

Bureau of Biological Survey,

Washington, D. C, April 15, 1911.
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith, for publication as
North American Fauna No. 34, a Revision of the Sphry Pocket Mice
(genera Heteromys and Liomys), by Edward A. Goldman, field
naturalist, Biological Survey. The spiny pocket mice are widely
distributed in the drier parts of North America, and, although of
small size, are of considerable economic importance, owing to the
fact that they feed chiefly on seeds, including weed seeds, corn, wheat,
and beans. Comparatively little has been known of the relationships
and distribution of these animals. Hence the need of the present
revision, which brings the subject up to date and will materially
lessen the labors of those who have occasion to study and identify the
animals.

Respectfully,

Henry W. Henshaw,
Chief, Biological Survey.
Hon. James Wilson,

Secretary of Agriculture.

CONTENTS.

Page.

Introduction 7

History and material 7

Habits and economic status 8

Color and pelages 9

Measurements 10

Subgenera and minor groups 10

List of species and subspecies, with type localities 11

Key to genera and subgenera 12

Key to species and subspecies 12

Genus Heteromys 14

Subgenus Heteromys 15

Subgenus Xylomys 30

Genus Liomys 32

Index 69

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATES.

Plate I. Upper and lower molars (partially worn crowns) of Heteromys des-
marestianus, H. nelsoni, and Liomys i. alleni. Jaws (lateral views)
of H. desmarestianus, H. nelsoni, and L. i. alleni. Skulls (upper

and lower views) of H. anomalus and II. nelsoni 64

II. Skulls (upper and lower views) of Heteromys jesupi, H. australis, H.
desmarestianus, H. longicaudatus , H. goldmani, H. fuscatus, and

H. gaumeri 66

III. Skulls (upper and lower views) of Liomys pictus, L. p. parviceps, L.

crispus, L. i. alleni, L. irroratus, and L. bulleri 68

TEXT FIGURES.

Fig. 1. Distribution of Heteromys anomalus, H. jesupi, and H. australis 17

2. Distribution of Heteromys desmarestianus and allied forms 21

3. Distribution of Heteromys (Xylomys) nelsoni 31

4. Distribution of Liomys pictus and allied forms 34

5. Distribution of Liomys crispus and allied forms 46

6. Distribution of Liomys irroratus and allied forms 53

5

No, 34. NOKTH AMERICAN PAUNA. Sept., 1911.

REVISION OF THE SPINY POCKET MICE.

(Genera Heteromys and Liomys.)

By Edward A. Goldman.

INTRODUCTION.

The spiny pocket mice of the genera Heteromys and Liomys belong
to the family Heteromyidae, a group of mammals widely distributed,
especially in the drier parts of North America. The other members
of the family are the pocket mice of the genus Perognathus and the
kangaroo rats of the genera Dipodomys, Perodipus, and Microdipo-
dops. Although of small size, these rodents are of considerable
economic importance in many regions, owing to their excessive num-
bers and their habit of feeding on grain and other seed, which they
carry off in their cheek pouches.

In Heteromys and Liomys the pelage is composed mainly of flattened
and grooved bristles or spines, which readily distinguish these genera
from all the others. The genus Liomys, with numerous forms,
overlaps the other Heteromyidse in geographic range, but gradually
replaces them from southern Texas southward through Mexico. The
genus Heteromys includes an austral group of species, some of which
range in northern South America.

HISTORY AND MATERIAL.

A species of Heteromys was first described and figured under the
name Mus anomalus, from the island of Trinidad, by John Vaughn
Thompson.1 In a paper read March 3, 1812, before the Linnsean
Society of London he gave an excellent description, which was pub-
lished in the Transactions of the Society three years later. Thompson
was well aware of the peculiar characters of the animal, and regarded

i Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., XI, pp. 161-163, pi. 10, 1815.

8 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

it as an anomaly serving as a connecting link between Mus and
Hystrix, but hardly worthy of generic separation. In 1817 Des-
marest proposed provisionally the generic name Heteromys, with
Mus anomalus Thompson as type-1

Five years later he was still somewhat doubtful of the applicability
of the generic name Heteromys,2 and placed Mus anomalus under
Cricetus anomalus, the name he had applied to the animal in 1817.
Lesson found it advantageous to separate Heteromys from Cricetus
and used the name Heteromys tliompsonii for Mus anomalus.

In 1843 Dr. J. E. Gray 3 referred to a specimen from Coban, Guate-
mala, which he named Heteromys desmarestiana but did not describe.
This nomen nudum became a valid name in 1868, when Dr. Gray
published his Synopsis of the Species of Saccomyinse, or Pouched
Mice, in the Collection of the British Museum. In this paper six
species of Heteromys were recognized, four being added to the already
named H. anomalus and H. desmarestianus. A few others were
described at intervals, and in 1893 the species were first divided by
Thomas 4 into groups based on characters presented by the soles
of the hind feet, whether naked or hairy posteriorly and five- or
six-tuberculate. These characters were also used by Allen 5 in
tabulating a revised list of species in 1897. Meanwhile a large col-
lection was accumulated by the Biological Survey; and in a paper
published in 1902 Merriam added 20 new species and subspecies to
the general group, more than doubling the number then known.
Fifteen of the new forms were placed in a new genus, Liomys, and
one was assigned to a new subgenus, Xylomys.

The present revision is the result of a study of the spiny pocket
mice in the collection of the Biological Survey, now numbering nearly
1,000 specimens, supplemented by about 130 in the United States
National Museum and from various sources. For the use of types
and topotypes in other American collections acknowledgments are
due to Dr. J. A. Allen, American Museum of Natural History; to Mr.
Outrarn Bangs, Museum of Comparative Zoology; and to Dr. D. G.
Elliot, Field Museum of Natural History. In addition I am indebted
to Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, jr., for notes and comparison of specimens
with the types in European museums.

HABITS AND ECONOMIC STATUS.

The habits of all the spiny pocket mice, so far as known, are very
similar, but modified to a certain extent by the varying conditions of
local environment. Like many other small rodents, they are nocturnal

i Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., XTV, pp. 180-181, 455, 1817.

2 Marnmalogie, II, pp. 313-314, 1822.

» Proc. Zool. Son. Loud., p. 79, 1843.

* Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 6, XI, pp. 329-330, April, 1893.

6 Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., IX, p. 57, March 15, 1897.

1911.] INTRODUCTION. 9

and so shy that their presence in large numbers is readily overlooked.
They inhabit widely differing faunal areas, but everywhere burrow
in the ground under bushes, trees, rocks, logs, or other shelter, and
generally are most numerous in such cover along the borders of
fields. The entrances to the burrows are inconspicuous, opening, as
they commonly do, under thick beds of leaves, logs, or rocks; small
quantities of earth are thrown out about them from time to time, but
not usually forming a definite mound. These pocket mice reach
their greatest abundance in semiarid, partially wooded regions, both
plains and mountain slopes being well populated with them. Some
species of Heteromys, however, inhabit humid heavily forested areas
apparently throughout middle America. From three to five young
are produced at a birth, four being the usual number. While the
young seem more numerous in spring and early summer than at other
times, it is evident that the animals breed throughout the year.

The food of the spiny pocket mice consists largely of seeds. These
are of great variety and include seeds of weeds and many composite
plants, corn and wheat, beans and castor beans, supplemented by
fragments of green leaves and short sections of twigs. Individuals
taken in the vicinity of fields frequently have the cheek pouches filled
with grain. Thompson relates in his description of H. anomalus that
in the island of Trinidad ' ' they do incalculable mischief in farms and
granaries; for, not satisfied with what they can eat on the spot, they
stow away and carry off in their cheek pouches no inconsiderable
quantity [of grain] to be deposited in their retreats for times when
food is not to be procured from without." While apparently not so
injurious to crops as some other rodents, these mice, in some places,
are among the most numerous of the small mammals, and their food
habits, as well as those of the great family to which they belong,
should be better known.

COLOR AND PELAGES.

Color variation in the group as a whole is considerable, but certain
shades, mainly grays, extend with slight modification through assem-
blages of related species. The general color of the upperparts
depends largely on that of the tips of the spiny element in the pelage ;
the tips range from light gray to black. The slender hairs interspersed
among the spines and often reaching beyond them vary from plain
gray to rich orange buff, and may or may not greatly alter the general
tone. The general color may be affected also by climatic conditions
or a forested environment. The forms inhabiting heavily wooded
areas are usually darker than those which five in more open or semi-
desert situations. An ochraceous or orange buffy lateral fine is
present in some species and absent in others. The underparts are
white.

10 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

The pelage of the young at birth consists of fine hairs and flattened,
anteriorly grooved bristles, which are quite soft. This juvenal coat is
replaced in most species by the spiny adult pelage when the animals
are one-half to three-fourths grown; in H. nelsoni and perhaps in
II. bicolor the juvenal coat is permanent. The adult pelage usually
appears first in spots on the head and near the middle of the back,
gradually spreading with a sharp line of demarcation until the entire
body is covered. The molting season is very irregular, partly owing
to the prolongation of the breeding period through the entire year.
As a rule the adults are at the molting stage in early summer, but
fully grown individuals in worn and fresh pelages may be seen together
at almost any time. In some species the new coat seems to replace
the old almost imperceptibly; in others it appears first on the head,
passing progressively backward. Occasionally an irregular patched
appearance results, or the change may resemble that which takes place
when the adult pelage is acquired. During wear the slender hairs are
abraded and the spines thus more exposed give the animal a some-
what darker color than when in the fresh coat.

MEASUREMENTS.

All measurements of specimens, unless otherwise stated, are in
millimeters. With a few exceptions, usually stated, the external
measurements were taken in the flesh by the collector, as follows:
Total length (nose to end of terminal tail vertebra) ; tail vertebrae, (upper
base of tail to end of terminal tail vertebra); hind foot (heel to end of
longest claw). While adult males average slightly larger than
females, the difference is scarcely appreciable in the small series
usually available. The external and cranial measurements given are,
therefore, of series which may include specimens of both sexes. The
following cranial measurements have been taken:

Greatest length. — The length from the tip of the nasals to the supra-
occipital in the median line over the foramen magnum.

Zygomatic breadth. — The greatest distance across the zygomata.

Interorbital breadth. — The least distance between the orbits.

Length of nasals. — The greatest length of the nasals.

Width of braincase. — The distance between the outer sides of the
squamosals immediately in front of the projection of the auditory
meatus.

Alveolar length of upper molar series. — The greatest length of the
upper molariform tooth row, at the alveolar border.

SUBGENERA AND MINOR GROUPS.

The genus Heteromys has been divided into two subgenera. Het-
eromys, the typical subgenus, contains all the species except H. net-

1911.] LIST OF SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES. 11

soni, which is placed in the monotypic subgenus Xylomys. The
latter is distinguished externally by large size and by the softness of
its pelage. The genus Liomys is undivided subgenerically, but may
be separated into three well-defined groups: the irroratus group,
with light grayish coloration and five-tuberculate soles of hind feet;
the pictus group, characterized by rich orange rufous lateral lines and
six-tuberculate soles of hind feet; and the crispus group t including
small species with short tails, plain coloration, and peculiar dental
characters.

In the present revision 14 species and subspecies are assigned to
the genus Heteromys and 28 to the genus Liomys, of which one species
of Heteromys and two forms of Liomys are characterized for the first
time.

List of Species and Subspecies, with Type Localities.

Genus HETEROMYS.
H. anomalus group:

Heteromys anomalies (Thompson) Island of Trinidad, West Indies.

jesupi Allen Near Minca, Santa Marta District, Colombia.

australis Thomas San Javier, lower Cachabi River, Ecuador.

bicolor (Gray) ' Venezuela.

H. desmarestianus group:

Heteromys desmarestianus Gray Coban, Guatemala.

desmarestianus griseus Merriam. .Mountains near Tonala, Chiapas, Mexico.

longicaudatus Gray "Mexico."

goldmani Merriam Chicharras, Chiapas, Mexico.

lepturus Merriam Mountains near Santo Domingo, Oaxaca.

temporalis sp. nov Motzorongo, Vera Cruz, Mexico.

repens Bangs Boquete, Volcan de Chiriqui, Panama.

fuscatus Allen Tuma, Nicaragua.

gaumeri Allen and Chapman Chichen Itza, Yucatan.

Subgenus XYLOMYS.

Heteromys nelsoni Merriam Pinabete, Chiapas, Mexico.

Genus LIOMYS.
L. pictus group:

Liomys pictus (Thomas) Mineral San Sebastian, Jalisco.

pictus escuinapse (Allen) Escuinapa, Sinaloa, Mexico.

pictus sonorana Merriam Alamos, Sonora, Mexico.

pictus plantinarensis Merriam . . .Plantinar, Jalisco, Mexico.

pictus parviceps Goldman La Salada, Michoacan, Mexico.

pictus rostratus Merriam Near Ometepec, Guerrero, Mexico.

pictus phseurus Merriam Pinotepa, Oaxaca, Mexico.

pictus isthmus Merriam Tehuan tepee, Oaxaca, Mexico.

pictus verxcrucis Merriam San Andres Tuxtla, Vera Cruz, Mexico.

pictus obscurus Merriam Carrizal, Vera Cruz, Mexico.

annectens (Merriam) Pluma, Oaxaca, Mexico.

1 Heteromys bicolor may not belong here.

12 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

L. crispus group:

Liomys crispus Merriam Tonala, Chiapas, Mexico.

crispus setosus Merriam Huehuetan, Chiapas, Mexico.

vulcani (Allen) Volcan de Chinandega, Nicaragua.

heterolhrix Merriam San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

salvini (Thomas) Dueiias, Guatemala.

salvini nigrescens (Thomas) " Costa Rica. ' '

adspersus (Peters) "Panama."

L. irroratus group:

Liomys irroratus (Gray) "Mexico, State of Oaxaca."

irroratus torridus Merriam Cuicatlan, Oaxaca, Mexico.

irroratus minor Merriam Huajuapam, Oaxaca, Mexico.

irroratus alleni (Coues) Rio Verde, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

irroratus pretiosus subsp. nov Metlaltoyuca, Puebla, Mexico.

irroratus texensis Merriam Brownsville, Texas.

irroratus canus Merriam Near Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico.

irroratus jalicensis (Allen) Las Canoas, 20 miles west of Zapotlan,

Jalisco, Mexico.

bulleri (Thomas) La Laguna, Sierra de Juanacatlan, Jalisco,

Mexico.

guerrerensis sp. nov Omilteme, Guerrero, Mexico.

Key to Genera and Subgenera.

a. Posterior molars narrower than premolars.
b. Posterior loop in crown of upper premolar with a deep reentrant angle directed
inward and backward from anterior border; interpterygoid fossa narrowing

gradually to a rather acute point anteriorly Heteromys.

b'. Posterior loop in crown of upper premolar with anterior border concave; inter-
pterygoid fossa broad and rounded anteriorly Liomys.

a'. Posterior molars equal to or broader than premolars Xylomys.

Key to Species and Subspecies.

[Based on typical adults.]

I. Subgenus HETEROMYS.

a. Pelage composed of bristles mingled with slender hairs.
b. Sole of hind foot naked posteriorly,
c. Parietals reaching laterally across temporal ridges.
d. Inner side of forearm clouded with dusky.
e. Tail more than 150; slender hairs on dorsum dull ochraceous buffy. (Ven-
ezuela; Island of Trinidad.) H. anomalus (p. 16)

e! '. Tailless than 140; slender hairs on dorsum clear grayish. (Ecuador.)

* H. australis (p. 18)

d' '. Inner side of forearm white.
e. Outer sides of frontals widely overhanging orbits. (Mexico to Panama.)
f. Buffy lateral line present.
g. Ankles white above.
h. Nasals moderately broad anteriorly, narrowing gradually near
middle.
i. Back blackish. (West-central Guatemala; Chiapas, north of
Sierra Madre; mountains of southern Tabasco.)

H. desmarestianus (p. 20)
V. Back grayish. (Western Chiapas; eastern Oaxaca.)

H. d. griseus (p. 22)

1911.] KEY TO SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES. 13

h'. Nasals very broad anteriorly, narrowing abruptly near middle.

(Lowlands of Tabasco.) H. longicaudatus (p. 23)

(/. Ankles dusky all round. (Eastern Oaxaca and southern Vera Cruz.)

H. lepturus (p. 25)
/'. Buffy lateral line absent.
g. Hind foot less than 35.

h. Nasals reaching posteriorly beyond premaxillse. (Panama.)

H. repens (p. 27)
//. Nasals not reaching posteriorly beyond premaxillse. (Nicaragua.)

H.fuscatus (p. 28)
gf . Hind foot more than 37. (Southern Chiapas.). .-5". goldmani (p. 24)
e/. Outer sides of frontals narrowly overhanging orbits. (Colombia.)

H. jesupi (p. 18)
cf. Parietals not reaching laterally across temporal ridges. (Vera Cruz.)

H. temporalis (p. 26)
V . Sole of hind foot hairy from near posterior tubercle to heel. (Yucatan; Cam-

peche.) II. gaumeri (p. 29)

a'. "Fur somewhat harsh but not in the least bristly." (Venezuela.)

H. bicolor (p. 19)

II. Subgenus XYLOMYS (monotypic).
m. Genus LIOMYS.

[Based on typical adults.]

a. Sole of hind foot five-tuberculate (irroratus group).
b. Back mainly mouse gray.
c. Interparietal suboval.

d. Nasals normally truncate posteriorly.
e. Hind foot more than 30.
f. Anterior nares not much inflated.

g. Paler; bind foot usually more than 33. (Southern Chihuahua; Du-

rango; northwestern Zacatecas.) L. i. canus (p. 60)

g' '. Darker; hind foot usually 32 or less L. i. alleni (p. 56)

f. Anterior nares much inflated. (Tropical lowlands in northern Vera
Cruz, Puebla, Queretaro, and eastern San Luis Potosi.)

L. i. pretiosus (p. 58)
e' . Hind foot usually less than 30.
/. Hind foot 28 or more.

g. Interparietal more than twice as wide as long. (Central Jalisco ; north-
western Michoacan.) L. i. jalicensis (p. 60)

g/. Interparietal less than twice as wide as long. (Southern Texas;

Tamaulipas; eastern Nuevo Leon.) L. i. texensis (p. 59)

j'. Hind foot less than 28. (Northwestern Oaxaca; northeastern Guerrero.)

L.%. minor (p. 56)
d/. Nasals normally emarginate posteriorly. (Known ranges south of 19° north
latitude.)
e. Hind foot more than 30. (Central and eastern Oaxaca.)

L. irroratus (p. 53)
e/. Hind foot less than 30. (Northern Oaxaca; southern Puebla; Morelos;

eastern Guerrero.) L. i. torridus (p. 55)

cf . Interparietal subtriangular. (Sierra de Juanacatlan, Jalisco.)

L. bulled (p. 61)
V . Back deep glossy black. (Mountains of central Guerrero.)

L. guerrerensis (p. 62)

14 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

a' '. Sole of hind foot normally six-tuberculate (pictus and crispus groups).
b. Orange buffy lateral line present (pictus group),
c. Hind foot not more than 30.
d. Hind foot more than 25.
e. Tail whitish below to near tip.
f. Ground color of back grayish. (Pacific slope.)
g. Interparietal subtriangular.
h. Nasals emarginate posteriorly.
i. Forearm normally edged with gray or buffy along outer side.
j. Ground color of upperparts paler gray. (Southern Sinaloa and

Tepic.) L. p. escuinapx (p. 35)

Y . Ground color of upperparts darker gray. (Western and south-
ern Jalisco; northwestern Michoacan.)

L. p. plantinarensis (p. 37)

V. Forearm entirely white L. p. isthmius (p. 41)

¥. Nasals truncate posteriorly L. pictus (p. 33)

gf. Interparietal suboval L. p. rostratus (p. 39)

/'. Ground color of back blackish. (Atlantic slope of Isthmus of Tehuan-

tepec.) L. p. veraecrucis (p. 42)

(/. Tail dark all round on terminal half L. p. phaeurus (p. 40)

d'. Hind foot less than 25 L.p. parviceps (p. 38)

& '. Hind foot more than 30.
d. Hind foot less than 32.
e. Back blackish. (South-central Vera Cruz from the Papaloapam Valley to

near Jalapa.) L. p. obscurus (p. 44)

ef . Back grayish. (Southern Sonora; northern Sinaloa; southwestern Chi-
huahua; western Durango.) L.p. sonorana (p. 36)

d' '. Hind foot 32 or more. (Sierra Madre of Guerrero and southwestern Oaxaca.)

L. annectens (p. 45)
b'. Orange buffy lateral line absent (crispus group).
c. Sole of hind foot hairy posteriorly.
d. Known ranges in Mexico.

e. Color paler; skull smaller. (Western Chiapas.) L. crispus (p. 46)

c'. Color darker; skull larger. (Southern Chiapas.) L. c. setosus (p. 47)

d' . Known ranges in Central America.
e. Upperparts not distinctly buffy.
/. Forearm edged with slaty gray.

g. Color paler. (Guatemala.) L. salvini (p. 50)

g' ' . Color darker. (Costa Rica.) -. L. s. nigrescens (p. 51)

f/. Forearm nearly or entirely pure white. (Nicaragua.)

L. vulcani (p. 48)

e' '. Upperparts distinctly buffy. (Honduras.) L. heterothrix (p. 49)

c. Sole of hind foot naked posteriorly. (Panama.) L. adspersus (p. 51)

Genus HETEROMYS Desmarest.

Heteromys Desmarest, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., XIV, pp. 180-181, 455, 1817. Type

Mus anomalus Thompson.
Saccomys F. Cuvier, Mem. Mus. Hist. Nat., Paris, X, pp. 419-428, PI. XXVI, 1823.
Dasynotus Wagler, Nat. Syst. Amphib., p. 21, 1830.

Generic characters. — Pelage composed of flattened, anteriorly
grooved bristles or spines (except possibly in II. bicolor), mingled with
slender hairs; tail usually longer than head and body, not conspicu-
ously crested or penciled at tip ; sole of hind foot five- or six-tuber-

1911.1 SUBGENUS HETEEOMYS. 15

culate, naked at least to posterior tubercle. Skull elongated; mas-
toids rather small, appearing externally entirely posterior to auditory
meatus; audital bullae not overlapped by pterygoids; interpterygoid
fossa V-shaped, narrowing gradually to a rather acute point ante-
riorly. Front of upper incisors without grooves; molariform teeth,
except lower premolar, with three more or less distinct roots, the two
posterior in the upper premolar usually fused in some species; lower
premolar with two roots. Molar crowns in early life completely
divided by a transverse sulcus into two parallel enamel loops, the
grinding surface becoming flat, and the loops uniting first at inner
ends of upper row and outer ends of lower row, and continued wear
obliterating sulcus or leaving a central enamel island.

Subgenus HETEROMYS Desmarest.
Type. — Mus anomalus Thompson, from Trinidad, West Indies.

Distribution. — Tropical or subtropical portions of continental
America from southern Mexico to Ecuador, also Island of Trinidad,
West Indies.

Subgeneric characters. — Pelage hispid (except possibly in II. bicolor) ;
tail thinly haired; hind foot naked posteriorly (except in gaumeri),
six-tuberculate ; inner sides of forearms pure white or clouded with
dusky. Braincase rather flat ; temporal ridges usually distinct ; upper
surface of maxillary root of zygoma triangular; parietals not reaching
laterally along lambdoid crest to mastoids; angle of mandible moder-
ately everted. Last molars slightly narrower than premolars; tuber-
cle over root of lower incisor small; permanent upper premolar with
anterior border of posterior loop infolded, the fold forming normally
a deep reentrant angle directed inward and backward; additional
enamel islands present in early life in posterior loops of upper molars
and anterior loops of lower molars, but disappearing with advancing
age.

Remarks. — In the genera Heteromys and Liomys the size of the
tubercles over roots of lower incisors is correlated with the size of the
last lower molars, that is, when the tubercles are large the molars are
small and vice versa. The maximum development of the tubercles
is reached in the genus Liomys and the minimum in the subgenus
Xylomys. The intermediate position of the typical subgenus is
shown by a more evenly balanced condition of these tubercles and
molars and the possession of other characters which are more pro-
nounced in Liomys and Xylomys or shared with only one of them.

The type species of the subgenus and nearly related South American
forms seem to show a closer approach to Liomys in early obliteration
of additional enamel islands in the loops of molariform teeth than do
most Central American and Mexican species, which in this respect
are rather more like Xylomys. II. gaumeri differs from all other

16 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

known members of the genus and agrees with Liomys in having the
soles of hind feet hairy posteriorly. Kelationship to Liomys is sug-
gested also by the early disappearance of additional enamel islands
in the loops of molariform teeth; but the characters winch readily
separate Ileteromys from Liomys in the adult state — the more tapering
and anteriorly sharply excised interpterygoid fossa and deep reen-
trant angle in posterior loop of upper premolar, together with other
cranial details — place gaumeri in the typical genus.

HETEROMYS ANOMALUS GROUP.

HETEROMYS ANOMALUS (Thompson).

Trinidad Spiny Pocket Mouse.

(PI. I, figs. 4, 4a.)

Mus anomalus Thompson, Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., XI, pp. 161-163, pi. 10, 1815.
Cricetus anomalus Desmarest, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., XIV, p. 180, 1817, Mammalogie,

pt. 2, pp. 313-314, 1822.
Heteromys thompsonii Lesson, Manuel de Mammalogie, p. 264, 1827.
Ileteromys anomalus Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., p. 203, 1868.
Heteromys melanoleucus Gray, Ibid., p. 204, 1868. From Venezuela (not Honduras).1

Type in Brit. Mus.

Type locality. — Island of Trinidad, West Indies.

Distribution. — Island of Trinidad and Venezuela.

General characters. — Size medium for subgenus Heteromys; tail
longer than head and body, thinly haired, sharply bicolored; buffy
lateral line absent; sole of hind foot naked, six-tuberculate. Related
to H. jesujri, but darker; inner sides of forearms more or less clouded
with dusky, instead of white, as in jesupi.

Color. — Fresli pelage: Upperparts dark mouse gray, mixed with
blackish on median dorsal area, faintly grizzled with dull buffy
hairs; underparts and feet white; outer sides of legs, sometimes
including forearms all around, mouse gray; grayish of hind legs
becoming blackish on sides of ankles, leaving heels whitish; ears
dusky, without white edging; tail brownish above, whitish below,
usually more or less mottled with brownish.

Cranial characters. — Skull medium in size for a Heteromys, with
heavy flattened rostrum and narrow braincase; anterior nares much
inflated; nasals very broad, truncate posteriorly; premaxillae broad
posteriorly, usually reaching beyond nasals; frontals narrow; supra-
orbital and temporal ridges weakly developed; sagittal area narrow;
interparietal pointed elliptical; interpterygoid fossa narrow ante-
riorly; palatopterygoids slender; audital bullse small; angle of man-
dible short, heavy, only slightly everted; tubercle over root of lower

1 See. Alston, Biol. Cent.-Amer. Hamm.,p. 107; Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 5, VI, pp. 118-119, 1880.

1911.]

HETEROMYS ANOMALUS GROUP.

17

incisor small; mandibular toothrow relatively rather broad poste-
riorly; posterior lobe of upper premolar with anterior border deeply
infolded; additional enamel islands in posterior lobes of upper
molars disappearing through wear rather early in life. Similar in
size and general form to H. jesupi; nasals broader posteriorly,
squarely truncate, instead of convex or acuminate; premaxillse
reaching posteriorly beyond nasals (exceeded by nasals in jesupi);
palate narrower.

Measurements. — Average of five adults from Caura, Island of
Trinidad: Total length, 286 (280-298); tail vertebrae, 158 (153-163);
hind foot, 34.8 (34-36). SJcuU (average of same): Greatest length,
35 (34.1-36.3); zygomatic breadth, 16 (15.8-16.3); interorbital
breadth, 8.3 (7.8-8.5); length of nasals, 13.8 (13.3-14.7); width of
braincase, 14.7
(14.5-14.9); alve-
olar length of up-
per molar series,
5.2 (5-5.6).

Remarks. — H.
anomalus, the type
species of the ge-
nus, presents less
extreme develop-
ment in cranial
characters than
is exhibited in
some North Amer-
ican species ; the
broad supraorbital
shelves of such
forms as desmarestianus, lepturus, and goldmani are represented by
slight, narrow ridges, and the additional enamel islands in the poste-
rior lobes of upper molars disappear through wear somewhat earlier
in life in anomalus. In general characters anomalus agrees in many
respects with jesupi and the two are evidently not very distantly
related.

Ten specimens, including a number of perfect skulls of adults with
imperfect skins from Los Palmales, San Julian, Macuto, and Que-
brada Seca, in northern Venezuela, assumed to be like umelanoleucus^
do not seem separable from typical anomalus.

Specimens examined. — Total number 26, from the following locali-
ties:

Trinidad: Caparo, 3; Caura, 11; Princestown, 2.

Venezuela: Los Palmales, 5; Macuto, 1; Sau Julian, 3; Quebrada Seca, 1.

93319°— No. 34—11 2

Fig. 1. — Distribution of Heteromys anomalus, H. jesupi, and 11. australis.

18 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

HETEROMYS JESUPI Allen.

Jesup Spiny Pocket Mouse.

(PI. II, figs. 1, la.)

Heteromys jesupi Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., XII, pp. 201-202, Dec. 20, 1899.

Type locality. — Near Minca, Santa Marta district, Colombia (alti-
tude 1,000 feet). Type No. 15347, 9 adult, American Museum of
Natural History, collected by H. H. Smith, July 30, 1899.

Distribution*. — Mountain slopes of the Santa Marta district in
northern Colombia.

General characters. — Similar to H. anomalus, but paler; inner sides
of forearms white, instead of clouded with dusky; bufFy lateral line
absent, and hind foot naked and six-tuberculate, as in anomalus.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upperparts mouse gray, mixed with blackish
on median dorsal area, thinly grizzled with ochraceous buffy hairs;
outer sides of legs pale mouse gray, this color becoming darker and
reaching down over sides of ankles, usually including heels; ears
dusky without distinct white edging; tail brownish above, dull
whitish below.

Cranial characters. — Skull much like that of H. anomalus; nasals
narrower posteriorly, convex or acuminate instead of truncate; pre-
maxillse not reaching beyond posterior plane of nasals (passing this
plane in anomalus) ; interparietal with a small posterior, median
notch (absent in anomalus) ; palate broader.

Measurements. — Type (from original description): Total length,
330; tail vertebrae, 163; hind foot, 33. Average of six females: 292;
160; 34. Skull (average of two adults): Greatest length, 35.6
(35.2-36.1); zygomatic breadth, 16.4 (16.4-16.5); interorbital
breadth, 8.3 (8.2-8.5); length of nasals, 14.8 (14.4-15.2); width of
braincase, 14.9 (14.9-15); alveolar length of upper molar series, 5.5
(5.5-5.6).

Remarks. — This species is evidently rather nearly related to the type
species of the genus H. anomalus of Trinidad and northern Venezuela.

Specimens examined. — Total number 8, from the following localities :

Colombia: Minca, 3 (including type); Bonda, 1; El Libano Plantation, 1;
Mamatoca, 1; Masinga Vieja, 1; Onaca, 1.

HETEROMYS AUSTRALIS Thomas.
Southern Spiny Pocket Mouse.
(PL II, figs. 2, 2a.)
Heteromys australis Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, VII, p. 192, Feb., 1901.

Type locality. — San Javier, lower Cachabi River, Ecuador (altitude
65 feet). Type, 9 , collected by G. Flemming and R. Miketta, June
23, 1900.

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality, near the Pacific
coast in extreme northern Ecuador,

1911.] HETEROMYS ANOMALUS GROUP. 19

General characters. — Size medium, tail about equal to head and
body, thinly haired, nearly unicolor; pelage very short and hispid;
color dark; feet clouded with dusky; sole of hind foot naked, six-
tuberculate. Somewhat like jesupi and repens externally, but smaller
and darker and not closely related.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upperparts varying from very dark mouse
gray to blackish slate, darkest on median dorsal area, finely and incon-
spicuous^ grizzled with slender grayish hairs; outer sides of legs
blackish; forearms, ankles, and base of tail more or less black all
round; fore and hind feet dull whitish, clouded with black; ears dusky,
without white edging; tail brownish "black above, slightly paler below.

Cranial characters. — Skull rather short and broad, with large inflated
braincase, short, heavy rostrum, anteriorly spreading zygomata, and
very small audita] bulla?. In general form somewhat similar to that
of jesupi, but smaller; braincase more fully inflated; parietal bulging
noticeably, leaving a narrow median depression between them, not
much prolonged laterally along lambdoid suture; frontal and sagittal
areas broader; premaxilla? narrower posteriorly, more nearly con-
terminous with nasals (nasals usually reaching beyond premaxilla?
in jesupi); zygomata more squarely and relatively more widely
spreading anteriorly; palate with a distinct ridge along median line
between premolars; bulla? much smaller, more angular, and tapering
antero-internally ; dentition about as in jesupi.

Measurements. — Type (from original description) : Head and body,
135; tail, 137; hind foot, 33. Average of four adult topotypes: 128;
128; 30 (hind foot without claw?). SJcutt (average of three adults):
Greatest length, 33.6 (33.2-34.1); zygomatic breadth, 16.2 (16-16.3);
interorbital breadth, 8.6 (8.3-8.9); length of nasals, 13.2 (12.8-13.7);
width of braincase, 14.7 (14.5-14.9); alveolar length of upper molar
series, 5.1 (5-5.1).

Remarks. — H. australis is a strongly marked species apparently
nearer in cranial characters to jesupi and anomalus than to repens, but
not requiring close comparison with either. No other member of the
genus is known to range so far south.

Specimens examined:
Ecuador: San Javier (type locality), 4.

HETEROMYS BICOLOR (Gray).

Bicolored Spiny Pocket Mouse.
Perognathus bicolor Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 202, 1868.
Heteromys bicolor Alston, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., VI, pp. 118-119, 1880.

Type locality. — Venezuela (not "Honduras").1 Type in British
Museum, sent by Dyson from Venezuela.
Distribution. — Range unknown.

i Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. VI, 118-119, 1880.

20 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. LNo. 34.

I General characters. — (Amended description by Alston.)1 " Ears
with the notch apparently bounded by two lobes; tail clad with

-short, fine, stiffish hairs; fur rather long, sparse, with no under-
fur, somewhat harsh, but not in the least bristly. Color above uni-
form dark brown, which extends to the outside of the limbs; feet
dusky, edges of cheek-pouches and all the lower parts white, the hairs
all uniform in color throughout their length. Approximate measure-
ments (of the mounted specimen) — length of head and body about
3.75 inches, of tail 3 inches, of hind foot 1 inch."

Remarks. — In describing Perognathus bicolor ( = Heteromys bicolor),
Gray seems to have confused his type with some other specimen, as
shown by Alston; hence Alston's amended description is here substi-
tuted for the original one. The type of bicolor has not been examined
by me and may possibly prove to be generically separable from
Heteromys.

HETEROMYS DESMARESTIANUS GROUP.

HETEROMYS DESMARESTIANUS Gray.
Coban Spiny Pocket Mouse.
(PI. I, figs. 1, la, 16; PI. II, figs. 3, 3a.)
Heteromys desmarestianus Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., p. 204, 1868.

Type locality. — Coban, Guatemala. Type in British Museum.

Distribution. — Mountainous portions of western Guatemala, also
northern Chiapas and southern Tabasco, Mexico. Humid Tropical
Zone.

General characters. — Size large ; tail decidedly longer than head and
body, scantily haired; color dark, decidedly darker than longicau-
datus, but not so dark as goldmani; ochraceous buffy lateral line
usually faint; ears without white edging; pelage coarse; sole of hind
foot naked, six-tuberculate.

Color. — Fresh pelage: General color of upperparts between dark
mouse gray and slaty black, usually darkest along median line from
nose to base of tail, heavily and uniformly grizzled with slender
ochraceous buffy hairs; ochraceous buffy lateral line from cheeks to
hind legs, distinct in some specimens, almost imperceptible in others ;
underparts and feet white, this color extending down in a continu-
ous line along inner sides of hind legs; ears thinly covered with short
dusky hairs, overlapped anteriorly by a tuft of long blackish bristles;
outer sides of forelegs mouse gray tinged with ochraceous buffy, merg-
ing above with general color of upperparts; sides of ankles, and some-
times heels, dusky; tail dusky above, whitish below on basal two-
thirds, darkening gradually toward tip, which is usually dusky all
round.

Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., VI, 119, 18S0.

1911.]

HETEROMYS DESMARESTIANTJS GROUP.

21

Cranial characters. — Skull large — about equal to longicaudatus and
lepturus — high and well arched along median line above, with narrow
rostrum, nasals, and interparietal, broad frontals and premaxillae.
In general form much like that of longicaudatus, but rostrum narrower,
broadening more abruptly to zygomata; nasals less expanded near
middle; upper surface of maxillary root of zygomata shorter, less
prolonged anteriorly; supraoccipital and temporal ridges strongly
developed, shelving over orbits and curving posteriorly across
parietals to lambdoid suture ; interparietal varying from irregularly
oval to pentagonal, the anterior angle prolonged ; premaxillae reaching
posteriorly slightly beyond nasals; zygomata only slightly spreading
anteriorly, the sides nearly parallel; palatopterygoids long and
slender; interpterygoid fossa V-shaped, deeply excised anteriorly;
bullae small ; an-
gle of mandible
slightly everted ;
tubercle over root
o f lower incisor
moderately devel-
oped; molariform
teeth rather small,
as usual in the
subgenus ; poste-
rior lobe of upper
premolar with a
deep reentrant
enamel fold; pos-
terior molars nar-
rower than pre-
molars above and
below; additional
enamel islands in
posterior lobes of upper molariform teeth and anterior lobes of lower
molariform teeth present in young, disappearing in anterior molars
with advancing age, but persisting, at least in last upper molars,
until extreme old age.

Measurements.— Type:1 Total length, 260; tail vertebrae, 123 (tip
gone) ; hind foot, 35.4. Average of 5 adult males and females from
Tumbala, Chiapas: 302 (272-323) ; 167 (139-180) ; 37.5 (37-38). SJcull
(average of 3 adults) : Greatest length, 37.3 (37.2-37.4) ; zygomatic
breadth, 16.6 (16.2-17); interorbital breadth, 9.8 (9.6-9.9); length
of nasals, 15.1 (15-15.2); width of braincase, 15.5 (15.2-15.9);
alveolar length of upper molar series, 5.2 (5-5.7).

yyZA »■ DESMAPEST/AHU-
^§ N. •■ GR/SEUS

U#. LOHGlCAUDATVS
1=1 H GOLDMA/V/
1^1 H LEPTUPOS

H- TEMPOPAUS

H. PSPE/VS

H. FUSCATUS

H. GAVM£P/

Fig. 2.— Distribution of Heteromys dcsmarestianus and allied forms.

1 Measured by Gerrit S. Miller, jr.

22 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. LNo. 34.

Remarks. — Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, jr., has compared for me specimens
of all the large species of the genus known to occur in Mexico with
the type of desmarestianus. Specimens from Tumbala, Chiapas, were
found to agree very closely with it and are probably nearly typical.
The species has a wider known range in Mexico than any other mem-
ber of the genus, and the agreement in many important characters
with longicaudatus suggests that the latter may prove to be a rather
slightly differentiated offshoot of this more generalized type.

October specimens from Tumbala are in apparently fresh or only
slightly worn pelage. Those taken in March and April at Teapa,
Tabasco, are in molting condition, the change about complete in some,
while others have a growing patch of fresh fur along median dorsal
area, below which the sides are ragged and much worn.

Specimens examined. — Total number 17, from localities as follows:

Chiapas: Tumbala, 6; Ocuilapa, 3.
Tabasco: Teapa, 8.

HETEROMYS DESMARESTIANUS GRISEUS Merriam.
Gray Spiny Pocket Mouse.
Heteromys griseus Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, p. 42, Mar. 5, 1902.

Type locality.— Mountains near Tonala, Chiapas, Mexico. Type
No. 76062, $ adult, United States National Museum (Biological
Survey collection), collected by Nelson and Goldman, August 15, 1895.

Distribution. — Mountains of western Chiapas and along the Isthmus
of Tehuantepec in eastern Oaxaca. Humid Tropical Zone.

General characters. — Size and proportions similar to those of des-
marestianus; color much grayer; sole of hind foot naked and six-
tuberculate as in desmarestianus.

Color. — Fresh pelage: General color above mouse gray, palest along
sides, thickly grizzled with slender ochraceous buffy hairs; buffy
lateral line faint; feet and underparts white; outer sides of forearms
grayish tinged with pale buff, interrupted across upper part of arms
in some specimens by a white area, in others continuous with general
color of upperparts ; ears and ankles dusky ; tail dusky above, whitish
below except near end, which is dusky all round.

Cranial characters. — Skull closely resembling that of desmarestianus,
but somewhat smaller; premaxillge decidedly narrower and more
tapering posteriorly; interparietal slightly shorter antero-posteriorly.

Measurements.— Type: Total length, 325; tail vertebras, 186; hind
foot, 38. Average of 3 adult topotypes: 317 (310-325); 181 (176-186);
37.2 (36-38). Skull (average of 4 adults) : Greatest length, 36.2 (35.5-
36.7); zygomatic breadth, 16.6 (16.1-17.2); interorbital breadth, 9.5
(9.3-9.8); length of nasals, 15.1 (14.5-15.5); width of braincase, 15.3
(14.9-15.7); alveolar length of upper molar series, 5.2 (5-5.2).

Remarks. — This is a paler form evidently closely related to desma-
restianus. Specimens from Guichicovi. Oaxaca, are darker colored

1911.] HETEROMYS DESMARESTIANUS GROUP. 23

than typical griseus, and in slightly broader premaxillae also show
gradation toward desmarestianus. The type series collected in
August includes several young about two-thirds grown in which the
soft coat characteristic of immaturity is beginning to give way to
the hispid pelage of adults, the latter pelage appearing in patches
on the face and rump.

Specimens examined. — Total number 13, from localities as follows:

Chiapas: Mountains near Tonala (type locality), 10.
Oaxaca: Guichicovi, 3.

HETEROMYS LONGICAUDATUS Gray.
Long-tailed Spiny Pocket Mouse.
(PI. II, figs. 4, 4a.)
Eeteromys longicaudatus Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., pp. 204-205, 1868.

Type locality . — "Mexico."1 Type, V adult, in British Museum.

Distribution. — Low coastal plains of Tabasco, Mexico, and prob-
ably adjacent portions of Chiapas, southwestern Campeche, and
northwestern Guatemala. Humid Tropical Zone.

General characters. — Size large; tail much longer than head and
body, very thinly haired; color dark, but not so dark as in B. desma-
restianus; ochraceous buffy lateral line present, but rather narrow
and inconspicuous; sole of hind foot naked, six-tuberculate.

Color. — Fresh pelage: General color above between drab and mouse
gray, darkest along median line of back, grizzled everywhere with
slender ochraceous buffy hairs; pale ochraceous buffy lateral line
very faint anteriorly, becoming more distinct across shoulders and
along flanks, fading again on hind legs; underparts and feet white;
outer sides of fore legs pale ochraceous buffy faintly tinged with dusky,
continuous above with lateral line; ears and inner sides of ankles
dusky, a dark line passing down along inner sides of legs leaving the
heels white; tail dusky above, white below.

Cranial characters. — Skull large, with short heavy rostrum, broad
nasals, premaxillse, and frontals, and narrow zygomata and inter-
parietal. More like that of H. desmarestianus than any other Mex-
ican species, but rostrum broader and heavier, broadening more
gradually to zygomata; nasals broader near middle; upper surface of
maxillary root of zygoma more elongated; interparietal irregularly
oval, with a projecting anterior angle; dentition as in desmarestianus.

Measurements. — Type:2 Total length, 295; tail vertebrae, 170; hind
foot, 37. An adult female from Montecristo, Tabasco: 312; 170; 36.

i Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, jr., who has compared for me specimens from numerous localities in Mexico with
the type of longicaudatus, found that one from Montecristo, Tabasco, agrees almost exactly in size, color,
and cranial characters.

2 Measured by Gerrit S. Miller, jr.

24 NOETH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

Skull (9 from Montecristo): Greatest length, 37.4; zygomatic
breadth, 16.1; interorbital breadth, 9.5; length of nasals, 14.6;
width of braincase, 15; alveolar length of upper molar series, 5.5.

Remarks. — Gray's original description of longicaudatus includes the
following statement: "There is no indication of any yellow streak on
the side, between the colors of the back and undersurface." In the
single specimen in the Biological Survey collection (No. 100211),
which Mr. Miller says "perfectly matches type of longicaudatus in
color, size (295; 170 ; 37), and all visible external characters * * *,"
a pale lateral line is present, but is not so broad and conspicuous as in
some species and may have been overlooked by Gray. This speci-
men represents a form apparently nearest to desmarestianus, but differ-
ing in paler color and the cranial characters already given. In
breadth and general outline of rostrum and nasals it approaches
lepturus, but the skull departs too widely in other respects to require
close comparison.

Specimens examined:
Tabasco: Montecristo, 1.

HETEROMYS GOLDMANI Merriam'.

Goldman Spiny Pocket Mouse.

(PL II, figs. 5, 5a.)

Heteromys goldmani Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, pp. 41-42, Mar. 5, 1902.

Type locality. — Chicharras, Chiapas, Mexico. Type No. 77576, S
adult, United States National Museum (Biological Survey collection),
collected by Nelson and Goldman, February 7, 1896.

Distribution. — Heavily forested Pacific slope of Sierra Madre in
extreme southern Chiapas, Mexico, and probably adjacent portions
of Guatemala. Humid Tropical Zone.

General characters. — Size very large; tail much longer than head
and body, thinly haired; color very dark, the slender hairs incon-
spicuous; buffy lateral line absent; ears without white edging; pel-
age coarse; sole of hind foot naked, six-tuberculate.

Color. — Fresh, pelage: General color above dark mouse gray, be-
coming slaty black over median dorsal area; feet and underparts
(including lips and cheek pouches) white, the line of separation along
sides very sharp; outer sides of forelegs mouse gray, passing above
into general color of upperparts; ears and inner sides of ankles dusky
tail dusky above, whitish below (sometimes pure white at tip).

Cranial characters. — Skull large and angular, with rather flat
rostrum, anteriorly spreading zygomata, and broad front als shelving
over orbits. In general form similar to that of H. desmarestianus,
but larger; rostrum less decurved, flatter above; premaxillae narrower
and more tapering posteriorly, reaching, as in desmarestianus, slightly
beyond nasals; frontals more prolonged anteriorly along intermaxillary

1911.] HETEROMYS DESMARESTIANUS GROUP. 25

suture; zygomata more spreading anteriorly; interparietal irregularly
oval, broader transversely and relatively shorter antero-posteriorly
than in desmarestianus; angle of mandible slightly everted; upper
premolar with posterior lobe deeply infolded anteriorly; additional
enamel island in posterior lobe of last upper molar persisting until
removed by wear in extreme old age; tubercle over root of lower
incisor moderately developed; last molar smaller than premolar.
Compared with temporalis, the braincase is decidedly narrower and
more arched; temporal ridges less widely separated; interparietal
more oval, without the small posterior indentation present in tem-
poralis; bullae smaller.

Measurements. — T}^pe: Total length, 347; tail vertebrae, 199; hind
foot, 40. Average of four adult topotypes: 342 (335-350); 194
(186-201); 39.5 (38-41). Skull (average of five adults): Greatest
length, 38.9 (38.2-40.2); zygomatic breadth, 18 (17.4-18.2); inter-
orbital breadth, 9.9 (9-10.5); length of nasals, 16.4 (16-17.3); width
of braincase, 15.9 (15.6-16.4); alveolar length of upper molar series,
5.6 (5.4-5.8).

Remarks. — Tins species, one of the largest of the genus, belongs to
the desmarestianus group, but is apparently not closely allied to any
of its near geographical neighbors. In general color, including the
absence of a buffy lateral line, it resembles temporalis, but the cranial
characters are distinctive.

Specimens examined. — Total number 9, from the following localities:

Chiapas: Chicharras (type locality), 7; Huehuetan, 2.

HETEROMYS LEPTURUS Merriam.

Santo Domingo Spiny Pocket Mouse.
Heteromys goldmani lepturus Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, p. 42, Mar. 5, 1902.

Type locality. — Mountains near Santo Domingo (a few miles west
of Guichicovi), Oaxaca, Mexico. Type No. 73382, $ adult, United
States National Museum (Biological Survey collection), collected by
Nelson and Goldman, June 20, 1895.

Distribution. — Humid, heavily forested mountain slopes and
coastal plains in northeastern Oaxaca and southeastern Vera Cruz,
Mexico. Humid Tropical Zone.

General diameters. — Size large; tail long; general color dark, about
as in desmarestianus, but ankles dusky all round (white on upper
side in desmarestianus); ears without white edging, nearly naked;
ochraceous buffy lateral line usually present, but narrow; sole of hind
foot naked, six-tuberculate.

Color. — Fresh pelage: General color above between dark mouse
gray and slaty black, darkest over median dorsal area; face and

26 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

hind legs thickly grizzled with slender ochraceous buffy hairs; lateral
line (when present) ochraceous buffy, narrow, extending from
shoulder to hind leg; underparts and feet white; ankles all round
and ears dusky; outer sides of forelegs and shoulders mouse gray
tinged with buffy; tail dusky above, whitish below.

Cranial characters. — Skull large and massive, with heavy rostrum,
anteriorly spreading zygomata; very broad front als and basioccipital,
and wide interparietal. General form similar to that of longicaudatus,
but rostrum longer, more decurved anteriorly; braincase higher
arched; premaxillse broader, reaching farther posteriorly beyond
nasals; zygomata more spreading anteriorly^ front als broader, the
outer sides more strongly developed as supraorbital shelves; inter-
parietal of similar shape, but wider transversely; temporal ridges
curving less sharply inward posteriorly; basioccipital decidedly
broader; dentition about as in longicaudatus.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 340; tail vertebrae, 191; hind
foot, 39. An adult topotype: 311; 176; 38. Skull (average of
two adults): Greatest length, 37.4 (36.7-38.2); interorbital breadth,
10.5 (10.1-10.9); length of nasals, 15.4 (14.9-15.9); width of brain-
case, 15.4 (15.2-15.7); alveolar length of upper molar series, 5.3
(5.2-5.4).

Remarks. — 11. lepturus is a well-marked species, although in exter-
nal appearance closely resembling desmarestianus. It appears to be
nearest in relationship to longicaudatus, but in combination of cranial
characters differs decidedly from all the other members of the des-
marestianus group. In some specimens from the lowlands of Vera
Cruz and Oaxaca the lateral line is distinct as in the topotypes, while
in others even from the same locality it is imperceptible.

Specimens examined. — Total number 8, from localities as follows:

Oaxaca: Mountains near Santo Domingo (type locality), 2; Choapam, 1; Tux-

tepec, 1.
Vera Cruz: San Andres Tuxtla, 4.

HETEROMYS TEMPORALIS sp. nov.

Motzorongo Spiny Pocket Mouse.

Typelrom Motzorongo, Vera Cruz, Mexico. No. 63719 (original No. 5915), 9 adult,
United States National Museum (Biological Survey collection), collected by
Nelson and Goldman, Mar. 3, 1894.

Distribution. — Heavily forested eastern basal slopes of mountains
in central Vera Cruz, Mexico. Humid Tropical Zone.

General characters. — Size large; tail longer than head and body;
color dark, but not so dark as in goldmani; slender hairs ochraceous
buffy, but inconspicuous; buffy lateral line absent; ears without
white edging, nearly naked; inner side of ankle whitish; sole of hind
foot naked, six-tuberculate.

1911.] HETEROMYS DESMARESTIANUS GROUP. 27

Color. — Fresh pelage: General color of upperparts, including outer
sides of forelegs to shoulders, mouse gray, varying to slaty black over
lower part of face and median dorsal area, the slender ochraceous
buffy hairs more abundant on head but only slightly affecting the
general tone; underparts and feet white; ankles dusky, except a nar-
row line along inner side; tail dusky above, whitish below.

Cranial characters. — Skull very large, with slender rostrum and
very broad, flat braincase. In general form similar to goldmani,
but rostrum narrower, braincase broader and flatter; sagittal area
much broader; temporal ridges following parietosquamosal suture
(crossing parietals in goldmani), the area for muscular attachment
below the ridges very narrow and not overlapping parietals; inter-
parietal more triangular, the anterior angle more prominent; basioc-
cipital narrower; auditory meatus larger; dentition as in goldmani.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 320; tail vertebras, 180; hind
foot, 37. Skull (of same) : Greatest length, 39.3; zygomatic breadth,
17.8; interorbital breadth, 10.2; length of nasals, 16.2; width of brain-
case, 16.8; alveolar length of upper molar series, 5.3.

Remarks. — This form appears to be more closely related to gold-
mani than to its nearer geographical neighbors. The skull, with
temporal ridges bounding parietals laterally instead of crossing them,
presents a condition not observed elsewhere in the genus.

Specimens examined:
Vera Cruz: Motzorongo (type locality), 3.

HETEROMYS REPENS Bangs.
Chiriqui Spiny Pocket Mouse.

Eeteromys repens Bangs, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., XXXIX, pp. 45-47, fig. 27, Apr.,
1902.

Type locality. — Boquete, southern slope Volcan de Chiriqui, Pan-
ama (altitude 4,000 feet). Type No. 10356, 9 adult, Museum of
Comparative Zoology (collection of E. A. and O. Bangs), Cambridge,
Mass., collected by W. W. Brown, jr., April 8, 1901.

Distribution. — Panama, and probably also in Costa Rica.

General characters. — Size large; tail slightly longer than head and
body, bicolor; color very dark; slender hairs ochraceous buffy in
adults; sole of hind foot naked, six-tuberculate. Somewhat like H.
desmarestianus, but smaller; orange buffy lateral line absent; differ-
ing also in cranial characters. Similar in general external appear-
ance to anomalus and jesupi, but even darker than either, and skull
very different.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upperparts dark mouse gray, shaded with
blackish on median dorsal area and grizzled with pale ochraceous
buffy hairs; underparts and feet white; lower part of face and outer
sides of legs dark mouse gray; heels, sides of ankles, and base of tail
blackish; ears dusky without distinct white edging; tail brownish

28 NORTH AMERICAN- FAUNA. [No. 34.

above, dull whitish below, except at base, which is dark all round.
Young (in first pelage): Face and sides of body very dark mouse
gray, becoming blackish slate on median dorsal area, without trace
of ochraceous buffy hairs.

Cranial characters. — Skull similar in general to that of desmares-
tianus, but smaller; rostrum broadening more gradually to zygo-
mata; nasals reaching posteriorly beyond premaxillse (nearly con-
terminous posteriorly in desmarestianus) ; molariform teeth smaller;
supraorbital and temporal ridges well developed, as in desmarestianus.
Compared with jesupi the skull is broader, with rostrum more taper-
ing, less inflated anteriorly, broadening more gradually to zygomata;
nasals broader anteriorly; braincase larger, more inflated; supra-
orbital and temporal ridges more developed; frontals much broader;
interparietal narrower transversely; zygomata less squarely spread-
ing anteriorly; molariform teeth smaller.

Measurements. — Type (from original description) : Total length,
282; tail vertebrae, f50; hind foot, 33. Average of three adult topo-
types: 289; 150; 33. STcull (average of two adults): Greatest length,
35.5 (35-36); interorbital breadth, 9.6 (9.4-9.9); length of nasals, 15;
width of braincase, 15 (14.8-15.3); alveolar length of upper molar
series, 5.1 (4.9-5.4).

Remarks. — H. repens is a well-marked form apparently more closely
related to desmarestianus than to jesupi or any other known South
American species. Four imperfect specimens, three from Angostura
and one from Pacuare, Costa Rica, seem larger and somewhat differ-
ent in cranial details from repens, but are not satisfactorily separable.

Specimens examined. — Total number 11, from the foDowing locali-
ties:

Panama: Boquete, 6 (including type); Boqueron, 1.
Costa Rica: Angostura, 3; Pacuare, 1.

HETEEOMYS FUSCATUS Allen.

Nicaragua Spiny Pocket Mouse.

(PI. II, figs. 6, 6«.)

Heteromys fuscatus Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXIV, pp. 652-653, Oct.
13, 1908.

Type locality. — Tuma, Nicaragua. Type No. 28451, $ adult,
American Museum of Natural History, New York, collected by
W. B. Richardson, December 1, 1907.

Distribution. — Central Nicaragua; limits of range unknown.

General characters. — Size and proportions about as in H. repens;
color similar, but face more blackish; nasals, and premaxillse nearly
conterminous posteriorly ; sole of hind foot naked to heel, six-tuber-
culate. Smaller than H. desmarestianus; color about the same, but lat-
eral line absent and ankles of type dusky all round as in H. lepturus.

1911.] HETEROMYS DESMARESTIANUS GROUP. 29

Color. — Fresh pelage: General color of upperparts between dark
mouse gray and slaty black, darkest over median dorsal area from
nose to base of tail, rather heavily and uniformly grizzled with
slender ochraceous buffy hairs; outer surface of forearms grayish
tinged with buffy; outer surface of hind limbs and ankles all round
dark mouse gray or blackish; underparts and feet white; nose
and lower part of cheeks blackish ; heels whitish ; tail blackish above,
whitish below, becoming dusky all round near tip.

Cranial characters. — Skull in size about equal to that of repens,
but nasals and premaxillas nearly conterminous (nasals reaching
posteriorly beyond premaxillas in repens). Rather closely resembling
that of desmarestianus, but smaller; upper surface of maxillary
root of zygoma relatively narrower and weaker; supraorbital ridges
well developed and shelf-like, as in desmarestianus.

Measurements. — Type (from original description) : Total length,
300; tail, 150; hind foot, 30. Skull (type): Greatest length, 36.7;
zygomatic breadth, 17.3; interorbital breadth, 10; length of nasals,
15.3; width of braincase, 15.6; alveolar length of upper molar
series, 5.5.

Remarks. — H. fuscatus is somewhat intermediate in general char-
acters between repens and desmarestianus. It agrees more closely
in size with revens, but in general color and many cranial details is
much like desmarestianus. Specimens from Matagalpa and Chontales
are about like the type in color, but instead of wholly dark ankles
have a white line along imier surface of leg to foot as in desmarestianus.

Specimens examined. — Total number 4, from localities as follows:
Nicaragua: Tuma, 1 (type); Matagalpa, 2; Chontales, 1.

HETEROMYS GAUMERI Allen and Chapman.

Gaumer Spiny Pocket Mouse.

(PI. II, figs. 7, 7a.)

Eeteromys gaumeri Allen and Chapman, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., IX, pp. 9-11,
Feb., 1897.

Type locality. — Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico. Type No. H£rr>
c? adult, American Museum of Natural History, New York, collected
by Frank M. Chapman, March 17, 1896.

Distribution. — Yucatan and northern parts of Campeche and
Quintana Roo, Mexico. Arid and Humid Tropical Zones.

General characters. — Size large; tail longer than head and body;
orange buff lateral line very broad and conspicuous; sole of hind
foot thinly haired posteriorly, six-tuberculate, the posterior tubercle
very small. Not closely related to any known species.

Color. — Partly worn pelage: General color above dark mouse gray
heavily grizzled with orange buff, becoming rich orange buff along

30 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

broad lateral line from sides of face to base of tail; underparts and
feet pure white; outer sides of forearms orange buffy, interrupted
above by a white line; nose dusky; ears dusky, faintly edged with
whitish; tail brownish above, dull white below, with a small blackish
terminal tuft of longer hairs.

Cranial characters. — Skull rather long and angular, with supra-
orbital ridges strongly developed laterally as overhanging shelves.
In size similar to II. longicaudatus , but rostrum narrower; nasals
much less broadly expanded anteriorly; zygomata more spreading;
interparietal similar in shape, but broader transversely; molariform
teeth smaller; audita! bullae larger.

Measurements. — Type (from original description): Total length,
292; tail vertebrae, 162; hind foot, 32. An adult male from type
locality: 277; 155; 35. Average of three adults from Tunkas (near
type locality): 297 (295-300); 163 (160-166) ; 34.5 (34-35). STcull
(average of same): Greatest length, 36.4 (35.9-36.9); zygomatic
breadth, 16.5 (16.4-16.5); interorbital breadth, 8.5 (8.2-8.7); length
of nasals, 14.8 (14.1-15.2); width of braincase, 14.9 (14.7-15.2);
alveolar length of upper molar series, 4.9.

Bemarks. — This well-marked species differs from the other Mexican
members of the genus in having the soles of hind feet hairy posteriorly.
It is also remarkable for the unusual width and rich coloration of
the lateral lines from cheeks to tail. The posterior tubercle on the
sole of the hind foot is very small for so large a species.

For convenience II. gaumeri is here included in the desmarestianus
group, but is a somewhat aberrant species, presenting characters
which set it off from all the others. Specimens from the humid,
heavily forested interior of east-central Campeche and the northeast
coast of Quintana Roo are not appreciably different from those of
the animal inhabiting the arid districts of Yucatan.

Specimens examined. — Total number 30, from localities as follows:

Yucatan: Chichen Itza (type locality), 7; Progreso, 1; Tunkas, 6.
Campeche: Apazote, 6; Campeche, 1.
Quintana Roo: La Vega, 5; Puerto Morelos, 4.

Subgenus XYLOMYS Merriam.
Type. — Heteromys (Xylomys) nelsoni Merriam, from Pinabete, Chiapas, Mexico.

Distribution. — Known only from Pinabete, Chiapas, Mexico.

Subgeneric characters. — Pelage composed of soft bristles inter-
mixed with slender hairs; sole of hind foot naked, six-tuberculate;
inner sides of forearms dusky. Braincase high and rounded; tem-
poral ridges faint; upper surface of maxillary root of zygoma large
and irregularly rectangular; parietals prolonged laterally along
lambdoid crest, reaching or nearly reaching mastoids, thus more or
less completely separating squamosal from supraoccipital; angle

1011.]

SUBGENUS XYLOMYS.

31

of mandible very slightly everted. Molariform tooth rows very
broad posteriorly, the last molars equal to or broader than premolars;
posterior prism of last upper molar and anterior prism of lower pre-
molar with two transverse loops, confluent near middle, and usually
uniting through wear at inner or outer ends; last lower molar with
a distinct pit at postero-external base; lower incisor without trace of
tubercle over root.

Remarks. — The subgenus Xylomys is represented by a single known
species, possibly a survivor of an earlier group with more complicated
dentition. Xylomys departs from the subgenus Heteromys mainly
in the greater posterior width of molariform tooth rows, the weakly
developed root of lower incisor, the more numerous and intricate
enamel folds in crowns of posterior upper molars, and the lateral
extension of parietals along lambdoid crest to mastoids. It differs
also in the softness of its pelage, which in the adult state resembles
the condition usual in the genus during adolescence.

. HETEROMYS NELSONI Merriam.

Nelson Spiny Pocket Mouse.

(PL I, figs. 2, 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d.)

Heteromys (Xylomys) nelsoni Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, pp. 43-44, Mar. 5,
1902.

Type locality. — Pinabete, Chiapas, Mexico (altitude 8,200 feet).
Type No. 77920, S adult, United States National Museum (Biological
Survey collection), col-
lected by Nelson and
Goldman, February 11,
1896.

Distribution. — H u m i d ,
heavily forested Pacific
slopes of Sierra Madre in
southern Chiapas, Mexico,
and doubtless adjacent
portions of Guatemala

General characters . —
Size very large, exceeding
that of H. goldmani; tail
much longer than head
and body, thinly haired;
and as in subgenus Heteromys, ears rather large, nearly naked, dusky
and without distinct white edging; pelage soft; general color mouse
gray; lateral line absent; sole of hind foot naked, six-tuberculate.

Color. — Fresh pelage: General color above mouse gray, becoming
blackish along median line from nose to base of tail; forefeet and

Fig. 3. — Distribution of Heteromys I Xylomys) nehoni.

32 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

underparts, including lips and cheek pouches, white; outer sides of
fore limbs to feet mouse gray, this color extending all round forearms
except a narrow line along underside; hind feet white, faintly clouded
along upper side to toes; ears, heels, and inner sides of ankles dusky;
tail dusky above, whitish below except tip, which is dark all round.

Cranial characters. — Skull long and narrow; rostrum long, not
tapering anteriorly, slightly constricted in front of zygomata; brain-
case high and rather smoothly rounded; supraorbital and temporal
ridges faint ; zygomata widest anteriorly, the upper surface of max-
illary root large and somewhat rectangular; nasals very broad
anteriorly, narrowing gradually posteriorly, the ends slightly emar-
ginate; premaxillse narrowing gradually, conterminous posteriorly
with nasals; frontals elongated along median line, crowding nasals
and premaxillse far forward, but not prolonged along intermaxillary
suture; interparietal small and oval; palate narrow between tooth
rows; palatopterygoids slender; basioccipital narrow; audital bullae,
including meatus, large and inflated; dentition heavy.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 356; tail vertebrae, 195; hind
foot, 43.5. Skull (of same): Greatest length, 41.1; zygomatic
breadth, IS; in'terorbital breadth, 9.3; length of nasals, 16.3; width of
braincase, 15.8; alveolar length of upper molar series, 6.2.

Remarks. — H. nelsoni is the largest species of the genus known to
occur in Mexico. It differs too widely from all the others to require
close comparison with any of them. Externally it may be readily
known by the remarkable softness of the pelage.

Specimens examined:

Chiapas: Pinabete (type locality), 2.

Genus LIOMYS Merriam.

Type. — Heteromys allenl Coues, from Rio Verde, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
Liomys Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, p. 44, Mar. 5, 1902.
Liomys Elliot, Mamm. Middle Amer. and W. Indies. Field Columb. Mus. Pub.,
Zool. Ser., IV, Pt. I, p. 374, 1904 (subgenus).

Distribution. — Tropical and Sonoran Zones from southern Texas
and Sonora to Panama.

Generic characters. — Similar in general to Heteromys; pelage hispid ;
tail usually well haired; sole of hind foot hairy posteriorly (except
possibly in adspersus), five- or six-tuberculate; inner sides of fore-
arms pure white. Skull usually broad, with narrow rostrum; mter-
pterygoid fossa U-shaped, broad and rounded anteriorly; angle of
mandible strongly everted. Last molars decidedly narrower than
premolars; tubercle over root of lower incisior large; posterior loop
in crown of upper premolar with anterior border concave or slightly
notched, but without deep reentrant angle; loops of molar crowns
.normally without additional enamel islands even in young.

Remarks. — The genus Liomys includes a number of slightly dif-
ferentiated forms, some of which inhabit the Sonoran zones on the

1911.] LIOMYS PICTUS GROUP. 33

tablelands of Mexico. It is characterized by simpler, heavier dentition
than Heteromys; the additional enamel islands or small reentrant
angles in the loops of molariform teeth, present at least in the young
of Heteromys and Xylomys, are normally absent in Liomys. The
genus is readily divisible into three well-marked but rather closely
allied groups : the irroratus group with soles of hind feet five-tubercu-
late, confined mainly to the Sonoran zones; the pictus group, nearly
related to the preceding, with remarkably rich coloration, soles of
hind feet usually six-tuberculate but varying to five, restricted
mainly to Tropical zones; and the slightly more divergent crispus
group with plain coloration and ranging wholly within the Tropical
zones. In dental characters the crispus group differs notably from both
the others in that the obliteration of the transverse sulcus in the first
upper molar is not accompanied by the formation of a central enamel
island, to be removed in turn by prolonged wear of the molar crown.
This difference is apparent only in young adult individuals in which
the obliteration of the transverse sulcus is still in progress. The
three groups seem to represent distinct assemblages of species and
subspecies, as partly shown by the overlapping of the groups in geo-
graphic range.

LIOMYS PICTUS GROUP.

LIOMYS PICTUS (Thomas).

Painted Spiny Pocket Mouse.

(PI. Ill, figs. 1, la.)

Heteromys pictus Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 6, XII, pp. 233-234, Sept. ,1893.
Heteromys hispidus Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., IX, pp. 56-57, Mar. 15, 1897.

Type from Compostela, Tepic, Mexico, No. Iff f . 9 ad., Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.,

collecteoVby Dr. Audley C. Buller, Feb. 11, 1893.

Type locality. — Mineral San Sebastian, Jalisco, Mexico (altitude,
4,300 feet). Type, ? , in British Museum, collected by Dr. Audley
C. Buller, May 9, 1893.

Distribution. — Coastal plains and basal mountain slopes in western
Jalisco and Colima and probably western Michoacan. Arid Tropical
Zone.

General characters. — Size rather small; tail longer than head and
body, sharply bicolor; color reddish; orange buffy lateral line
broad and distinct; ears edged with whitish; sole of hind foot hairy
posteriorly, six-tuberculate.

Color. — Fresh pelage: General color above grizzled reddish brown,
the result of intermixed brownish or dark grayish bristles and orange
buff hairs, the latter unusually abundant and conspicuous; lateral
line rich orange buff, broad and distinct from cheeks to hind legs;
underparts and feet white; outer sides of forelegs varying from
grayish to orange buffy, the color continuous along a narrow line
93319°— No. 34—11 3

34

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 34.

with general color of upperparts, or interrupted by a white area
below lateral line; outer side of hind legs mouse gray ; sides of ankles,
and sometimes heels, dusky; ears dusky, narrowly edged with
whitish; tail brownish above, white below.

Cranial characters. — Skull long and narrow, with weakly developed
supraorbital ridges, large subtriangular interparietal, and posteriorly
truncate nasals; premaxillse reaching posteriorly well beyond nasals;
angle of mandible short, heavy, and everted; coronoid process small.
Compared with that of plantinarensis the skull is much larger, longer,
relatively narrower, and less arched; braincase less inflated; pre-

l p/crt/s

I. •■ eSCWNAPAC

■■ SONOPtANA

■■ PLANTINAPENS/S

■■ PAPWCEPS

■■ POSTPATUS

'■ PHAEVPUS

■• /STHM/US

■■ veffAecpcc/s

■• obscurus
ana/ectehs

Fig. 4.— Distribution of Liomys pictus and allied forms.

maxillae longer, passing farther posteriorly beyond nasals; inter-
parietal larger; nasals normally truncate instead of deeply emargi-
nate posteriorly.

Measurements. — Type (from original description) : Head and body,
104; tail, 113; hind foot (without claw?), 24.8. Average of five
adult topotypes: Total length, 251 (232-260); tail vertebras, 136
(117-146); hind foot, 29.4 (27.5-31). Skull (average of same):
Greatest length, 31.9 (30.9-33); zygomatic breadth, 14.3 (14.1-15);
interorbital breadth, 7.5 (7.2-7.8); length of nasals, 13.3 (13.2-13.6);
width of braincase, 13.8 (13.2-14); alveolar length of upper molar
series, 4.9 (4.6-5).

1911.] LIOMYS PICTUS GROUP. 35

Remarks. — L. pictus typifies a group of closely related forms
characterized by rather small size, usually broad lateral line, and
rich orange buffy coloration of slender dorsal hairs. The hind foot
is usually six-tuberculate, but in some forms the number of tubercles
may be either five or six. In Mexico the group is restricted in dis-
tribution to the tropical or subtropical coastal slopes from southern
Sonora and central Vera Cruz to Guatemala.

Aside from its subspecies, pictus requires no close comparison
with any known form. Near the coast of southern Tepic it inter-
grades with escuinapse, and in the interior of western and southern
Jalisco with plantinarensis. Specimens from the State of Colima
vary considerably in size and have nasals more or less emarginate
posteriorly, but agree otherwise with pictus.

H. Mspidus of Allen seems inseparable from pictus. The type and
a topotype agree in cranial characters with typical specimens of the
latter form. The skins appear to have been immersed in alcohol,
with the result that the blackish element in the pelage is somewhat
faded and the reddish intensified.

Specimens examined. — Total number 90, from the following locali-
ties:

Jalisco: San Sebastian (type locality), 26; Arroyo de Plantinar, 6; Ixtapa, 5;

Rio Santa Maria, 8; Sal si Puedes, 1; Wakenakili Mountains, 6.
Colima: Armeria, 11; Colima, 10; Hacienda Magdalena, 7; Hacienda San

Antonio, 2.
Tepic: Compostela, 2; Navarete, 2; Santiago, 4.

LIOMYS PICTUS ESCUINAPA (Allen).

Escuinapa Spiny Pocket Mouse.

Heteromys pictus escuinapse Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXII, pp. 211-212,
July 25, 1906.

Type locality. — Escuinapa, Sinaloa, Mexico. Type No. 24502, $
young adult, American Museum of Natural History, collected by
J. H. Batty, February 3, 1904.

Distribution. — Coastal plains and Pacific slopes of Sierra Madre
from southern Sinaloa southward, passing into typical pictus in south-
ern Tepic and northwestern Jalisco. Arid Tropical and Lower
Sonoran Zones.

General characters. — Closely related to pictus, but slightly grayer;
nasals emarginate, instead of truncate, posteriorly; hind foot six-tuber-
culate as in pictus. Differing from sonorana in slightly darker,
richer color and less deeply emarginate nasals.

Color. — About as in pictus, but slightly grayer, orange buffy hairs
less numerous and conspicuous.

Cranial characters. — Skull similar to that of pictus, but shorter and
relatively broader; nasals shorter and broader, emarginate instead of

36 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

truncate posteriorly; premaxillse less prolonged posteriorly beyond
nasals; interparietal smaller. In general form similar to that of
sonorana, but smaller; nasals less deeply emarginate posteriorly.

Measurements. — Type (from original description): Total length,
216; tail vertebra?, 108; hind foot (without claws), 24. Average of
nine adult males: Total length, 223; tail vertebras, 114.8; hind foot
(without claws), 24.6. Average of eight adult females: Total length,
211.3; tail vertebras, 109; hind foot (without claws), 23.4. STcull
(average of six adults): Greatest length, 31 (29.9-31.9); zygomatic
breadth, 14.6 (14.2-15.3) ; interorbital breadth, 7.7 (7.2-8); length of
nasals, 12.8 (11.9-13.7) ; width of braincase, 13.8 (13.4-14.6) ; alveolar
length of upper molar series, 4.9 (4.8-5).

Remarks. — This subspecies is intermediate in general characters
and geographic position between pictus and sonorana, and specimens
examined from numerous localities show complete intergradation
with both. Specimens from the city of Tepic appear to be much
closer to escuinapse. than to pictus, although the latter is nearly typical
at Compostela, only a few miles away. Of a series of 10 skulls from
Estancia, in northwestern Jalisco, two have the squarely truncate
nasals of pictus, but are somewhat broader and in other respects agree
with escuinapse. Specimens from Culiacan, Sinaloa, and from Chacala,
Durango, seem referable to sonorana, but in richer color and rather
less deeply emarginate nasals indicate an approach to escuinapse.

Specimens examined. — Total number 125, from the following locali-
ties :

Sinaloa: Escuinapa, 26 (including type); Mazatlan, 15; Plomosas, 11; Rosa-

rio, 6.
Jalisco: Estancia, 10.

Tepic: Acaponeta, 21; Amatlan, 9; Ojo de Agua (near Amatlan), 4; Pedro
Pablo, 1; Rancho Palo Amarillo (near Amatlan), 13; Tepic, 9.

LIOMYS PICTUS SONORANA Merriam.
Sonora Spiny Pocket Mouse.
Liomys sonorana Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, p. 47, Mar. 5, 1902.

Type locality. — Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. Type No. 96252, $
adult, United States National Museum (Biological Survey collection),
collected by E. A. Goldman, December 19, 1898.

Distribution. — Arid coastal plains and basal slopes of Sierra Madre
from southern Sonora to southern Sinaloa. Mainly overlapping por-
tions of Lower Sonoran and Arid Tropical Zones.

General characters. — Similar in size to pictus and escuinapse, but
color grayer, less tawny; lateral line narrower and paler; tail more
hairy; skull with broad braincase and slender rostrum; hind foot
six-tuberculate.

Color. — Fresh pelage: General color of upperparts pale mouse gray,
coarsely grizzled with orange buffy hairs; underparts and feet white;

1911.] LIOMYS PICTUS GROUP. 37

lateral line from cheeks to hind legs ochraceous buff; outer sides of
forearms varying from pure white to very pale grayish buffy; ears
edged with whitish; tail dusky above, whitish below on basal portion,
darkening gradually toward tip, which is dusky all round.

Cranial characters. — Skull rather large and heavy, with broad
braincase, narrow rostrum, small interparietal, and deeply emarginate
nasals. Compared with pictus, the skull is broader and heavier;
braincase larger; rostrum narrower, the sides more nearly parallel,
broadening more abruptly at zygomata; maxillary root of zygoma
heavier; nasals deeply emarginate instead of truncate posteriorly;
interparietal smaller; dentition heavier. Differs from escuinapsR
mainly in larger average size, heavier maxillary roots of zygomata,
and more deeply emarginate nasals.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 262; tail vertebra?, 142; hind
foot, 32.5. Average of four adult topotypes: 243 (222-262); 129
(119-142) ; 30.9 (30-32.5). STcuU (average of same) : Greatest length,
33 (32.3-34.4) ; zygomatic breadth, 15.3 (15-15.5) ; interorbital breadth,
7.6 (7.2-7.9); length of nasals, 14.4 (13.3-15); width of braincase,
14.4 (14.3-14.4); alveolar length of upper molar series, 5.2 (5-5.5).

Remarks. — The range of sonorana marks the extreme northern
limit of the genus. The most northern locality from which specimens
are known is Camoa, on the Rio Mayo in Sonora, but the subspecies
probably reaches at least a few miles farther north along the basal
slopes of the Sierra Madre. From the northern part of its range
sonorana changes progressively toward the south, assuming richer
colors and presenting less extreme cranial characters, passing into
escuinapse in the region south of Mazatlan.

Specimens examined. — Total number 49, from the following locali-
ties:

Sonora: Alamos (type locality), 12; near Alamos, 2; Camoa, 4.
Chihuahua: Near Batopilas, 2.
Durango: Chacala, 10.

Sinaloa: Culiacan, 10; Sierra de Choix (50 miles northeast of Choix), 7; Sina-
loa, 2.

LIOMYS PICTUS PLANTINARENSIS Merriam.
Plantinar Spiny Pocket Mouse.
Liomys plantinarensis Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, p. 46, Mar. 5, 1902.

Type locality. — Plantinar, Jalisco, Mexico. Type No. fff§&, 9
adult, United States National Museum (Biological Survey collection),
collected by Nelson and Goldman, April 4, 1892.

Distribution. — Interior valleys and deep canyons along the western
slopes of the plateau region in western and southern Jalisco and
northwestern Michoacan. Mainly Arid Tropical Zone.

General characters. — Size very small; color reddish; orange buffy
lateral lines usually broad and distinct; ears edged with whitish.
Closely resembling L. pictus in color, but decidedly smaller, hind foot
five- or six-tuberculate.

38 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upperparts grizzled reddish brown, resulting
from intermixed dusky or grayish tipped bristles and orange buffy
hairs, the general color darkest over median dorsal area; lateral
line orange buff, extending from cheeks to hind legs; underparts
and feet white; outer sides of forelegs pale grayish or orange buffy,
the color in some specimens continuous above with lateral line, in
others interrupted by a white area; outer sides of hind legs mouse
gray; ears dusky, narrowly edged with whitish; tail brownish above,
white below.

Cranial characters. — Skull similar in general to that of pictus, but
smaller, shorter, relatively broader and higher arched; braincase
more inflated; premaxillse usually shorter, reaching only slightly
beyond nasals posteriorly; interparietal shorter antero-posteriorly,
with less developed anterior angle; nasals deeply emarginate instead
of truncate posteriorly; dentition of the pictus type, but relatively
heavier. Compared with that of parviceps the skull is larger, with
braincase more arched and inflated; interparietal decidedly larger;
rostrum more decurved.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 202; tail vertebrae, 102; hind
foot, 26. Average of five adults from Los Reyes, Michoacan: 219; 113;
26.5. SJcull (type): Greatest length, 29.3; zygomatic breadth, 14;
interorbital breadth, 7.4; length of nasals, 12.7; width of braincase,
13.4; alveolar length of upper molar series, 4.9.

Remarks. — This subspecies unites close external resemblance to
pictus with smaller size and a different combination of cranial char-
acters. Specimens from Ameca, Jalisco, have larger skulls than the
type, with less deeply emarginate nasals and seem to be grading
toward pictus. Those from Los Reyes, Michoacan, are darker in
color, but in flatter braincase and small interparietal seem to show an
approach to parviceps. The number of tubercles on the sole of the
hind foot is very constant in most members of the genus, but varies
from five to six in plantinarensis (five in the type) .

Specimens examined. — Total number 19, from the following locali-
ties:

Jalisco: Plantinar, 1 (type); Ameca, 5.
Michoacan: Los Reyes, 13.

LIOMYS PICTUS PARVICEPS Goldman.
La Salada Spiny Pocket Mouse.
(PI. Ill, figs. 2, 2a.)
Liomys parviceps Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVII, p. 82, Mar. 21, 1904.

Type locality. — La Salada, 40 miles south of Uruapan, Michoacan,
Mexico. Type No. 126477, 9 adult, United States National Museum
(Biological Survey collection), collected by Nelson and Goldman,
March 19, 1903.

1911.] LIOMYS PICTtTS GROUP. 39

Distribution. — Arid valley of the Balsas River in southern Mich-
oaean and northern and extreme western Guerrero, Mexico. Arid
Tropical Zone.

General characters. — Most like plantinarensis but less reddish; lateral
line narrower or absent; outer sides of forearms usually pure white
(grayish or buffy in plantinarensis) ', skull smaller ; hind foot shorter,
usually six-tuberculate.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upperparts mouse gray, darkest on median
dorsal area,, thinly grizzled with orange buffy hairs; underparts and
feet white; outer sides of forearms usually pure white, rarely tinged
with pale grayish buff; lateral line, when present, orange buff,
narrow and rather indistinct ; ears edged with whitish ; tail brownish
above, white below.

Cranial characters. — Skull smallest of the known species of the
genus. Resembling that of plantinarensis, but smaller and flatter;
braincase less expanded; interparietal decidedly smaller; rostrum less
decurved; nasals emarginate posteriorly, as in plantinarensis.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 202; tail vertebrae, 110; hind
foot, 24. Average of five adult topotypes: 204; 105; 24. Skull
(average of five adults) : Greatest length, 28 (26-28.3) ; zygomatic
breadth, 13.1 (12.7-13.3); interorbital breadth, 6.6 (6.4-6.8); length
of nasals, 11.2 (10.1-11.7); width of braincase, 12.6 (12.4-12.9);
alveolar length of upper molar series, 4.4 (4.2-4.5).

Remurlcs. — The present form requires comparison only with plan-
tinarensis. It is approached in cranial characters by specimens of the
latter species from Los Reyes, Michoacan, and through plantina-
rensis probably intergrades with pictus. Parviceps appears to be
restricted in distribution to the extremely arid region along the
Balsas River and its tributaries. Six tubercles are usually present on
the sole of the hind foot, but the smallest is clearly absent in a few
specimens examined, and scarcely large enough to be perceptible in
some others.

Specimens examined. — Total number 29, from the following locali-
ties:

Michoacan: La Salada (type locality), 12; La Huacana, 3.
Guerrero: El Limon, 9; Rio Balsas, 5.

LIOMYS PICTUS ROSTRATUS Merriam.
Ometepec Spiny Pocket Mouse.
Liomys pictus rostratus Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, p. 46, Mar. 5, 1902.

Type locality. — Near Ometepec,. Guerrero, Mexico. Type No.
71488, $ adult, United States National Museum (Biological Survey
collection), collected by Nelson and Goldman, February 14, 1895.

Distribution. — Arid coastal plains and basal mountain slopes in
southeastern Guerrero, Mexico. Arid Tropical Zone.

40 NORTH AMERICAN" FAUNA. [No. 34.

General characters. — Similar in size to pictus; color similar; skull
heavier, broader across maxillary roots of zygomata; interparietal
more oval; hind foot six-tuberculate, as in pictus. Closely related
to phseurus, but tail whitish below (dusky toward tip in phseurus) ;
skull more massive; interparietal more oval.

Color. — As in pictus.

Cranial characters. — Skull similar in general to that of pictus, but
more massive, broader across anterior roots of zygomata; max-
illary branches of zygomata heavier and more widely spreading;
nasals broader, truncate or emarginate posteriorly; interparietal
more oval, with scarcely a trace of the anterior angle. From phseurus
the skull differs in the same characters as from pictus.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 252; tail vertebrae, 133;
hind foot, 29. Average of five adult topotypes: 249 (235-262); 132
(120-145); 29.1 (28-30). SJcuU (average of five adults): Greatest
length, 32.7 (31.7-33.5); zygomatic breadth, 15 (14.6-15.5); inter-
orbital breadth, 7.8 (7-8.1); length of nasals, 13.7 (13.1-14.5);
width of braincase, 14 (13.5-14.4); alveolar length of upper molar
series, 4.8 (4.5-4.9).

Remarks. — In color rostratus agrees with pictus. The cranial
characters, although rather well marked, indicate close relationship
to both pictus and its nearer geographic neighbor phseurus. Speci-
mens from Acapulco and Acahuizotla exhibit much individual varia-
tion and point to complete intergradation with pictus farther north-
ward along the coast of Guerrero or Michoacan.

Specimens examined. — Total number 28, from localities as follows:
Guerrero: Near Ometepec (type locality), 10; Acapulco, 14; Acahuizotla, 4.

LIOMYS PICTUS PH^IURUS Merriam.
Dusky-tailed Spiny Pocket Mouse.
Liomys phseura Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, p. 48, Mar. 5, 1902.

Type locality.— Pinotepa, Oaxaca, Mexico. Type No. 71500, 9
adult, United States National Museum (Biological Survey collection),
collected by Nelson and Goldman, February 21, 1895.

Distribution. — Arid coastal region of southwestern Oaxaca. Arid
Tropical Zone.

General characters. — Slightly smaller than pictus; color less red-
dish; orange buff lateral line narrower; tail dark all round on
terminal half (whitish below in pictus); hind foot six-tuberculate.
Closely related to rostratus, but smaller; tail dusky instead of white
below on terminal half; interparietal triangular (oval in rostratus).
Differing from isthmius mainly in darker tail, more conspicuous
lateral line, and shorter, relatively broader, skull.

Color. — Worn pelage: General color of upperparts mouse gray,
darkest on median dorsal area, thinly grizzled with orange buffy

1911.] LIOMYS PICTUS GROUP. 41

hairs ; underparts and feet white ; lateral line from cheeks to hind legs
orange buff; outer sides of forearms edged with grayish; upper side
of tail brownish, under side whitish at base and darkening gradually
on terminal half.

Cranial characters. — Skull most like that of pictus, but shorter and
relatively broader; frontals broader; interparietal smaller. Similar
to that of rostratus, but smaller, shorter, and less massive; nasals
much narrower; zygomata more squarely spreading, the maxillary
roots weaker, with frontopremaxillary border less convex; brain-
case shorter, less projecting posteriorly over foramen magnum;
interparietal more triangular, the anterior angle well developed and
posterior border less convex; nasals usually emarginate, but some-
times truncate posteriorly. From isthmius the skull differs in about
the same respects as from pictus.

Measurements. — Type: Total length (tail imperfect), 204; tail
vertebras (tip gone), 95; hind foot, 29. Average of three adults from
Llano Grande, Oaxaca (near type locality): 230 (215-239); 115
(106-120) ; 29 (28.5-29.5) . SJcull (average of three adults) : Greatest
length, 31.5 (30.5-32.6); zygomatic breadth, 14.7 (14.6-15); length
of nasals, 12.9 (12-14); width of braincase, 13.2 (12.1-14.5); alveolar
length of upper molar series, 4.7 (4.4-5).

Remarks. — This form appears to be as closely related to typical
pictus as to its nearer geographic neighbor rostratus. Specimens from
Puerto Angel have less dusky tails than those from near the type local-
ity and in cranial characters grade toward isthmius.

Specimens examined. — Total number 18, from localities as follows:

Oaxaca: Pinotepa (type locality), 2; Llano Grande, 7; Puerto Angel, 9.

LIOMYS PICTUS ISTHMIUS Merriam.
Isthmian Spiny Pocket Mouse.
Liomys pictus isthmius Merxiam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, p. 46, Mar. 5, 1902.

Type locality. — Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. Type No. 73367,
$ adult, United States National Museum (Biological Survey collec-
tion), collected by Nelson and Goldman, April 28, 1895.

Distribution. — Arid coastal plains and interior valleys on the south-
ern side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in southeastern Oaxaca and
western Chiapas and thence eastward through the valley of the Chia-
pas River to Nenton, Guatemala. Arid Tropical Zone.

General characters. — Similar to pictus, but color paler, less red-
dish, the lateral line narrower or absent, and outer sides of fore
limbs pure white instead of grayish or buffy; hind foot six-tuber-
culate, as in pictus. Closely related to phseurus, but tail whitish
instead of dusky on terminal lower part, and skull larger and heavier.
Differing from verxcrucis in paler color and less massive skull.

42 UORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upperparts mouse gray, grizzled with orange
buffy; underparts, fore limbs, and hind feet white; lateral line,
when present, orange buffy ; tail brownish above, white below.

Cranial characters.— Skull closely resembling that of pictus, but
rostrum more slender; premaxillse less prolonged posteriorly beyond
nasals; nasals emarginate instead of truncate posteriorly; interpa-
rietal slightly smaller. Similar to versecrucis, but narrower and less
massive; rostrum more slender; sagittal area narrower; lateral
borders of frontals less deeply concave; zygomata less widely spread-
ing. The skull differs from phxurus mainly in broader nasals and
more oval interparietal.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 245; tail vertebrae, 130; hind
foot, 30. Average of five adult topotypes: 243 (226-257) ; 131 (121-
140) ; 29.9 (29-30.5). Skull (average of five adults) : Greatest length,
31.4 (30.4-32.2); zygomatic breadth., 14.5 (13.9-15.4); interorbital
breadth, 7.7 (7.4-7.9) ; length of nasals, 13 (12.9-13.4) ; width of brain
case, 13.7 (13.2-14.4); alveolar length of upper molar series, 4.6
(4.3-4.8).

Remarks. — In cranial characters isthmius is nearer pictus than to
the geographically intervening forms through which they grade
together. Specimens from Puerto Angel show intergradation with
phseurus. Those from Santo Domingo and San Juan Guichicovi
are intermediate, but nearer versecrucis, which occupies the more
humid area north of the range of isthmius. Many specimens from
Tonala, Santa Efigenia, and the Chiapas Valley are darker and richer
colored than topotypes, and those from the latter region usually
have broader nasals, but these differences appear too slight to merit
subspecific recognition.

Specimens examined. — Total number 85, from the following locali-
ties:

Oaxaca: Tehuan tepee (type locality), 16; near Tehuantepec, 14; Chicapa, 1;

Huilo tepee, 3; San Bartolo, 3; Santa Efigenia, 14.
Chiapas: San Bartolome, 6; San Vicente, 1; Tonala, 6; Tuxtla Gutierrez, 14;

Valley of Jiquipilas, 3.
Guatemala: Nenton, 4.

LIOMYS PICTUS VERJICRUCIS Merriam.
Vera Cruz Spiny Pocket Mouse.

Liomys versecrucis Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, p. 47, Mar. 5, 1902.

Liomys orbitalis Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, pp. 48-49, Mar. 5, 1902. Type
from Catemaco, Vera Cruz, Mexico. No. 65452, 9 ad., U. S. Nat. Mus. (Bio-
logical Survey collection), collected by Nelson and Goldman, Apr. 29, 1894.

Type locality. — San Andres Tuxtla, Vera Cruz, Mexico. Type No.
65457, 9 adult, United States National Museum (Biological Survey
collection), collected by Nelson and Goldman, May 7, 1894.

1911.] LIOMYS PICTUS GROUP. 43

Distribution. — Humid northern slopes of the Isthmus of Tehuan-
tepec, and coastal plains in southern Vera Cruz, Mexico. Humid
Tropical Zone.

General characters. — Smaller than pictus; tail shorter; color darker,
less tawny; lateral line much narrower; skull more massive; hind
foot six-tuberculate, as in pictus. Intergrading with obscurus and
isthmius, but differing from both in darker color and heavier skull.

Color. — Fresh pelage: General color of upperparts grizzled, dark
reddish brown, the result of intermixed dark grayish or brownish
bristles and orange buffy hairs (in worn pelage varying to blackish
slate on median dorsal area); underparts and feet white; lateral line
from cheeks to hind legs orange buffy, narrow, and in some specimens
indistinct; outer sides of forelegs more or less distinctly grayish or
buffy; hind legs mouse gray; ears edged with whitish; tail brownish
above, white below.

Cranial characters. — Skull short and massive, with heavy rostrum
and widely spreading zygomata. Compared with pictus, isthmius,
and obscurus, the skull in general is relatively shorter, broader, and
heavier; braincase more inflated; nasals usually shorter and broader,
truncate or emarginate posteriorly; ascending branches of premax-
illse heavier, reaching posteriorly slightly beyond nasals; lateral
borders of frontals more deeply concave; sagittal area broader;
maxillary root of zygoma usually shorter and heavier than in pictus
and isthmius — much heavier than in obscurus; interparietal about
as in isthmius, but rather broad transversely.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 220; tail vertebrae, 108; hind
foot, 25. An adult topotype: 234; 116; 29. Average of three adults
from Catemaco, Vera Cruz: 229 (225-234); 115 (109-122); 29 (28-29).
SJcuU (average of three adults): Greatest length, 31.8 (31.4-32.2);
zygomatic breadth, 15.6 (15.3-16); interorbital breadth, 7.8 (7.7-7.9);
length of nasals, 13.2 (12.7-13.5); width of braincase, 14.5 (14.4-
14.8); alveolar length of upper molar series, 4.8 (4.4-5.2).

Remarks. — This dark, strongly characterized form connects isth-
mius and obscurus. In some of the specimens from Santo Domingo
and Guichicovi, Oaxaca, the skulls are more slender and show grada-
tion toward isthmius, which inhabits the more arid area to the south-
ward. Specimens from Otatitlan are nearest to obscurus, but show
an approach to versecrucis in dark edged forearms (pure white in
obscurus) and the heavier maxillae of some skulls.

"L. orbitalis" was based on a specimen with strongly developed skull
from near the type locality of versecrucis. Its characters appear to
be within the range of individual variation in the subspecies versecrucis.

Specimens examined. — Total number 34, from the following locali-
ties:

Vera Cruz: San Andres Tuxtla (type locality), 3; Catemaco, 8; Santiago

Tuxtla, 1.
Oaxaca: Guichicovi, 7; Laguna, 1; Santo Domingo, 14.

44 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

LIOMYS PICTUS OBSCURUS Merriam.

Carrizal Spiny Pocket Mouse.

Liomys obscurus Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, p. 48, Mar. 5, 1902.
Heteromys 'paralius Elliot, Pub. Field Columb. Mus., Zool. ser., Ill, No. 13, p. 233,

June, 1903. From San Carlos, Vera Cruz, Mexico. Type in Field Columbian

Museum, collected by N. G. Buxton.

Type locality. — Carrizal, Vera Cruz, Mexico. Type No. 108563, 9
adult, United States National Museum (Biological Survey collection),
collected by Nelson and Goldman, May 12, 1901.

Distribution. — Arid coastal plains in south-central Vera Cruz,
Mexico. Arid Tropical Zone.

General characters. — Size similar to pictus, but hind foot averaging
slightly longer; color less tawny; lateral line narrower; maxillary
root of zygoma weakly developed; hind foot six-tuberculate. Nearest
geographically to and intergrading with versecrucis, but differing in
paler color and much less massive skull.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upperparts mouse gray (varying in worn
pelage to blackish slate), heavily grizzled with orange buffy; under-
parts, forelegs, and hind feet white; lateral line orange buffy, broad
and distinct along cheeks and sides of neck, narrow and incon-
spicuous from shoulders to hind legs; tail dusky above, white
below.

Cranial characters. — Skull similar in general to that of pictus, but
nasals broader, more expanded anteriorly, emarginate posteriorly
(truncate in pictus) ; sides of rostrum more nearly parallel, broad-
ening more abruptly to zygomata. Most like versecrucis, but less
massive, narrower across anterior roots of zygomata; rostrum
more slender, and sides more nearly parallel, broadening more
abruptly posteriorly to zygomata; ascending branches of pre-
maxillae narrower; maxillary root of zygoma much less strongly
developed.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 238 ; tail vertebrae, 124; hind
foot, 31. An adult topotype: 242; 128; 31. An adult from Santa
Maria, Vera Cruz: 238; 117; 31. Skull (average of two adult topo-
types): Greatest length, 32.1 (32-32.1); zygomatic breadth, 14.8
(14.4-15.3); interorbital breadth, 7.2 (7.1-7.4); length of nasals,
13.3 (13.2-13.4); width of braincase, 14 (13.9-14.1); alveolar length
of upper molar series, 4.9.

Remarks. — The range of this subspecies marks the northern limit
of the pictus group in eastern Mexico. In southern Vera Cruz it
merges with that of versecrucis. Specimens from Otatitlan are inter-
mediate, but apparently nearer obscurus. They approach versecrucis
in general color, including the dark edging of forearms, but in cranial
characters agree closely with obscurus.

1911.] LIOMYS PICTUS GROUP. 45

The so-called H. paralius, from San Carlos, on the Gulf coast a few
miles from the type locality of obscurus, appears to be based on
typical specimens of the latter form.

Specimens examined. — Total number 11, from localities as follows:

Vera Cruz: Carrizal (type locality), 2; Otatitlan, 5; San Carlos, 1; Santa Maria, 3.

LIOMYS ANNECTENS (Merriam).
Pluma Spiny Pocket Mouse.
Heteromys annectens Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. "Wash., XV, p. 43, Mar. 5, 1902.

Typelocality. — Pluma, Oaxaca, Mexico. Type No. 71510, $ adult,
United States National Museum (Biological Survey collection), col-
lected by Nelson and Goldman, March 18, 1895.

Distribution. — Pacific slopes of Sierra Madre in Oaxaca and Gue-
rrero, Mexico. Humid Tropical Zone.

General characters. — Size largest of the pictus group; orange buff
lateral line conspicuous; sole of hind foot thinly haired posteriorly,
six-tuberculate. Similar in general to phxurus and restrains, but
decidedly larger than either.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upperparts dark mouse gray, the intermixed,
slender, orange buffy hairs scarcely numerous enough to affect the
general tone ; lateral line from cheeks to outer sides of hind legs and
along base of tail rich orange buff; underparts and feet pure white;
ears dusky, sometimes faintly edged with whitish; tail dusky above,
whitish below, becoming darker near tip.

Cranial characters. — Skull most like that of ph&urus, but decidedly
larger; rostrum relatively rather slender, usually broadening more
abruptly posteriorly; interparietal subtriangular, the anterior angle
well developed, as in phmurus (interparietal more oval in rostratus).

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 300 ; tail vertebrae, 165; hind
foot, 33. Average of four adults from type locality: 281; 156; 32.
SJcull (average of two adult topotypes): Occipito-nasal length, 34.1
(34-34.2); zygomatic breadth, 16.3 (16.2-16.4); interorbital breadth,
8.2 (7.9-8.5); length of nasals, 14.7 (14.4-15.1); width of braincase,
14.4 (14.4-14.5) ; alveolar length of upper molar series, 5.2.

Remarks.— L. annectens is a member of the pictus group allied to
phxurus and rostratus, but distinguished by larger size. It inhabits
the humid, heavily forested upper slopes on the Pacific side of the
Sierra Madre in Oaxaca and Guerrero ; its geographic range parallels
those of rostratus and phxurus, which lie along the more arid basal
slopes of the mountains nearer the coast.

Specimens examined. — Total number 12, from the following locali-
ties:

Oaxaca: Pluma (type locality), 6.
Guerrero: Omilteme, 6.

46

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 34.

LIOMYS CRISPUS GROUP.

LIOMYS CRISPUS Merriam.
Tonala Spiny Pocket Mouse.
(PI. Ill, figs. 3, 3a.)
Liomys crispus Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, p. 49, Mar. 5, 1902.

Type locality.— Tonala, Chiapas, Mexico. Type No. 75105, $
adult, United States National Museum (Biological Survey collection),
collected by Nelson and Goldman, August 7, 1895.

Distribution. — Coastal plains and lower foothills of the Sierra Madre
in western Chiapas, Mexico. Arid Tropical Zone.

General charac-
ters.— Size small;
tail about equal to
head and body,
thinly haired, in-
distinctly bicolor ;
ears small ; hind
foot six-tubercu-
late, the sole hairy
from heel to poste-
rior tubercle ; color
brownish gray;
ears not edged with
whitish; lateral
line absent ; slen-
der hairs over dor-
sal area standing
out conspicuously
beyond bristles.

Color. — Fresh
pelage: Upperparts
drab and hair
brown, resulting
from intermixed dusky tipped bristles and slender pale gray hairs,
the general color darkest over median dorsal area; underparts, fore
limbs, and hind feet creamy white; ears dusky; tail dusky above,
becoming paler below, without sharp line of demarcation.

Cranial characters. — Skull small and slender; rostrum rather short;
nasals not expanded anteriorly, the sides nearly parallel; ascending
branches of premaxillse slender, nearly conterminous posteriorly
with nasals; supraorbital ridges weakly developed; interparietal
irregularly oval, with very small posterior emargination; dentition
much as in L. pictus, but crown of first upper molar more quadrate,
never forming central enamel island by union through wear of ends

(DUUU. SAL WW

Fig. 5. — Distribution of Liomys crispus and allied forms.

1911.] LIOMYS CRISPUS GROUP. 47

of enamel loops; first upper molar with small inner and outer reen-
trant angles, due to closure of median sulcus, persisting until after
formation of enamel islands in second and thud molars (disappear-
ing in pictus, at least on inner side, earlier in life).

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 210; tail vertebrae (tip gone),
99; hind foot, 27.5. * Average of six adult topotypes: 216 (208-220);
108 (104-112); 26-7 (26-27). STcuU (average of 4 adults): Greatest
length, 31.5 (30.1-31.9); zygomatic breadth, 14.4 (14.1-14.8); inter-
orbital breadth, 6.4 (6.3-6.7); length of nasals, 11.9 (11.4-12.5);
width of braincase, 13.4 (13.1-13.7); alveolar length of upper molar
series, 4.8 (4.5-4.9).

Remarks. — Liomys crispus with setosus, heterothrix, and probably
salvini and nigrescens, comprise a group characterized by small size,
short tail, and peculiar pelage and dental characters. Over the
dorsal surface the slender hairs stand out much more conspicuously
beyond the bristles than is usual in the genus. Owing to slight
depth the transverse sulcus in the crown of the first upper molar
disappears through wear without leaving a central enamel island,
the loops uniting first near the inner side, as usual in the genus, but
obliteration progressing more rapidly outward.

Specimens examined:

Chiapas: Tonala (type locality), 18.

LIOMYS CRISPUS SETOSUS Merriam.

HUEHUETAN SPINY POCKET MOUSE.

Liomys crispus setosus Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, p. 49, Mar. 5, 1902.

Type locality. — Huehuetan, Chiapas, Mexico. Type No. 77588,
9 old adult, United States National Museum (Biological Survey
collection), collected by Nelson and Goldman, February 22, 1896.

Distribution. — Forested coastal plains and basal slopes of Sierra
Madre in southern Chiapas, Mexico. Humid Tropical Zone.

General characters. — Similar in size to crispus, but hind foot
relatively longer; color decidedly darker; skull slightly larger.

Color. — Partly worn pelage: Upperparts grayish slate, darkest over
median dorsal area; underparts, fore limbs, and hind feet creamy
white; ears blackish; tail dusky above, dull whitish below.

Cranial characters. — Skull resembling that of crispus, but larger
and heavier; nasals longer, the sides nearly parallel, as in crispus;
premaxillse reaching posteriorly well beyond nasals (nearly conter-
minous with nasals in crispus).

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 225; tail vertebras, 110; hind
foot, 29. Average of five adult topotypes: 213 (208-225); 104 (97-
110); 28.8 (28-30). Skull (average of two adults): Greatest length,
32.2; zygomatic breadth, 14.9 (14.6-15.3); interorbital breadth, 6.9
(6.4-7.2); length of nasals, 12.8 (12.7-12.9); width of braincase, 14
(13.5-14.6); alveolar length of upper molar series, 4.8.

48 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

Remarks. — The darker color of this subspecies, compared with
crispus, is probably due to the more humid, heavily forested char-
acter of the region it inhabits. The slender hairs among the bristles
over dorsum are less numerous in the specimens examined than in
crispus, but this may be a result of greater wear.

Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, jr., has compared for me topotype material of
setosus with the type of salvini. His notes indicate rather close
relationship, but the latter is "distinctly tawny," while the former
shows no trace of this color.
Specimens examined:
Chiapas: Huehuetan (type locality), 14.

LIOMYS VULCANI (Allen).

Volcan Spiny Pocket Mouse.

Eeteromys vulcani Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXIV, p. 652, Oct. 13, 1908.

Type locality. — Volcan de Chinandega (altitude about 4,000 feet),
Nicaragua. Type No. 28315, 9 adult, American Museum of Natural
History, New York, collected by W. B. Richardson, May 7 (date of
original tag), 1907.

Distribution. — Vicinity of the type locality in the mountains of
extreme western Nicaragua.

General characters. — Closely allied to L. c. setosus, but smaller;
color very similar, but slender hairs slightly more buffy; hind foot
normally six-tuberculate, the sole thinly haired posteriorly; inter-
parietal usually without the small posterior emargination present in
setosus.

Color.— Partly worn pelage: Upperparts grayish slate, varying to
blackish over median dorsal area, the slender hairs more buffy than
in setosus, but scarcely altering the general color; underparts white;
forelegs and hind feet usually nearly pure white (feet rather dis-
tinctly clouded with dusky in one specimen); ears blackish, faintly
edged with whitish; tail dusky above, whitish below.

Cranial characters. — Skull closely resembling that of setosus, but
decidedly smaller; ascending branches of premaxillse reaching pos-
teriorly beyond nasals as in setosus (not conterminous with nasals
as in crispus) ; posterior border of interparietal more evenly convex
as in heterothrix (usually without the small median emargination
present in setosus) ; dentition as in the other members of the crispus
group.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 220; tail, 110; hind foot, 25
(collector's measurements in original description). Skull (type):
Greatest length, 31; interorbital breadth, 6.9; length of nasals, 11. 7;
width of braincase, 13.4; alveolar length of upper molar series, 5-
Average of two adult topotypes: Greatest length, 30.6; zygomatic
breadth, 14.2; interorbital breadth, 6.9; length of nasals, 12.3;
width of braincase, 13.4; alveolar length of upper molar series, 4.8.

1911.] LIOMYS CRISPUS GROUP. 49

Remarks. — L. vulcani is a member of the crispus group, closely
allied to setosus. It may be not very unlike salvini and nigrescens,
the types of which I have not seen. In some specimens of vulcani
the forearms are pure white; in others a few inconspicuous dark
hairs are scattered along the forearms. One specimen has the feet
clouded with dusky, as already noted. The original description of
salvini mentions "a narrow slaty-gray edging" of forearm which
seems scarcely applicable to vulcani. The slender hairs protrude
from among the bristles over dorsum as in crispus and are more
buffy, but not the ochraceous buff which in lieterothrix affects the
general color. In cranial characters vulcani is nearer to setosus than
to lieterothrix. In one of the topotypes the interparietal is divided
longitudinally by a suture, which is nearly continuous with the
median suture between parietals.

Specimens examined:
Nicaragua: Volcan de Chinandega (type locality), 6.

LIOMYS HETEROTHRIX Merriam.
Honduras Spiny Pocket Mouse.
Liomys heterothrix Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, p. 50, Mar. 5, 1902.

Type locality. —San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Type No. 90161, $
adult, United States National Museum (Biological Survey collection) ,
collected by J. C. Ingersoll, July 16, 1897.

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality, on the Chameli-
con River, near the coast of northwestern Honduras.

General characters. — Size slightly larger than L. c. setosus; tail about
equal to head and body, thinly haired, indistinctly bicolored; slender
hairs tipped with ochraceous buff; forearms entirely white, without
trace of ' ' slaty-gray edging " of H. salvini; * ears faintly edged with
whitish; hind foot six-tuberculate.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upperparts between drab and hair brown,
tinged with ochraceous buff by outstanding slender hairs ; underparts,
forelimbs, and feet creamy white; tail dusky above, paler below.

Cranial characters. — Skull similar in size and general form to that of
L. c. setosus; nasals more wedge-shaped, tapering posteriorly; ascend-
ing branches of premaxillse broader, reaching posteriorly beyond
nasals, as in setosus; maxillary root of zygoma narrower and weaker,
owing to greater anterior development of frontal along intermaxillary
suture; interparietal more evenly oval, without small posterior emar-
gination present in setosus and crispus; dentition as in crispus.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 255; tail vertebra?, 126; hind
foot, 31. Average of six adult topotypes: 227 (210-255); 110 (100-
126); 27.5 (25-31). Skull (average of four adults): Greatest length,

•■ See Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 6, XI, p. 331, 1893.
93319°— No. 34—11 4

50 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

32.2 (29.9-34.7); zygomatic breadth, 14.8 (13.1-16.4); interorbital
breadth, 6.9 (6.5-7.5); length of nasals, 13 (12-14); width of brain-
case, 13.7 (13.2-14.7); alveolar length of upper molar series, 4.8
(4.6-5).

Remarks. — The differences separating Jieterothrix from crispus and
setosus are well marked, but its exact relationship to salvini, the type
of which I have not personally examined, is somewhat problematical.
The notes furnished by Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, jr., who has compared for me
topotypes of both Jieterothrix and setosus with the type of salvini, seem
to show that the latter is nearest to setosus, though differing rather
decidedly in color, and in this respect approaching JieterotJirix.

Specimens examined:
Honduras: San Pedro Sula (type locality), 20.

LIOMYS SALVINI (Thomas).
Salvin Spiny Pocket Mouse.
Eeteromys salvini Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 6, XI, pp. 331-332, 1893.

Type locality. — Duenas, Guatemala. Type in the British Museum,
collected by O. Salvin, July 31, 1873.

Distribution. — Vicinity of the type locality.

General characters. — Size small; general coloration rather dark.
Similar to L. c. setosus, but upperparts tawny (slaty in setosus) ; outer
side of forearm "with a narrow slaty-gray edging" (absent in setosus) ;
hind foot shorter, the sole, as in setosus, hairy posteriorly and six-
tuberculate.

Color. — From original description: "General colour blackish,
rather darker than in most of the other species, grizzled with yellow-
ish on the back. Lower surface pure white, as usual. Outer sides
of forearm with a slaty-grey edging, more conspicuous than in
H. alleni and lulleri, less than in H. longicaudatus * * * poste-
rior half of sole [hind foot] covered with short brownish hairs * * *.
Tail thinly haired, bicolor, but not so sharply and decidedly as usual,
brown above, whitish below."

Cranial characters. — Skull apparently nearest to that of L. c. setosus,
but slightly larger.

Measurements. — Type (from original description) : Head and body,
115; tail (imperfect at tip), 95 + ?; hind foot, 26.5. Skull (type meas-
ured by Gerrit S. Miller, jr.) : Greatest length, 33; zygomatic breadth,
15; interorbital breadth, 7; length of nasals, 13; alveolar length of
upper molar series, 5.

Remarks. — Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, jr., has compared for me the type
of salvini with topotypes of setosus and heterothrix and specimens of
other small forms occurring in southern Mexico. His comparative
notes seem to indicate nearest relationship to setosus, but he describes
the back of the type of salvini as "distinctly tawny," of which color

1911.] LIOMYS CRISPUS GROUP. 51

there is no trace in setosus. The skulls agreed very closely. The
"slaty-gray" edged outer sides of forearms mentioned in the original
description of salvini is another character not shared with setosus or
heterothrix.

LIOMYS SALVINI NIGRESCENS (Thomas).

Black Spiny Pocket Mouse.

Heteromys salvini nigrescens Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 6, XII, p. 234, 1893.

Type locality. — Costa Rica. Type in British Museum, No. 69. 7.
19.6.

General characters. — Size very small — still smaller than salvini;
color darker; no yellowish lateral line.

Color. — From original description: "Colour very similar to that of
H. S. typicus, but yellowish grizzling on the back, inconspicuous in
that animal, is entirely absent, at least along the mesial line, so that
the dorsal colour is a deep uniform smoky brown. Towards the sides
a few yellow-tipped hairs are present, but not in sufficient numbers
to affect the general tone. No trace of a yellowish lateral line.
Limbs as in //. S. typicus."

Cranial characters. — From original description: "Skull decidedly
smaller and more delicate than in the typical form, the muzzle more
slender, the interorbital region narrower, and the interparietal con-
spicuously smaller (its length-breadth percentage 51)."

Measurements. — Type: "Head and body, 127; tail broken; hind
foot, without claws, 25." Skull: Greatest length, 32.7; zygomatic
breadth, 15.2; interorbital breadth, 6.6; length of nasals, 13.2;
alveolar length of upper molar series, 5.

Remarks. — This form, as nearly as can be determined from the
original description and comparisons made for me by Mr. Miller,
appears to belong with salvini to the crispus group. Comparing the
skull of the type with setosus of the same group, Mr. Miller says:
"Teeth and skull the same, but with audital bullaB slightly flatter and
not quite as large. Interparietal slightly smaller, but of similar
shape."

LIOMYS ADSPERSUS (Peters).

Panama Spiny Pocket Mouse.

Heteromys adspersus Peters, Monatsber. K. Preuss. Akad. Wissensch., Berlin, pp.
356-359, with pi., May, 1874.

Type locality. — "Panama." Type, $ young (mounted), in Berlin
Museum.

Distribution. — Range unknown.

General characters. — Size medium; upperparts dark bluish drab, or
dark gray, slightly speckled with ochraceous buff; entire forelegs
white; hind feet naked posteriorly, six-tuberculate.

52 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

Color. — General color of upperparts dark bluish drab, or dark gray,
the back slightly speckled by ochraceous buffy hairs; underparts
pure creamy white; feet and forelegs white, the drab of sides extend-
ing along outer surface of hind legs to heels; ears faintly edged with
whitish; tail tliinly haired, coarsely annulated, indistinctly bicolored,
brownish above, white below.

Cranial characters. — From original description: Upper incisors
darker anteriorly than the lower, which are narrower and brighter yel-
low; upper premolar with three enamel loops, the anterior longer and
narrower, the posterior shorter and broader, and both diverging
internally to admit between them the third and smallest, which is
egg-shaped; first upper molar with a deep inner and a shallow outer
reentrant angle; third upper molar with an enamel pattern similar
to that of second, but posterior loop noticeably narrower than ante-
rior. Rostrum narrow, the nasals and premaxillaB projecting, as in
allied species, far over the incisors, and premaxilla? forming in front
sharp vertical ridges. The small incisive foramina, lachrymals, and
interorbital foramina closely resemble those of Geomys. The frontals
form, as in Mils, sharp supraorbital ridges winch are continued across
the parietals and bound a plane surface, with the interparietal, twice
as long as broad, attached posteriorly, while the temporal fossa? are
deepened. The under jaw closely resembles that of Perognathus in the
shape of the coronoid and angular processes; the deep fossa which
in Geomys extends outward from the posterior molar is entirely
absent.

Measurements. — Dr}^ skin of type (from original description) : Head
and body, 145; tail, 95; hind foot, 30. Skull: No measurements
available.

Remarks. — The type of H. adspersus Peters I have not examined,
but Peters's full description and plate illustration of cranial and dental
characters, together with notes kindly made for me by Mr. Gerrit S.
Miller, jr., seem to indicate that the species belongs to the genus
Liomys, but differs from all the other known members in having the
soles of hind feet naked posteriorly. The dental characters shown by
the plate are those of an immature individual with permanent pre-
molars in place, but Arery slightly worn. The teeth in some respects
approach those of L. heterothrix of similar age, and the two species
may prove to be related. From re pens, a spiny pocket mouse of
the genus Heteromys inhabiting the same general region, adspersus
may be known externally by the white instead of dusky outer
sides of forelegs; and the skull differs notably in narrower, more
constricted frontal region and in the apparent absence of addi-
tional enamel islands in the posterior lobes of all the upper molari-
form teeth.

1911.]

LIOMYS IRRORATUS GROUP.

53

LIOMYS IRRORATUS GROUP.

LIOMYS IRRORATUS (Gray).

Oaxaca Spiny Pocket Mouse.

(PL III, figs. 5, 5a.)

Heteromys irroratus Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., p. 205, 1868.

Heteromys albolimhatus Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., p. 205, 1868. From La Parada,

Oaxaca, Mexico. Cotypes (2) in Brk,;sh Museum, probably collected by Boucard

for Salle.

Type locality. — State of Oaxaca, Mexico. Type in British Museum,
probably collected by Boucard for Salle near the city of Oaxaca.1
Specimens from

the city of Oaxaca
are considered
typical.

Distribution. —
High interior
plains and lower
mountain slopes
in central and east-
ern Oaxaca, Mex-
ico. Lower Sono-
ran and Humid
Tropical Zones.

General charac-
ters.— Size rather
large; tail slightly
longer than head
and body, well
haired, sharply bi-
color; color griz-
zled gray ; lateral
line faint ; ears dis-
tinctly edged with
white; sole of hind
foot hairy posteri-
orly, five-tubercu-
late.

Color. — Fresh
pelage: Upperparts mouse gray, darkest, and in some specimens
more or less mLxed with blackish on top of head and back,
thinly grizzled with ochraceous buffy hairs; underparts and feet
white; ochraceous buffy lateral line absent or usually inconspicuous;

CAA/US

R^j / - JAL/CSNS/5

ggg^ L. BULL£/f/

H L. GCS/f/?£ffSA/S/S

Fig. 6. — Distribution of Liomys irroratus and allied forms.

1 For localities worked by Boucard in this region see Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., p. 295, 1863; ibid.,
1859, pp. 369-370.

54 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

outer sides of forearms varying from nearly pure white to distinctly
grayish; ears blackish edged with whitish; tail dusky above, whitish
below, except tip, which is dark all round.

Cranial characters. — Skull large and rather heavy, relatively short
and broad, with slender rostrum and widely spreading zygomata;
supraorbital ridges rather weakly developed, as usual in the genus
Liomys; sagittal area very wide; interparietal broadly oval; bullae
large and inflated; dentition heavy; anterior molars nearly as broad
as premolars; posterior molars very small and cylindrical; tubercle
over root of lower incisor well developed. Similar in general to that
of guerrerensis, but less massive; rostrum much more slender; pre-
maxillse narrower ; frontals narrower; maxillary root of zygoma less
heavy. Compared with bulleri, the skull differs mainly in narrower
frontal region and decidedly larger, broadly oval instead of triangular
interparietal.

Measurements. — Average of six adults from Oaxaca, Oaxaca: Total
length, 273 (258-295); tail vertebras, 148 (132-163); hind foot, 32.3
(31-35). Skull (average of same) : Greatest length, 33.2 (31.5-34.9)
zygomatic breadth, 15.8 (15-17.1); interorbital breadth, 8 (7.7-8.3)
length of nasals, 14.1 (13.2-14.9); width of braincase, 14.9 (14.3-15.6)
alveolar length of upper molar series, 5.2 (4.9-5.5).

Remarks. — Specimens in the collection of the Biological Survey
from various localities in Oaxaca have been compared for me by
Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, jr., with the types of irroratus and albolimbatus in
the British Museum. Those from the city of Oaxaca were found to
agree closely with both, and in Mr. Miller's opinion irroratus and
albolimbatus represent the same species. His comparati ve notes appear
to justify this conclusion. Alston has shown1 that the type of albolim-
batus probably came to the British Museum through Salle. Boucard
made collections for Salle at La Parada (type locality of albolimbatus) ,
altitude about 7,900 feet, on a mountain slope 15 miles northeast of
the city of Oaxaca; also at San Miguel de Peras, a few miles southwest
of the same city. As no exact locality was given for the type of
irroratus which was obtained through Salle from the "State of Oaxaca,"
it seems probable that it also was collected by Boucard at the same
place as albolimbatus or elsewhere in the vicinity of the city of Oaxaca.

L. irroratus is typical of a group, most of the members of which are
closely related and range over nearly the whole of the Mexican table-
land region. The group belongs mainly to the Sonoran Zones, but
several representatives reach a short distance into the Arid and
Humid Tropical Zones.

Specimens examined. — Total number 30, from localities as follows:
Oaxaca: Oaxaca, 22; Cerro San Felipe, 2; Mount Zempoaltepec, 5; Yalalag, 1.
« Biol. Centrali-Amer., Mamm., p. 167, 1879-1882.

1911.] LIOMYS IRRORATUS GROUP. 55

LIOMYS IRRORATUS TORRIDUS Merriam.

Torrid Spiny Pocket Mouse.

Liomys torridus Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, p. 45, Mar. 5, 1902.
Heteromys exiguus Elliot, Pub. Field Columb. Mus., Zool. eer., Ill, pp. 14G-147,

Feb., 1903. From Puente de Ixtla, Morelos, Mexico. Type in Field Columbian

Museum.

Type locality. — Cuicatlan, Oaxaca, Mexico. Type No. 69G45, 9
adult, United States National Museum (Biological Survey collection),
collected by Nelson and Goldman, October 14, 1894.

Distribution. — Arid interior plains and valleys, from northern
Oaxaca and southern Puebla west through Morelos and eastern
Guerrero to Chilpancingo. Arid Tropical and lower part of Lower
Sonoran Zones.

General characters. — Closely allied to irroratus and alleni, but
smaller; outer sides of forearms less grayish (usually pure white);
hind foot five-tuberculate as in irroratus.

Color. — As in irroratus, except outer sides of forearms, which are
pure white or faintly edged with grayish.

Cranial characters. — Skull closely resembles that of irroratus, but
averages much smaller, with nasals less deeply emarginate (some-
times truncate) posteriorly. Differs from alleni mainly in decidedly
smaller size and less squarely truncate nasals.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 242; tail vertebrae, 134; hind
foot,28. Averageof 10 adult topotypes: 242 (227-252); 139(129-143)
28.1 (27-29). SJcull (average of 10 adults): Greatest length, 30.7
(29.9-32.1); zygomatic breadth, 14.2 (14-14.8); interorbital breadth
7.7 (7.4-8.2); length of nasals, 12.3 (11.9-12.8); width of braincase
13.4 (12.9-14); alveolar length of upper molar series, 4.5 (4.3-4.9).

Remarks. — This small form is nearly related to irroratus and alleni
and connects them geographically. Its fairly well-defined range
includes lower, hotter areas than those of irroratus or alleni, but
complete intergradation seems certain. Specimens of irroratus from
the city of Oaxaca show a large amount of individual variation, and the
smallest are only slightly larger than typical torridus and agree other-
wise very closely with it. Those from higher parts of the plateau region
in and near the Valley of Mexico are apparently nearest to alleni, but
present variable characters and in some respects approach torridus.

Topotypes of H. exiguus Elliot are nearly typical torridus.

Specimens examined. — Total number 109, from the following
localities :

Oaxaca : Cuicatlan (type locality), 37.

Guerrero: Ayusinapa, 1; Chilpancingo, 5; Tlapa, 5.

Morelos: Cuernavaca, 8; Puente de Ixtla, 4; Yautepec, 22.

Puebla: Acatlan, 2; Amolac, 2; Atlixco, 5, Piaxtla, 17; Tehuacan, 1.

56 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

LIOMYS IRRORATUS MINOR Merriam.
Huajuapam Spiny Pocket Mouse.
Liomys torridus minor Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, p. 45, Mar. 5, 1902.

Type locality. — Huajuapam, Oaxaca, Mexico. Type No. 70301, 9
adult, United States National Museum (Biological Survey collection),
collected by Nelson and Goldman, November 18, 1894.

Distribution. — Elevated plains of northwestern Oaxaca and north-
eastern Guerrero, Mexico. Arid Tropical and Lower Sonoran Zones.

General characters. — Size smallest of the irroratus group. Most
like torridus, but still smaller; hind foot five-tuberculate. Differs
from irroratus in decidedly smaller size.

Color. — As in torridus.

Cranial characters. — Skull similar to that of torridus, but smaller;
braincase more arched; rostrum heavier posteriorly, broadening more
gradually to zygomata; nasals shorter, squarely truncate posteriorly.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 222; tail vertebrae, 125; hind
foot, 27. Skull: Greatest length, 29; zygomatic breadth, 14.2;
interorbital breadth, 13; length of nasals, 11.7; width of braincase,
13.9; alveolar length of upper molar series, 4.6.

Remarks. — L. i. minor appears to be a rather localized form. Speci-
mens from northeastern Guerrero seem to show intergradation with
torridus.

Specimens examined. — Total number 7, from the following locali-
ties:

Oaxaca: Huajuapam (type locality), 4; Tlapancingo, 1.
Guerrero: Sochi, 1; Tlalixtaquilla, 1.

LIOMYS IRRORATUS ALLENI (Coues).
Allen Spiny Pocket Mouse.
(PI. I, figs. 3, 3a, 36; PI. Ill, figs. 4, 4a.)
Heteromys alleni Coues, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., VIII, pp. 187-189, 1881.

Type locality. — Rio Verde, San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Type No.
5889, $ adult, Museum of Comparative Zoology, collected by Dr.
Edward Palmer, February 26, 1878.

Distribution. — Eastern and southern portions of Mexican table-
land region from Monterey, Nuevo Leon, to the Valley of Mexico and
as far west as Chicalote, Aguas Calientes, and Ocotlan, Jalisco.
Upper and Lower Sonoran Zones.

General characters. — Similar to irroratus, but smaller; color and
external appearance about the same; lateral line rather faint; tail
relatively shorter, about equal to head and body; hind foot five-
tuberculate. Similar to pretiosus, jalicensis, and torridus, but larger.

1911.] LIOMYS IEROEATUS GROUP. 57

Closely related to canus, but smaller. Differs from texensis in 1-arger
size and grayer color.

Color. — As in irroratus.

Cranial diameters. — Skull similar in general to that of irroratus,
but nasals truncate instead of emarginate posteriorly; rostrum
heavier; frontals broader; interparietal slightly smaller. Closely
related to jalicensis and torridus, but larger, with more squarely trun-
cate nasals. Similar to texensis, but larger, with relatively narrower
frontals, and larger, broader, less evenly oval interparietal. Com-
pared with pretiosus the skull is decidedly larger with rostrum less
inflated anteriorly; premaxillse less bulging over incisors; nasals rela-
tively narrower anteriorly. Differs from canus mainly in smaller
size and narrower frontals.

Measurements. — Average of two adult topotypes: Total length,
257; tail vertebrae, 137; hind foot, 32.7. Average of five adults from
Ahualulco, San Luis Potosi: 254 (249-257); 126 (121-132); 31.6
(31-32). Skull (average of four adults): Greatest length, 34.5
(34-35.2); zygomatic breadth, 16.7 (16.1-17.1); interorbital breadth,
8.7 (8.5-9); length of nasals, 14.2 (13.9-14.6); width of braincase,
15.4 (14.9-15.8); alveolar length of upper molar series, 5.6 (5.3-6).

Remarks. — L. i. alleni is a widely distributed, central subspecies
whose range is nearly or entirely surrounded by those of closely
related forms. Specimens from Monterey, Nuevo Leon, agree with
the typical form in color, and in breadth and shape of interparietal,
but are smaller and apparently grading toward texensis. At lower
elevations to the eastward of the type locality alleni passes into
pretiosus, as shown by specimens of the latter form from Valles, San
Luis Potosi, and from Jalpan, Queretaro. Specimens from Queren-
daro and Patzcuaro, Michoacan, and in and near the Valley of Mexico
are variable and appear to be approaching torridus. On the west and
northwest alleni intergrades with jalicensis and canus.

Specimens examined. — Total number 107, from the following locali-
ties:

San Luis Potosi: Rio Verde (type locality), 12; Ahualulco, 6; Hacienda la

Parada, 3; Jesus Maria, 2; Villar, 15.
Aguas Calientes: Chicalote, 1.
Federal District: Tlalpam, 3.
Guanajuato: Acambaro, 1; Silao, 8.
Hidalgo: Marques, 2; Tula, 2; Zimapan, 3.
Jalisco: Ocotlan, 15.
Michoacan: Patzcuaro, 1; Querendaro, 5.
Nuevo Leon: Cerro de la Silla, 1; Monterey, 9.
Puehla: San Martin, 4.

Queretaro: Pinal de Amoles, 5; Tequisquiapan, 1.
Tamaulipas: Jaumave, 1; Miquihuana, 3.
Zacatecas: Berriozabel, 4.

58 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

LIOMYS IRRORATUS PRETIOSUS subsp. nov.

Metlaltoyuca Spiny Pocket Mouse.

Type from Metlaltoyuca, Puebla, Mexico. No. 93097, $ adult, United States National
Museum (Biological Survey collection), collected by E. A. Goldman, January 25,
1898. Original No. 12081.

Distribution. — -Humid basal mountain slopes in extreme eastern
San Luis Potosi, northern Queretaro, eastern Puebla, and northern
Vera Cruz, Mexico. Humid Tropical Zone.

General characters. — Similar to alleni, but color slightly darker;
lateral line more distinct; cranial characters pronounced; hind foot
five-tuberculate. Somewhat like texensis, but much darker, ochra-
ceous buffy hairs less conspicuous.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upperparts dark mouse gray, mixed with
blackish on median dorsal area, thinly grizzled with ochraceous buffy
hairs; underparts and feet white; lateral line pale ochraceous buffy,
usually distinct from cheeks to hind legs; outer sides of forelegs gray-
ish, interrupted by buffy lateral line; tail dusky above, white below,
except tip, which is dark all around.

Cranial characters. — Skull rather small, with short, anteriorly ex-
panded rostrum and very narrow frontals. Similar in general to that
of alleni, but decidedly smaller; anterior nares much more inflated;
rostrum narrower posteriorly, the sides more nearly parallel; nasals
relatively broader anteriorly, slightly emarginate posteriorly; fron-
tals much narrower. Compared with texensis the skull is less mas-
sive; anterior nares more inflated; rostrum narrower posteriorly;
frontal region much narrower, more constricted; premaxillse reach-
ing farther posteriorly beyond nasals; interparietal much broader
transversely and less evenly oval.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 263; tail vertebrae, 145; hind
foot, 34. Average of five adult topotypes, 246 (239-263); 133 (127-
145); 32.6 (31.5-34). Skull (type): Greatest length, 32.5; zygo-
matic breadth, 15.2; interorbital breadth, 7.5; length of nasals, 13.2;
width of braincase, 14.6; alveolar length of upper molar series, 4.9.

Remarks. — In the remarkable inflation of the anterior nares pretiosus
differs from all the other members of the irroratus group. The sub-
species appears to be restricted in distribution to the Humid Tropical
Zone. Specimens from Valles, San Luis Potosi, and from Jalpan,
Queretaro, are nearer to pretiosus, but show gradation toward alleni,
which occupies the higher, Sonoran areas of the table-land region to
the westward.

Specimens examined. — Total number 25, from the following localities :

Puebla: Metlaltoyuca (type locality), 7.
Queretaro: Jalpan, 11.
San Luis Potosi: Valles, 3.
Vera Cruz: Papantla, 4.

1911.] LIOMYS IRRORATUS GROUP. 59

LIOMYS IRRORATUS TEXENSIS Merriam.
Texas Spiny Pocket Mouse.
Liomys texensis Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, p. 45, Mar. 5, 1902.

Type locality. — Brownsville, Texas. Type No. 5S670, ? adult,
United States National Museum (Biological Survey collection),
collected by J. Alden Loring, February 19, 1894.

Distribution. — Low plains from southern Texas to southern Ta-
maulipas, west in eastern Nuevo Leon to China. Lower Sonoran
Zone.

General characters. — Most like alleni, but smaller and paler, the
slender ochraceous buffy hairs more conspicuous; hind foot five-tuber-
culate. Similar in size to pretiosus, but much paler; differing also
in well-marked cranial characters.

Color. — Fi'esh pelage: Upperparts pale mouse gray, darkest on top
of head and back, rather conspicuously grizzled with ochraceous
buffy hairs; underparts and feet white; lateral line pale ochra-
ceous buffy, usually broad and distinct; outer sides of forearms
grayish; tail dusky above, white below, except tip, which is dark all
round.

Cranial characters. — Skull similar in general to that of alleni,
but much smaller; frontals relatively broader; interparietal smaller,
narrower, more evenly oval; nasals and premaxillse more nearly
conterminous posteriorly. Compared with pretiosus the skull is more
massive; rostrum broadening more gradually to zygomata; frontals
broader; interparietal much narrower transversely.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 231; tail vertebrae, 114; hind
foot, 30. Average of 10 adult topotypes: 237 (230-257); 122 (114-
132) ; 29.2 (25-32). STcull (average of 1 0 adults) : Greatest length, 31.8
(31.1-32.7); zygomatic breadth, 15.G (14.9-16.4); interorbital breadth,
8.2 (7.8-8.8); length of nasals, 13 (12.2-13.6); width of braincase,
14.3 (13.9-14.8); alveolar length of upper molar series, 4.9 (4.5-5.2).

Remarks. — The range of texensis marks the northern limit of the
genus along the Gulf coast. Although a well-marked form, it is
evidently closely related to alleni, which inhabits the more elevated
table-land region of the interior, and the two apparently intergrade
in the vicinity of Monterey, Nuevo Leon.

Specimens examined. — Total number 91, from the following locali-
ties:

Texas: Brownsville (type locality), 42; Lomita Ranch, 4.
Nuevo Leon: China, 1; Montemorelos, 4,

Tamaulipas: Alta Mira, 7; Bagdad, 3; Hidalgo, 2; Matamoros, 18; Soto la
Marina, 4; Victoria, 6.

60 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 34.

LIOMYS IRRORATUS CANUS Merriam.
Chihuahua Spiny Pocket Mouse.
Liomys canus Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV, pp. 44-45, Mar. 5, 1902.

Type locality. — Near Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico. Type No. 96259,
$ adult, United States National Museum (Biological Survey col-
lection), collected by Nelson and Goldman, September 21, 1898.

Distribution. — High plains along the eastern base of the Sierra
Madre from southern Chihuahua to southern Zacatecas. Upper and
Lower Sonoran Zones.

General characters. — Size largest of the irroratus group. Most
like alleni, but larger and slightly paler; lateral line less distinct; hind
foot five-tuberculate. Similar to jalicensis, but much larger.

Color. — As in irroratus and alleni, but slightly paler, and lateral
line less distinct.

Cranial characters. — Skull very similar to that of alleni, but larger,
with broader frontals; nasals broader and heavier, truncate poste-
riorly as in alleni. Similar in general to jalicensis, but decidedly
larger, nasals more squarely truncate posteriorly.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 276; tail vertebrae, 138;
hind foot, 34. Average of three adult topotypes: 262 (247-276); 133
(128-138); 33 (32-34). Slcull (type): Greatest length, 36.9; zygo-
matic breadth, 18; interorbital breadth, 9.6; length of nasals, 15;
width of braincase, 16.5; alveolar length of upper molar series, 5.5.

Remarlcs. — The large size of this form usually serves to separate
it from alleni, to which it is evidently closely related. It appears
to be restricted to a rather narrow high area along the east base
of the Sierra Madre. Specimens from the city of Durango, Durango,
and from San Juan Capistrano, Zacatecas, are smaller than the
typical form, but agree in relative breadth of frontal region. Those
from Valparaiso, Zacatecas, are nearly typical, although more distant
from the type locality.

Specimens examined. — Total number 36, from the following locali-
ties.

Chihuahua: Near Parral (type locality), 8; Santa Rosalia, 1.

Durango: Durango, 1; Inde, 5.

Zacatecas: Hacienda San Juan Capistrano, 2; Valparaiso, 19.

LIOMYS IRRORATUS JALICENSIS (Allen).

Jalisco Spiny Pocket Mouse.

Heteromys jalicensis Allen, Bull. Mus. Nat. Hist. XXII, pp. 251-252, July 25, 1906.

Type locality. — Las Canoas, about 20 miles west of Zapotlan,
Jalisco, Mexico (altitude 7,000 feet). Type No. 26325, $ young
adult, American Museum of Natural History, collected by J. H. Batty,
August 6, 1905.

1911.] LIOMYS IRRORATUS GROUP. 61

Distribution. — Table-land region of Jalisco and northwestern
Michoacan. Mainly Lower Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Most like alleni, but smaller; color the same;
hind foot five-tuberculate. Similar to canus, but decidedly smaller
and slightly darker.

Color. — As in irroratus and alleni.

Cranial diameters . — Skull much like that of alleni, but smaller;
nasals normally truncated posteriorly as in alleni. Differs from canus
in decidedly smaller size and relatively narrower frontal region.

Measurements. — Type (from original description) : Total length,
232; tail vertebrae, 112; hind foot (dry skin), 27.5. Average of three
adults from Atemajac (near Guadalajara), Jalisco: 234 (228-238)
119 (117-124); 30 (30-31). STcull (average of 5 adult topotypes)
Greatest length, 31.9 (31-32); zygomatic breadth, 15.3 (14.4-15.9)
interorbital breadth, 8 (7.2-8.8); length of nasals, 12.3 (12-12.5)
width of braincase, 14.5 (14.1-14.8); alveolar length of upper molar
series, 5.1 (4.9-5.4).

Remarks. — This subspecies is evidently closely related to alleni,
from which it appears to differ only in smaller size. The difference
is constant hi specimens examined from widely separated localities
in the western part of the plateau region, including most of Jalisco
and a part of Michoacan.

Specimens examined. — Total number 37, from the following locali-
ties:

Jalisco: Las Canoas (type locality), 10 (including type) ; Ameca, 9; Arroyo de

Gavilan, 3; Atemajac, 8; Etzatlan, 1; Sierra Nevada, 1; Zapotlan, 2.
Michoacan: Zamora, 3.

LIOMYS BULLERI (Thomas).

Buller Spiny Pocket Mouse.

(PI. Ill, figs. 6, 6a.)

Heteromys bulleri Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 6, XI, pp. 330-331, Apr., 1893.

Type locality. — La Laguna, Sierra de Juanacatlan, Jalisco, Mexico.
Type ( ? adult in alcohol) in British Museum, collected by Dr. Audley
C. Buller, December, 1892.

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality in the Sierra
de Juanacatlan, Jalisco, Mexico. Upper Sonoran Zone.

General characters. — Size medium; tail slightty longer than head
and body; color grayish; lateral line pale ochraceous buff; hind foot
five-tuberculate. Size and color about as in alleni; cranial characters
distinctive.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upperparts mouse gray, mixed with blackish
on median dorsal area, thinly grizzled with ochraceous buffy hairs;
underparts and feet white ; lateral line pale ochraceous buff, extending

62 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [ No. 34.

from cheeks to hind legs; outer sides of forelegs grayish, interrupted
by a white area below lateral line; ears dusky, faintly edged with
whitish ; tail brownish above, white below.

Cranial characters. — Skull broad, flat, and rather short. Similar
in general to that of alleni, but interparietal much smaller, subtri-
angular instead of oval, the anterior angle well developed; braincase
less arched; nasals slightly broader posteriorly, concave instead of
truncate. Differs from jalicensis in the same general characters as
from alleni, in addition to larger size.

Measurements. — Type (from original description) : Head and body,
114; tail, 120; hind foot (without claws), 28.5. An adult topotype :
Total length, 250; tail vertebrae, 128; hind foot, 32. SJcull (an adult
topotype): Greatest length, 33.5; zygomatic breadth, 16; inter-
orbital breadth, 8.6; length of nasals, 14.3; width of braincase, 14.8;
alveolar length of upper molar series, 5.5.

Remarks. — A topotype of bulleri in the collection of the Biological
Survey has been found by Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, jr., to agree very closely
with the type in the British Museum. L. bulleri is clearly a member
of the irroratus group. In external appearance it resembles alleni
and jalicensis, but the cranial characters, especially the decidedly
smaller size and more triangular shape of the interparietal, distinguish
it from either.

Specimens examined:
Jalisco: La Laguna (type locality), 1.

LIOMYS GUERRERENSIS sp. nov.

Guerrero Spiny Pocket Mouse.

Type from Omilteme, Guerrero, Mexico. No. 127523, 9 young, U. S. National Museum
(Biological Survey collection), collected by Nelson and Goldman, May 17, 1903.
Original No. 16435.

Distribution. — Humid heavily forested Pacific slopes of the Sierra
Madre in the vicinity of the type locality. Humid Tropical Zone.

General characters. — Size large; tail about equal to head and body;
color blackish; lateral line very faint; hind foot five-tuberculate.
Similar in general to irroratus, but much darker, and cranial characters
quite different.

Color. — Type (acquiring adult pelage) : Top of head and back fresh
deep glossy black, thinly grizzled with buffy hairs ; sides of body and
hind legs still in immature mouse gray pelage; underparts and feet
white; outer sides of forelegs grayish, interrupted along lateral line;
heels, inner sides of ankles, and hairy portion of sole of hind foot dark
brownish black; ears black, edged with whitish; tail black above,
white below, except extreme tip, which is dark all round.

Cranial characters. — Skull massive, short and broad, with short,
heavy rostrum, broad frontal region, narrow palate, and heavy den-

1911.] LIOMYS IBEOEATUS GEOUP. 63

tition. Compared with irroratus, the skull is heavier ; rostrum shorter
and much broader, especially posteriorly, broadening more gradually
to zygomata; nasals shorter, slightly notched posteriorly; premax-
illae broader, reaching posteriorly beyond nasals; maxillary root of
zygoma heavier; frontals broader; interparietal broadly pentagonal
(oval in irroratus); palate narrower; dentition of the irroratus type,
but heavier.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 255; tail vertebrae, 127; hind
foot, 34. An immature topotype: 247; 140; 35. Skull (average of
two immature topotypes): Greatest length, 33.2 (33.2-33.3); zygomatic
breadth, 16 (15.6-16.5); interorbital breadth, 8.5 (8.5-8.6); length
of nasals, 13.1 (13-13.2); width of braincase, 15.4 (15-15.9); alveolar
length of upper molar series, 5.8 (5.7-5.9).

Remarks. — L. guerrerensis is a member of the irroratus group, but
appears to be a distinct species. The only known specimens are
immature, but differ strikingly from irroratus of the same age, and
the differences noted would doubtless be accentuated in adults. The
unusually dark color of the species is probably due to a heavy forest
environment.

Specimens examined:

Guerrero: Omilteme (type locality), 2.

PLATE I.

[Natural size, except figs. 1, 2, and 3, which are enlarged four diameters, and figs. In, 2a, and 3a, which are

enlarged two diameters.]

Figs. 1, la, 16. Ileteromys (Ileteromys) desmarestianus Gray.

1. Partially worn crowns of upper molars. (No. 100007, U. S. Nat. Mus.,

Biological Survey Coll.)

la. Jaw with partially worn molars. (No. 100007, U. S. Nat. Mus., Bio-
logical Survey Coll.)

16. Lateral view of jaw. (No. 100007, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey
Coll.)

2, 2a-2d. Ileteromys (Xylomys) nelsoni Merriam.

2. Partially worn crowns of upper molars. (No. 77920, U. S. Nat. Mus.,

Biological Survey Coll.; type.)

2a. Jaw with partially worn molars. (No. 77920, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biolog-
ical Survey Coll.; type.)

26. Lateral view of jaw. (No. 77920, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey
Coll.; type.)

2c. Upper view of skull. (No. 77920, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey
Coll.; type.)

2d. Lower view of skull. (No. 77920, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey
Coll.; type.)

3, 3a, 36. Liomys irroratus alleni (Coues).

3. Partially worn crowns of upper molars. (No. 93914, U. S. Nat. Mus.,

Biological Survey Coll.)
3a. Jaw with partially worn molars. (No. 93914, TJ. S. Nat. Mus., Biolog-
ical Survey Coll.)
36. Lateral view of jaw. (No. 93914, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey
Coll.)
4,4a. Ileteromys (Ileteromys) anomalus (Thompson). Caura, Island of Trin-
idad. Adult male. (No. 5965, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.)
64

North American Fauna No. 34, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate I.

Skulls and Jaws of Heteromys and Liomys.

1, la, 16. H. desmarestianus.

2, 2a, 26, 2c, 2d. H. nelsoni.

3, 3a, 36. L. i. alleni.

4, 4a. H. anomalus.

93319°— No. 34—11 5

PLATE II.

[Natural size.]

Figs. 1, la. Heteromys jesupi Allen. Type. Near Minca, Colombia. Adult female.
(No. 15347, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.)

2, 2a. Heteromys australis Thomas. Topotype. San Javier, Ecuador. Adult

male. (No. 113306, TJ. S. Nat. Mus.)

3, 3a. Heteromys desmarestianus Gray. Teapa, Tabasco, Mexico. Adult fe-

male. (No. 100003, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

4, 4a. Heteromys longicaudatus Gray. Montecristo, Tabasco, Mexico. Adult

female. (No. 100211, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

5, 5a. Heteromys goldmani Merriam. Type. Chicbarras, Chiapas, Mexico.

Adult male. (No. 77576, U. S. Nat, Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

6, 6a. Heteromys fuscatus Allen. Type. Tuma, Nicaragua. Adult male.

(No. 28451, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.)

7, 7a. Heteromys gaumeri Allen and Chapman. Tunkas, Yucatan. Adult

female. (No. 108129, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

66

North American Fauna No. 34, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate II.

1, la. H. jesupi.

2, 2a. H. australis.

3, 3a. H. desmarestianus.

Skulls of Heteromys.

4, 4a. H. longicaudatus.
5,5a. H. goldmani/

6, 6a. H. fuscatus.

7. 7a. H. gaumeri.

PLATE III.

[Natural size.]

Figs. 1, la. Liomys pictus (Thomas). Armeria, Colima, Mexico. Adult male. (No.

45371, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)
2, 2a. Liomys pictus parviceps Goldman. Topotype. La Salada, Michoacan,

Mexico. Adult male. (No. 126481, XJ. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey

Coll.)
3,3a. Liomys mspus Merriam. Topotype. Tonala, Chiapas, Mexico. Adult

male. (No. 75104, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)
4, 4a. Liomys irroratus alleni (Coues). Topotype. Rio Verde, San Luis Potosi,

Mexico. Adult male. (No. 82116, IT. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey

Coll.)
5,5a. Liomys irroratus (Gray) . Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico. Adult male. (No.

68376, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)
6,6a. Liomys bulleri( Thomas). Topotype. La Laguna, Sierra deJuanacatlan,

Jalisco, Mexico. Adult female. (No. 88176, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biolog-
ical Survey Coll.)
68

North American Fauna No. 34, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate III.

1, la. L. pictus.

2, 2a. L. p. parviceps.

Skulls of Liomys.

3, 3a. L. crispus.

4, 4a. L. i. alleni.

5, 5a. L. irroratus.

6, 6a. L. bulleri.

INDEX.

[New species in bold-faced type; synonyms in italics; pages containing the principal reference to a

species in bold-faced figures.]

adspersus, Heteromys, 51.

Liomys, 51-52.
albolimbatus, Hcteromys, 53.
alleni, Heteromys, 32, 56.

Liomys irroratns, 56-57.
anncctens, Heteromys, 45.

Liomys, 45.
anomalus, Cricetus, 8, 16.

Heteromys, 8, 16-17.
Mus, 7, 8, 16.
australis, Heteromys, 18-19.
bicolor. Heteromys 19-20.

Perognathus, 10.
bulleri, Heteromys, 61.

Liomys, 61-62.
canus, Liomys irroratus, 60.
Cricetus anomalus, 8, 16.
crispus, Liomys, 46-47.

setosus, Liomys, 47-48.
Dasynotus, 14.
dcsmarestiana, Heteromys, 8.
desmarestianus, Heteromys, 20-22.

griseus, Heteromys, 22-23.
LMpodomys, 7.
esquinapx, Heteromys, 35.

Liomys pictus, 35-36.
eiiguus, Heteromys, 55.
fuscatus, Heteromys, 28-29.
gaumeri, Heteromys, 29-30.
goldmani, Heteromys, 24-25.
griseus, Heteromys desmarestianus, 22-23.
guerrerensis, Liomys, 62-63.
Heteromys, genus, 14.

subgenus, 15.
Heteromys adspersus, 51.

albolimbatus, 53.

alleni, 32, 56.

annectens, 45.

anomalus, 8, 16-17.

australis, 18-19.

bicolor, 19-20.

bulleri, 61.

dcsmarestiana, 8.

desmarestianus, 20-22.

desmarestianus griseus, 22-23.

esquinapx, 35.

exiguus, 55.

fuscatus, 28-29.

gaumeri, 29-30.

goldmani, 24-25.

hispidus, 3.3.

irroratus, 53.

jalicensis, 60.

jesupi, 18.

Heteromys lepturus, 25-26.

longicaudatus, 23-24.
melanoleucus , 16.
nelsoni,30, 31-32.
paralius, 44, 45.
pictus, 33.
repens, 27-28.
salvini, 50.

salvini nigrescens, 51.
temporalis, 26-27.
thompsonii, 8, 16.
vulcani, 48.
heterothrix, Liomys, 49-50.
hispidus, Heteromys, 33.
Hystrix, 8.

irroratus alleni, Liomys, 56-57.
canus, Liomys, 60.
Heteromys, 53.
jalicensis, Liomys, 60-61.
Liomys, 53-54.
minor, Liomys, 56.
pretiosus, Liomys, 58.
texensis, Liomys, 59.
torridus, Liomys, 55.
isthmius, Liomys pictus, 41-42.
jalicensis, Heteromys, 60.

Liomys irroratus, 60-61.
jesupi, Heteromys, 18.
Key to genera and subgenera, 12.
Key to species and subspecies, 12.
lepturus, Heteromys, 25-26.
Liomys, genus, 32-33.
Liomys adspersus, 51-52.
annectens, 45.
bulleri, « 1-62.
crispus, 46-47.
crispus setosus, 47-48.
guerrerensis, 62-63.
heterothrix, 49-50.
irroratus, 53-54.
irroratus alleni, 56-57.
irroratus canus, 60.
irroratus jalicensis, 60-61.
irroratus minor, 56.
irroratus pretiosus, 58.
irroratus texensis, 59.
irroratus torridus, 55.
orbitalis, 42, 43.
phxura, 40.
pictus, 33-35.
pictus esquinapae, 35-36.
pictus isthmius, 41-42.
pictus obscurus, 44-45.
pictus parviceps, 38-39.

69

70

INDEX.

Liomys pictus phaeurus, 40-4 1 .

pictus plantinarensis, 87-38.
pietus rostratus, 39-40.
pictus sonorana, 36-37.
pictus veraecrucis, 42-48.
salvini, 50-51.
salvini nigrescens, 51.
vulcani, 48-49.
longicaudatus, Heteromys, 28-24.
Melanoleucus, Heteromys, 16.
Microdipodops, 7.
minor, Liomys irroratus, 56.
mouse, spiny pocket, Allen, 56-57.

bicolored, 19-20.

black, 51.

Buller, 61-62.

Carrizal, 44-45.

Chihuahua, 60.

Chiriqui, 27-28.

Cohan, 20-22.

dusky-tailed, 40-41.
' Esquinapa, 35-36.

Gaumer, 29-30.

Goldman, 24-25.

gray, 22-23.

Guerrero, 62-63.

habits, 8-9.

Honduras, 49-50.

Huajuapam, 56.

Huehuetan, 47-48.

Isthmian, 41-42.

Jalisco, 60-61.

Jesup, 18.

La Salada, 38-39.

long-tailed, 23-24.

Metlaltoyuca, 58.

Motzorongo, 26-27.

Nelson, 31-32.

Nicaragua, 28-29.

Oaxaca, 53-54.

Ometepec, 39-40.

painted, 33-35.

Panama, 51-52.

Plantinar, 37-38.

Pluma, 45.

Salvin, 50-51.

Santo Domingo, 25-26.

Sonora, 36-87.

southern, 18-19.

Texas, 59.

Tonala, 46-47.

mouse, spiny pocket, torrid, 55.

Trinidad, 16-17.
Vera Cruz, 42-43.
Volcan, 48-49.
Mus, 8.

Mus anomalus, 7, 8, 16.
nelsoni, Heteromys, 30, 31-32.
nigrescens, Heteromys salvini, 51.
Liomys salvini, 51.
obscurus, Liomys pictus, 44-45.
orbitalis, Liomys, 42, 43.
paralius, Heteromys, 44, 45.
parviceps, Liomys pictus, 38-39.
Perodipus, 7.
Perognathus, 7.
Perognathus bicolor, 19.
phxura, Liomys, 40.
phaeurus, Liomys pictus, 40-41.
pictus esquinapae, Liomys, 35-36.

Heteromys, 33.

isthmius, Liomys, 41-42.

Liomys, 33-35.

obscurus, Liomys, 44-45.

parviceps, Liomys, 38-39.

phaeurus, Liomys, 40-41.

plantinarensis, Liomys, 37-38.

rostratus, Liomys, 39-40.

sonorana, Liomys, 36-37 .

veraecrucis, Liomys, 42-43.
plantinarensis, Liomys pictus, 37-38.
pocket mouse, spiny. (See mouse, spiny pocket.)
pretiosus, Liomys Irroratus, 58.
repens, Heteromys, 27-28.
rostratus, Liomys pictus, 39-40.
Saccomys, 14.
salvini, Heteromys, 50.
Liomys, 50-51.
nigrescens, Liomys, 51.
setosus, Liomys crispus, 47-48.
sonorana, Liomys pictus, 36-37.
Species and subspecies, list of, 11.
temporalis, Heteromys, 26-27.
texensis, Liomys irroratus, 59.
thompsonii, Heteromys, 8, 16.
torridus, Liomys irroratus, 55.
type localities, list of, 11.
veraecrucis, Liomys pictus, 42-43.
vulcani, Heteromys, 48.

Liomys, 48^9.
Xylomys, subgenus, 8, 30-31.

o

A

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

HENRY W. HENSHAW, Chief

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA

No. 35

[Actual date of publication, September 5, 1913]

LIFE ZONES AND CROP ZONES
OF NEW MEXICO

BY

VERNON BAILEY

IN CHARGE OF BIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS, BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

1913,

4 CONTENTS.

Life zones and crop zones of New Mexico — Continued. Page.

Arctic-Alpine Zone 51

Mammals 52

Breeding birds 52

Plants 52

The mountains of New Mexico 53

Sangre de Cristo Mountains 53

San Juan Mountains 57

Jemez Mountains 57

Mount Taylor Range 58

Chusca Mountains 60

Zuni Mountains 61

Mogollon Mountains 62

Magdalena and San Mateo Mountains 65

San Luis and Animas Mountains 66

Big Hatchet Mountains 68

Manzano and Sandia Mountains 69

Sacramento Mountains 70

Improvement of stock ranges 74

Bibliography 75

Index 83

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATES.

Page.

Plate I . Life-zone map of New Mexico Frontispiece

II. Fig. 1. Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa). Fig. 2. Creosote bush (Co-

villea glutinosa) 12

III. Fig. 1. Typical Great Plains country. Fig. 2. Typical Great Basin

vegetation 28

IV. Fig. 1. Lance-leaved cottonwood (Populus acuminata). Fig. 2.

Mescal (Agave parryi) 28

V. Fig. 1. Open yellow pine forest on top of the Chusca Mountains.

Fig. 2. Yellow pine forest of the Mogollon Mountain plateau 48

VI. Fig. 1. Canadian zone forest of spruce and fir. Fig. 2. Blue colum-
bine 48

VII. Fig. 1. Dwarf spruce and fir at 11,800 feet on east side of Pecos Baldy.

Fig. 2. Foxtail pines at 11,800 feet on east side of Pecos Baldy ... 48

VIII. Fig. 1. Truchas Peaks. Fig. 2. Santa Fe Baldy 48

IX. Fig. 1. Wheeler Peak. Fig. 2. Sangre de Cristo Mountains, taken

from the east 56

X. Fig. 1. Meadow park at 10,000 feet on the San Juan Mountains. Fig.

2. El Choro, a 3,000-foot granite wall of Brazos Canyon 56

XI. Fig. 1. Valle Santa Rosa in Jemez Mountains. Fig. 2. North slope

of Goat Mountain 56

XII. Fig. 1. Railway station of Kettner in Zuni Mountains. Fig. 2. Yel-
low pine forest in Zuni Mountains 56

XIII. Fig. 1. Mimbres Mountains from top of Sawyers Peak, looking north.

Fig. 2. Mimbres Mountains from top of Sawyers Peak, looking
south 68

XIV. Fig. 1. Upper timbered slope of Magdalena Mountains. Fig. 2. Up-

per timbered slopes of San Mateo Mountains 68

XV. Fig. 1. Animas Peak from northwest base. Fig. 2. Upper Sonoran

border of the Animas Valley 68

XVI. Fig. 1. Field of oats among the yellow pines in the Sacramento

Mountains. Fig. 2. Forest in Sacramento Mountains 68

TEXT FIGURES.

Fig. 1. Rio Grande River Valley at Las Palomas, below the Elephant Butte

Reservoir 15

2. Zuni Valley and Thunder Mountain, site of the old Pueblo of Zuni 30

3. Narrow-leaved cottonwood 42

4. Parry century plant in full flower 68

5. Sierra Blanca, or White Mountain Peak 71

6. Checker-barked junipers in Guadalupe Mountains 73

5

No. 35. NOETH AMEKICAN FAUNA. Sept., 1913.

LIFE ZONES AND CROP ZONES OF NEW MEXICO.

By Vernon Bailey.

INTRODUCTION.

The Biological Survey has carried on field work in every important
valley and mountain range in New Mexico, and has gathered material
for a fairly detailed map of the life zones of the State, which accom-
panies the present report, and for reports on the birds and mammals
to be published later. The practical purpose of mapping life zones
and their subdivisions is to show the extent and location of areas in
the several States in which certain farm products thrive and outside
of which they can not be made to thrive. In traversing the country
even the most casual observer is often struck by the contrast in the
plant and animal life of different regions. These differences some-
times conform to natural geographic areas, but upon close investi-
gation are almost invariably found to correspond to changes of cli-
matic conditions. By careful study of the distribution of native
species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and plants,1 which have repro-
duced for ages in their respective regions until they have become
thoroughly adapted to them, it is possible to plot with considerable
accuracy the areas which are marked by groups of species with similar
ranges. In this way the climatic belts or life zones which cross the
continent have been traced out and mapped with some detail. The
temperature during the season of growth and reproduction controls
the ranges of animals and plants, and therefore determines the
extent and limits of the several zones.

While the climate may vary slightly in different parts of a distri-
bution area, and always varies more or less in different years, the
total range of variation does not exceed the power of adaptation
possessed by the species living within the area. Beyond its borders,
however, many or most of the species which characterize it give way

i Many species in other groups, notably of insects and mollusks, could be used to advantage in determining
the limits of distribution areas, but unfortunately their ranges have not been mapped with sufficient accu-
lacy for the purpose.

7

8 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

to others that in turn have become adapted to their own climatic
conditions. It should be remembered, however, that zone boundaries
are never sharply marked in nature except on steep slopes, but change
gradually as one set of average climatic conditions is succeeded by
another. They are here mapped to conform as nearly as possible
to the mean limits as indicated by the ranges of species of plants and
animals.

Not all distribution areas, however, are of equal rank. Some are
so strongly characterized that comparatively few species overlap the
boundaries, while others limit the ranges of a smaller percentage of
species. Some are of great extent, while others are very restricted,
and all are of irregular outline in conformity to the climatic barriers
by which they are bounded. The broad and strongly marked life
zones are made up of minor units, or subdivisions, some of which are
so well marked as to have widely different crop adaptations. In
New Mexico, however, the main life zones are comparatively uniform
except the Upper Sonoran, in which the subdivisions are sufficiently
well marked to show important differences in agricultural possi-
bilities. In the other zones the crops that are found to flourish in
one section can be safely introduced into other sections of the same
zone without the necessity of slow and costly experimentation.

New Mexico, while rich in prehistoric ruins and containing some of
the oldest Caucasian settlements in the United States, has only
recently begun to make rapid strides in modern agriculture. "Dry
farming" is now encroaching upon much of the best stock range,
while irrigation is reclaiming many of the desert valleys. The
Reclamation Service and private irrigation companies are building
numerous reservoirs, canals, and ditches to conserve and utilize the
water, and eventually much more of the desert will be brought under
cultivation.

Stock raising, forestry, and mining are being put on a scientific
basis. Graded cattle have almost entirely taken the place of the
Texas longhorn; valuable horses are superseding the cayuse; the
grade of sheep in many places is being greatly improved; lumbering
is coming under Government control that, while utilizing the forests,
wall perpetuate them; and mining methods are being improved so
that low-grade ores are worked at a profit.

Certain sections are becoming famous for the flavor and quality of
fruits, which develop and mature to their greatest perfection under
the combined influence of an arid atmosphere and the proper control
of moisture in the soil. Various forage crops, grains, and vegetables
have proved signally successful in restricted areas, and if the best
results of a steadily developing agriculture are to be obtained the
boundaries of the areas of approximately uniform agricultural char-
acter should be mapped and be made known.

1913.] GENERAL PHYSICAL FEATURES. 9

Anyone familiar with the local flora and fauna can determine by
reference to a list of the plants, birds, and mammals living in each
zone the zonal position of any locality in New Mexico even without
referring to the zone map, while the map will usually enable one
not familiar with the native plants and animals to learn in which zone
he resides. The map should also aid those desiring to take up any
specific line of agriculture to locate where the conditions are most
favorable.

GENERAL PHYSICAL FEATURES.

New Mexico is diversified by numerous mountain ranges, open
plains, and extensive valleys. Its higher mountain ranges stand out
in bold relief, usually belted or capped with dark forests, but there
are also many half barren, jagged little peaks and ridges, rich in desert
colors, quaint vegetation, and interesting forms of animal life, and
often rich in minerals. The various mountain ranges are described
in detail elsewhere in this report. But by far the greater part of its
area is composed of grassy plains and arid valleys, lying between the
levels of 4,000 and 7,000 feet. These also are described in some
detail under their respective zones.

While some wide areas are approximately level and treeless, there
are over most of the plains frequent canyons, gulches, "dry washes"
(temporary watercourses), and occasional streams. The canyons,
stream courses, and rough country generally are more or less wooded,
and even the most arid valleys supply considerable fuel from their
scrubby growth of mesquite with its greatly developed root system.

The lowest part of the State is in the south, where the Pecos River
crosses the line at about 2,800 and the Rio Grande at about 3,700
feet, while the highest part is in the north, where Wheeler Peak
reaches an altitude of 13,600 feet.1

This great range of altitude, together with an extent of nearly 6°
of latitude, gives extremes of climate sufficient to include all of the
life zones of North America above the Tropical and the lower division
of Lower Sonoran, and to give a correspondingly wide range of agri-
cultural possibilities.

The climate 2 of New Mexico is mainly arid, varying from semi-
arid on the eastern plains, with an average annual rainfall of 15 to
20 inches, to extreme arid in the western valleys, with an average
annual rainfall generally given as varying from 10 to 15 inches.
There are very few data as to the amount of precipitation in the
mountains either in summer rains or winter snowfall, but to anyone
who has been in the higher ranges at either season it is evident that

i Wheeler Peak is the highest point in the Taos Mountains, or the part of the Sangre de Cristo Range
northeast of the Pueblo of Taos. Repeated aneroid readings from the railroad as a known base make It
13,600 feet, the highest peak in New Mexico.

* See Tinsley, T. D., Forty Years of New Mexico Climate, Bull. 59, New Mex. Agric. Exp. Sta., 1906.

10 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

they are far from arid. Summer rains are frequent; while in winter
the snow often lies 6 to 10 feet deep in the woods and in summer
rarely if ever entirely leaves the highest peaks. Thus the mountains
feed the streams that water the valleys and while mainly above the
zones of agriculture they are the real source of agricultural wealth.
Not only the water but the rich alluvial soil of the valleys is brought
down from the mountain slopes along the numerous watercourses.

Three important rivers (the Pecos, the Canadian, and the Gila)
have their sources in the mountains of New Mexico, while the Rio
Grande traverses its entire length and the San Juan makes a wide
circuit through its northwestern corner. These with their branches
supply far more water than is at present used, and enough when fully
utilized to reclaim a large part of the desert. Still there are areas
to which water can not be brought and which will long continue as
open range. Much remains to be done in the improvement of grazing
lands and the conversion of barren desert into productive grazing
land. The resources of the State are now in various stages of devel-
opment, some well advanced and others only beginning.

The best of these short-grass plains are in the eastern part of the
State, where they comprise a wide area north of the Canadian River
and nearly half of the Llano Estacado lying south of that river.
These treeless, wind-swept plains, once a terror to travelers, are now
dotted with ranches and windmills, marked by good roads and fences,
and enlivened by countless herds of cattle. Between the Pecos and
the Rio Grande lies another wide area of plains' slightly more arid,
while west of the Rio Grande are extensive but much broken and
generally still more arid plains. These grassy plains furnish most of
the range for vast numbers of stock produced in New Mexico, but
much of the best stock range is now being used for "dry farming,"
and homes are being established in the semiarid regions, where there
is no possibility of irrigation.

The principal valleys of the State are the Rio Grande, Pecos, and
Gila in the south, the Canadian in the northeast, and the San Juan
in the northwest. These, while comprising the hottest and most
arid parts of the State, are of the greatest agricultural importance,
as they contain extensive areas of rich alluvial soil and an ample
supply of water for irrigating a large part of it.1 The native vege-
tation of the lowest and hottest of these valleys is sparse and scat-
tered, so that their value as stock range is comparatively slight, but
under irrigation they are extremely productive.

PERSONNEL AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

The field work on which the present report is mainly based was
carried on by the author under the direction of Dr.C. Hart Merriam,

1 See Sullivan, Vernon L., Irrigation in New Mexico, Bull. 215, Office Exp. Sta.,U. S.Dept. Agric.,1909.

1913.] LIFE ZONES AND CHOP ZONES. 11

with the assistance at different times of B. H. Dutcher, Arthur H.
Howell, E. A. Goldman, N. Hollister, J. Alden Loring, James A.
Gaut, E. A. Weller, and Clarence Birdseye. Additional field notes
have been contributed by Dr. C. Hart Merriam, H. W. Henshaw, Dr.
A. K. Fisher, and E. W. Nelson. Other assistance and information
will be credited as far as possible under the separate notes. The
various published local lists of birds, mammals, and plants have been
of much assistance.

For the identification of plants turned in to the United States
National Herbarium, I am especially indebted to F. V. Coville, J. N.
Rose, E. L. Greene, Paul C. Standley, and E. O. Wooton, and for
specimens of trees turned in to the Forest Service, to George B.
Sudworth. From both Prof. Wooton and Mr. Standley I have
received much assistance in preparing the zone lists of plants, and the
names of grasses, cactuses, and Eriogonum were supplied in large
part by Prof. Wooton.

From Prof. Fabian Garcia, horticulturist of the New Mexico
Agricultural Experiment Station, I have received many practical
suggestions, and through the numerous publications of the experi-
ment station, by Garcia and others, I have drawn freely on the fund
of information collected by the various members of the staff.

LIFE ZONES AND CROP ZONES OF NEW MEXICO.

Six of the transcontinental life zones are represented in New
Mexico (see frontispiece) as broad bands sweeping across the State, as
tongues reaching in from farther south, or as encircling rings or caps
on the elevated peaks and mountain ranges. Lower Sonoran, the
zone of mesquite, comes into the southern valleys along the Pecos,
Rio Grande, and Gila Rivers, and over the low plains of the south-
western corner of the State; Upper Sonoran, the zone of nut pine and
juniper, covers most of the plains and foothill country; Transition,
the zone of yellow pine, covers generally the middle mountain slopes
of the high ranges; Canadian, the zone of spruce and fir, covers the
higher mountain slopes; Hudsonian, the zone of dwarf spruces, occurs
as a narrow belt of scrubby timberline trees around the high peaks;
and the treeless Arctic-Alpine Zone caps many of the higher peaks
in the Sangre de Cristo Range.

LOWER SONORAN ZONE.1

(The zone of mesquite and creosote hush.)

While only the upper or cooler part of this arid division of the
Lower Austral Zone comes into southern New Mexico, it covers an area

1 Lower and Upper Sonoran are here spoken of as zones, while they are in reality only the arid subdivisions
of the Lower and Upper Austral Zones. The humid divisions of these, the Austroriparian and Carolinian,
are not represented in New Mexico. For full classification and nomenclature of life zones of North America
see Life Zones and Crop Zones of the United States, by C Hart Merriam (Bull. 10, Biological Survey, 1898),
and the Fourth Provisional Zone Map of North America, prepared by the Biological Survey, 1910.

12 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

of approximately 18,000 square miles, some of which is of great agricul-
tural value. It extends up the Pecos Valley to Roswell and in dilute
form beyond; covers most of the Tularosa Valley ; and extends up the
Rio Grande Valley to Socorro and in narrow strips beyond; and west
from the Rio Grande Valley in dilute form over the Deming Plains to
the Upper Gila and San Francisco River Valleys. The Playas,
Animas, and Hachita Valleys are also mainly Lower Sonoran. The
zone has no important subdivisions in New Mexico and is as uniform
in climate as in the assemblage of species which mark its boundaries.
The greatest difference lies between its east and west extremes, the
Pecos and Gila Valleys, each of which draws some of its species from
adjoining areas — a few plains species entering the Pecos Valley and
a few species extending up the Gila Valley from Arizona.

It is the region of mesquite and creosote bush, striking shrubs
which most conspicuously mark the zone, the mesquite marking a
liberal and the creosote a more conservative boundary. Along the
upper edge of the zone there is the usual overlapping of Upper and
Lower Sonoran species, often resulting on gradual slopes in a com-
plete mixture of the two zones for a considerable distance, but the
dominant species at any point usually show to which zone that point
really belongs.

The great advantages of the Lower Sonoran Zone for agricultural
purposes are its high temperature and long growing period. Many
crops mature that will not succeed in a cooler zone, and several
successive crops are often raised on the same ground during one sea-
son. The abundance of water and the rich soil of its principal valleys
make it, despite its limited area of arable land, the most important
agricultural zone in the State. With the extension of irrigation its
importance will be greatly increased, for at present agriculture is
confined mainly to the lowest valley bottoms, which owing to the
settling of cold air currents are more subject to spring and fall frosts
than the adjoining bench lands. It is a well-known fact that frost
often occurs on bottom lands when surrounding areas 50 or 1 00 feet
higher escape, and these so-called "thermal belts" should be taken
advantage of, especially in fruit raising.

The slight differences in the native species in each of the Lower
Sonoran valleys may indicate slight variations in climatic or physi-
ographic conditions, but there are also in each valley local conditions
of soil and moisture that determine the limits of certain species, espe-
cially of plants. Most of these local peculiarities can be taken ad-
vantage of in some line of agriculture and all should be studied until
thoroughly understood.

PECOS VALLEY.

This is the least arid of the Lower Sonoran valleys in New Mexico,
and while characterized in the mam by the same species which occur

North American Fauna No. 35, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate II.

Fig. 1 .— Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) in Lower Sonoran Valley West of

Deming.

^^^^^

Fig. 2.— Creosote Bush (Covillea glutinosa) on Lower Sonoran Mesa above

El Paso.

1913.] LOWER SONORAN ZONE. 13

in the others it has a more vigorous plant growth, better grazing on
the uplands, and in places may allow some successful agriculture by
"dry-farming" methods. The bottom lands and adjacent valley
slopes which have received first attention in farm development are
characterized by a vigorous growth of cottonwood, willows, bac-
charis, ehrysothamnus, atriplex, dondia, heliotrope, salt grass, and
other saline and alkaline plants, none of which are very strongly
characteristic of the Lower Sonoran Zone. It is even questionable
whether these cool bottoms should be classed as pure Lower Sonoran.
The slightly elevated bench lands along the sides of the stream val-
leys, however, carry full sets of the most characteristic zone plants,
mesquite, creosote bush, Acacia constricta, Flourensia cernua, allthorn
(Koeberlinia spinosa), ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens) , Berberis trifol-
iolata, sotol (Dasylirion texanum), lechuguilla (Agave lechuguiUa) ,
Yucca macrocarpa, and many others that definitely fix the zonal po-
sition of these parts of the valley.

In the Pecos Valley, as elsewhere near the border of a zone, these
plants give place to Upper Sonoran species on north slopes or along
cold bottoms, a fact that should be taken advantage of in diversified
farming or horticulture. Until very recently little of the unmis-
takably Lower Sonoran area of this valley has been under cultiva-
tion, because it is easier to carry water over the lower levels. It
seems a safe prediction, however, that the greater part of Pecos
Valley will eventually be brought under cultivation through the
extension of irrigation systems, the storage of flood and rain Water
along the side streams, and a partial use of dry-farming methods.
Even the slopes that can never be irrigated can be greatly improved
for grazing by a system of contour furrows that will catch and hold
the rain where it falls. After a heavy rain in this valley the water
is said to rise sometimes 50 feet in an hour in Pecos Canyon lower
down, so quickly does it run off the open surface.

The Lower Sonoran Zone in the Pecos Valley, as indicated on the
map (frontispiece) includes some mixed areas, especially along the
edges and in the narrow northern strip extending along the river
between Roswell and Santa Rosa, where only traces of the zone are
found on hot slopes in the form of dwarf mesquite and occasional
bushes of small-leaved sumac {Schmaltzia micropliyTla) , Zizyphus ob-
tusifolia, Parosela formosa, Opuntia leptocaulis, and 0. cyclodes, to-
gether with some of the less closely restricted species of birds, mam-
mals, and reptiles. So narrow a strip as this northern extension
would hardly be indicated on the map except for its importance as
a highway for the distribution of Lower Sonoran species between
the Pecos and Canadian River Valleys through the narrow gap
around the northern end of the Staked Plains, and the consequent
intrusion of a dilute Lower Sonoran element in the New Mexico part
of the Canadian River Valley north of Tucumcari.

14 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

CANADIAN RIVER VALLEY.

The Lower Sonoran element in the Canadian River Valley on
warm slopes and open plains reaches from the Texas line up the
valley above Tucumcari, with scattered traces across the low pass
to Santa Rosa on the Pecos. It is marked by such characteristic
species as mesquite, small-leaved sumac (Schmaltzia microphylla) ,
soapberry tree (Sapindus marginatus), Parosela formosa, Krameria
secundiflora, and Opuntia leptocaulis, and by the scaled quail, road-
runner, Texas woodpecker, Scott's oriole, desert and Cassin's spar-
rows, and the western mockingbird.

While a great number of species in this valley are Upper Sonoran,
the strong admixture of Lower Sonoran species indicates a modified
climate, in which some Lower Sonoran crops would doubtless thrive.

TULAROSA VALLEY.

The great valley lying between the Sacramento and San Andres
Mountain ranges is almost entirely Lower Sonoran, but so extremely
arid and so unlikely to be adequately irrigated, unless from subter-
ranean sources, that at present it is agriculturally unimportant.
Over great stretches the land is level and the soil of excellent quality,
but the few marginal streams barely reach the edges of the valley
and furnish a very limited supply of water.

The striking features of the valley are its diminutive forests of tree-
like yuccas ( Yucca radiosa), its scattered growth of low desert shrubs
and cactuses, its dunes of white gypsum sand, extensive playas with
incrustations of salt and alkali, salt marshes, and wide flows or jagged
outcroppings of black lava rock. In climate and in plant and animal
life it is practically identical with the Rio Grande Valley above El
Paso, with which it connects through low gaps in the mountain.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY.

The Rio Grande Valley from the Texas line north to Socorro is
mainly Lower Sonoran, and traces of the zone extend north to Las
Lunas and into the lower Puerco Valley. The lateral boundaries are
more irregular than the zone map indicates, just as the details of
valley surface and slope are more intricate than any map can show.
In general, the Lower Sonoran Zone extends from the western foothills
of the San Andres Mountains to the eastern base of the Mimbres and
Magdalena Mountains and out to the southwest over the Deming
plain. On eastiand west slopes the upper edge of this zone in the Rio
Grande Valley conforms closely to the 5,000-foot contour, but on
northeast slopes usually runs 500 feet lower and on southwest slopes
500 feet higher. On very steep slopes the variation is even greater,
while on very gentle slopes it is proportionately less. Many low

1913.]

LOWER SONORAN ZONE.

15

mountain ranges, high hills, or ridges stand out as Upper Sonoran
islands in this area, while slopes dipping northward are generally
Upper Sonoran down to about 4,500 feet.

The lowest part of the immediate river valley, where most of the
farming has been carried on, is evidently not the warmest part of the
Rio Grande Valley. While most of its vegetation is of Lower Sonoran
species, such as mesquite, screw bean, acacia, atriplex, dondia,
zizyphus, baccharis, pluchea, lycium, chilopsis, willows, and cotton-
woods, some of these also run into or through the Upper Sonoran
Zone. The side slopes of the valley are more purely Lower Sonoran,

Fig. 1.— Rio Grande Valley at Las Palomas, below the Elephant Butte Reservoir.

as shown by their flora and fauna. The characteristic plants of these
middle slopes are mesquite, acacia, creosote bush, ocotillo (Fouquieria
splendens), allthorn (Koeberlinia spinosa), small-leaved sumac
(Schmaltzia microphylla) , tree yuccas ( Yucca radiosa and Y. macro-
carpa), cactuses (Echinocactus wislizeni, Opuntia leptocaulis, and 0.
engelmanni) , Flourensia cernua, Coleosanthus laciniatus, Krameria
canescens, Parosela frutescens. Ephedra trifurca, a,Ad Thamnosma
texanum.

The distribution of mammal, bird, and reptile life is less influenced
than that of plant life by slight local changes of climate, but in
determining the zones over the valley at large is of equal, if not

16 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

greater, importance. The great advantage of plants is that they are
always conspicuous, while the ranges of animals must be worked out
slowly by collecting or identifying many individuals of each species
North over the great dry Jornada Valley,1 which is part of the Rio
Grande Valley, the general level rises to nearly 5,000 feet, and the
long undulations alternate in Lower Sonoran Zone on south slopes
and Upper Sonoran on north slopes. Such details can not be shown
on a small scale zone map, but are counted as a part of the overlapping
always found along the junction of two zones. Farther north, from
San Marcial to Socorro, there is considerable overlapping, while north
of Socorro are only scattered traces of Lower Sonoran species, some of
which reach nearly to Albuquerque.

THE DEMING PLAIN.

The broad arid plain lying between the Rio Grande and Gila Val-
leys, with Deming as its center, is mainly below 4,500 feet. Numerous
sharp and rugged little peaks, craters, and mountain ranges rise from
its general level, and basin valleys drop a little below. The level
plain is dominated by Lower Sonoran species, which run up to a little
above 5,000 feet on warm slopes and down to about 4,500 feet on cold
slopes. The Hachita, Playas, and San Luis Valleys form part of this
Lower Sonoran plain, which opens out broadly to the valley of the
Gila and other Lower Sonoran valleys of southern Arizona.

The plants and animals of these plains are mainly the same as in
the Rio Grande Valley, with a few Arizona species coming in on the
west. In fact, this plain is the great highway through which the Gila
River Valley and Rio Grande Valley species characteristic of the upper
division of the zone have freely intermingled. The lower or sub-
tropical division of Lower Sonoran, as represented in the Rio Grande
Valley of Texas and the Gila Valley of Arizona, are, however, sepa-
rated by this upper division of the zone, and their characteristic plants,
mammals, and reptiles are widely different. The characteristic birds
of the two regions are for obvious reasons more nearly the same.

There are practically no permanent streams over these dry plains,
but in many places good water lies near the surface, and some agri-
culture is carried on by pumping or by storing flood water.

Grazing is generally sparse and poor, but it could be greatly im-
proved by a system of cross furrowing to hold the rain where it falls
on the sloping surfaces and by closing the arroyos so as to turn the
water out over dry mesas. This would also prevent the formation of

1 Valle Jornada del Muerto, the "valley of the journey of death," was so named from the death of the
Spanish refugees who perished there of thirst in 1680 on their flight down its waterless stretch of 90 miles
to Old Mexico. In 1S67 Gen. H. C. Merriam marched his infantry down this valley with the water each
man could carry in his can teen, covering the distance in three night marches, with no great suffering or dan-
ger. Now stock ranches dot the valley here and there, and windmills and water tanks may be seen from
the train.

1013.] LOWER SONORAN ZONE. 17

great shallow lakes in the valley bottoms which in drying up leave
miles of worthless mud flats or "playas." Because of the mild
winters and the fact that the grasses cure well and retain their nutri-
ment, the grazing would be especially valuable if the grass were
more abundant.

GILA VALLEY.

The Lower Sonoran Zone extends up the Gila Valley into New
Mexico for about 50 miles, or a little beyond Cliff, and strong traces
of it reach up the Valley of the San Francisco, a northern branch of
the Gila, well within the State. These valleys are narrow, but both
contain rich agricultural land with abundance of pure water for
irrigation.

The characteristic Lower Sonoran plants of the Gila Valley are creo-
sote bush, mesquite, acacia, mimosa, chilopsis, fouquieria, zizyphus,
sapindus, atriplex, Yucca radiosa, and several species of cactus. Its
birds are Gambel's and scaled quail, road-runner, Gila woodpecker,
Texas ' woodpecker, vermilion flycatcher, black phoebe, Abert's
towhee, cactus wren, and crissal thrasher.

Its mammals are the large and small kangaroo rats (Dipodomys
spectabilis and D. merriami), Ord kangaroo rat (Perodipus ordi),
Baird pocket mouse (Perognathus flavus) , Arizona grasshopper mouse
(Onychomys torridus), Anthony white-footed mouse (Peromyscus
anthonyi), Arizona pocket gopher (Thomomys cervinus), little canyon
bat (Pipistrellus hesperus) , New Mexico desert fox ( Vulpes macrotis
neomexicana) , and probably the gray-tailed antelope squirrel
(Ammospermophilus harrisi), which at least comes near the line and
which enters the Animas Valley farther south.

CHARACTERISTIC LOWER SONORAN SPECIES IN NEW MEXICO.

The following list of mammals, birds, reptiles, and plants includes
the species that best mark the limits of the Lower Sonoran Zone in
New Mexico. Comparatively few of these occur throughout the zone
and some reach only into a corner or inhabit a very restricted area
in the State.

Only breeding birds are given in the zone lists, as the greater
number of migrants passing through on their way north and south
occur in practically the whole of the State at one time or another with
little regard to zonal limits. Also some of the birds that breed in
the higher zones of the State spend the winters in the lower zones,
while others breeding in the low hot zones hurry into the mountains
or a higher zone when the breeding season is over and remain there
during the dryest and hottest part of summer. Some of the birds
breed as early as February and March, while others breed in mid-
summer, and many breed more than once hi a season, so that the
86914°— 13 2

18

NOKTH AMEKICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

mere presence of a bird at a given locality in summer is not always
sufficient evidence of its breeding there. The actual breeding ranges
of many species are not well determined. In some cases the records
are few and some of these may be erroneous, so that the present
lists are only provisional.

Mammals are generally more stable in their range, but some are
more or less migratory or nomadic, and others are adapted to a wide
range of climatic and environmental conditions. Some of the com-
mon species are therefore not included in the zone lists, being found
in so many zones that their distribution has little zonal significance.
Most of the species, however, are very constant in their range.

MAMMALS OF THE LOWER SONORAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO.
[Species marked U. occur also in Upper Sonoran Zone.]

Castor canadensis frondator, Broad-tailed

Beaver.
Geomys arenarius, Desert Pocket Gopher.
Thomomys aureus lachuguilla, Lechuguilla

Pocket Gopher.
Thomomys cervinus, Arizona Pocket

Gopher.
Perognathus penicillatus eremicus, Desert

Pocket Mouse.
Perognathus penicillatus pricei, Price

Pocket Mouse.
Perognathus intermedius, Intermediate

Pocket Mouse.
Perognathus flavus, Baird Pocket Mouse.
Perognathus merriami gilvus, Dutcher

Pocket Mouse.
Perodipus ordi, Ord Kangaroo Rat.
Dipodomys merriami, Merriam Kangaroo

Rat.
Dipodomys merriami ambiguus, El Paso

Kangaroo Rat.
Dipodomys spectabilis, Large Kangaroo

Rat. U.
Lepus californicus texianus, Texas Jack

Rabbit. U.
Lepus californicus eremicus, Desert Jack

Rabbit.
Sylvilagus auduboni minor, Desert Cot-
tontail.
Felis onca hernandezi, Jaguar.
Vulpes macrotis neomexicana, New Mexico

Desert Fox.
Canis mearnsi, Mearns Coyote. U.
Procyon lotor mexicanus, Mexican Raccoon.
Nasua narica pallida, Nasua.
Taxidea taxus berlandieri, Mexican Bad-
ger. U.

Didelphis mexicanus texensis, Texas Opos-
sum.

Tatu novemcinctum texanum, Texas Ar-
madillo.

Tayassu angulatum, Texas Peccary.

Ammospermophilus inter pres, Texas Ante-
lope Squirrel.

Ammospermophilus harrisi, Gray-tailed
Antelope Squirrel.

Citellus mexicanus parvidens, Rio Grande
Ground Squirrel.

Citellus spilosoma macrospilotus, Spotted
Ground Squirrel.

Citellus spilosoma arens, Spotted Sand
Squirrel.

Onychomys torridus, Arizona Grasshopper
Mouse.

Peromyscus eremicus, Desert White-footed
Mouse.

Peromyscus eremicus anthonyi, Anthony
White-footed Mouse.

Peromyscus leucopus tornillo, Tornillo
White-footed Mouse

Peromyscus leucopus arizonae, Arizona
White-footed Mouse.

Reithrodontomys megalotis, Large-eared
Harvest Mouse.

Neotoma micropus canescens, Gray Wood
Rat.

Sigmodon hispidus berlandieri, Berlandier
Cotton Rat.

Sigmodon minimus goldmani, Goldman
Cotton Rat.

Fiber zibethicus ripensis, Pecos River
Muskrat.

Fiber zibethicus pallidus, Pale Muskrat.

1913.]

LOWER SONORAN ZONE.

19

MAMMALS OP THE LOWER SONORAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO — Continued.

Mustela frenatus neomexicanus, New Mex-
ico Weasel.

Spilogale leucoparia, Rio Grande Spotted
Skunk.

Spilogale ambigua, Chihuahua Spotted
Skunk.

Spilogale arizonae, Arizona Spotted Skunk.

Mephitis leucomitra, Hooded Skunk.

Mephitis mesomelas varians, Texas Skunk.

Conepatus mesoleucus mearnsi, Mearns
WhitC-backed Skunk.

Notiosorex craicfordi, Eared Shrew.
Myotis yumanensis, Yuma Bat. U.
Myotis velifer, Cave Bat. U.
Myotis cali/ornicus , Little California

Bat. U.
Myotis thysanodes, Fringed Bat. U.
Myotis incautus, House Bat.
Pipistrellus hesperus, Little Canyon Bat.
Antrozous pallidus, Large Pale Bat. U.
Nyctinomus mexicanus, Free-tailed Bat.

BREEDING BIRDS OF LOWER SONORAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO.
[Species marked U. occur also in Upper Sonoran Zone.]

Colinus virginianus texanus, Texas Bob-
white.

Callipepla squamata, Scaled Quail. U.

Lophortyx gambeli, Gambel's Quail.

Melopelia asiatica trudeaui, White-winged
Dove.

Parabuteo unicinctus harrisi, Harris's
Hawk.

Buteo abbreviatus, Zone-tailed Hawk.

Falco fusco-caerulescens, Aplomado Fal-
con.

Polyborus cheriway,1 Audubon's Caracara.

Aluco pratincola,1 Barn Owl.

Speotyto cunicularia hypugaea, Burrowing
Owl. U.

Micropallas whitneyi, ' Elf Owl.

Geococeyx calif ornianus, Road-runner.

Dryobates scalaris cactophilus, Cactus Wood-
pecker.

Centurus uropygialis, Gila W'oodpecker.

Chordeiles acutipennis texensis, Texas
Nighthawk.

Calypte costae, Costa's Hummingbird.

Tyrannusvoci/erans, Cassin's Kingbird. U.

Sayornis nigricans, Black Phoebe.

Pyrocephalus rubinus mexicanus, Vermil-
ion Flycatcher.

Otocoris alpestris adusta, Scorched Horned
Lark.

Corvus cryptoleucus, White-necked Raven.

Sturnella magna hoopesi, Rio Grande
Meadowlark.

Icterus parisorum, Scott's Oriole.

Icterus cucullatus nelsoni, Arizona Hooded
Oriole.

Amphispiza bilineata deserticola, Desert
Sparrow.

Peucaea cassini, Cassin's Sparrow.

Pipilo aberti, Abert's Towhee.

Cardinalis cardinalis canicaudus, Gray-
tailed Cardinal.

Pyrrhuloxia sinuata, Arizona Pyrrhuloxia.

Guiraca caerulea lazula, Western Blue
Grosbeak. U.

Passerina ciris, Painted Bunting.

Phainopepla nitens, Phainopepla.

Mimas polyglottos leucopterus, Western
Mockingbird. U.

Toxostoma curvirostre, Curve-billed
Thrasher. U.

Toxostoma curvirostre palmeri, Palmer's
Thrasher.

Toxostoma crissale, Crissal Thrasher.

Heleodytes brunneicapillus couesi, Cactus
Wren.

Catherpes mexicanus conspersus, Canon
Wren. U.

Auriparus flaviceps, Verdin.

Polioptila plumbea, Plumbeous Gnat-
catcher.

REPTILES.

The following lists are mainly from New Mexico specimens in the
United States National Museum collection, identified by Dr. Leonhard
Stejneger, herpetologist and head curator of zoology. Some addi-
tional species are included from a report by Dr. Alexander G. Ruthven

1 Record doubtful as to breeding.

20

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

on a collection of reptiles and amphibians from southern New Mexico
and Arizona. The zonal position of some of the species is based on
so few records as to be still somewhat in doubt, but is given as best
indicated by the localities represented.

REPTILES OP LOWER SONORAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO.

[Species marked U. occur also in Upper Sonoran Zone.]

Lizards.

Crotaphytus wislizeni, Leopard Lizard.

Holbroolcia texana, Texas Spotted-tailed
Lizard.

Holbroolcia propinqua, Spotted-tailed Liz-
ard.

Via stansburiana, Stansbury Lizard. U.

Sceloporus magister, Great Scaly Lizard.

Sceloporus clarki, Clark Scaly Lizard.

Sceloporus consobrinus, Fence Scaly Liz-
ard. U.

Phrynosoma cornutum, Texas Horned
Lizard.

Phrynosoma modestum, Gray Horned Liz-
ard. U.

Cnemidophorus gularis, Whip-tailed Liz-
ard. U.

Cnemidophorus tigris, Striped Whip-tailed
Lizard. U.

Cnemidophorus melanostethus, Whip- tailed
Lizard.

Cnemidophorus sexlineatus, Six-lined Liz-
ard.

Heloderma suspectum 1, Gila Monster.

Coleonyx brevis, Gecko.

Snakes.

Leptotyphlops dulcis, Burrowing Snake.
Thamnophis marciana, Marcy's Garter

Snake.
Natrix transversa, Water Snake.
Salvadora hexalepis, Flat-nosed Snake.
Salvadora grahamiae, Graham Snake.
Elaphe emoryi, Emory's Snake.
Bascanion flagellum, Coach whip Snake.
Arizona elegans, Arizona Snake.
Opheodrys aestivus, Rough Green Snake.

U.
Hypsiglena ochrorhyncha, Rock Snake.

Rhinocheilus lecontei, LeConte's Snake.
Lampropeltis getulus splendidus, King

Snake.
Lampropeltis pyrrhomelanus. U.
Lampropeltis pyrrhomelanus celaenops.
Diadophis regalis, Ring Snake.
Gyalopium canum.
Tantilla planiceps, Plain-headed Little

Snake.
Sistrurus catenatus edwardsi, Massasauga.
Crotalus atrox, Western Diamond Rattle-

PLANTS OF LOWER SONORAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO.

[Species marked U. occur also in the Upper Sonoran Zone.]

Trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants.

Covillea glutinosa, Creosote Bush.2

Sophora secundijlora, Coral Bean.

Prosopis glandulosa, Mesquite.

Parosela frutescens, Dalea.

Prosopis pubescens, Screw Bean, Tornillo.

Parosela formosa, Dalea.

Acacia constricta, Straight-spined Acacia.

Parosela scoparia, Dalea.

Acacia greggi, Devil's Claw.

Parosela lachnostachys, Dalea.

Acacia filicioides, Spineless Acacia.

Lupinus micensis, Lupine.

Cassia wislizeni, Senna.

Astragalus wootoni, Milk Vetch.

Cassia lindheimeriana, Senna.

Populus wislizeni, Rio Grande Cotton-

Cassia roemeriana, Senna.

wood . U.

Cassia bauhinioides, Senna.

Juglans rupestris, Dwarf Walnut.

Hoffmanseggia densiflora.

Quercus havardi, Havard Oak.

1 Reported on Gila River by residents.

2 The plants most important in marking the life zones have been given precedence in the lists as far as
is possible without separating related species.

1913.]

LOWER SONORAN ZONE.

21

plants op lower sonoran zone in new Mexico — continued.
Trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants — Continued.

Sambucusmexicanus, Mexican Elderberry.

Fouquieria splendens, Ocotillo, Devil's-
wal king-stick.

Koeberlinia spinosa, Allthorn.

Condalia spathulata.

Zizyphus obtusifolia, Blue-thorn.

Zizyphus lycioides, Blue-thorn.

Rhoedium microphyllum .

Mortonia scabrella.

Schmaltzia micro phylla, Small-leaved Su-
mac.

Schmaltzia virens, Green Sumac.

Sapindus drummondi, Soapberry Tree.

Chilopsis linearis. Desert Willow.

Berberis trifoliolata, Three-leaved Bar-
berry.

Jamcsia gracilis.

Ungnadia speciosa, Mexican Buckeye.

Krameria canescens, Gray Chacata.

Krameria parvifolia, Dotted Chacata.

Kramer 'a glandusola, Glandular Chacata.

Lycium torreyi, Torrey Lycium.

Lycium parviflorum, Small-flowered Ly-
cium.

Allenrolfea occidentalis, Western Glass-
wort.

Cladothrix suffru t icosa .

Cladothrix lanuginosa.

Dondia suffrutescens .

Atriplex acanthocarpa, Rough Saltbush.

Atriplex canescens. Gray Saltbush. U.

Atriplex elegans.

Atriplex expansa.

Flovrensia cernua, Varnish Bush.

Baccharis viminea, Green Baccharis.

Baccharis glutinosa, Sticky Baccharis.

Baccharis pteronoides, Winged Baccharis.

Pluchea sericea, Gray Arrowwood.

Hymenoclea monogyra.

Coleosanthus laciniatus.

Gutierrezia lucida.

Gutierrezia glomerella.

Crassina pumila. Zinnia.

Artemisia filifolia, Narrow-leaved Sage-
brush .

Ephedra trifurca, Three-scale Joint Fir.

Ephedra torreyana, Torrey Joint Fir. U.

Thamnosma texanum, Stinkbush.

Phoradendron macrophyllum, Mistletoe.

Agave lech uguilla, Lechuguilla, LittleCen-
tury Plant.

Agave parryi, Parry Century Plant.

Dasylirion texanum, Texas Sctol.

Dasylirion wheeleri, Wheeler Sotol.

Dasylirion leiophyllum.

Yucca macrocarpa, Large-fruited Yucca,
Spanish Bayonet.

Yuccaradiosa, Narrow-leaved Tree Yucca.

Opuntia leptocaulis, Slender Bush Cactus.

Opuntia kleiniae, Slender Bush Cactus.

Opuntia arenaria, Sand Cactus.

Opuntia emoryi, Emory Prickly Pear.

Opuntia chlorotica, Green Prickly Pear.

Opuntia macrocentra, Long-spined Prickly
Pear.

Opuntia dulcis, Sweet Prickly Pear.

Opuntia Jilipendula, Prickly Pear.

Opuntia toumeyi, Tourney Prickly Pear.

Opuntia chihuahuaensis, Chihuahua
Prickly Pear.

Mamillaria grahami, Graham Pincushion
Cactus.

Mamillaria macromeris, Large-spined Pin-
cushion Cactus.

Mamillaria scheeri, Scheer Pincushion
Cactus.

Echinocactus wislizeni, Devil's-head Cac-
tus, Visnaga.

Echinocactus horizonthalonius, Little Dev-
il's-head.

Echinocereus chloranthus, Green-flowered
Petaya.

Echinocereus dasyacanthus, Yellow-flow-
ered Petaya.

Echinocereus stramineus, Purple-flowered
Petaya.

Echinocereus neomexicanus, New Mexico
Petaya.

Jatropha macrorhiza, Spurge.

Croton corymbulosus , Spurge.

Oroton neomexicanus, Spurge.

Ditaxis laevis, Spurge.

Chamaesyce serrula, Spurge.

Chamaesyce revoluta. Spurge.

Chamaesyce flag elliformis, Sp urge .

Chamaesyce chaetocalyx, Spurge.

Chamaesyce lata, Spurge. U.

Chamaesyce albomarginata, Spurge. U.

Chamaesyce serpens, Spurge. U.

Kallstroemia grandiflora, Caltrop.

Kallstroemia brachystylis, Caltrop.

Kallstroemia hirsutissima, Caltrop.

22

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

PLANTS OF LOWER SONORAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO — Continued.

Trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants — Continued.

Anemopsis calif ornica, Marsh Pepperroot
Eriogonum abcrtianum , Eriogonum.
Eriogonum trichopodum, Eriogonum.
Rumex hymenosepalus, Dock .

Amphilophis saccharoides .

Schizachyrium neomexicanum , New Mex-
ico Broom Grass.

Hilaria mutica, Tabosa Grass, Galleta
Grass.

Eriochloa punctata.

Panicum fasciculatum, chartiginense, Panic
Grass.

Chaetochloa composita, Foxtail Grass.

Paspalum distichum, Joint Grass.

Aristida bromoides, Poverty Grass, Needle
Grass.

Aristida divaricata, Poverty Grass.

Aristida schiediana, Poverty Grass.

Aristida havardi, Poverty Grass.

Sporobolus giganteus, Bunch Grass.

Sporobolus wrighti, Bunch Grass.

Sporobolus auriculatus, Bunch Grass.

Sporobolus airoides, Bunch Grass. U.

Sporobolus nealleyi, Bunch Grass.

Sporobolus strictus, Bunch Grass. U.

Sporobolus asperifolius, Bunch Grass.

Rumex ellipticus, Dock.
Frankenia jamesi.
J uncus mexicanus, Rush.
Cyperus erythrorhizos, Cyperus.

Grasses.

Sporobolus flexuosus, Bunch Grass. U.

Agrostis stolonifera, Redtop. U.

Chloris elegans.

Ch lor is brevispica .

Chloris cucullata.

Muhlenbergia texana, Texas Dropseed

Grass.
Bouteloua vestita, Grama.
Bouleloua aristidoides, Six-weeks Grama.
Bouteloua polystachya, Six-weeks Grama.

U.
Bouteloua eripoda, Black Grama. U.
Bouteloua breviseta, Black Grama.
Leptochloa fascicularis .
Papophorum wrighti.

Schleropogon brevifolius, Needle Grass. U.
Arundo donax, Cane (introduced?).
Munroa squarrosa, False Buffalo Grass. U.
Dasyochloa pulchella. U.
Tridens muticus. U.
Eragrostis obtusiflora, Skunk Grass.
Distichlis spicatu, Salt Grass. U.

U.

LOWER SONORAN ZONE CROPS.

The local adaptation of crops in the various States is being tested
by experts at agricultural experiment stations and substations. In
New Mexico the station which is connected with the College of
Agriculture and Mechanic Arts is located at Mesilla Park in the Rio
Grande Valley about 40 miles north of El Paso, Tex. Its altitude
is 3,865 feet and its location could not be better chosen as a center
for the Lower Sonoran Zone area of New Mexico. Fruits and crops
which succeed there should under proper conditions do well in any
part of the zone in the State. So far as possible I have made use of
the published reports of this station,1 supplemented by my own field
notes and those of other members of the Biological Survey.

The recent report of a committee of the American Pomological
Society, entitled Fruits Recommended by the American Pomological
Society for Cultivation in Various Sections of the United States and
Canada,2 has proved a helpful guide to the nomenclature of fruits
and has been followed as far as possible.

1 The next available experiment stations in this zone are at Tucson, Ariz., and College Point, Tex.,
both in different subdivisions of the zone, where many of the tests are unsafe for application to the New
Mexico conditions.

1 Bull. 151, Bur. of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. Agric, 1909.

1913.]

LOWER SONORAN ZONE.

23

The upper division of the Lower Sonoran Zone produces peaches
of excellent quality and flavor, but in the New Mexico section of this
zone most varieties bloom in March or early April and the fruit buds
are often killed by early April frosts. The early ripening varieties,
however, are the latest to bloom, and many of these have withstood
the frosts fairly well. The best of 147 varieties tested for four years of
bearing by Prof. Fabian Garcia at Mesilla Park, N. Mex., are listed
as follows : 1

Alexander.
Arkansas Traveler.
Waterloo.
Gov. Garland.

S. G. French.
Boyle's Early.
Hynes's Surprise.

Family Favorite.

Muir.

George IV.

Sargent-
Early Silver.
Hoover's Heath.

The following were added to the list by Prof. Garcia in 1910:
Texas King. Crothers. Salway.

APRICOTS.

In the Lower Sonoran Zone in New Mexico apricots usually bloom
in March or February and the young fruit is consequently killed by
spring frosts. Seedling trees bear some fruit at irregular intervals,
but varieties of commercial value are not recommended.

Many excellent varieties of European and American plums are
reported a success in the Lower Sonoran Zone at the experiment
station at Mesilla Park after a six-year test.2 The most successful
are:

Imperial Gage.
Yellow Egg.
German Prune.
Pond's Seedling.
Golden Drop (Coe's).

Italian Prune.
Tragedy.

Englebert (Prince).
Spaulding.
St. Catherine.

Clyman.
French Prune.
Golden Prune.
Jefferson.
Royal Hative.

Golden Beauty.
Wayland.
Wild Goose.
Bulgarian.
Fellenberg.

Few apples reach their highest development in the lower division
of the Lower Sonoran Zone, but many varieties yield well and are
valuable crops in the upper division of this zone. Along the Rio
Grande Valley in Dona Ana County, where they have been thoroughly
tested, the most satisfactory varieties are listed as follows: 3

Ben Davis.

Gano.

Arkansas (Mammoth BlackTwig).

Missouri Pippin.
Jonathan.
White Pearmain.

Yellow Transparent.
Arkansas Black.

i Garcia, F., Effect of Spring Frosts on the Peach Crop, Bull. 30, New Mex. Agric. Exp. Sta., p. 252, 1899.

2 Vestal, G., and Garcia, F., Report on Plums, Bull. 27, New Mex. Agric. Exp. Sta., p. 124, 1898. Also
Garcia, F., Orchard Notes, Bull. 39, p. 116, 1901.

3 Garcia, F., Apple Culture and Irrigation, Bull. 75, New Mex. Agric. Exp. Sta., p. 28, 1910.

24 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

QUINCES.

The following have been reported as successful at the experiment
station at Mesilla Park:1
Champion. Missouri Mammoth. Orange.

Of a large number of varieties of grapes tested at Mesilla Park
those recorded as most satisfactory are:2

Mission. Chasselas de Fontainbleau. Emperor.

Alexandiia(Muscatof Alex- Thompson's Seedless. Black Cornichon.

andria). Purple Damascus. Flame Tokay.

Other satisfactory varieties given are :

Chasselas Rose. Early Madeleine. Hausco.

Chasselas Croquant. Cannonhall Muscat. Rose of Peru.

Golden Chasselas. Black Hamburg. Malaga.

Muscat Proceco Du Puy de Blue Spanish. Gros Coleman.
Dome.

WATERMELONS.

Among m any varieties tested in the Lower Sonoran Zone at Mesilla
Park, those recommended as most satisfactory are : 3

Phinney's Early. Mammoth Ironclad. Florida Favorite.

Cuban Queen. Gypsy (Rattlesnake).

MUSKMELONS AND CANTALOUPES.

The Rocky Ford cantaloupe is given as the most satisfactory
variety for general purposes. Those recommended are: 3

Rocky Ford. Osage. Hackensack.

Netted Gem. Netted Nutmeg.

The onions recommended by the experiment station at Mesilla
Park are : 4

Early White Queen. Red Victoria. Australian Brown.

Barletta. Prize Taker. Denia (the real Spanish

White Bermuda. Gigantic Gibraltar. Onion).

Extra Early White Pearl.

SWEET POTATOES.

From many varieties tested at Mesilla Park the following were
selected as the best:5

White Bermuda. Yellow Nansemond. Yineland Bunch.

Red Bermuda. Cooney.

1 Garcia, F., Orchard Notes, Bull. 39, New Mex. Agric. Exp. Sta., p. 126, 1901.

2 Garcia, F., European Grapes, Bull. 58, New Mex. Agric. Exp. Sta., pp. 18, 19, 1906.

3 Garcia, F., Melon Culture, Bull. 63, New Mex. Agric. Exp. Sta., p. 38, 1907.

* Garcia, F., Onion Culture, Bull. 52, New Mex. Agric. Exp. Sta., p. 21, 1904; also Onion Tests, Bull. 74,
1910; and Growing Denia Onion Seed, Bull. 82, 1912.
s Garcia, F., Sweet Potato Culture, Bull. 70, New Mex. Agric. Exp. Sta., 1909.

1913.] UPPER SONORAN ZONE. 25

MISCELLANEOUS CROPS.

Almonds, figs, and some of the more delicate grapes and other
Lower Sonoran fruits do not thrive without unusual care and pro-
tection.

I have seen fairly good cotton growing and matured in the Rio
Grande and Pecos Valleys in New Mexico, but it can not be con-
sidered a safe or profitable crop, since the season without frost is
normally too short for it to mature.

UPPER SONORAN ZONE.

( The zone of juniper, nut pine, and blue grama grass.)

Most of the plains and foothill country of New Mexico and the
valleys lying above 5,000 feet are included in the Upper Sonoran,
the arid division of the transcontinental Upper Austral Zone. Its
lower border in the Pecos Valley is approximately 4,000 feet and in
the Rio Grande and Gila Valleys 4,500, varying of course with slope
exposure. The upper border of the zone varies from approximately
7,000 to 8,000 feet, on steep and barren southwest slopes sometimes
reaching above 8,000, and on steep northeast slopes sometimes fall-
ing below 7,000. It comprises approximately 92,000 square miles,
or two-thirds of the total area of New Mexico, and includes a large
part of the grazing and agricultural land. Its climate is mild without
great extremes of heat or cold. While the zone is mainly arid, there
is sufficient rainfall over most of it for good grass, but not enough
for ordinary agriculture. Under irrigation the rich soil produces well
and the zone is peculiarly adapted to the perfection of many fruits
and other farm crops.

The principal subdivisions of the Upper Sonoran Zone in New
Mexico are based mainly on differences of humidity and are not
very strongly marked. The most evident divisions are those of the
Great Plains and Great Basin.

Great Plains Division.

The Upper Sonoran plains of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande
Valley include nearly half of the Llano Estacado, broad slopes east
and west of the Pecos Valley, and the plains north of the Cana-
dian River Valley. This area belongs to the Great Plains division
of the zone and having an average rainfall of only about 15
inches may be classed as semiarid. It is mainly characterized
by abundant grass, and has evidently been kept treeless by
ages of sweeping winds and fires.1 Originally it was choice buffalo

1 To those who have tried in vain to protect young trees from the fierce winds of the plains and have seen
the green leaves actually torn off, the bark cut through against protecting frames, or deep funnels bored
in the ground by the whipping of the unprotected trunks, the lack of trees needs no further explanation.
If additional reason were needed, the spectacle of a torrent of fire driven before the same winds over the
dense carpet of grass would suffice.

26 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

range, as it is now largely choice cattle range, though parts of it
are rapidly yielding to dry farming. Along the western edge of
this area, where foothills and deep gulches join it to the mountains,
and over the rough "breaks" north of the Staked Plains, scrubby
orchardlike forests of junipers, nut pines, and oaks have withstood
the fires and now lead up from grassy plain to mountain forest.
Besides the numerous grasses, these plains are characterized by
narrow-leaved yuccas (Yucca glauca), prickly pears (Opuntia cymo-
clvila and 0. camancliica), milkweeds (Asclepias latifolia and A.
speciosa), blazing star (Laciniaria punctata), Poly gala alba, Psoralea
linearifolia, Astragalus caryocarpus, and A. molissimus; by such
breeding birds as mountain plover, long-billed curlew, western night-
hawk, desert horned lark, and western meadowlark; and by such
mammals as the black-tailed prairie dog, black-footed ferret, plains
jack rabbit, pale 13-lined ground squirrel, pale grasshopper mouse,
Nebraska white-footed mouse, Cope and Kansas pocket mice, and
Richardson kangaroo rat; and by the collared lizard and hog-nosed
snake.

The agricultural development of this region without irrigation is
as yet in an experimental stage, depending on control of the moisture
in the soil. Great progress has been made in ' ' dry-farming" methods,
but the danger from a series of dry years is not yet eliminated. The
soil is rich, and with proper treatment often gives a good yield of
many standard crops without irrigation. Along the upper Pecos and
Canadian Rivers and many of their branches there is abundant water
for irrigation if it can be properly conserved during the seasons of
high water and floods. Throughout the Plains region many of the
dry washes at times become raging torrents that go to waste and
carry destruction before them.

The crops best adapted to this division of Upper Sonoran Zone,
provided sufficient moisture is obtainable, were listed by Dr. C. Hart
Merriam in 1898 on as full data as were available at that time.1 The
cereals and fruits listed, while of general application to the arid Upper
Sonoran, are not all adapted to all of its local subdivisions. For
instance, on the open plains very few fruits can be raised until sub-
stantial windbreaks are provided. On hot slopes many fruit trees
blossom so early that the later frosts invariabl}T kill the fruit. But
the aridity of the Great Plains has proved the greatest barrier to
fruit raising except where irrigation is possible.

At present the best available testing grounds for the crops of the
Great Plains region of eastern New Mexico are the experiment station
at Fort Collins, Colo., and its substations at Cheyenne Wells and
Rocky Ford. The results of 23 years' experiments published in

i Life Zones and Crop Zones of the United States, Bull. 10, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. Agric., pp.
37-40 and 56-73, 1898.

1913.] UPPEE SONORAN ZONE. 27

numerous reports of the station should be a fairly safe guide to crop
adaptations in this region.

The United States Dry Land Experiment Station at Akron, Colo.,
is also in this division of Upper Sonoran Zone and has conditions of
climate and aridity very similar to those of the eastern New Mexico
plains. The reports of the superintendent of this station therefore
apply to practically all of the "dry-farming region" of eastern New
Mexico.

The Bureau of Plant Industry also has published provisional lists
of fruits for the Central and Southern Great Plains, which are espe-
cially applicable to this part of the zone in New Mexico.1

Lists of crops recommended in various reports are not given here,
since without the accompanying notes on culture, relative value of
the crops, and the probabilities of success, such a compilation would
be in many cases misleading and a source of danger.

Great Basin Division.

The Colorado drainage includes the valleys of the Gila, the Zuni,
and San Juan Rivers. These and the Rio Grande Valley Upper
Sonoran are in fauna and flora essentially a part of the Great Basin
division of the zone. Both upper and lower divisions of the zone
may also be traced irregularly throughout the more arid parts of the
State, and especially in the Rio Grande and San Juan Valleys.
These subdivisions are likewise due mainly to greater or less aridity,
the higher borders of the zone receiving more rainfall and the lower
valleys less. The upper (nut pine and juniper) subdivision forms a
wide or narrow border as restricted by soil, moisture, and fire. The
lower, open, more arid valley bottoms and slopes, clothed with scat-
tered grass, cactuses, yuccas, and low desert shrubs, are marked by
the absence of trees except along streams.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY.

A great part of the Upper Sonoran Zone in the Rio Grande Valley
is extremely arid, having an average annual rainfall of only about 10
inches. It is generally characterized by sparse vegetation, consisting
largely of desert shrubs, cactuses, yuccas, and short grasses. Over
extensive areas of level land where the rainfall is all absorbed or
where flood water spreads out, there is good grazing at certain seasons,
but many of the steeper slopes from which the water runs quickly
are very dry and barren. The higher edges of the zone are con-
spicuously less arid, and the rough broken mesas and foothill areas
are generally covered with a scattered growth of juniper and nut
pine and a better stand of grass.

Gould, H. P., Fruit Growing for Home Use in the Central and Southern Great Plains, Circ. 51, Bur.
Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. Agric, 1910.

28 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

Excluding grasses, some of the most characteristic Upper Sonoran
plants in open plains and valleys are cat's-claw (Mimosa biuncifera),
saltbush (Atriplex confertifolia and A. canescens), white sage (Eu-
rotia lanata), rabbit brush (Chrysotliamnus, Tetradymia, CTirysoma,
and Gutierrezia) , sagebrush (Artemisia), Ximenesia exauriculata,
Spanish bayonet (Yucca haccata), Yucca glauca, bear grass (Nolina
lindheimeriana) , and many species of cactus. In the f oothills and rough
borders of the valleys the conspicuous vegetation consists of nut
pine (Pinus edulis), junipers (Juniperus monosperma, J. pachy-
pltloea, and J. scopulorum), live oaks (Quercus arizonica and Q.
emoryi), sumacs (Schmaltzia trilobata and S. pumila), mountain
mahogany (Cercocarpus parvifolius) , silk tassel (Garry a goldmani and
G. wrighti), mescal (Agave parryi), and several species of cactus.

A few of the most characteristic Upper Sonoran birds of the Rio
Grande Valley are Woodhouse's jay (Aphelocoma woodhousei), pifion
jay (CyanocepTialus cyanocephalus) , canon towhee (Pipilo fuscus
mesoleucus), lead-colored bush tit (Psaltriparus plumbeus), gray
titmouse (Bseoloplius inornatus griseus), and Montezuma horned lark
(Otocoris alpestris occidentalis) .

Its most, characteristic mammals are kangaroo rats (Perodipus
montanus, P. longipes, and Dipodomys spectahilis), Apache pocket
mouse (Perognathus apache), white-throated wood rat (Neotoma
albigula), gray-tailed prairie dog, large spotted ground squirrel (Citel-
lus spilosoma major), pale grasshopper mouse (Onychomys leucogaster
melanophrys) , big-eared and Rowley white-footed mice (Peromyscus
truei and P. boylei rowleyi), Texas jack rabbit (Lepus califomicus
texianus), and cedar belt cottontail (Sylvilagus auduboni cedrophilus) .

Agriculture in the Rio Grande Valley is rarely attempted except
where irrigation is possible, but in places where a good supply of
water is available the extreme aridity is a distinct advantage, since
it permits full control of soil moisture and thus makes possible the
highest development of many farm crops.

COLORADO VALLEY.

In extreme western New Mexico considerable areas of Upper
Sonoran Zone lie in the Colorado River drainage, as represented by
the valleys of the Gila, the Little Colorado, and the San Juan. These
valleys vary from 5,000 to 7,000 feet in altitude and show evidence
of considerable variation in aridity. Each draws species both from
the Arizona deserts and from the Rio Grande Valley, between which
there is no barrier and no strong line of demarcation. Still a slight
difference of climatic conditions is shown that probably can be taken
advantage of in practical ways, and it is important to define these
areas and determine their extent and local characteristics.

North American Fauna No. 35, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate III.

■

■** - ■ - -^*.v

Fig. 1.— Typical Great Plains Country Near Clayton in Northeastern New

Mexico.

Low grasses are the principal vegetation. Photograph by A. H. Howell.

Fig. 2.— Typical Great Basin Vegetation of the Rio Grande Valley near Taos,

New Mexico.

Sagebrush is the principal vegetation.

North American Fauna No. 35, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate IV.

Fig. 1.— Lance-leaved Cottonwood (Populus acuminata) near Reserve in the
Valley of San Francisco River.

Fig. 2.— The Mescal Plant (Agave parryi) near the Head of the Rio Mimbres on
Slope Covered with Nut Pine, Juniper, and Other Upper Sonoran Vegetation.

1913.] UPPER SONORAN ZONE. 29

GILA VALLEY.

The Upper Sonoran area of the Gila drainage is generally very
rough, steep, and broken, and is largely occupied by a scattered
growth of oaks, junipers, and nut pines. Along the upper valleys
of the Gila and the San Francisco, including their side streams, are
level areas of sufficient extent for a few good farms with plenty of
puie water for irrigation. Owing to its proximity to. the Mogollon
and other mountain masses this area receives an unusual amount of
rainfall and has in consequence a rich growth of the best forage
grasses, In many ways it is an ideal stock country and the little
agriculture is now mainly supplemental to stock raising and mining.
It is a region of sheltered valleys under the shadow of big forested
mountains, of warm winter canyons with numerous cave and cliff
dwellings, and of abundant food-yielding plants and animals ; a region
which is full of wild charm and was defended long and savagely by
its primitive occupants. In the canyons are a profusion of wild
grapes, currants, wild cherries, hackberries, mulberries, walnuts, and
black and blue live oaks, while on the ridges junipers, nut pines,
and oaks abound. Fruit-bearing cactuses and yuccas are abundant,
and the mescal agave grows in profusion on some of the slopes.

Some of the most characteristic plants of this area are the Arizona
walnut, big-seeded juniper, boxelder, lance-leaved cottonwood, tree
alder, wild grape, and velvet-leaved sumac. The bridled titmouse
and Scott's sparrow are characteristic Upper Sonoran breeding birds.
Among mammals the Sonora white-tailed deer, Arizona gray squir-
rel, rock squirrel, rock chipmunk. Stephens wood rat, and civet cat
are characteristic

LITTLE COLORADO DRAINAGE.

The New Mexico tributaries of the Little Colorado River, the Zuni,
Puerco, and Carrizo, with their branches, are at most times mere dry
washes that head in a high plateau region of well-grassed valleys and
well-wooded ridges and mesas. This drainage area lies close to the
Continental Divide in west central New Mexico, mainly west and
south of the Zuni Mountains, and would include the many basins and
sinks west of the Datil Mountains if there were sufficient rainfall to
overflow their rims. While there is enough rain to produce good forage
grasses and much juniper and nut pine forest, there are few permanent
streams and only occasional springs. Limited areas could be brought
under cultivation by water storage, but at present the region is
almost entirely devoted to stock raising, to which it is admirably
adapted. It has few characteristic species except those belonging
to the upper or nut pine division of the Upper Sonoran Zone.

The Zuni Indians of this region have long supported themselves
in part by a primitive type of dry farming, planting little patches of

30 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

corn, squashes, and beans on spots that received an extra flow of
rain water or on which in time of rain the flood water could be di-
verted to the crops. In 1853 Lieut. Whipple reported that without
irrigation they produced abundant crops of grain and vegetables, and
that after furnishing forage to Fort Defiance their supply of maize
seemed inexhaustible.1 They now have a good system of irrigation,
but the people of the Ojo Caliente pueblo still have garden patches
scattered over many little valleys where surprisingly good crops are
often gathered with little or no cultivation or irrigation.

PLAIN OF SAN AUGUSTINE.

The San Augustine plain is 25 miles wide and extends 60 or 70
miles along the Continental Divide in western Socorro County at an

Fig. 2.— Zuni Valley and Thunder Mountain, site of the old Pueblo of Zuni, a few miles east of the present

pueblo.

altitude ranging from 6,800 to 7,500 feet. It is an arid treeless
plain or shallow basin on top of the plateau, partly surrounded by
short irregular mountain ranges. It lies wholly in the Upper Sonoran
Zone, has a fertile soil, and but for aridity would be valuable for agri-
culture. There are numerous arroyos cutting down from the sur-
rounding mountains which in time of rain are short-lived torrents,
but for most of the year are mere dry washes.

Permanent water is scarce and confined to springs and a few short
creeks, mainly along the foothill slopes of bordering mountain

« Rept. Expl. and Surv. R. R. Pacific, III, p. 14, 1S56.

1913.] UPPER S0N0RAN ZONE. 31

ranges. There are a few scattering stock ranches with headquarters
at the springs or watercourses, but practically no agriculture is
attempted.

The bordering foothills and some rough parts of the valley have a
scattered growth of juniper, nut pine, and scrub oaks, but the greater
part of the plain is open country with a scattered growth of grass and
desert shrubs, such as gray saltbush, white sage, and various genera
and species of rabbit brush (Chrysoihamnus, Gutierrezia, and Tetra-
dymia).

SAN JUAN RIVER VALLEY.

An extensive area in northwestern New Mexico drained by the
San Juan River and its tributaries lies entirely in Upper Sonoran
Zone and mainly in its lower or valley division. It is a great arid
plain with narrow bordering patches of nut pines, junipers, and oaks
along the surrounding foothills and extending over some of the ridges
and mesa tops. Its dominant plants and animals are those of the
Great Basin Region, and a few of these do not reach even to the Rio
Grande Valley. Some of these are: Utah juniper (Juniperus
utahensis), buffalo berry (Lepargyrea argentea), Rocky Mountain
birch (Betula fontinalis) , and cliff rose (Cowania mexicana); the Hopi
chipmunk (Eutamias Tiopiensis), buff-breasted canyon mouse (Pero-
myscus criniius auripectus) , Thomas wood rat (Neotoma lepida), har-
vest mouse (Reithrodontomys megalotis aztecus), Yavapai pocket
mouse (PerognatJius jiavus himaculatus) , and Colorado cottontail
(Sylvilogus auduboni warreni). The magpie is a common resident
along the San Juan River, but this and most of the other birds
inhabit also the Rio Grande Valley. A colony of eastern blue jays is
established there, but they may have been introduced.

This great valley, while mainly an open plain, is also a region of
deep erosion, displaying numerous canyons, dry washes, and pic-
turesque badlands, rich coal fields, and interesting fossil beds. The
greater part of the valley is waterless for most of the year, but the
San Juan River and its northern tributaries furnish a fierce flood of
mountain water, ample for irrigating their immediate valleys and some
of the mesa country. Most of the present agriculture is near the
valley bottoms, but more ditches are being carried over the mesas
and higher slopes and eventually the cultivated area will be greatly
increased. Already the valley has won a reputation for quality and
yield of fruit, specially apples, pears, and peaches.

The greater part of the San Juan Valley is occupied by the Navajo
Indian Reservation and is used mainly for stock range. The Indians
have large numbers of sheep and horses and some cattle. They move
from place to place as the water holes dry up or as the rains fill the
pools and bring up the grass. An interesting type of "dry farming"
is carried on by them all over the reservation on little flats into which

32

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

drains more than the usual amount of rain water. Melons, squashes,
corn, and beans are planted on any level ground that is occasionally
flooded from a "dr}^ wash" or that can be watered by some diverted
stream of muddy rain or snow water. There is usually little or no
cultivation and still a crop is often harvested that will carry a family
through the winter. Under the guidance of Indian agents and their
farmers this practice is encouraged and good seed is provided.

CHARACTERISTIC UPPER SONORAN SPECIES OF NEW MEXICO.

The area of Upper Sonoran Zone shown on the accompanying
map (frontispiece) in light yellow is based on the range of the follow-
ing species of animals and plants, some of which occur throughout
the zone, others in only a limited part, and still others extend through
it from a lower or a higher zone and mark a part of its upper or lower
border.

MAMMALS OP UPPER SONORAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO.

[Species marked L. occur also in Lower Sonoran Zone; those marked T. also in Transition.]

Tayassu angulatum sonoriense, Sonora
Peccary. L.

Odocoileus couesi, Sonora Whitetail Deer.

Odocoikus virginianus macrourus, Plains
Whitetail Deer. T.

Odocoileus hemionus canus, Gray Mule
Deer. T.

Anlilocapra americana, Antelope.

Antiloaapra americana mexicana, Mexican
Antelope.

Oris mexicanus, Mexican Mountain Sheep.

Oris canadensis texianus, Texas Mountain
Sheep.

Sdurus arizonensis, Arizona Gray Squir-
rel.

Eutamias dorsalis, Rock Chipmunk.

Citellus variegatus grammurus, Pock
Squirrel.

Citellus spilosoma major, Large Spotted
Ground Squirrel.

Citellus spilosoma obsidiayius, Dark Spot-
ted Ground Squirrel.

Citellus tridecemlineatus pallidus, Pale
Thirteen-Line Ground Squirrel.

Citellus tridecemlineatus parvus, Small
Thirteen-Line Ground Squirrel.

Ammospermophilus leucurus cinnamo-
meus, Antelope Squirrel.

Cynomys ludovicianus , Black-tailed Prai-
rie Dog.

Cynomys gunnisoni, Gray-tailed Prairie
Dog. T.

Onychomys leucogaster melanophrys, Pale
Grasshopper Mouse.

Peromyscus maniculatus blandus, Frosted
White-footed Mouse.

Peromyscus boylei rowleyi, Rowley White-
footed Mouse.

Peromyscus truei, Big-eared White-footed
Mouse.

Peromyscus nasutus, Long-nosed White-
footed Mouse.

Peromyscus crinitus auripectus, Buff-
breasted Canyon Mouse.

Neotoma albigula, White-throated WTood
Rat.

Neotoma albigula warreni, Warren Wood
Rat.

Neotoma micropus canescens, Gray WTood
Rat. L.

Neotoma lepida, Thomas Wood Rat.

Neotoma lepida stephensi, Stephens Wood
Rat.

Neotoma cinerea arizonae, Arizona Wood
Rat.

Sigmodon minimus, Small Cotton Rat.

Reithrodontomys megalotis aztecus, Aztec
Harvest Mouse.

Reithrodontomys griseus, Little Gray Har-
vest Mouse. L.

Microtus pennsylvanicus modestus, Colo-
rado Meadow Mouse. T.

Microtus montanus arizonensis, Arizona
Meadow Mouse.

1913.]

UPPER SONORAN ZONE.

33

MAMMALS OF UPPER SONORAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO — Continued.

Microtus aztecus, Aztec Meadow Mouse.

Fiber zibcthicus osoyoosensis, Rocky
Mountain Muskrat. T.

Fiber zibcthicus pallidus, Pale Muskrat.
L.

Castor canadensis frondator, Broad-tailed
Beaver.

Geomys lutcsccns, Yellow Pocket Gopher.

Cratogeomys castanops, Chestnut-faced

Pocket Gopher. L.
Thomomys aureus, Golden Pocket Gopher.
Thomomys perragus, New Mexico Pocket

Gopher.
Thomomys bailcyi, Bailey Pocket Gopher.

Dipodomys spectabilis, Large Kangaroo
Rat, L.

Perodipus montanus, Rio Grande Kanga-
roo Rat,

Perodipus montanus richardsoni, Richard-
son Kangaroo Rat,

Perodipus longipes, Large-footed Kanga-
roo Rat,

Perognathus hispidus paradoxus, Kansas
Pocket Mouse.

Perognathus apache, Apache Pocket
Mouse.

Perognathus flavescens, Plains Pocket
Mouse.

Perognathus flavus, Baird Pocket Mouse.
L.

Perognathus flavus bimaculatus, Yavapai
Pocket Mouse.

Lepus californicus texianus, Texas Jack
Rabbit, L.

Lepus californicus melanotis, Great Plains
Jack Rabbit.

Lepus gaillardi, Gaillard Jack Rabbit,

Sylvilagus auduboni neomexicanus, New
Mexico Cottontail.

Sylvilagus auduboni cedrophilus, Cedar
Belt Cottontail.

Sylvilagus auduboni warreni, Colorado
Cottontail.

Felis hippolestes aztecus, Mexican Cougar.

Lynx baileyi, Plateau Wildcat.

Urocyon cinereoargenteus scotti, Gray Fox.

Canis nebracensis, Plains Coyote. T.

Canis mearnsi, Mearns Coyote. L.

Canis estor, Desert Coyote. L.

Canis mexicanus, Mexican Wolf. T.

Canis (sp. ?), Plains Wolf. T.

Mephitis ynesomelas varians, Long-tailed
Skunk. L.

Mephitis estor, Arizona Skunk. L.

Spilogale tenuis, Rocky Mountain Spotted
Skunk.

Spilogale ambigua, Chihauhau Spotted
Skunk.

Spilogale arizonae, Arizona Spotted
Skunk.

Spilogale gracilis saxatilis, Great Basin
Spotted Skunk.

Taxidea taxus berlandieri, Mexican Bad-
ger. L.

Mustela nigripes, Black-footed Ferret.

Procyon (lotor?), Raccoon. T.

Procyon lotor mexicanus, Mexican Rac-
coon. L.

Bassariscus astutus flavus, Civet Cat. L.

Myotis velifer, Cave Bat, L.

Myotis californicus, Little California Bat.
L.

Myotis thysanodes, Fringed Bat. L.

Myotis evotis, Long-eared Bat. T.

Myotis incautus, House Bat. L.

Myotis yumanensis, Yuma Bat, L.

Corynorhinus macrotis pallesccns, Big-eared
Bat. L.

BREEDING BIRDS OP UPPER SONORAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO.

[Species marked L. breed also in Lower Sonoran Zone; those marked T. also in Transition. J

Erismatura jamaicensis, Ruddy Duck. T.

Querquedula cyanoptera, Cinnamon Teal. T.

Numenius americanus, Long-billed Cur-
lew.

Podasocys montanus, Mountain Plover.

Callipepla squamata squamata, Scaled
Quail. L.

Cyrtonyx montezumae mearnsi, Mearns's
Quail.

Zenaidura macroura marginella, Mourning
Dove. L.

86914°— 13 3

huachucae, Huachuca
Mexican Screech

Strix occidentalis
Spotted Owl.

Otus asio cineraceus
Owl.

Otus asio aikeni, Aiken's Screech Owl.

Speotyto cunicularia hypugaea, Burrowing
Owl. L.

Coccyzus americanus occidentalis, Califor-
nia Cuckoo. L.

Dryobates arizonae, Arizona Woodpecker.

Phalaenoptilus nuttalli nuttalli, Poor-will.

34

NOKTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

BREEDING BIRDS OF UPPER SONORAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO — Continued.

Chordeiles virginianus henryi, Western
Nighthawk. T.

Aeronautes melanoleucus , White-throated
Swift. T.

Tyrannus tyrannus, Kingbird. T.

Tyrannus verticalis, Arkansas Kingbird.

Myiarchus cinerascens cinerascens, Ash-
throated Flycatcher. L.

Empidonax fulvifrons pygmaeus, Buff-
breasted Flycatcher.

Otocoris alpestris occidentalis, Montezuma
Horned Lark.

Aphelocoma woodhousei, Woodhouse's
Jay.

Corvus cor ax sinuatus, Raven. T.

Corvus brachyrhynchos hesperis, Western
Crow. T.

Cyanocephalus cyanocephalus, Pifion Jay.

Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus , Yellow-
headed Blackbird. T.

Agelaius phoeniceus neutralis, San Diego
Redwing. T.

Sturnella neglecta, Western Meadowlark.
T.

Icterus bullocki, Bullock's Oriole. L.

Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis, House
Finch. L.

Astragalinus psaltria psaltria, Arkansas
Goldfinch. L.

Chondcstes grammacus strigatus, Western
Lark Sparrow. L.

Spizella wortheni, Worthen's Sparrow.

Spizella atrogularis, Black-chinned Spar-
row.

Am.phispiza nevadensis (breeding?), Sage
Sparrow.

Aimophila ruficeps scotti, Scott's Sparrow.

Pipilo fuscus mesoleucus, Canon Towhee.

Passerina amoena, Lazuli Bunting.

Calamospiza melanocorys, Lark Bunting.

Piranga rubra cooperi, Cooper's Tanager.

Lanius ludovicianus excubitorides, White-
rumped Shrike.

Dendroica aestiva aestiva, Yellow Warbler.
T.

Gcothlypis trichas occidentalis, Western
Yellowthroat. L.

Icteria virens longicauda, Long-tailed
Chat. L.

Dumetella carolinensis , Catbird.

Salpinctes obsoletus obsoletus, Rock Wren.
T.

Thryomanes bewicki bairdi, Baird's Wren.

Telmatodytes palustris plesius, Western
Marsh Wren.

Baeolophus inornatus griseus, Gray Tit-
mouse.

Baeolophus wollweberi, Bridled Titmouse.

Psaltriparus plumbeus, Lead-colored Bush
Tit.

Psaltriparus melanotis lloydi, Lloyd's
Bush Tit.

Polioptila caerulea obscura, Western Gnat-
catcher. L.

REPTILES OF UPPER SONORAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO.
[Species marked L. occur also in Lower Sonoran Zone; those marked T., also in Transition.]

Turtles.

Chrysemys cinerea belli, Bell's Terrapin. L.
Chrysemys elegans, Cumberland Terrapin.

Terrapena ornata, Painted Box Turtle. L.

Lizards.

Crotaphytus collaris, Collared Lizard.

Crotaphytus collaris baileyi, Western Col-
lared Lizard.

Holbrookia maculata.

Holbrookia approximans.

Holbrookia flavilenta.

Uta levis, Light Sand Lizard.

Uta ornata, Painted Sand Lizard.

Sceloporus consobrinus, Scaly Fence
Lizard .

Sceloporus poinsetti, Poinsett Lizard .

Sceloporus jarrovi, Yarrow's Lizard.

Phrynosoma hernandesi, Short-horned Liz-
ard. T.

Phrynosoma ornatissimum , Desert-horned
Lizard .

Gcrrhonotus nobilis, Large Gerrhonotue.

Cnemidophorus grahami, Graham Whip-
tailed Lizard.

Eumeces obsoletus, Large Skink.

Eumeces guttulatus, Small Skink.

Eunieces multivirgatus , Many-lined Skuik,

1913.]

UPPER SONORAN ZONE.

35

REPTILES OF UPPER SONORAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO-

Snakes.

-continued.

Thamnophis eques, Brown Garter Snake.
Thamnophis macrostemma, Mexican Garter

Snake.
Thamnophis ordinoides elegans, Western

Garter Snake. T.
Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis, Red-barred

Garter Snake.
Bascanion flagellum frenatum, Coachwliip

Snake.
Bascanion taeniatum, Mountain Racer.
Pituophis sayi, Prairie Bull Snake.

Pituophis catenifer deserticola, Desert Bull
Snake.

Liopeltis vernalis, Smooth Green Snake.

Lampropdtis triangulum amaurus, Milk
Snake.

Heterodon nasicus, Hognosed Snake. L.

Crotalus confluentus, Plains Rattlesnake.

Crotalus molossus, Black-tailed Rattle-
snake.

Crotalus lepidus, Kennicott's Rattlesnake.

AMPHIBIANS OF UPPER SONORAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO.

[Species marked L. occur also in the Lower Sonoran Zone.]

Toads and Frogs.

Scaphiopus hammondi, Spadefoot Toad.
Scaphiopus hammondi bombifrons, Plains

Spadefoot.
Bufo cognatus, Toad. L.
Bufo punctatus, Spotted Toad. L.

Bufo uoodhousii, Common Toad.
Ilyla arenicolor, Desert Tree Frog.
Hyla eximia.
Rana pipiens, Leopard Frog. L.

Salamanders.

Ambystoma tigrinum, Tiger Salamander.

L.
Ambystoma trisr upturn.

Spelerpes
Triton.1

multiplicatus, Many-ribbed

PLANTS OF UPPER SONORAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO.

[Species marked L. occur also in Lower Sonoran Zone; those marked T., also in Transition.]

Trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants.

Pinus edulis, Nut Pine, Pinyon.

Pinus cembroides, Mexican Nut Pine.

Juniperus monosperma, One-seeded Juni-
per.

Juniperus utahensis, Utah Juniper.

Juniperus megalocarpa, Large-fruited
Juniper.

Juniperus pachyphloea, Checker-barked
Juniper.

Juniperus scopulorum, Silky Juniper. T.

Quercus grisea, Gray Live Oak.

Quercus arizonica, Arizona Gray Live Oak.

Quercus emoryi, Black Live Oak.

Quercus undulata, Scrub Oak.

Quercus oblongifolia, Oblong-leaf Oak.

Quercus pungens, Shin Oak.

Quercus acuminata, Chinquapin Oak.

Juglans major, Arizona Walnut.

Platanus wrighti, Arizona Sycamore.

Populus ivislizeni, Rio Grande Cotton-
wood. L.

Populus acuminata, Lance-leaf Cotton-
wood.

Salix ivrighti, Wright Willow. L.

Salix nigra, Black Willow.

Salix exigua, Gray Willow.

Alnus oblongifolia, Long-leaved Alder.

Ncgundo aceroides, Box Elder.

Fraxinus velutina, Leatherleaf Ash.

Frarinus cuspidata, Fringe Ash.

Adelia neomexicana, Forestiera.

Celtis reticulata, Hackberry.

Moms microphylla, Small-leaf Mulberry.

Cercocarpus parvifolius, Small-leaf
Mountain Mahogany.

Cercocarpus paucidentatus, Southern
Mountain Mahogany.

Cowania mexicana, Cliff Rose.

1 Collacted in the Jemez Mountains by Prof. Junius Henderson. Specimen No. 42921, U. S. Nat. Mus.
CoU. First record for New Mexico.

36

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

PLANTS OF UPPER SONORAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO — continued.

Trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants — Continued.

Fallugia paradoxa, Poniel, "Apache
Plume."

Fallugia paradoxa acuminata, Poniel,

"Apache Plume." L.

Amelanchier baheri, Juneberry, Service
Berry.

Schmaltzia trilobata, Skunk Bush.

Schmaltzia pumila, Velvet-leaved Sumac.

Schmaltzia glabra, Smooth Sumac. T.

Ribes cereum, Red Currant. T.

Ribes longiflorum, Flowering Currant.

Choisya dumosa, Star-leaf.

Farsellesia spinescens.

Ceanothus greggi.

Berberis haematocarpa, Red Barberry.

Berberis fremonti, Blue Barberry.

Berberis wilcoxi, Wilcox Barberry.

Garrya wrighti, Silk-tassel Bush.

Garrya goldmani, Silk-tassel Bush.

Philadelphus microphyllus, Syringa Bush.

Philadelphus argyrocalyx, Syringa Bush.

Fendlera rupicola.

Arctostaphylos pungens, Manzanita.

Lepargyrca argentea, Buffalo Berry.

Ptelea angustifolia, Narrow-leaved Trefoil.

Vitis arizonica, Wild Grape. T.

Ephedra viridis, Green Joint Fir.

Lycium pallidum, Pale Boxthorn.

Sarcobatus vermiculatus, Greasebrush. L.

Atriplex canescens, Salt Bush, Gray Shad-
scale. L.

Atriplex confertifolia, Salt Bush.

Atriplex wrighti, Salt Bush.

Atriplex powelli, Salt Bush.

Atriplex argentea, Salt Bush.

Eurotia lanata, White Sage, Winter Fat.

Eriogonum hieracifolium, Eriogonum.

Eriogonum polycladon, Eriogonum.

Eriogonum densum, Eriogonum.

Eriogonum cernuum, Eriogonum.

Eriogonum subreniforme, Eriogonum.

Eriogonum wrighti, Eriogonum.

Eriogonum divergens, Eriogonum.

Croton texensis, Texas Croton.

Croton fruticulosus .

Stillingia linearifolia, Spurge.

Argemone hispida, Prickly Poppy.

Argemone intermedia, Prickly Poppy.

Argemone platyceros, Prickly Poppy.
Mimosa biuncifera, Cat's-claw.
Mimosa fragrans, Fragrant Cat's-claw.
Mimosa dysocarpa, Cat's-claw.

Mimosa lemmoni, Cat's-claw.

Acacia cuspidata, Toothed Acacia.

Acuan jamesi, James Acacia. L.

Chamaecrista leptadenia.

Calliandra humilis. T.

Hoffmanseggia drapanocarpa. L.

Parosela calycosa, Dalea.

Parosela enneandra, Dalea.

Parosela brachystachys, Dalea.

Parosela jamesi, Dalea.

Parosela grayi, Dalea. L.

Parosela ardiae, Dalea. L.

Psoralea micrantha, Small-flowered Psora-
lea.

Psoralea tenuiflora, Narrow-flowered Pso-
ralea.

Lupinus pusillus, Small Lupine.

Lupinus aduncus, Lupine.

Lupinus dispersus, Lupine. L.

Lupinus brevicaulis, Lupine. T,

Lathyrus decaphyllus, Prairie Vetchling.

Meibomia bigelovi, Tick Trefoil.

Meibomia neomexicana, Tick Trefoil.

Meibomia grahami, Tick Trefoil.

Dolicholus texensis.

Galactia wrighti, Milk Pea.

Phaseolus acutifolius, Wild Bean.

Phaseolus macropoides, Wild Bean.

Phaseolus angustissimus, Wild Bean. L.

Cologania pulchella.

Petalostemon purpureum, Violet Prairie
Clover.

Petalostemon tenuifolium, Silky Prairie
Clover. T.

Petalostemon oligophyllum, White Prairie
Clover. T.

Parryella filifolia.

Astragalus diphysus, Milk Vetch.

Astragalus nuttallianus, Milk Vetch.

Astragalus bigelovi, Milk Vetch.

Astragalus praelongus, Milk Vetch.

Astragalus pattersoni, Milk Vetch.

Astragalus missouriensis, Milk Vetch.

Astragalus shortianus, Milk Vetch.

Astragalus amphioxus, Milk Vetch.

Astragalus ceramicus, Milk Vetch.

Astragalus thurberi, Milk Vetch.

Astragalus allochrous, Milk Vetch.

Astragalus sonorae, Milk Vetch.

Krameria secundiflora. L.

Artemisia tridentata, Black Sagebrush. T.

Artemisia arbuscula, Brown Sagebrush. T.

1913.1

UPPER SONORAN ZONE.

37

plants of upper sonoran zone in new Mexico — continued.
Trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants — Continued.

Chrysothamnus graveolens, Rabbit Brush.
Chrysothamnus linifolius, Rabbit Brush.
Chrysothamnus stenophyllus, Rabbit Brush.
Chrysothamnus bigelovi, Rabbit Brush.
Chrysoma laricifolia, Rabbit Brush.
Isocoma heterophylla, Rabbit Brush. L.
Gutierrezia tenuis, Rabbit Brush.
Gutierrezia longi/olia, Rabbit Brush.
Gutierrezia filifolia, Rabbit Brush.
Tetradymia inermis, Rabbit Brush.
Crassina grandi flora.
Ximenesia exauriculata.
Opuntia arborescens, Tree Cactus, Cane

Cactus. L.
Opuntia spinosior, Arizona Tree Cactus.
Opuntia davisi, Davis Bush Cactus.
Opuntia whipplei, Whipple Bush Cactus.
Opuntia clavata, Creeping Cactus.
Opuntia sphaerocarpa, Dwarf Cactus.
Opuntia trichophora, Dwarf Cactus.
Opuntia polyacantha, Dwarf Cactus.
Opuntia camanchica, Camanche Prickly

Pear.
Opuntia tenuispina, Slender-spined

Prickly Pear.
Opuntia cymochila, Yellow-spined Prickly

Pear. L.
Opuntia balli, Ball Prickly Pear.
Opuntia engelmanni, Engelmann Prickly

Pear.
Opuntia dillei, Dille Prickly Pear.
Opuntia wootoni, Wooton Prickly Pear.

Opuntia phaeacantha, Brown-spined
Prickly Pear.

Mamillaria lasiacantha, Pincushion Cac-
tus.

Mamillaria meiacantha, Pincushion Cac-
tus.

Mamillaria heyderi, Pincushion Cactus.
L.

Mamillaria dasyacantha, Pincushion Cac-
tus.

Mamillaria radiosa, Pincushion Cactus.
T.

Echinocereus viridiflorus, Green-flowered
Petaya.

Echinocereus fendleri, Purple-flowered
Petaya.

Echinocereus triglochidiatus. L.

Echinocereus paucispinus, Few-spined
Petalla.

Echinocereus coccineus, Red-flowered Pet-
alla. T.

Agave applanata, Guadalupe Century
Plant.

Agave palmeri, Palmer Century Plant.

Agave parryi, Parry Century Plant.

Nolina greenei, Greene's Beargrass.

Nolina microcarpa, Small-seeded Bear-
grass.

Yucca baccata, Banana-fruited Yucca.

Yucca glauca, Narrow-leaved Low Yucca.
Yucca schotti, Wide-leaved Tree Yucca.

Grasses.

Eilaria jamesi, Galleta Grass.
Andropogon halli, Blue Stem.
Bulbilis dactyloides, Buffalo Grass.
Bouteloua curtipendula, Tall Grama Graes.

L.
Bouteloua hirsuta, Hairy Grama Grass.

T.
Bouteloua oligostachya, Blue Grama Grass.
Bouteloua bromoides, Large Mesquite

Grass.
Oryzopsis micrantha, Rice Grass.
Muhlenbergia vaseyana, Dropseed Grass.
Muhlenbergia pungens, Dropseed Grass.

L.
Muhlenbergia distichophylla, Dropseed

Grass.
Muhlenbergia mexicana, Dropseed Grass.

Muhlenbergia monticola, Dropseed Grass.
Muhlenbergia arenicola, Dropseed Grass.

L.
Muhlenbergia affinis, Dropseed Grass.
Muhlenbergia acuminata, Dropseed Grass.
Stipa neomexicana, Feather Grass.
Stipa comata, Feather Grass.
Stipa funbriata, Feather Grass. T.
Stipa editorum, Feather Grass.
Erioneuron pilosum.
Eragrostis lugens, Eragrostis.
Eragrostis trichodes, Eragrostis.
Eragrostis oxylepis, Eragrostis.
Eragrostis sessilispica, Eragrostis.
Eragrostis major, Meadow Grass (probably

always introduced).
Nazia aliena (introduced). L.
Sporobolus cryptandrus, Bunch Grass.

38

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

plants of upper sonoran zone in new Mexico — continued.
Grasses — Continued .

Epicampes rigens.
Eatonia obtusata, Eaton Grass.
Puccinellia distans, Meadow Grass.
Festuca octoflora, Fescue Grass.
Agropyron spicatum, Wheat Grass.
Panicum arizonicum, Panic Grass. L.
Panicum halli, Panic Grass. L.
Panicum pampinosum, Panic Grass.
(Moris verticillata, Prairie Chloris. L.
Tr ich lorisfascicu lata. L.
Aristida wrighti, Poverty Grass.

Aristida fendleriana, Poverty Grass.
Aristida purpurea, Poverty Gr-ass. L.
Aristida cirrhatus, Poverty Grass. L.
Eriocoma cuspidata, Indian Millet. L.
Schizachyrium scoparium, Broom Grass.

T.
Poa fendleriana, Spear Grass, Mutton

Grass. T.
Elymus canadensis, Wild Rye. T.
Sitanion longifolium. T.
Sitanion pubiflorum, Lyme Grass.

UPPER SONORAN ZONE CROPS.

In New Mexico, Upper Sonoran is the principal zone of small
grains, including wheat, oats, rye, barley, and emmer. Under irri-
gation early varieties of corn succeed in most parts of the zone.
Sorghum, kafir corn, milo maize, and millet are especially adapted
to the Upper Sonoran. White potatoes mature to great perfection in
suitable soils, alfalfa yields two or three good crops in a season, and
sugar beets give a good yield and show a high percentage of sugar.
Squashes, beans, peas, and a great variety of garden Vegetables
thrive. Fruits of many kinds reach their greatest perfection in the
Great Basin division of the zone; but, owing to the elevation and
aridity and consequent lack of deep snows to delay the flowering
time in spring, the late frosts render unfruitful many of the early-
flowering varieties and reduce the list of fruits that can be safely
recommended to the late-flowering, hardy, or frost-resistant varieties.

The North and Central Utah Experiment Stations at Logan and
Lehi, Utah, are in this division of the zone and have much the same
climate and set of native species. The reports of crops and fruits
tested at these stations apply fairly well to this part of the zone in
New Mexico, but there would be some advantages in substations for
testing crops in both the Great Basin and Great Plains subdivisions
of the zone in western and eastern New Mexico.

Upper Sonoran is the great apple zone of the Rocky Mountain
region, and many valleys within this zone in Utah, Colorado, and
New Mexico have become famous for the quality and flavor of this
fruit. The varieties recommended by the American Pomological
Society as tested in their district No. 12 (including Utah, most of
Colorado, and the northern third of New Mexico and Arizona) are
suited to practically all Upper Sonoran Zone localities in New Mexico
except the Great Plains division.1 The following list contains only

1 Fruits Recommended by the American Pomological Society for Cultivation in the Various Sections of
the United States and Canada, Bull. 151, Bur. Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. Agric, pp. 14-22, 1909.

1913.] UPPER SONORAN ZONE. 39

the varieties classed by the society as highly successful, and would
have been much longer if the successful and promising varieties had
been included:

Ben Davis. Missouri. Summer Pearmain. York Imperial.

Chenango. Oldenburg. Wealthy. Hyslop (crab ap-

Early Harvest. Rambo. White Pearmain. pie).

Gano. Red June. Winesap. Transcendent (crab

Grimes. Rhode Island Wolf River. apple).

Jonathan. Greening. Yellow Bellflower.

Maiden Blush. Rome Beauty. Yellow Transparent.

All but six of these were recommended for the arid Upper Sonoran
area by Dr. Merriam.1

Most of the preceding and a few additional varieties are included
in the lists reported by Prof. Garcia as satisfactory in purely Upper
Sonoran valleys in northwestern New Mexico.2 Those additional to
the previous list are:

Arkansas Black. Arkansas (Mammoth Black Snow.

Cooper's White. Twig). Smith's Cider.

Janet. Greening.

QUINCES.

The following quinces are recommended by the American Pomo-
logical Society as successful in their district No. 12: 3
Champion. Missouri. Orange.

PEARS.

Some of the most delicious pears I ever tasted were raised in the
Upper Sonoran Zone of New Mexico, where they seem to bear well
and reach great perfection. The varieties listed as highly successful
are: 4
Anjou. Bartlett. Louise. Seckel. Winter Nelis.

CHERRIES.

Upper Sonoran is the zone of cherries in the Rocky Mountain
region. Except where the flowers are endangered by late spring
frosts, many of the standard varieties bear well and mature excellent
fruit. Of these, the sour cherries are considered most reliable. Those
reported most favorably to the State horticulturist from Upper
Sonoran localities are as follows : 5
Early Richmond. English Morello. Montmorency.

These and the Napoleon are listed by the American Pomological
Society as highly successful.6 Others listed as known to succeed are:

Knight. Windsor. Large Montmor- May Duke.

Oxheart. Choisy. ency. Ostheim.

Tartarian. Dyehouse. Late Duke. Royal Duke.

i Life Zones and Crop Zones, Bull. 10, Biol. Survey, pp. 37-38 and 59-60, 1898.

2 Garcia, F., Apple Culture under Irrigation, Bull. 75, New Mex. Agric. Exp. Sta., p. 28, 1910.

s Bull. 151, Bur. Plant Industry, p. 47, 1909.

*Ibid., pp. 40-41.

6 Garcia, F., Orchard Notes, Bull. 39, New Mex. Agric. Exp. Sta., p. Ill, 1901.

6 Bull. 151, Bur. Plant Industry, pp. 20-27, 1909.

40 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

NECTARINES.

In the Jemez Canyon, at about the middle of the Upper Sonoran
Zone, I have eaten delicious nectarines from thrifty trees, but could
not learn the variety. The American Pomological Society lists four
varieties known to succeed in this zone:
Boston. Golden. New White. Snow Flake.

Peach trees are generally thrifty and sound throughout the Upper
Sonoran Zone, but their tendency is to blossom so early that fruit is
rarely produced, except in unusually protected localities. When they
do bear, the fruit is of excellent quality and flavor, but until better
methods of controlling the flowering time are devised, it is not safe
to recommend even the hardy varieties.

APRICOTS.

In some years there is a fair crop of seedling apricots in Upper
Sonoran Zone localities in New Mexico, but usually the flowers come
out so early as to be killed by the frost. It is doubtful if any variety
would prove a safe crop in this zone except in peculiarly protected
spots. Still, for the Upper Sonoran area of Colorado, Utah, and
northern Arizona and New Mexico (district No. 12) the American
Pomological Society x recommends one variety (Moorpark) as highly
successful and six others as known to succeed:

Breda. Newcastle. Peach. Royal.

Early Golden. Orange.

The Mission grape is raised and does well in many of the warmer
Upper Sonoran valleys of New Mexico. Other varieties recom-
mended by the American Pomological Society for district No. 12
should be equally adapted to all but the Plains division of Upper
Sonoran Zone in New Mexico. Those listed as highly successful are:2

Worden.

Salem.
Wilder.

Currants listed as highly successful by the American Pomological

Society are : 3

Cherry. Red Dutch. Versaillaise. White Dutch.

Fay.

« Bui. 151, Bur. Plant Industry, p. 23, 1909. » Ibid., pp. 30-33. » Ibid., p. 28.

Delaware. Moore.

Niagara.

Concord.

Varieties known to succeed:

Agawam. Goethe.

Lindley.

Brighton. Isabella.

Prentiss

Duchess. Ives.

CURRANTS.

1913.]

TRANSITION ZONE.

41

Those listed as known to succeed are:
Albert. London. Victoria.

Holland.

GOOSEBERRIES.

White Grape.

Gooseberries listed by the American Pomological Society as highly
successful are: l
Downing. Houghton. Josselyn. Smith.

Those known to succeed are:

Oregon. Whitesmith.

Berkeley.
Champion.

Chautauqua.
Industry.

BLACKBERRIES.

Blackberries listed by the American Pomological Society as
highly successful (1. c, pp. 24, 25) are:
Britton. Minnewaska.

Those known to succeed are:

Acme. Erie. Lawton. Wilson.

Early Harvest. Kittatinny. Stone.

DEWBERRIES.

The only dewberry listed by the American Pomological Society as
highly successful is the Lucretia.

RASPBERRIES.

Raspberries listed by the American Pomological Society as highly
successful (1. c, pp. 48, 49) are:
Gregg. Kansas. Cuthbert. Marlboro.

Those known to succeed are:

Columbian.

Shaffer.

McCormick.

Nemaha.

Ohio.

Palmer.

Souhegan. Golden.

Tyler. Loudon.

Brandywine. Turner.

STRAWBERRIES.

Strawberries listed by the American Pomological Society as highly
successful (1. c, pp. 50, 51) are:
Bederwood. Crescent.

Those known to succeed are:

Brandywine. Downing.

Captain Jack. Glen Mary.

Cumberland. Jessie.

TRANSITION ZONE.

The Transition Zone in New Mexico covers the middle slopes of the
higher mountains and the upper slopes or tops of most of the lower
ranges. Its area is about 10,000 square miles. Approximately it

Gandy.

Haverland .

Parker Earle.

Warfield .

Saunders.

Wilson.

Sharpless.

Woolverton.

1 Bull. 151, Bur. Plant Industry, p. 29, 1909.

42

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

runs from 7,000 to 8,500 feet on northeast slopes and from 8,000 to
9,500 on southwest slopes, but almost every range of mountains
shows some variation. Owing to the more elevated base level in the
northern part of the State (6,000 to 7,000 feet), the effect of latitude
is more than counterbalanced, and the borders of the zone instead of
being lower are pushed higher than in the southern part, where the
base level is mainly below 5-,000 feet. As is well known, a broad
elevated plateau or valley, acting as a warm radiating surface, raises
the zones. This is one of the disturbing factors which interrupt the

natural uniform de-
pression of the zones
toward the north.

In places the Tran-
sition Zone covers
broad mesas, as over
the tops of the Chusca
and Zuni Mountains
and along the sides of
most of the higher
ranges. It is the zone
of the principal timber
tree of the State, the
yellow pine, which
forms extensive forests
of great value and
beauty. These forests
are almost invariably
open, clean, and grassy
and are valuable for
grazing as well as for
lumber. On some mesa
tops where both trees
and bushes are absent
the zone is less clearly
marked and can be determined only by inconspicuous species and by
the absence of those of the Sonoran Zone. Such an area is found on
top of Chaca Mesa, where the absence of junipers and nut pines and the
presence of a broad expanse of sagebrush plains on northerly slopes
above the 7,000-foot contour indicate Transition Zone. Some high val-
leys also, such as Moreno Valley in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains,
and Valle San Antonio, Valle Grande, and Valle Santa Rosa in the
Jemez Mountains, while treeless, belong to the Transition Zone.

Farming is carried on in some of these valleys and good crops of
potatoes, grain, and garden vegetables are raised for home use,
usually, however, in connection with stock ranches, for which the

Fig. 3.

-Narrow-leaved cottonwood {Populun angusti folia), a beau-
tiful Transition Zone tree of the stream valleys.

1913.]

TRANSITION ZONE.

43

valleys are especially favorable. There are usually sufficient rain
and snow for good crops without irrigation if dry-farming methods
are applied in the preparation and cultivation of the soil, and in many
places there are streams which may be used for irrigation.

The Transition Zone is extremely uniform in climate and species
throughout New Mexico, as it is throughout most of the Rocky
Mountain States. Even the isolated Transition Zone areas (prac-
tically islands) of the Sacramento, Manzano, Sandia, San Mateo,
Zuni, Chusca, Mogollon, Mimbres, and Burro Mountains have few
species not common to the Transition fauna and flora of the main
mass of the Rocky Mountains.

Restricted areas in the Animas, Peloncillo, and Big Hatchet
Mountains, near the southwest corner of the State, bring in many
species from the Mexican tableland, and a few of these, especially
the birds, stray across to the Mogollon Mountains.

MAMMALS OF TRANSITION ZONE IN NEW MEXICO.

[Species marked U. occur also in the Upper Sonoran Zone; those marked C, also in the Canadian.]

Cervus merriami, Merriam Elk. C.

Odocoileus hemionus, Mule Deer. U. C.

Sciurus aberti, Abert Squirrel.

Sciurus aberti mimus, Tuft-eired Squirrel.

Eutamias cinereicollis, Gray-collared Chip-
munk.

Eutamias cinereicollis cinereus, Gray-sided
Chipmunk.

Eutamias cinereicollis canipes, Gray-footed
Chipmunk.

Eutamias quadrivittatus, Rocky Mountain
Chipmunk.

Eutamias quadrivittatus hopiensis, Hopi
Chipmunk.

Callospermophilus lateralis, Say Ground
Squirrel. C.

Callospermophilus lateralis arizonensis,
Arizona Ground Squirrel.

Cynomys gunnisoni, Gray-tailed Prairie
Dog. U.

Neotoma mexicana, Mexican Wood Rat.

Neotoma mexicana fallax, Colorado Wood
Rat.

Neotoma pinetorum, San Francisco Moun-
tain Wood Rat.

Neotoma cinerea orolcstes, Colorado Bushy-
tailed Wood Rat.

Castor canadensis frondator, Broad-tailed

Beaver. U.
Microtus pennsylvanicus modestus, Colo-
rado Meadow Mouse. U.
Microtus mogollonensis, Mogollon Meadow
Mouse.

Microtus mexicanus guadalupensis, Guad-
alupe Meadow Mouse.

Zapus luteus, Jumping Mouse. TJ.

Erethizon epixanthum, Yellow-haired Por-
cupine. C.

Erethizon epixanthum couesi, Arizona Por-
cupine.

Thomomys fossor, Mountain Pocket Go-
pher. C.

Thomomys fulvus, Fulvous Pocket Go-
pher. . C.

Thomomys aureus apache, Apache Pocket
Gopher.

Lepus campestris, White-tailed Jack Rab-
bit.

Sylvilagus jloridanus holzneri, Holzner
Cottontail.

Sylvilagus cognatus, Manzano Mountain
Cottontail.

Sylvilagus nuttalli pinetis, Rocky Moun-
tain Cottontail.

Felis hippolestes, Rocky Mountain Moun-
tain Lion. C.

Felis hippolestes aztecus, Mexican Moun-
tain Lion. U.

Lynx uinta, Mountain Bobcat.

Cams mexicanus, Mexican Wolf. U.

Cauls testes, Mountain Coyote.

Taxidea laxus, Badger. C.

Mustela arizonensis, Arizona Weasel. C.

Lutra (canadensis"?), Otter.

Lutreola, Mink. C.

44

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

MAMMALS OF TRANSITION ZONE IN NEW MEXICO — continued.

Mephitis estor, Arizona Skunk. U.

Proeyon lotor, Raccoon.

Ursus americanus amblieeps, Black Bear.

a

Ursus (horribilis?), Grizzly Bear. C.

Ursus horribilis horriaeus, Mexican Griz-
zly. C.

Eptesicus fuscus, Brown Bat. U.

Myotis lucifugus longicrus, Long-legged
Bat. U.

BREEDING BIRDS OF TRANSITION ZONE IN NEW MEXICO.

[Species marked U. breed also in the Upper Sonoran Zone; those marked C, also in the Canadian.]

Erismatura jamaicensis, Ruddy Duck. U.
Querquedula eyanoptera, Cinnamon Teal.

U.
Spatula clypeata, Shoveler.

Dendragapus obscurus obscurus, Dusky
Grouse. C.

Meleagris gallopavo merriami, Merriam's
Turkey.

Colwmba fasciata fasciata, Band-tailed Pi-
geon .

Accipiter velox, Sharp-shinned Hawk. C

Accipiter cooperi, Cooper's Hawk.

Otus flammeolus flammeolus, Flammu-
lated Screech Owl.

Cryptoglau.r acadica acadica, Saw-whet
Owl.

Glaucidium gnoma pinicola, Pygmy Owl.

Dryobates villosus monticola, Rocky Moun-
tain Hairy Woodpecker. C.

Dryobates villosus leucothorectis, White-
breasted Woodpecker.

Me lanerpes formicivorus formicivorus, A n t-
eating Woodpecker. U.

Asyndesmus leirisi, Lewis's Woodpecker.

Colaptes cafer collaris, Red-shafted Flick-
er. C.

Antrostomus voci/erus macromystax, Steph-
ens's Whippoor will.

Chordeiles virginianus henryi, Western
Nighthavvk. U

A'eronautes melanoleueus. White-throated
Swift. U.

Cyanolaemus clemenciae, Blue-throated
Hummingbird.

Archilochus alexandri, Black-chinned
Hummingbird. U.

Myiochanes richardsoni richardsoni, West-
ern Wood Pewee.

Empidonax wrighti, Wright's Flycatcher.

Otocoris alpestrisleucolaema, DesertHorned
Lark. U.

Pica pica hudsonia, Black-billed Magpie.
Hesperiphona vespertina montana, Western

Evening Grosbeak.
Pooecetes gramineus confinis, Western

Vesper Sparrow. U.
Spizella passerina arizonae, Western Chip-
ping Sparrow. U.
Spizella breweri, Brewer's Sparrow. U.
Junco phaeonotus dorsalis, Red-backed

Junco. C.
Melospiza melodia montana, Mountain

Song Sparrow.
Pipilo maculatus montanus, Spurred

Towhee.
Oreospiza chlorura, Green-tailed Towhee.
Zamelodia melanocephala, Black-headed

Grosbeak. U.
Piranga ludoviciana, Western Tanager.
Piranga hepatica, Hepatic Tanager. U.
Lanivireo solitarius plumbeus, Plumbeous

Vireo.
Vermivora virginiae, Virginia's Warbler.
Vermivora celata celata, Orange-crowned

Warbler.
Peucedramus olivaceus, Olive Warbler.
Dendroiea auduboni auduboni, Audu-
bon's Warbler. C.
Dendroiea graeiae, Grace's Warbler.
Dendroiea nigrescens, Black-throated Gray

Warbler.
Oporornis tolmiei, Macgillivray's Warbler.

C.
Setophaga picta, Painted Redstart.
Cardellina rubrifrons, Red-faced Warbler.
Oreoscoptes montanus, Sage Thrasher.
Troglodytes aedon parkmani, Western

House Wren. U.
Sitta earolinensis nelsoni, Rocky Mountain

Nuthatch.
Sitta pygmaea pygmaea. Pygmy Nuthatch.
Penthestes sclateri, Mexican Chickadee.

1913.]

TKANSITION ZONE.

45

BREEDING BIRDS OP TRANSITION ZONE IN NEW MEXICO — -Continued.

Penthestes gambeli, Mountain Chickadee.

U.
Hylocichla fuscescens salicicola, Willow

Thrush.

Planesticus migratorius propinquus, West-
ern Robin. C.

Sialia mexicana bairdi, Chestnut-backed
Bluebird.

REPTILES OP TRANSITION ZONE.
[Species marked U. occur also in the Upper Sonoran Zone.]
Lizards.
Phrynosoma hernandesi, Short-horned lizard. U.

Snakes.
Thamnophis ordinoides elegans, Western Garter Snake. V.

PLANTS OF TRANSITION ZONE IN NEW MEXICO.

[Species marked U. occur also in the Upper Sonoran Zone; those marked C, also in the Canadian Zone.]

Trees and shrubs.

Pimis scopulorum, Yellow Pine.

Pinus arizonica, Arizona Pine.

Pinus chihuahuana, Chihuahua Pine.

Pinus mayriana, Mayr Pine.

Pinus strobiformis, Mexican White Pine.

Pseudotsuga mucronata, Douglas Spruce.
C.

Cupressus arizonica, Arizona Cypress.

Populus angustifolia, Narrow-leaved Cot-
tonwood.

Quercus gambeli, Gambel's Oak.

Quercus venustula.

Quercus submollis.

Quercus utahensis, Utah Oak.

Quercus vreelandi, Vreeland Oak.

Quercus leptophylla, Scale-leaved Oak.

Quercus gunnisoni, Gunnison Oak.

Quercus novoinexicana, New Mexico Oak.

Quercus hypoleuca, White-leaved Oak.

Quercus wilcoxi, Wilcox Oak.

Quercus reticulata, Lace-veined Oak.

Salix bebbiana, Bebb Willow. C.

Salix monticola, Mountain Willow.

Salix cordata watsoni, Diamond Willow.

Salix lasiandra, Western Black Willow.

Betula fontinalis, Rocky Mountain Birch.

Acer grandidentatum, Large-toothed Maple.

Acer neomexicanum, New Mexico Maple.

Robinianeomexicana, New Mexico Locust.

Prunus americana, Wild Red Plum.

Prunus melanocarpa, Choke Cherry.

Prunus salicifolia acutifolia, Black Cherry.

Arbutus arizonica, Arizona Madrone.

Rhamnus ursina, Bear Buckthorn.

Rhamnus fasciculata, Buckthorn.

Rhamnus betulaefolia, Buckthorn.

Ribes inebrians, Red Currant.

Ribes mescalerium, Mescalero Red Cur-
rant.

Grossularia pinetorum, Spiny-fruited
Gooseberry.

Grossularia inermis, Purple Gooseberry.

Grossularia leptantha, Black Gooseberry.

Sericotheca dumosa.

Opulaster monogynus, Western Ninebark.

Rubus parviflorus, Thimbleberry. C.

Rubus neomexicanus, New Mexico Thim-
bleberry.

Amelanchier oreophilus, Juneberry, Serv-
ice berry.

Crataegus rivularis, Thorn Apple.

Crataegus erythropoda, Thorn Apple.

Crataegus wootoniana, Thorn Apple.

Rosafendleri, Wild Rose.

Rosa maximiliani, Wild Rose.

Berberis repens, Blue Barberry.

Berberis fendleri, Fendler Barberry.

Ceanothus fendleri, Wild Tea Bush.

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, Bearberry.

Edu inia americana, Edwinia.

Svida riparia, River Cornel.

Symphoricarpos oreophilus, Mountain
Snowberry.

Sambucus neomexicana, New Mexico El-
derberry.

46

NOKTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

plants of transition zone in new Mexico — continued.
Herbaceous plants.

Humulus lupulus neomexicanus , Wild
Hop.

Eriogonum pharanacioides, Eriogonnm.

Eriogonum bakeri, Eriogonum.

Eriogonum jamesi, Eriogonum. U.

Eriogonum racemosum, Eriogonum. U.

Aquilegia elcgantula, Wild Columbine.

Aquilegia formosa, Wild Columbine.

Lupinus Icingi, Lupine, Bluebonnet.

Lupinus neomexicanus, Lupine.

Lupinus parrijlorus, Lupine.

Thermopsis pinctorum, Yellow Ther mop-
sis.

Vicia americana, Vetch.

Vicia pulchella, Vetch.
Vicia leucophaea, Vetch.
Lathyrus leucanthus, Wild Pea.
Phaseolus retusus, Wild Bean.
Astragalus yaquianus, Milk Vetch.
Astragalus scalaris, Milk Vetch.
Astragalus humistratus, Mrlk Vetch.
Astragalus rushbyi, Milk Vetch.
Astragalus bisulcatus, Milk Vetch.
Astragalus haydenianus, Milk Vetch.
Astragalus gilensis, Milk Vetch.
Juncus dudleyi, Rush, Tulo.
Juncus brunescens, Rush, Tule.
Juncus parous, Rush, Tule.

Grasses.

Andropogon chrysocomus, Beard Grass.
Sa vast ana odorata, Holy Grass.
Stipa minor, Feather Grass.
Stipa scribneri, Feather Grass.
Stipa viridula, Feather Grass.
Stipa raseyi, Sleepy Grass.
Muhlenbcrgia richardsoni^, Dropseed Grass.
Muhlenbergia cuspidata, Dropseed Grass.

U.
Muhlenbergia racemosa, Dropseed Grass.

U.
Muhlenbergia comata, Dropseed Grass.
Muhlenbergia gracilis, Dropseed Grass. U.
Muhlenbergia subalpina, Dropseed Grass.
Blepharoneuron tricholepis.
Agrostis exarata, Red top.
Agrostis hiemalis, Rough Hair Grass. C.
Bouteloua prostrata, Low Grama.
Koeleria cristata, June Grass.
Melica parvijlora, Melic Grass.
Poa annua, Annual Meadow Grass.

Poa occidentalis, Western Bluegrass.
Poa pratensis, Kentucky Bluegrass.
Poa longipedunculata, Spear Grass.
Poa bigelovi, Spear Grass. U.
Panicularia ncrvata, Manna Grass.
Bromus polyanthus, Brome Grass, Chess.
Bromus lanatipes, Brome Grass.
Bromus frondosus, Bluegrass. U.
Bromus portcri, Brome Grass.
Bromus richardsoni, Brome Grass. C.
Sitanion molle, Lyme Grass.
Alopecwrus geniculatus, Foxtail.
Sorghastrum nutans, Indian Grass. U.
Panicum bulbosum, Panic Grass. U.
Panicum plenum, Panic Grass. U.
Eragrostis neomexicana, New Mexico Era-

grostis. U.
Agropyron smithi, Wheat Grass.
Agropyron arizonicum, Arizona Wheat

Grass. U.
Agropyron pseudorepens, Wheat Grass. C.

CANADIAN ZONE.

The Canadian Zone covers most of the higher parts of the moun-
tains and extends on cold slopes approximately from 8,500 to 11,000
feet and on warm slopes from 9,500 to 12,000 feet, varying, how-
ever, as much as 1 ,000 feet, according to local conditions in different
ranges. Its area is estimated at approximately 2,000 square miles,
lying generally in narrow and very irregular strips.1 The largest
continuous area lies on the Sangre de Crist o (the main range of the
Rockies east of the Rio Grande), and there are less extensive areas
on the San Juan, Jemez, Sacramento, and Mogollon Mountains, and

1 In this more than in the lower zones the outlines are generalized on the zone map.

1913.] CANADIAN ZONE. 47

comparatively restricted areas on the Mount Taylor, Zuni, Chusca,
Datil, San Francisco, Mimbres, Magdalena, San Mateo, Manzano,
Sandia, Capitan, and Raton ranges. There is a trace also in the
Animas Mountains and on some of the higher buttes and isolated
peaks.

The zone is densely forested with spruce, balsam, and aspens,
except in areas that have been burned, and even these quickly pro-
duce fresh growth, usually of aspens followed by conifers. In the
midst of an arid region it is a humid zone, catching the maximum
fall of rain and snow and holding the deep snows until late spring.
Even in midsummer great banks of snow remain on shaded slopes
among the trees, and long after they have disappeared the mellow
soil of the mountain basins is saturated with snow water. During
the summer there are also frequent, often daily, showers of rain and
hail. The humidity of the zone is its greatest protection from
forest fires, but in dry seasons destructive fires are frequent. Through-
out the summer months it is a zone of cool crisp air and occasional
frosty nights, which result in the exclusion of lower zone plants and
of practically all crops.

The timber of the zone consists mainly of slender spruces, firs, and
aspens, usually growing on elevated slopes difficult of access. It is
of comparatively little commercial value, but locally it is valuable for
mining timbers and eventually will have other uses for which its
careful conservation is important. Its greatest and ever-increasing
value, however, lies in the protection it affords the water supply
for the surrounding agricultural valleys. Although a zone with little
agriculture of its own, it is the fountain head of -the agricultural
wealth of the surrounding country.

The lower edge of the zone is generally sharply marked and easily
recognized, but the upper edge blends almost insensibly with the
narrow border of Hudsonian, which in these mountains forms but a
minor division of the Boreal Zone.

MAMMALS OF THE CANADIAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO.

[Species marked T. occur also in the Transition Zone; those marked H., also in the Hudsonian Zone.]

Cervus canadensis, Elk. T.
Cervus merriami, Merriam Elk. T.
Odocoileus hemionus, Mule Doer. T.
*Smtras/mno?z£i,ColoradoSpruceSquirrel.
Sciurus fremonti mogollonensis, Arizona

Spruce Squirrel.
Sciurus fremonti lychnuchus, White

Mountain Spruce Squirrel.
Eutamias amoenus operarius, Colorado

Chipmunk,

Callospermophilus lateralis, Say Ground
Squirrel. T.

Marmota fiaviventcr, Rocky Mountain
Woodchuck. H.

Peromyscus maniculatus rufinus, Rusty
White-footed Mouse. T.

Phenacomys orophilus, Mountain Lem-
ming Mouse.

Evotomys gapperi galei, Gale Red-backed
Mouse,

48

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

I No. 33.

MAMMALS OF THE CANADIAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO Continued.

Evotomys limitis, Southern Red-backed
Mouse.

Microtus mordax, Rocky Mountain
Meadow Mouse.

Microtus nanus, Dwarf Meadow Mouse.

Erethizon epixanthum, Yellow-haired Por-
cupine. T.

Thomomys fossor, Mountain Pocket
Gopher. T.

Lepus bairdi, Snowshoe Rabbit.

Lynx canadensis, Canada Lynx.

Vulpes fulva macroura, Mountain Red
Fox.

Mustela arizonensis, Arizona Weasel. T.

Mustela streatori leptus, Dwarf Weasel.

Maries caurina origines, Marten.

Ursus americanus ambliceps, Black Bear.

T.
Sorex palustris navigator, Water Shrew.
Sorex obscurus, Dusky Shrew. H.
Sorex obscurus neomexicanus, New Mexico

Shrew.
Sorex vagrans monticola, Mountain Shrew.
Sorex personatus, Masked Shrew. H.
Nycteris cinerea, Hoary Bat.
Lasionycteris noctivagans, Silver-haired

Bat.

BREEDING BIRDS OF THE CANADIAN ZONE IN MEW MEXICO.
[Species marked T. breed also in the Transition Zone; those marked H., also in the Hudsonian Zone.]

Mergus americanus, Merganser. T.

Dendragapus obscurus obscurus, Dusky
Grouse. T.

Astur atricapillus striatulus,1 Western
Goshawk.

Picoides americanus dorsalis, Alpine Three-
toed Woodpecker. H.

Sphyrapicus varius nuchalis, Red-naped
Sapsucker. T.

Sphyrapicus thyroideus, Williamson's Sap-
sucker. T.

Selasphorus platycercus, Broad-tailed
Hummingbird. T.

Stellula calliope,1 Calliope Humming-
bird. T.

Nuttallornis borealis, Olive-sided Fly-
catcher.

Empidonax difficilis difficilis, Western
Flycatcher. T.

Cyanocitta stelleri diademata, Long-crested
Jay. T.

Perisoreus canadensis capitalis, Rocky
Mountain Jay. H.

Carpodacus cassini, Cassin's Purple Finch.

Loxia curvirostra stricklandi, Mexican
Crossbill. T.

Spinus pinus, Pine Siskin.

Zonotrichia leucophrys leucophrys, White-
crowned Sparrow. H.

Junco phaeonotus caniceps, Gray-headed
Junco. H.

Melospiza lincolni lincolni, Lincoln's
Sparrow.

Tachycineta thalassina lepida, Northern
Violet-green Swallow. T.

Wilsonia pusilla pileolata, Pileolated
Warbler.

Cinclus mexicanus unicolor, Dipper or
Water Ouzel. T.

Certhia familiar is montana, Rocky Moun-
tain Creeper.

Sitta canadensis, Red-breasted Nuthatch.

Penthestes atricapillus septentrionalis,
Long-tailed Chickadee. T.

Regulus satrapa satrapa, Golden-crowned
Kinglet. H.

Regulus calendula calendula, Ruby-
crowned Kinglet.

Myadestes townsendi, Townsend's Soli-
taire.

Hylocichla guttata auduboni, Audubon's
Hermit Thrush.

Sialia currucoides, Mountain Blue-
bird. T.

i Not positively known to breed. So little work has been done in this zone during the early breeding
season that the list is very incomplete.

North American Fauna No. 35, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate V.

Fig. 1.— Open Yellow Pine Forest on Top of the Chusca Mountains.
Navajo sheep corral in foreground.

Fig. 2.— Yellow Pine Forest of the Mogollon Mountain Plateau.
The G O S ranch on the head of Sappello Creek.

North American Fauna No. 35, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate VI.

Fig. 1 .—Canadian Zone Forest of Spruce and Fir at 1 1 ,000 Feet on Jack Creek
near the head of pecos river.

S\ ^^"^^n

//

*

** ^^ /

#V

'« > '/>A^

Hu

* — ~i^fir~--rf

"

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i *

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m ■■' <KM?

Jh>

Ak '/-',

"^M^ll

i>

r*Cx

'•'■/.'*/ i^rt

^z$,

^iir^.

-t

EJlBF sffiBwiffBg^^gBl

' '4t?

flRIB atSwfflF*

M v . :'

r^$?

£V ■ i

^■ItSr.*. dZti£-m

mss&t

isdBET.xr' 11

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, | £f jfy

> 7#;

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Mf*&s &y£ "'VSS

- - .»

s

fV* ' ■ ■ ,'-;■■■

Fig. 2.— Blue Columbine, One of the Abundant and Conspicuous Flowers of the
Canadian Zone Parks, at 11,000 Feet, Pecos Mountains.

North American Fauna No. 35, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

PLATE VII.

Fig. 1.— Dwarf Spruce and Fir at 11,800 Feet on East Side of Pecos Baldy.

Fig. 2.— Foxtail Pines at 11,800 Feet on East Side of Pecos Baldy. Typical
Hudsonian Zone Trees.

North American Fauna No. 35, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Syvey

Plate VII

Fig. 1.— Truchas Peaks from the South. Highest Peak, 13,300 Feet, taken from
1 1 ,800 Feet on the Side of Pecos Baldy.

■

TiTTfflMM n ' i ' n i r'i il^TBIP

jSS&.-t' - • •i-a^Sl^Hi

jg^^-.- :.,,,, -41^?^.

F : • ii "i—i#

opr rjssw^Mfi^fly" ^2t

1 a W^mr^nr^^Hn

Fig. 2.— Santa Fe Baldy from the North. Highest Peak, about 12,600 Feet,
taken from top of pecos baldy.

On both Truchas and Santa Fe Baldy the whole width of Hudsonian and Arctic-Alpine zones
are shown, and appear much the same on the cold slope of the lower as on the warm slope of
the higher peak.

1913. J

CANADIAN ZONE.

49

PLANTS OF THE CANADIAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO.

Species marked T. occur also in the Transition Zone; those marked H., also in the Hudsonian; those
marked A., also in the Arctic-Alpine.]

Trees and shrubs.

Picea parry ana, Blue Spruce.

Picea engelmanni, Engelmann Spruce.

Abies concolor, White Fir.

Pinus fiexilis, Rocky Mountain White
Pine.

Pseudotsuga mucronata, Douglas Spruce.
T.

Juniperus sibirica, Shrubby Juniper.

Populus tremuloides, Aspen.

Acer glabrum, Rocky Mountain Maple.

Alnus tenuifolia, Alder.

Salix bebbiana, Bebb Willow. T.

Lepargyrea canadensis, Canadian Buf-
falo Berry.

Herbaceous

Drymocallis convallarioides, Cinquefoil.

Veratrum tenuipetalum, Hellebore.

Aquilegia caerulea, Blue Columbine.

Delphinium cockerelli, Larkspur.

Aconitum porrectum, Monkshood.

Linnaea americana, Twinflower.

Pyrola secunda, Winter Lettuce.

Pyrola picta, Painted Pyrola.

Moneses unifiora, One-flowered Moneses.

Chimaphila umbellata, Pipsissewa.

Micranthes arguta, Saxifrage.

Parnassia Jimbriata, Grass-o-Parnassus.

Parnassia parviflora, Small-flowered Grass-
o-Parnassus.

Frasera stenosepala, Frasera.

Gentiana parryi, Mountain Closed Gen-
tian.

Gentiana elegans, Mountain Fringed Gen-
tian.

Mertensia (several species), Lungwort.

Polemonium confertum, Musky Jacob's
Ladder. H., A.

Pachystima myrsinites.

Vaccinium erythrococcum, Red Blueberry.
H.

Vaccinium oreophilum, Mountain Blue-
berry.

Ribes wolfi, Blue Currant.

Ribes coloradense, Black Currant.

Sorbus scopulina, Mountain Ash.

Sambucus microbotrys, Red Elderberry.

Lonicera involucrata, Black-fruited Hon-
eysuckle.

Dasiphora fruticosa, Shrubby Cinquefoil.

plants.

Polemonium foliosissimum, Pale Jacob's
Ladder. H.

Pentstemon (several species).

Aragallus richardsoni, Richardson Milk
Vetch.

Pedicularis racemosa, Purple Lousewort.

Elephantella groenlandica, Elephant-head.

Actaea viridiflora, Green-flowered Bane-
berry.

Viola nephrophylla, Blue Violet.

Viola neomexicana, Tall White Violet.

Dodecatheon radicatum, Shooting Star.

Sisymbrium vaseyi, Hedge Mustard.

Solidago parryi, Goldenrod.

Erigeron superbus, Large-flowered Eri-
geron.

Arnica cordifolia, Heart-leafed Arnica.

Carduus parryi, Yellow Thistle.

Car ex bella, Sedge.

Car ex aurea, Sedge.

Oryzopsis asperifolia, Mountain Rice.
Calamagrostis hyperborea americana, Reed

Grass.
Deschampsia caespitosa, Hair Grass.
Deschampsia alpicola, Hair Grass. H.
Trisetum montanum, False Oats.
Avena striata, Oat Grass.
Danthonia spicata, Wild Oat Grass.
Danthonia intermedia, Wild Oat Grass.
86914°— 13 4

Danthonia parryi, Wild Oat Grass.
Agrostis idahoensis, Red top.
Festuca thurberi, Thurber Fescue.
Festuca arizonica, Arizona Fescue. T.
Festuca brachyphylla, Shortleaf Fescue.

H.
Agropyron violaceum, Wheat Grass. H.
Agropyron bakeri, Wheat Grass. H. .
Hordeum nodosum, Foxtail. H.

50 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

HUDSONIAN ZONE.

The Hudsonian Zone is found on the peaks that reach near or
above tiniberline, mainly along the Sangre de Cristo Range, including
the Pecos, Taos, Costilla, and Culebra Mountains, with traces on the
White, Capitan, Sandia, and Jemez Mountains, Mount Taylor, and
the Mogollons. Its total area in New Mexico probably does not ex-
ceed 300 square miles of steep mountain slopes. It is a narrow zone
of about 1,000 feet in vertical extent, reaching normally from 11,000
to 12,000 feet on northeast slopes and 12,000 to 13,000 on southwest
slopes, but often sending narrow tongues down steep gulches 1,000
feet below normal. It is generally well marked by a stunted growth
of gnarled and dwarfed timber, mainly Engelmann spruce, cork-
barked fir, and foxtail pine, but has many open slopes swept by wind
and avalanche, where only depauperate vegetation, such as dwarf
willows, gooseberries, geums, gentians, saxifrages, and clovers, mark
the zone. The timber has little or no commercial value, a fact
which is favorable to the continued usefulness of the zone as a con-
server of water.

Buried under deep snows for 7 or 8 months of the year, the Hud-
sonian Zone contributes to agriculture mainly by storing water,
which it holds until late in summer and yields during the driest part
of the year. For a few months of late summer there is good grazing
for sheep, the only animals adapted to these elevated slopes, but if
overgrazed the steep slopes quickly become barren wastes of slide
rock, and the grass cover has far greater value when left to protect
the soil and conserve the water than when used to support a few sheep.

MAMMALS OF HUDSONIAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO.
[Species marked C. occur also in the Canadian Zone.]

Ovis canadensis, Mountain sheep.
Marmota fiaviventer, Rocky Mountain

Woodchuck.
Ochotona saxatilis, Gray Rock Cony.

Ochotona nigrescens, Dusky Rock Cony.
Sorex obscurus, Dusky Shrew. C.
Sorer personatus, Masked Shrew. C.

BREEDING BIRDS OF HUDSONIAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO

[Species marked C. breed also in the Canadian Zone.]

Picoides americanus dorsalis, Alpine Three-
toed Woodpecker. C.

Perisoreus canadensis capitalis, Rocky
Mountain Jay. C.

Nucifraga columbiana,1 Clark's Nut-
cracker.

Pinicola enucleator montana, Rocky
Mountain Pine Grosbeak.

Zonotrichia leucophrys leucophrys, White-
crowned Sparrow. C.

Junco phaeonotus caniceps, Gray-headed
Junco. C.

Regulus satrapa satrapa, Golden-crowned
Kinglet. C.

1 While this is one of the most characteristic summer birds of the Hudsonian Zone and is often seen in
family parties, it breeds very early and probably in a lower zone. But few nests have been found and
most of these in the Transition Zone.

1913.]

ARCTIC-ALPINE ZONE.

51

PLANTS OF HUDSONIAN ZONE IN NEW MEXICO.

[Species marked C. occur also in the Canadian Zone; those marked A ., also in the Arctic-Alpine.]

Pinus aristata, Foxtail Pine.

Abies arizonica (dwarf), Cork-barked Fir.
C.

Picea engelmanni (dwarf), Engelmann
Spruce. C.

Salix saximontana, Creeping Willow. A.

Salix glaucops, Gray-leaved Willow.

Ribes lentum, Bristly Red Currant.

Clementsia rhodantha, Red Orpine. A.

Rhodiola integrifolia, Rosewort. A.

Rhodiola polygama, Rosewort. A.

Rhodiola neomexicana, Rosewort.

Polemonium delicatum, Slender Jacob's
Ladder.

Phlox douglasi, Douglas Phlox. A.

Pentstemon gracilis, Purple Pentstemon.

Sieversia turbinata (Geum rossi), Mountain
Avens. A.

Potentilla filipes, Cinquefoil. A.

Sibbaldia procumbens, Sibbaldia. A.

Caltha leptosepala, Elkslip (White Cow-
slip).

Trifolium parryi, Dwarf Clover. A.

Trifolium nanum, Dwarf Clover. A.

Trifolium stenolobum, Dwarf Clover. A.

Delphinium macrophyllum, Large-leaved
Larkspur.

ARCTIC- ALPINE ZONE.

Arc tic- Alpine, the zone of the mountains corresponding to the
Arctic barren grounds or tundra of the far north, caps the highest
peaks along the Sangre de Cristo range, on the coldest slopes covering
all above 12,000 feet, or on especially steep places all above 11,500
feet; on the warmest slopes covering all above 13,000 feet, or on very-
gradual slopes all above 12,500 feet. The total area of this zone in
New Mexico probably does not amount to 100 square miles, most of
which lies on cold slopes.

It is the treeless zone above the last dwarfed spruces, marked by
low and often matted vegetation of hardy alpine plants, many of
which occur on the Arctic tundra and reach their southernmost
limits on these peaks. All are species adapted to a region where a
frostless night rarely occurs during the short cold summer and where
for 8 or 9 months they are buried under deep snows. On many of the
cold slopes snow banks remain all summer, melting entirely only in
exceptionally warm or dry years.

The zone owes its practical importance to its storage of moisture,
which it lets down slowly during the summer when most needed in
the arid valleys below. These cold mountain peaks seem to catch

Delphinium alpestre, Alpine Larkspur. A.

Orthocarpus luteus, Yellow Orthoearpus.

Castilleja, Painted Cup.

Primula parryi, Parry Primrose.

Gentiana romanzovi, Dwarf Closed Gen-
tian.

Swcrtia percnnis.

Arenaria fendleri, Sandwort.

Polygonum bistortoides, Twisted Poly-
gonum .

Carduus scopulorum, Yellow Thistle.

Dugaldea hoopesi, Yellow Dugald.

Dodccatheon radicatum, Shooting Star

Veronica wormskjoldi, Speedwell.

Heuchera parvifolia, Alum Root.

Senecio amplectens, Paintbrush.

Senecio triangularis, Paintbrush.

Senecio crassulus, Paintbrush.

Antennaria marginata, Everlasting.

Carex bella, Sedge.

Car ex variabilis, Sedge.

Carex alpina, Sedge.

Juncoides parviflorum, Wood Rush. A.

Agropyron caninum, Wheat Grass. C.

Trisetum subspicatum, Oat Grass.

Phleum alpinum, Alpine Timothy.

52

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

and hold the storms that gather and roar about them and cross from
one to another in sweeping torrents of rain and hail while the valleys
below lie dry and scorched. Thus by showers and melting snows the
streams are fed and the best of the thirsty land below is watered.

The Arctic- Alpine Zone has in New Mexico no species of mammal
not found in the zones below, and it has only three species of breeding
birds. It contains, however, a considerable number of character-
istic plants.

MAMMALS.

While the Arctic-Alpine Zone has in these mountains no species
peculiar to it and no species that seem especially characteristic of it,
unless the mountain sheep (Ovis canadensis) may be in part so con-
sidered, still several species penetrate into it to some extent,
especially in summer. The long-tailed meadow mouse (Microtus
mordax), a pocket gopher (Thomomys fossor), and the gray rock cony
(Ochotona saxatilis) are sometimes taken in the Arctic-Alpine Zone,
and may even winter under cover of its deep snow. The woodchuck
(Marmota jiaviventer) , Colorado chipmunk (Eutamias amoenus opera-
rius), red fox (Vulpes fulva macroura), and weasel (Mustela arizonen-
sis) run over the peaks and ridges in summer, but apparently do
not remain.

BREEDING BIRDS OF ARCTIC-ALPINE ZONE IN NEW MEXICO.

Lagopus leucurus leucurus, White-tailed

Ptarmigan.
Anthus rubescens, Pipit, Titlark.

Leucosticte australis, Brown-capped Rosy
Finch.

PLANTS OF ARCTIC-ALPINE ZONE IN NEW MEXICO.

[Species marked H. occur also in the Hudsoniau Zone.]

Eritrichium argenteum, Alpine Forget-me-
not.

Mertensia caelestina, Alpine Lungwort.

Claytonia megarrhiza, Arctic Spring
Beauty.

Ranunculus macauleyi, Woolly Buttercup.

Paronychia pulvinata, Cushioned Whit-
low-wort .

Papaver coloradense, Colorado Poppy.

Saxifraga cernua, Arctic Saxifrage.

Leptasea chrysantha, Yellow-flowered Sax-
ifrage.

Leptasea flagellaris, Filamentose Saxi-
fraga.

Micranthes rhomboidea, Wide-leaved Sax-
ifrage.

Besseya alpina.

Sedum steno pet alum, Stonecrop.

Salic petrophila, Rock Willow. H.

Salix saximontana, Creeping WYillow. H.

Salix chlorophila, Green Willow. H.

Oxyria digyna, Mountain Sorrel.

Gentiana romanzovi, Dwarf Closed Gen-
tian.

Silene acaulis, Stemless Catchfly.

Alsinopsis obtusiloba, Sandwort.

Orthocarpus haydeni, Hayden Orthocar-
pus.

Pedicularis parryi, Short-beaked Louse-
wort.

Polemonium confertum, Jacob's Ladder.
H.

Phacelia serisea, Silky Phacelia. H.

Androsace carinata.

Delphinium alpestre, Alpine Larkspur.

Aragallus parryi, Parry Loco.

Potentilla diversifolia, Cinquefoil.

Sieversia turbinata (Geum rossi), Mountain
Avens.

Sibbaldia procumbens, Sibbaldia.

1913.1

MOUNTAINS OF NEW MEXICO.

53

PLANTS OF ARCTIC-ALPINE ZONE IN NEW MEXICO — Continued.

Polygonum viviparum.

Draba streptocarpa, Whitlow Cress.

Draba cana, Whitlow Cress.

Draba neomexicana, Whitlow Cress.

Ligusticella eastwoodae, Angelica.

Oreozis bakeri, Cymopterus.

Thalictrum alpinum, Alpine Meadow Rue.

Artemisia scopulorum, Alpine Sagebrush.

Solidago ciliosa, Goldenrod.

Solidago decumbens, Goldenrod.

Erigeron melanocephalus, Fleabane.

Erigeron leiomeres, Fleabane.

Senecio holmi, Holm Paintbrush.

Tonestus pygmaeus.

Achillea subalpina, Alpine Yarrow.

Juncus drummondi, Rush.

Juncus triglumis, Rush.

Car ex alpina, Sedge.

Carex ebenea, Sedge.

Carex nova, Sedge.

Carex siccata, Sedge.

Carex saxatilis, Sedge.

THE MOUNTAINS OF NEW MEXICO.

New Mexico is bountifully supplied with mountains, which are as
essential to agriculture as valleys. In fact, without the valleys the
mountains would still be of great value for timber, grass, and ores,
while without the mountains the valleys would be of little value
because they would be almost waterless. For half the year the
higher mountains are practically uninhabitable on account of cold
weather and deep snow, but for the other half, when they are pouring
streams of pure water into the lowlands, they are serving also as the
summer resort and pleasure ground for the valley dwellers, not only
from New Mexico, but from other States. There is therefore an
imperative need for the careful guarding of these valuable assets of
a developing state: Water, forests, grass, and a great outdoor play-
ground for its people. An intimate knowledge of the more important
ranges is the first step toward adequate protection of their natural

resources.

SANGRE DE CRJSTO MOUNTAINS.

Two branches of the main Rocky Mountain mass of Colorado
.extend into northern New Mexico, the San Juan Range on the west
and the Sangre de Cristo Range1 on the east of the Rio Grande Valley.
The Sangre de Cristo is the highest and most extensive range in the
State, with broad plateaus, high mountain valleys, and three groups
of peaks (Culebra, Taos, and Truchas) rising above 13,000 feet.
From Colorado it extends south between and a little beyond Santa
Fe and Las Vegas in a broad and well-defined range. The lowest
saddle in this range is Taos Pass, 9,280 feet; the highest point is
Wheeler Peak, 13,600 feet. There is usually a central crest of sharp
peaks and ridges rising above the broad shoulders of the elevated
plateau. In places the range is double, with high interior valleys,
and throughout it has a complex series of long, steep, and often rocky
exterior ridges reaching down to the outer plains. The upper slopes,
lying mainly above 10,000 feet, are deeply cut or broadly rounded

1 The United States Geographic Board has ruled that the name Sangre de Cristo shall apply to this range
north to Poncha Pass, Colorado. The names Culebra, Costilla, Taos, Cimarron, and Pecos Mountains are
applied locally to sections of the range and should be used only in a restricted sense.

54 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

by comparatively recent glacial action. Numerous cirques or glacial
amphitheaters cutting into the base of the higher ridges and peaks
giro ample evidence of the forces that chiseled the cliffs and gouged
the hollows. Numerous and often extensive lateral or terminal
moraines stretch across or along the edges of the valleys. An exam-
ple of the usual type of stream source in these well-watered moun-
tains is the head of Pecos River. A mile below the little lake, at
11,700 feet, from which the river rises, the stream rushes down a
morainal dam, apparently 500 or 600 feet high, to flow for some dis-
tance through a round-bottomed valley, after which it cuts its way
out of the mountains through a sharp-bottomed gulch. Numerous
other lakes, some mere shallow ponds of snow water, others deep
green basins left behind the moraines or scooped out of the solid
rock in glacial paths, form the headwaters of visible or hidden
streams. These are mainly near or above 11,000 feet, but lower
down the stream courses are almost devoid of natural reservoirs.
Springs and creeks are numerous from near timber line down through
the Hudsonian and Canadian Zones, but become scarcer toward the
base of the mountains as the streams gather into larger and more
widely separated channels.

Until the midsummer rains begin the mountain slopes are drenched
with melting snow. As late as August 14, 1903, a few large snow
banks still occupied the cold slopes of the Truchas Peaks, while one
small drift yet remained behind the crest of Pecos Baldy. On August
12, 1904, a little of the old snow still clung to the cold slopes on Taos
and Wheeler Peaks, and on August 20 some large banks were found
on Culebra Peak. It is doubtful if the winter's snow ever entirely
leaves these tall crests of the range, which during most of the short
summer are heavily streaked with white.

During July and August showers, often violent, are of frequent
occurrence about the peaks. In consequence of this abundant
moisture over the upper slopes, vegetation has a vigorous growth,
even where reduced to a carpet of Alpine plants. The coniferous
forests of the upper slopes where undisturbed by fire are dense and
clean. Grass is abundant in the open, and the parks and timber-
line meadows are brilliant flower gardens. Even the highest peaks,
when not of bare rock, are carpeted with dwarf Arctic and Alpine
plants of exquisite beauty and fragrance.

The forests lie in well-marked belts, or zones, around these moun-
tains, as is plainly seen where a broad view of the range can be had
from an elevated point on some opposite range, and as is approxi-
mately shown in colors on the zone map. The upper timber zone,
or Hudsonian, is but a vanishing fringe of forest, where the foxtail
pine and stunted spruce and fir struggle for bare existence among
the rocks.

1913.] MOUNTAINS OF NEW MEXICO. 55

The zone of spruce and fir, or Canadian Zone, covers most of the
high central part of the mountains from about 9,500 feet to 12,000
feet on southwest slopes and from 8,500 feet to 11,000 feet on north-
east slopes. It extends down in broad strips on the outer slopes,
even reaching in narrow tongues in canyons as low as 7,500 feet or
clear through the Transition Zone. At one place at 7,500 feet where
the Pecos flows through a deep narrow gulch, spruces and firs cover
the cold slope, while just over the crest of the ridge on the warm
slope 10 rods distant there are nut pines, junipers, and live oaks. Such
overlapping or interlacing of zones merely shows the extreme effect
of local configuration on temperature. Both upper and lower edges
of the zone are regular only in a broad sense, as they vary in altitude
with slope exposure, steepness of the slopes, and to a less extent
with air currents, moisture, and soil cover. When unmarred by
fire this forest is usually characterized by dense areas of slender
pointed spruces (Picea pungens and engelmanni) and firs (Abies
concolor and arizonica), but much of the timber has been burnt
and replaced by equally dense areas of white-stemmed aspens.
Most of the timber is small, but here and there large old spruces
stand out alone or tower above their neighbors. In the deep shade
of the timbered areas a few characteristic wood plants dot the brown
carpet of needles, but there is rarely much undergrowth until fire
has swept away or thinned out the timber. Repeated burning has
cleared extensive areas which now lie as open meadows or grassy
parks.

The zone of yellow pine, or Transition Zone, covers the lower
slopes of the mountains from approximately 7,500 to 9,700 feet on
southwest slopes and 7,000 to 8,500 feet on northeast slopes. Its
upper limit is variable on account of the varying steepness of the
slopes, rising even to 10,000 feet on steep rocky southwest slopes,
or falling to 7,500 feet in steep northeast gulches.1 The yellow
pine forest, as shown in blue on the zone map, encircles the Sangre
de Cristo Mountains, and extends over the big mesa south of the
Santa Fe Railroad and along the cold slope down the river below
San Miguel, then over other mesa tops to the east as far as Mesa
Yegua and north to Sierra Grande and the Raton Mesa. Usually
the yellow pines stand in scattering growth or open forest, occa-
sionally in dense groves of young trees. The Douglas spruce also
is an important tree in the upper part of this zone, which it invades
from the Canadian Zone above, while several of the deciduous oaks
are irregularly distributed through it, and the narrow-leaved cotton-
wood borders most of the streams.

1 These extremes, due to local details of topography and slope, have, to avoid confusion, been commonly
ignored in discussions of life zones; and in certain cases this fact has been used by persons unfamiliar with
the effects of slope exposure and local air currents in criticism of well-established laws of distribution.

56 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

The zone of juniper and nut pine, or Upper Sonoran Zone, covers
the foothills and reaches out over the surrounding plains and valleys.
Along the Pecos River Valley it ascends on southwest slopes to
about 7,500 feet and along the west base of the range to about the
same altitude. On northeast slopes in the Pecos Valley and along
the east base of the range it reaches to about 7,000 feet. The upper
edge of the zone is marked by the limit of nut pine, juniper, several
species of cactuses and yuccas, and many shrubby plants, and the
beginning of tall yellow pine timber.

Animal life in these mountains is abundant and in many ways
is of unusual interest. Such rare birds as rosy finches, pine and
evening grosbeaks, pipits, solitaires, three-toed woodpeckers, and
ptarmigan are found during summer high up in the mountains,
while Clark's nutcrackers, Rocky Mountain jays, and long-crested
jays are regular camp visitors. Water ouzels bob in the streams,
thrushes, kinglets, warblers, vireos, tanagers, j uncos, and sparrows
sing exuberantly during their breeding season, and brilliant humming-
birds flash among the flowers. There are also a few band-tailed
pigeons and some dusky grouse and wild turkeys.

White-tailed and mule deer are present, although becoming scarce,
coyotes and black bears are fairly common, and there are still a few
grizzlies or silvertips, gray wolves, and red foxes. The beavers are
increasing under recent protection. The big tuft-eared gray squirrels
are an interesting feature of the yellow pine belt, while the little
spruce squirrels and striped chipmunks give added life and interest
to the forest. Big woodchucks whistle from the ledges and bowlders
and the odd little rock conies squeak and stack their hay under
slide rock near timberline. Pocket gophers, mice, and shrews burrow
into the mountain slopes or make tiny roads under cover of pro-
tecting vegetation.

Most of the streams are well stocked with trout, which often
penetrate to the very sources of the little creeks above 10,000 feet.
With proper restrictions good fishing and hunting can be perma-
nently maintained and even greatly improved.

The mountains form a natural park and ideal pleasure ground for
summer camping and attract more campers each year. Some day
they may be more highly valued for this purpose than for sheep range
and lumber yield.

From the majority of campers here, as elsewhere, much remains
to be desired in camp ethics, especially in guarding the forests from
fire and their inhabitants from wanton destruction, in beautifying
rather than desecrating camp grounds, in guarding streams from
pollution, and so sharing health and happiness with others and passing
these advantages on to future generations. The useless destruction
of song birds and harmless animals is due mainly to ignorance. To
any but a human brute the beauty and songs and interesting ways of

Biological Survey.

Plate IX.

Fig. 1.— Wheeler Peak, 13,600 Feet, the Highest Point in
New Mexico. Taken from the West Base at 11,200 Feet,
Showing Full Range of Hudsonian and Arctic Alpine Zones.
Timber Line is About 12,000 Feet.

Fig. 2.— Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Taken from the East Across Moreno
Valley at 8,000 Feet.

The highest peaks are not shown. The timber bordering valley is yellow pine.

North American Fauna No. 35, U. S. Dept Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate X.

I

Fig. 1.— Meadow Park at 10,000 Feet on Top of the San Juan Mountains.
The timber is spruce and fir.

^a^TH

Sir wf

HE ■' 't^—f.h

/Jfl

^^k ^H Kf'M

■ '^™l

mm .MMwwT mi mm

9§ : /. 'jHti

JH

mmi'' am ft f/fam

■ Jf dljmnf}

ftpr jE'/ I

'w ;JSfI

* 1 i- . >

^H

Ww*w\

y 1 E^iJSM

w^^&^^Bii jlar" ' M

BJ^v^^J

^ :1-;

■ ' jwBowHpii

Fig.

2.— El Choro, a 3,000-Foot Granite Wall of Brazos Canyon, on West Slope
of San Juan Mountains.

North American Fauna No. 35, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate XI

Fig. 1 .— Valle Santa Rosa at 8,500 Feet in Jemez Mountains.

Fig. 2.— North Slope of Goat Mountain (10,400 Feet* from Head of Santa

Clara Creek at 8,500 Feet.

Yellow pines in foreground; distant timber mainly spruce and lir.

North American Fauna No. 35, U. S. Dept Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate XII.

Fig. 1.— Railway Station of Kettner at Edge of Yellow Pine Forest in
Zuni Mountains.

Fig. 2.— Yellow Pine Forest in Zuni Mountains Looking North from
Mount Sedgwick.

Photograph by E. A. Goldman.

1913.] MOUNTAINS OF NEW MEXICO. 57

our wood neighbors in feather or fur appeal more strongly than do
their dead and mangled bodies. From the boy or man who once
begins to study them more closely than at rifle or shotgun range
they are comparatively safe.

SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS.

West of the Rio Grande Valley the San Juan Mountains extend from
Colorado south to the Chama River, which separates them from the
Jemez Mountains and interrupts what would be otherwise a contin-
uous range. The San Juans are a wide and not very high range,
with a broad expanse of plateau top at about 10,000 feet and few
points rising to 11,000 feet. Their broad middle slopes are largely
covered with open yellow-pine forests and the upper slopes with
dense growth of spruce and fir, alternating with great grassy parks
and meadows. On the west slope deep canyons cut into the range,
and along at least one of these, the Brazos Canyon, east of Tierra
Amarillo, rise sheer granite cliffs, Yosemite-like in size and structure.
The lack of timberline peaks gives a tameness to these mountains
that is increased by gentle slopes and good roads over the highest
parts of the range, but among the advantages are ease of access to
many beautiful camp grounds, good springs, abundant grass, cool
forests, and sunny slopes, while many rough canyons offer pictur-
esque grounds for exploration.

These mountains differ from the Sangre de Cristo range in animal
and plant life, mainly in the absence of Hudsonian and Arctic forms
of higher altitudes. Both ranges are characterized by the Rocky
Mountain species of southern Colorado, with comparatively few sub-
specific variations.

JEMEZ MOUNTAINS.

The Jemez Mountains are of about the same extent and general
character as the San Juans, from which they are separated by the
deep narrow canyon of the Chama River. They are largely volcanic,
with the highest peaks standing as remnants of old crater rims
10,000 to 11,500 feet high. Santa Clara is the highest peak, while
several others are only a little lower.1 Pelado Peak is 11,266 feet
high, Abiquiu 11,240, and Goat Peak, just south of the head of Santa
Clara Creek, 10,400.

None of these reaches true timberline, although on northeast slopes
near their summits the timber is dwarfed and a few Hudsonian Zone
plants are found.

On the middle slopes of the mountain, streams and springs are
numerous, but the high peaks and ridges are generally without water.
Some of the streams disappear or are used for irrigation before they

1 Santa Clara is the peak just north of the headwaters of Santa Clara Creek and south of Abiquiu Peak.
The name seems to have been omitted from recent maps, but it is correctly located and named on the
maps of the Wheeler Survey of 1874.

58 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

extend far into the valleys, while others carry their surplus water to
the Rio Grande. Numerous dry washes show evidence of fierce floods
that tear down them during heavy rains. The mountains are gen-
erally well covered with soil and vegetation except where cliffs and
canyon walls break through and long lines of broken lava extend
down from the peaks. A number of large park-like valleys at
8,000 to 9,000 feet afford valuable grazing land, but most of the
mountain area is well forested.

Spruces, firs, and aspens fill most of the Canadian Zone, yellow
pines and Gambel's oaks mark the Transition Zone, and nut pines,
junipers, and live oaks cover the Upper Sonoran foothills.

The plant and animal life is mainly that of the southern Colorado
mountains, and rock conies (Ochotona) and snowshoe rabbits reach
here almost as far south as in the Pecos Mountains. Elk and Moun-
tain sheep have disappeared, but mule deer are still found in fair
numbers. There are a few black bears, but grizzlies are now very
scarce if any remain. There are a few mountain lions and many bob-
cats, coyotes, gray foxes, badgers, porcupines, prairie dogs, squirrels,
and chipmunks. Wild turkeys are now scarce, but dusky grouse are
common high up in the mountains. The jays, magpies, woodpeckers,
and song birds are much the same as in the Sangre de Cristo Moun-
tains. There is good trout fishing in many of the streams and
delightful camp grounds are easy of access. Still some of the most
delightful are accessible only by pack outfit through forests or over
rough trails.

Stock raising is the principal industry. In summer great numbers
of cattle and sheep range over the upper valleys and slopes and in
winter return to the valleys. Few people live in the mountains, as
they are mainly too high for agriculture, but the warm Upper Sono-
ran canyons at their bases have long been occupied by Pueblo Indians
living on the grounds of their cliff-dwelling ancestors, or by settlers
on the numerous land grants.

The agricultural land of the region is restricted to narrow Valley
bottoms that can be irrigated. Small ranches along these valleys
usually show primitive methods and poor crops, but the soil is very
productive and in a few places under better management good crops
of wheat, corn, potatoes, chili, beans, and alfalfa are raised and such
fruits as apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, and grapes do well.

MOUNT TAYLOR RANGE.

Southwest of the Jemez Mountains lies the Mount Taylor Range or
group,1 in close connection with the Zuni Mountains; then come the

1 There has been much confusion in regard to the name of this group of mountains, parts of which have
been called San Mateo, Sierra Chivato, and Cebolleta Mountains. The name San Mateo is also applied to
the range west of San Marcial; the other names apply to local ridges or mesas. As Mount Taylor is the
highest point, its name has been used to designate the group.

1913.] MOUNTAINS OF NEW MEXICO. 59

Datil and Pinon Mountains leading across the high plains to the
Mogollons, the last great link in the broken chain between the Rocky
Mountains and the Sierra Madre of Mexico.

The Mount Taylor group is a broad volcanic plateau with the great
ruin of an old lava crater, Mount Ta}dor proper, at its southern end,
standing 11,389 feet at the highest point of its wide semicircular rim
and inclosing a steep little secondary cone about 1,000 feet high.
Part of the plateau is lava from this old crater, part from numerous
smaller craters scattered over its surface. Series of great sandstone
ridges stretch away to the west beyond Fort Wingate, including
Hosta Butte, Navajo Church, Mesa Butte, and Sierra de Los Lobos,
which almost connect with the Zuni and Chusca Mountains. These
ridges, 7,000 and 8,000 feet high, are mainly flat-topped mesas like the
Chusca and the western part of the Zuni Mountains. The moun-
tains are not well watered. A beautiful permanent creek winds down
inside the old crater of Mount Taylor and cuts its way out through the
broken rim on the south. A few other little creeks and scattered
springs breaking out around the edges of the mountains are perma-
nent, but the greater number of streams are merely spring torrents
from melting snow.

The greater part of both outer and inner slopes of the old crater
is densely forested with spruce, fir, and aspen, and much of the lower
part is open grass land.

The Canadian Zone area is so restricted and isolated that it seems
to lack many of the mammals and birds of the more extensive areas
to the north and south, although more species will doubtless be found
when it is thoroughly worked. Mule deer, black bears, porcupines,
a meadow mouse which may be M. mordax, and a little shrew seen but
not collected, were found in this zone. Long-crested jays, red cross-
bills, evening grosbeaks, western goshawks, white-crowned and
Lincoln's sparrows, and juncos were common here in September, and
crossbills, thrushes, and pileolated warblers were found by Hollister in
August, but these were not necessarily all on their breeding grounds.
Wild turkeys breed here, but I could find no trace of blue grouse.

The mesa tops and lava plateau and most of the outer slopes of
Mount Taylor itself are covered with a scattered forest of yellow pine
and patches of Gambel's oak. The Transition Zone area is more
extensive and less isolated than the Canadian and is characterized by
many of the Rocky Mountain species of mammals and birds. The
tuft-eared gray squirrels, chipmunks, Colorado wood rats (Neotoma
mexicana fallax) , pocket gophers, Rocky Mountain cottontails, rac-
coons, and such birds as band-tailed pigeons, pygmy and Rocky
Mountain nuthatches, Audubon's and Grace's warblers, hairy and
ant-eating woodpeckers, western robins, and chestnut-backed blue-
birds are common.

60 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

The Upper Sonoran foothills of these mountains are generally
covered with junipers, nut pines, and live oaks, and inhabited by rock
squirrels (Citellus variegatus grammurus), rock chipmunks (Eutamias
dorsalis), white-throated wood rats (Neotoma albigula), pocket mice,
kangaroo rats, Texas jack rabbits, Woodhouse's jays, bush tits, and
the usual set of species of this part of the zone, which spreads over
the valleys without restriction.

Agriculture in the more fertile Upper Sonoran gulches around the
edges of these mountains is mainly of a primitive type and carried on
by Indians and Mexicans.

CHUSCA MOUNTAINS.

The Chusca Mountains * are a long low range, in reality a long mesa
or plateau, extending from a little north of Gallup northward across
the New Mexico and Arizona line and almost connecting with the
Carrizo Mountains, a higher, rougher group lying mainly in Arizona.
Most of this mesa is of sandstone, 8,000 to 9,000 feet high, with abrupt
rimrock margins, but toward the north there are ridges of rough lava
rock and basaltic cliffs. The top is an undulating forested country
with great numbers of shallow lakes, usually without outlets. Below
the rim are numerous springs and short creeks that rise in the can-
yons and flow for a short distance down the steep slopes or in a few
cases out into the neighboring valleys. There is abundance of water
for stock, but very little for irrigation.

The cold upper slopes, especially of the rims and canyons, are cov-
ered with aspens and a few firs and spruces (Abies arizonica, Picea
pungens, and Pseudotsuga taxifolia). Rocky Mountain maple,
Canadian buffalo berry (Lepargyrea canadensis) , and shrubby juniper
(Juniperus communis) , are common, but nowhere is an extensive area of
Canadian Zone. The spruce squirrel (Sciurus fremonti mogollonensis) ,
Colorado chipmunk (Eutamias amoenus operarius) , mountain meadow
mouse (Microtus mordax), pocket gopher (Thomomys fossor) , and little
shrew (Sorex vagrans monticola) are common Canadian Zone species.
The birds, as noted in October, include a few that probably breed
there in the Canadian Zone — the long-crested jay, Clark's nut-
cracker, junco, and white-crowned sparrow — but most of the species
observed then were migrants.

The mam part of the top and upper slopes of this plateau range lies
in the Transition Zone and is covered with a beautiful clean open
forest of }^ellow pines with generally a carpet of grass or low shrubs
beneath. Gambel's oak covers many of the steep slopes and the
Douglas spruce grows in some of the gulches. Bearberry (Arctosta-

1 The name Chusca, or Choiskai, is generally applied to the southern half, and Tunicha, or Tunitcha, to
the northern half of this perfectly continuous and nearly uniform range. There is certainly not room for two
names, and I have used the one that ssems better known and in its shorter form, which is in common use
among local residents.

1913.] MOUNTAINS OF NEW MEXICO. 61

pliylos uva-ursi) and wild tea (Ceanothus fendleri) often carpet the
ground. A little cactus (Mamillaria vivipara) and a depauperate
narrow-leafed yucca ( Yucca baileyi) grow on open arid slopes in this
zone. Some of its most characteristic mammals are the tuft-eared
Abert squirrel, prairie dog, Colorado woodrat (Neotomafallax), Apache
pocket gopher, and Rocky Mountain cottontail. A few of the resident
birds found in the Transition Zone in October and that undoubtedly
breed there are the wild turkey, ant-eating woodpecker, and the
pygmy and Rocky Mountain nuthatches.

The Navajo Indians live in large numbers in the open canyons or
wide gulches around the base and lower slopes of these mountains.
Here on moist, mellow flats their garden patches yield a good supply
of corn and wheat, beans and squashes for winter provisions; their
herds of sheep, goats, cattle, and horses range out on the plains or
up the mountain sides; scattered nut pines, junipers, and live oaks
furnish not only fuel and shelter but even food ; and the yellow pines
come down low enough to be available for house logs and timbers.
It is a region of primitive comforts but with no possibility of a great
future in agriculture.

In summer many of the Indians with their herds migrate to the
cool broad top of the range, where there is good grazing and abundance
of water. Numerous "hogans," summer huts of rude pattern, are
scattered over the top, but there are no evidences of attempted agri-
culture except the sheep corrals and occasional little horse pastures.
During my trip over the Chuscas in October, 1908, the mountains
were practically deserted except for stray bands of cattle and ponies,
and wisely so on account of cold nights, driving wind, and rain and
snow.

The Navajo Indians in their religious reverence for feathered
spirits have made their great reservation to some extent a bird pre-
serve. Ducks are unmolested in the lakes and doubtless breed there
in considerable numbers. Wild turkeys have held their own unusu-
ally well, but have suffered somewhat from hunting by outsiders and
Christianized Indians. Some mammals, considered sacred, especially
the black bear and coyote, have also thrived, while the mule deer and
antelope have been exterminated over a wide area. Prairie dogs are
now popular game animals and the Indians, who shoot and dig them
out for food, have almost depopulated some of the dog towns.

ZUNI MOUNTAINS.

At their highest eastern end, where Mount Sedgwick rises to an
altitude of about 9,300 feet, the Zuni Mountains are rough and
volcanic, but to the west they are great flat-topped ridges 8,000 to
9,000 feet high, largely of sandstone with abrupt rimrock edges.
Extensive lava fields with numerous small craters stretch off to the
south and east, while isolated buttes and ridges are scattered beyond.

62 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

The mountains are well timbered but poorly watered. The few
small streams that flow down the mountain valleys reach the plains
only during high water. The timber is mainly yellow pine in open
Forest, now largely cut over but originally of great extent and value.
There are some Douglas spruces and Gambel oaks; aspens and
spruces cover the higher cold slopes and we found there in June a
number of Canadian Zone birds, such as the western goshawk, long-
crested jay, Clark's nutcracker, junco, Williamson's and red-naped
sapsuckers, broad-tailed hummingbird, western flycatcher, pine
siskin, ruby-crowned kinglet, Audubon's warbler, brown creeper, and
Audubon's hermit thrush.

Although considerable collecting has been done in these moun-
tains, the only purely Canadian Zone mammal yet found is the
silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans) , taken in June at 8,600
feet, but probably there are others.

Transition Zone birds and mammals are common and include
both northern and southern forms. The painted redstart and
Mearns's quail reach their northern limits here, though they are of
rare occurrence. Wild turkeys are becoming scarce. The hairy
woodpecker, western wood pewee, spurred and green-tailed towhees,
black-headed grosbeak, western tanager, Grace's warbler, pygmy
and Rocky Mountain nuthatches, western robin, and chestnut-
backed bluebird are found in the breeding season. The little Sonora
white-tailed deer reaches its northern limit in the Zuni Mountains,
according to reports of hunters, but it is very scarce there now.
The Abert squirrel, Rocky Mountain chipmunk (Eutamias quad-
rivittatus), Colorado wood rat (Neotoma fallax) , Mogollon field mouse
(Microtus mogollonensis) , fulvous pocket gopher (Thomomysfulvus) ,
Arizona porcupine (Erethizon epixanthum couesi), and Rocky Moun-
tain cottontail (Sylvilagus nuttalli pinetis) are characteristic of the
Transition Zone.

A few ranches are situated in the Transition Zone valleys, where
good crops of potatoes and oats are raised on the rich mountain soil,
but most of the agriculture of the region is carried on in the Upper
Sonoran valleys around the base of the mountains.

MOGOLLON MOUNTAINS.

The necessity for a group name for the mountains of western
Socorro County, New Mexico, is apparent to all who know or speak of
them. While the maps give names to the many local ranges com-
prising this group, people constantly speak of these ranges collectively
by the name of the highest central peaks, the "Mogollons." In the
broadest sense this term is made to include the Mogollon, Burro,
Black, Mimbres, Diablo, Little, Elk, Tularosa, Tucson, Datil, Pinyon,
Oak Spring, and San Francisco Ranges, which form one extensive
and irregular mountain mass, a continuation of the chain wThich

1913.] MOUNTAINS OF NEW MEXICO. 63

includes the White Mountains of Arizona. The name has now
become restricted to that part of this chain lying in middle western
New Mexico. To the northwestward they are loosely connected
through the White and San Francisco Mountains of Arizona with
the ranges extending through central Utah, and still more loosely
through the Zuni Mountains with the Rocky Mountains of northern
New Mexico and Colorado. But in both these cases the connection
is much closer than with the Sierra Madre of Mexico to the south,
where a broad belt of low plains intervenes.

The greater part of the Mogollon Mountain mass is a rough plateau
7,000 to 8,000 feet high, deeply cut with many canyons and here and
there ridged with 9,000- and 10,000-foot ranges. At least three of the
central peaks of the Mogollons reach an altitude of about 11,000 feet,
but not high enough for any true timberline or for many Hudsonian
Zone species. Still they are high enough to be of great importance,
for on the border of a region of low hot deserts they receive a heavy
fall of rain and snow. They feed most of the sources of the Gila
River, several forks of which rise close under the highest peaks, and
they have been called the Gila Mountains. They are covered by
the Datil National Forest on the north and the Gila National For-
est on the south, formerly mainly included under the name Gila
National Forest.

The mountains are largely volcanic, and many of the high ridges
and plateau tops are of very old, deeply cut, and eroded lava rock.
There are many other formations, however, including numerous ore-
bearing strata. Many of the cliffs and canyon walls along the
branches of the Gila and San Francisco Rivers are sandstone, much
eroded and full of cracks and caves.

The Canadian Zone covers most of the higher peaks and ridges
above 8,500 feet on cold slopes and 9,500 feet on warm slopes. Except
for the burned-over areas it is a zone of dense forest of spruce, firs,
and aspens, with a few dwarf maples and many undershrubs, such as
Juniperus communis, Sorbus scopulina, Pachystima myrsinites, Vacci-
nium oreophilum, Ribes wolji, Grossularia pinetorum, Rubacer parvi-
florus, Distegia involucrata, and other purely Rocky Mountain species.

The following birds found in these mountains in early spring and
late summer probably breed in the Canadian Zone, although little
work has been done there during the actual breeding season: dusky
grouse, alpine three-toed woodpecker, broad-tailed hummingbird,
western wood pewee, long-crested jay, Clark's nutcracker, pine siskin,
Cassin's purple finch, white-crowned sparrow, junco, Audubon's
warbler, ruby-crowned kinglet, dipper or water ouzel, and Audubon's
hermit thrush.

The Canadian Zone mammals are Merriam elk (now extinct),
Arizona spruce squirrel, Rocky Mountain meadow mouse, red-
backed mouse, and mountain shrew.

64 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

The area covered by this zone is generally steep and difficult of
access, of little value for timber, and of less use for. stock or agri-
culture. Its worth as a source of water supply for rich valleys
below can hardly be realized. As a permanent breeding ground for
game birds and mammals, as a source of beautiful and teeming
trout streams, and as an ideal camping resort to which people flock
from the hot valleys below, its importance is steadily increasing.

The Transition Zone spreads in wide areas over the plateau tops
and the middle slopes of the ranges from approximately 6,500 to
8,500 feet on cold slopes and 8,000 to 9,500 feet on warm slopes. It
is characterized by beautiful open forests of yellow pines, with
scattered Douglas spruce and a sprinkling of Mexican white pine.
In places there are scrubby oaks of the gambeli group, the white-
leaved oak, and New Mexico locust, and along the streams are gen-
erally fringes of narrow-leaved cottonwood, alders, willows, and
cornel. Among the low and scattered undershrubs are Ceanothus
fendleri, Berberis repens, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, Symphoricarpos
oreophilus, Sericotheca dumosa, and the nonshrubby vegetation
includes Wyethia arizonica, Frasera speciosa, Gilia pulchella, and
Pentstemon torreyi.

A few of the Transition Zone birds are Merriam's turkey, band-
tailed pigeon, Lewis's woodpecker, Cabanis's woodpecker, ant-eating
woodpecker, Stephens's whippoorwill, western wood pewee, evening
and black-headed grosbeaks, western vesper sparrow, spurred towhee,
western tanager, western martin, red-faced warbler, painted redstart,
and pygmy and Rocky Mountain nuthatches.

The mammals of this zone are the handsome Abert squirrel,
gray-collared chipmunk, Arizona ground squirrel, San Francisco
Mountain wood rat, rusty white-footed mouse, Mogollon meadow
mouse, Arizona porcupine, fulvous pocket gopher, Rocky Mountain
cottontail, and brown bat.

This open clean- trunked forest is not only of great and permanent
value as a source of lumber supply to a vast treeless region, but it
affords much of the finest grazing land in the State. There is far
more humidity than in the valleys, and if the range is not overstocked
the grazing need not interfere with forest growth and reproduction.

Some agriculture on very restricted areas would be possible in this
zone, but its value would be little in comparison with that of the
present forest, water, and grazing. Over a great part of the area the
surface presents the formation commonly termed "malpais," which
consists of extensive lava beds partly covered with thin layers of soil
and with angular fragments of lava strewing the ground so thickly
as to make traveling difficult, and in most places to render cultiva-
tion impossible.

1913.] MOUNTAINS OF NEW MEXICO. 65

The Upper Sonoran valleys of the Mogollon Mountain region are
the part of greatest agricultural importance, but these have been
treated under the subdivisions of that zone, mainly under the Gila
Valley.

MAGDALENA AND SAN MATEO MOUNTAINS.

The Magdalena and San Mateo Mountains are so closely connected
with the Mogollon Mountains and resemble them so much in general
features and fauna and flora that they might well be included in the
group if narrow Upper Sonoran valleys did not intervene. The fol-
lowing description is from reports by E. A. Goldman, who has worked
in both ranges.

They extend along the west side of the Rio Grande Valley in Socorro
County as steep, rugged desert ranges, reaching approximately 10,000
feet in altitude. They are very rocky, with numerous side canyons and
sharp ridges and steep slide rock slopes. They retain but little of the
water that falls on them, and while showing deep erosion they have
few streams and only occasional springs. The little available water
along their basal slopes is, however, of great value, as the surround-
ing country is devoted mainly to stock raising. They are scantily
forested with the usual Rocky Mountain trees.

Three life zones are represented: Canadian, Transition, and Upper
Sonoran. The Canadian Zone covers a narrow crest along each
range and extends down to 9,500 feet altitude on hot slopes and to
8,500 feet on cold slopes. It is characterized by such trees as the
aspen, white fir, Douglas spruce, and Rocky Mountain maple; by the
long-crested jays, Clark's nutcracker, junco, and Townsend's solitaire;
and by the Rocky Mountain meadow mouse, a red-backed mouse, and
a little shrew.

Transition Zone covers the lower slopes of the mountains from
about 7,000 to 8,500 feet on cold slopes and from 8,000 to 9,500 feet
on hot slopes. It is characteristized by scattered yellow pines, nar-
row-leaved cottonwoods, oaks of the Quercus gambeli group, Ceano-
ihus fendleri, Sericotheca, Prunus, gooseberries, and currants. Its
birds and mammals are practically the same as those of the Transi-
tion Zone of the Mogollon Mountains.

The Upper Sonoran foothills and basal slopes are characterized by
the usual juniper, nut pine, live oak, bear grass, yucca, and cactus.
There are numerous dry washes and a few springs and streams.
Agriculture is limited mainly by lack of water to a few garden
patches and a little fruit raised for home use in the canyons and
gulches. There is usually good grazing over the foothills and basal
plains, and stock raising is an important industry.
86914°— 13 5

66 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

SAN LUIS AND ANIMAS MOUNTAINS.

The San Luis and Animas Mountains form in the southwestern
corner of New Mexico the northern terminus of the Sierra Madre of
Mexico. The higher part of the San Luis range lies south of the
boundary line, but the Animas range north of San Luis Pass is prac-
tically a continuation of it, and attains an altitude of 8,600 feet near
its northern end. The Big Hatchet Mountains (8,300 feet) and
Peloncillo Mountains (about 6,500 feet) are outlying ranges less
closely connected with the main Sierra Madre but largely occupied
by the same set of species. Hemmed in on the north, east, and
west by hot Lower Sonoran valleys, these steep, rough, arid little
ranges are widely separated from the Mogollons and Rocky Moun-
tains on the north. As the Animas peaks are the highest and most
northern part of this ragged terminus of a great range, their plant
and animal life is of particular interest.

Their altitude is sufficient to give them a trace of Canadian Zone,
represented in cold gulches near the summits by patches and streaks
of aspens, a few long-crested jays and red-backed juncos, western fly-
catchers, and hoary bats.1 But little collecting has been done in
these high gulches, and more work will probably increase the list of
Canadian species.

The Transition Zone area in the Animas Mountains is more exten-
sive than the Canadian and better known, reaching on northeast
slopes from 7,000 feet to the top (8,600), and on southwest slopes
from 8,000 feet to the top, and to the south almost connecting with
that of the San Luis Mountains. It contains a number of small
streams and although mainly on steep, rather dry slopes it is far
from barren. Besides the scattered forest of large trees it is partly
occupied by a tangle of undergrowth. The timber, which is most
abundant on the colder and moister slopes, is composed of Douglas
spruce, yellow, white, Arizona, and Chihuahua pines, several oaks,
including Quercus Tiypoleuca, reticulata, wilcoxi, and ga.mbeli, Arizona
madrone, and willow-leaved cherry. Part of the oaks are shrubby,
and with them are also buckthorn (Rhamnus smithi), Sericotheca
dumosa, Rubus neomexicanus, Ceanothus fendleri, brake (Pteridium
aquilinum pubescens), wild potato {Solarium tuberosum), and many
other characteristic Transition Zone plants.

Few of the mammals are restricted to the Transition Zone in so
limited an area, but the wood rat (Neotoma mexicana), fulvous pocket
gopher {Thomomys fulvus), cottontail (Sylvilagus f. Tiolzneri), black
and grizzly bears, and mountain lion are common residents.

Transition Zone birds are represented by Merriam's turkey, the
band-tailed pigeon, Cabanis's woodpecker, Stephens's whippoorwill,

1 Two hoary bats shot in the Animas Valley on Aug. 10 probably came down out of the mountains for
water, although they may have been migrating.

im::. i mountains of new Mexico. 67

broad-tailed and Rivoli's hummingbirds, spurred towhe-e, black-
headed grosbeak, western tanager, Stephens's vireo, Virginia, black-
throated gray, and red-faced warblers, painted redstart, pygmy and
Rocky Mountain nuthatches, Mexican chickadee, and western robin.
These were found between July 26 and August 9, and all may have
been bred in these mountains.

The Upper Sonoran Zone covers the base of these mountains and
reaches up on the warm slopes to the tops of all but a few of the
highest peaks. On open foothill slopes it is marked by scattered
live oaks (Quercus arizonica and emoryi), junipers (Juniperus mono-
sperma and pachyphloea) , a tree yucca {Yucca schotti), two species of
century plant (Agave palmeri and schotti), bear grass (Nolina Tind-
heimeriana) , sotol (Dasylirion wheeleri), and an arborescent cactus
(probably Opuntia versicolor) , and along dry washes by gum elastic
(Bumelia rigida), sycamore (Platanus wrighti), and black walnut
(Juglans major), while above on the steeper slopes its vegetation
thickens up to a dense chaparral with the addition of several shrubby
oaks, manzanita (Aretostaphylos pungens), mountain mahogany
(Cercocarpus paucidentatus) , silk tassel (Garrya wrighti), skunk bush,
{Schmaltzia trilobata), and Fendlera rupicoJa. A few of the five-
leaved Mexican nut pines (Pinus cembroides) , scattered through this
chaparral, yield good nuts which with the acorns, walnuts, juniper
berries, and many other seeds and fruits provide abundant food for
birds and beasts. Animal life is abundant and well protected by
the dense vegetation.

The common Upper Sonoran mammals of the mountains and foot-
hills are the little Sonora white-tailed deer (Odocoileus couesi), rock
squirrel (Citellus variegatus grammwrus), rock chipmunk (Eutamias
dorsalis), white-throated wood rat (Neotoma alhigula) Rowley white-
footed mouse (Peromyscus boylei rowleyi), gray fox ( Urocyon cinereoar-
genteus scotti) , civet cat (Bassariscusastutus flavus) , and spotted skunk
(Spilogalc ambigua).

The mountain birds of this zone are Mearns's quail, the Arizona and
ant-eating woodpeckers, poor-will, black-chinned hummingbird,
Arizona jay, canyon towhee, hepatic tanager, Baird's wren, and
bridled titmouse.

While the San Luis and Animas Mountains are of relatively slight
importance for lumber, grazing, or agriculture, they still catch
moisture and render the surrounding valleys habitable and valuable.
There are no rivers of any importance for irrigation, but the streams
that sink at the base or half way up the sides of the mountains break
out lower down in springs, or carry a supply of good water below the
surface to the bottoms of broad valleys. Thus stock raising becomes
the most important industry, and where open water can not be found
within reach of good grazing areas, wells or tanks are used. Even-
tually parts of these warm rich-soiled valleys will be reclaimed by

68

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

pumping from wells or reservoirs supplied by water from the mountain
slopes.

Incidentally the mountains are of some value as natural game
preserves, but in such small areas the game will soon be exterminated
unless protected. At present the country is so thinly settled that
protection for game depends mainly on the interest of the ranch
owners and the more intelligent settlers. In most cases, however,
local interests are powerless against outside hunting parties and
irresponsible campers.

BIG HATCHET MOUNTAINS.

The following description is by E. A. Goldman, who was in the
range in July, 1908:

The Big Hatchet Mountains in the southeastern part of Grant
County form a steep, rugged, desert range with a trend from northwest

to southeast. They are
steep and rough on
all sides, but are tilted
upward very abruptly
toward the west. The
highest peak, near the
northern end of the
range, is over 8,000
feet high. Toward the
southern end the range
divides and nearly sur-
rounds a small, open
valley, while farther
south rises another rug-
ged but lower desert
range or group called
the Alamo Hueco or
Dog Mountains. On the
northeast of the Big
Hatchet Mountains the
low range called Doyle
Hills crosses the inter-
national boundary into
Chihuahua, and farther
to the eastward in Chi-
huahua is the Sierra
Boca Grande, similar in height, trend, and general character to the
Big Hatchet Mountains. All the mountains of the general region are
very arid, and no permanent water or even temporary "tanks" were
found in the Big Hatchet Mountains. The broad, gently sloping

Fig. 4.— Parry century plant in full flower at 8,100 feet on top of the
Big Hatchet Mountains. Photograph by E. A. Goldman.

North American Fauna No. 35, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate XIII

Fig. 1.— Mimbres Mountains from Top of Sawyers Peak (10,000 Feet), Looking

North.

Fig. 2.— Mimbres Mountains from Top of Sawyers Peak, Looking South.

North American Fauna No. 35, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate XIV.

i

. 4f i

.'.

&y&jw9

'"iBSi.y.'l->i.^»l

^'^S^iilSsK

^uSSkX v.-

- ; •'■-.S^yt'.flijff/'

4

JtT-

Fig. 1.— Upper Timbered Slope of Magdalena Mountains.
Photograph by E. A. Goldman.

Fig. 2.— Upper Timbered Slopes of San Mateo Mountains.
Photograph by E. A. Goldman.

North American Fauna No. 35, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate XV.

Fig. 1.— Animas Peak (8,600 Feet) from Northwest Base.
Live oaks, cactuses, yuccas, and bear grass in foreground.

Fig. 2.— Upper Sonoran Border of the Animas Valley.
An excellent stock range.

North American Fauna No. 35, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate XVI.

Fig. 1.

-Field of Oats Among the Yellow Pines on the East Slope of the
Sacramento Mountains at 7,800 Feet.

,

Fig. 2.— Forest at 9,000 Feet in the Sacramento Mountains.

Blue spruce and white fir on the cold slopes, yellow pine on warm slopes, and parks full of

flowers between.

1913.] MOUNTAINS OF NEW MEXICO. 69

Hachita Valley extends along the eastern side of the mountains, at
about 4,200 feet altitude, with drainage toward Lake Guzman, Chi-
huahua, while the Great Playas Valley lies west of the mountains.

The Big Hatchet Mountains lie mainly within the Upper Sonoran
Zone, which gives way to the Lower Sonoran along the east slope of
the foothills at about 4,700 feet altitude. The north slope above about
7,000 feet should be Transition Zone in climate, although the moun-
tains are very barren and no characteristic species of the zone were
recorded. The common Upper Sonoran vegetation consists of Mexi-
can nut pine, checker-barked and silky junipers, several oaks, fringe
ash (Fraxinus cuspidata), shrubby trefoil (Ptelea), two species of
silk-tassel bush (Garry a wrigliti and goldmani), Fendlera rupicola,
Ceanothus greggi, southern mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus pauci-
dentatus), Sericotheca, Fallugia, cat's claw (Mimosa biuncifera) , Cassia
wislizeni, Nolina, and on top the beautiful Parry century plant.

MANZANO AND SANDIA MOUNTAINS.

The Manzano and Sandia Mountains form the eastern border of
the Rio Grande Valley opposite Albuquerque and Belen . The north-
ern part of the range is known as the Sandias and the southern part
as the Manzanos, the two ranges being separated by a high pass or
open saddle. The Manzanos are joined loosely toward the south to
the lower San Andres- Mountains by way of the Cerro Montoso,
Chupadero Mesa, and Sierra Oscuro, but the main part of the range
includes only the Manzano and Sandia Mountains, which reach alti-
tudes of about 10,000 and 11,000 feet, respectively, and carry narrow
crests of the Canadian Zone and a wider and continuous area of the
Transition Zone. On the west these ranges drop abruptly to the low
Rio Grande Valley, while eastward they slope off gradually to the high
open plains. The upper zones are narrow on the steep, barren west
slope and much wider on the gradual and better-forested eastern side.
Though in the midst of an arid country, these mountains are high
enough to induce considerable precipitation, which results in a good
cover of vegetation and extensive forests. There are numerous
springs and a good supply of underground water far down the slopes,
but streams are few and mainly ephemeral.

The Canadian Zone covers the tops of these mountains and the cold
slopes down to about 8,000 feet. It is well marked by a rather
meager forest of white fir, blue spruce, Douglas spruce, Pinus jlexilis,
aspen, and Rocky Mountain maple, with mountain ash, alders, and
willows in cold gulches and along streams. It has a few characteristic
mammals, the spruce squirrel, pocket gopher, dusky shrew, and
probably others not yet recorded. The breeding birds are little
known, as most of the field work done in the range has been late in the
season. On July 30 I found half-grown wild turkeys near the top of

70 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

the Manzano range, but they may have wandered up from below
after the nesting season. I also found olive-sided flycatchers, juncos,
and thrushes that were probably on their breeding grounds.

The Transition Zone covers the greater part of the mountains
from approximately 7,000 to 8,000 feet on cold slopes and 8,000 to
9,000 feet on warm slopes. On the east side of the range it spreads
out over a wide area of gently sloping ridges and mellow-soiled valleys,
well clothed with open yellow pine forest, scattered oaks of the
Qu< reus gambdi group, New Mexico locust, and low undergrowth of
Ceanothus fendleri, Berberis repens, Sericotheca, OjMlaster, and many
other Rocky Mountain plants. Some of the common birds in July
were flickers, ant-eating and hairy woodpeckers, western wood pewee,
black-headed grosbeak, spurred towhee, western chipping sparrow,
and pygmy and Rocky Mountain nuthatches, while a flock of young
turkeys seen up in the Canadian Zone were probably hatched in the
Transition. Of the mammals collected in this zone the chipmunk,
Guadalupe meadow mouse, Manzano cottontail, and brown bat are
among the most characteristic. There are still some mule deer and
black bears in the mountains. There is good grazing throughout
the zone, which seems of greater value for timber, stock, game, and
summer cam] ting grounds than for its very limited possibilities of
agriculture.

The Upper Sonoran Zone of the foothills and surrounding valleys
is the main zone of agriculture and stock raising. The foothill
division of this zone is of particular interest along the eastern slope
of the mountains, where it carries picturesque little forests of nut
pine, juniper, and scrub oaks, with tree cactus, prickly pear, yuccas,
red barberry, skunk brush (ScJimaltzia trilobata), and other shrubs
scattered between. Many little farms and stock ranches are located
along tins slope in sheltered corners where some irrigation is obtained
from flood water and where dry farming yields occasional crops.
The old apple trees at Manzano, from which the mountains are named,
are said to be over 100 years old. They are very large but yield poor
ungrafted fruit. Much if not most of this juniper belt would seem
admirably adapted to apples if sufficient moisture for the growth of
trees and fruit could by proper cultivation be conserved in the soil.
The natural growth of grama and other grasses is good and forms fine
grazing, while the gulches and timber afford good shelter for stock.

SACRAMENTO MOUNTAINS.

The name Sacramento Mountains is applied by the United States
Geographic Board to the range lying west of Pecos Valley, New Mex-
ico, and includes the groups locally known as the Jicarilla, Sierra
Blanca, Sacramento, and Guadalupe Mountains. These form a prac-
tically continuous chain of ranges about 140 miles in length and 30

1913.]

MOUNTAINS OF NEW MEXICO.

71

miles in greatest width. They lie between the Pecos and Alamogordo
valleys and extend a little below the Texas line. On the west and
north they are distantly linked by high mesas with the Manzano
Range and these again by other high mesas with the Sangre de Cristo
Mountains, which are part of the Rocky Mountains proper.

Sierra Blanca, the highest peak in the range, rises 1 1 ,880 feet. The
Capitans are over 10,000 feet, the Sacramentos, near Cloudcroft, 9,500
feet, and the Guadalupes, near the Texas line, 9,000 feet. The lowest
pass is over the Guadalupe arm, which comes down to about 7,000
feet. On the west and at the north and south ends the mountains
are abrupt and rugged, while on the east in the broad central part

'.} g, '■

-4 f" ***'-k

Fig. 5.— Sierra Blanca, or White Mountain Peak, from the southeast, looking over the head of Ruidosa
Creek. Timber mainly Douglas spruce and aspens.

they slope gradually down to the broad plains of the Pecos Valley.
The various groups form a well-timbered range in the midst of arid
plains, carrying a few Mexican or peculiar species or subspecies of
animals and plants, but dominated largely by Rocky Mountain
species. They rise through the successive zones from Lower Sonoran
to Hudsonian.

The Hudsonian Zone is represented on the top and northeast slope
of Sierra Blanca, or White Mountain Peak, by many dwarf plants
such as Silene, Arenaria, Saxifraga, Rhodiola neomexicana, Sedum,
Orthocarpus, Erigeron, Ligusticum, and on narrow crests of two lateral
ridges by a few dwarf Picea engelmanni that reach to within 200 feet

72 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

of the summit. The whole upper south slope is bald and grassy and
the north slope steep and rocky, so that the presence of a true timber-
line can be inferred only from these narrow strips of spruce.

On September 13, I found Clark's nutcracker, Townsend's soli-
taire, and the pipit on or near the peak, but practically nothing is
known of the breeding birds or of the mammals high up on this
mountain. There were numerous burrows and runways of Microtus
and pocket gophers nearly to the top. My work on the mountains
consisted of a single day's trip to the peak and back to my 7,000-foot
camp on Ruidoso Creek.

The Canadian Zone covers most of the higher peaks and cold slopes
of the Capitan, White, and Sacramento Mountains, and is represented
by a trace at the southern end of the Guadalupes. It is a narrow,
irregular, and broken area that reaches its full vertical width only
on the White Mountains. It is characterized by forests of spruce,
fir, and aspens and by many of the Rocky Mountain trees and shrubs
of the zone. It is difficult to say whether Douglas spruce and Chi-
huahua white pine are mainly Canadian or Transition, as they occur
in both zones. Rocky Mountain maple is common in places and
Pachystima myrsinites and several species of Bibes are common in the
zone. The mammals of the Canadian Zone of this range are the
mule deer, spruce squirrel, gray-footed chipmunk, long-tailed meadow
mouse, white-footed mouse, porcupine, fulvous pocket gopher, and a
small shrew. Some of the breeding birds are the long-crested jay,
red crossbill, pine siskin, red-backed junco, Audubon's hermit thrush,
broad-tailed hummingbird, western flycatcher, and brown creeper.

Throughout this zone of cool coniferous forests are numerous open
parks and spruce-bordered grassy gulches where springs and little
streams afford conditions for delightful summer camps. For the peo-
ple of southeastern New Mexico and much of western Texas it is the
most convenient resort during the long hot summers. Railroads and
wagon roads make the mountains easy of access at many points and
the national forests should insure the protection of this natural park
region. Only a few years ago it was famous for its variety and
abundance of game, especially elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer,
antelope, bighorn, black and silver-tip bears, and wild turkeys. The
elk are now exterminated and other game birds and animals are
becoming scarce, but it is hoped that they can be protected so that
present numbers at least shall be maintained.

The Transition Zone in these mountains covers a wide plateau and
is almost continuous for the whole length of the range. It reaches
from about 6,500 to 8,000 feet altitude on northeast slopes and from
7,500 to 9,500 feet on southwest slopes. On some very steep south-
west slopes it reaches from 8,000 to 10,000 feet. It includes wide
stretches of beautiful forest, open, clean, and grassy underneath the

1913.1

MOUNTAINS OF NEW MEXICO.

73

smooth-trunked yellow pines which dominate the forest. Some
Douglas spruce, white pine, large-leaved maple, New Mexico oak,
and locust occupy secondary places in this forest. There are exten-
sive open parks or grassy glades and along some of the stream valleys
these are occupied by little farms, but the great value of this zone is
its timber, grass, and water, its cool climate, shade, and beauty in
the midst of a wide expanse of low hot plains.

Its characteristic mammals are white-tailed and mule deer, two
species of chipmunks, a 13-lined ground squirrel, Colorado wood rat,
Guadalupe meadow mouse, fulvous pocket gopher, mountain cotton-
tail, and brown bat. Some of the breeding birds of the Transition
Zone are the wild turkey, band-tailed pigeon, Huachuca spotted owl,
screech owl, hairy woodpecker, ant-eating woodpecker, red-shafted

Fig. 6.— Checker-barked junipers in Dog Canyon in the Guadalupe Mountains.

flicker, broad-tailed hummingbird, green-tailed and spurred towhees,
western tanager, Audubon's and Grace's warblers, pygmy and Rocky
Mountain nuthatches, western robin, and chestnut-backed bluebird.
The Upper Sonoran Zone covers the lower slopes of the Sacramento
Range, including the foothills and many long spurs and ridges.
The arid slopes are usually steep and either bare or densely covered
with juniper, nut pine, scrub oak, and other chaparral. Water is
scarce, especially on the west slope of the range, and extensive areas
are uninhabited. Some of these densely clothed and almost im-
penetrable slopes and canyons provide safe cover and abundant
food supply for deer, bears, Mearns's quail, and other animals, and
have played an important part in keeping up the supply of game.
The steeper and barer slopes along the southern part of the range

74 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

are still the homo of the Mexican bighorn, which, under the double
advantage of favorable environment and legal protection, is appar-
ently on the increase.

Other more open foothill valleys in the Upper Sonoran Zone lie
along streams such as the Penasco, Felix, Ruidosa, Bonito, and
Tularosa, and arc important agricultural areas.

IMPROVEMENT OF STOCK RANGES.

Many of the arid valleys in New Mexico have been for years so
overstocked that the best grasses have been killed out and parts of
the range rendered almost worthless. Some of the valleys show
mile after mile of ground almost bare or overgrown with worthless
vegetation that stock does not eat. Around most of the watering
places the grass is killed for a long distance, often from 1 to 3 miles,
the ground is trampled and baked, and the little rain that falls
runs down the trails and is wasted. All of the public stock range1
needs protection, and some of it needs reseedmg. Over a great part
of the privately owned range simple methods can be employed to
improve the grass and greatly increase the grazing capacity. Grass
is generally the best on very gentle slopes and poorest on steep
slopes or on flooded bottoms. In most of the valley country there
is at best not enough rain for a complete soil cover of grass and
on the half-bare sloping sides of the valleys a great part of the water
that falls quickly runs off. If this water could be held where it falls
and be well distributed hi the soil the grass crop would in many
places be greatly increased.

Good results have been obtained on a small scale by simple and
inexpensive methods that ranchmen could easily adopt on then
own land. Contour furrows (or furrows plowed on a level), 4 to 6
feet apart along the sloping side of a valley, will hold most of any
ordinary ram and take the water into the ground hi such a way as to
do the greatest good and also retain the richness of the soil.

The numerous small water channels cutting down the side slopes
of the valleys can be closed at intervals so as to throw the water out
through diverging furrows over side slopes and redistribute that
which has come down from higher slopes. Each arroyo should thus
arterially distribute water along its way instead of sucking it in
from countless capillaries.

If watering places were provided at more uniform intervals ever the
range, the grass would not be destroyed hi some places and allowed
to go to waste hi others. Even small reservoirs or cemented cisterns
that would supply water for a month or more after each rain would
serve this purpose. Where good water is to be had at a reasonable

1 For a comprehensive treatment of the range problem in New Mexico, see Bull. 66, N. Mex. Agric.
Exp. Sta., by E. O. Wooton, 1908.

1913.] BIBLIOGRAPHY. 75

depth, wells and windmills are of course simple means of supplying
water, but there are extensive areas where subterranean water has
not been obtained and reservoirs are the only possible substitute.
Prairie dogs, rabbits, and the big kangaroo rats should not be
allowed to multiply on good stock range. They consume and
destroy a large amount of grass and keep wide spaces about their
burrows bare and nonproductive. They are easily destroyed at
very small expense. Pocket gophers are a decided benefit to range
land and need not be destroyed except along ditches or on cultivated
ground.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

The following titles of publications bearing upon the life zones and
distribution areas in New Mexico include those most likely to interest
the general reader. The list relating to each of the subjects included
could be extended, and other fields of animal life could be drawn
upon. Each definite and reliable record of a species is of value in
locating the extent or boundary of some distribution area, but
articles of minor importance are too numerous for citation here.
Some of the local lists have been of great assistance in providing
material for the present report, but the main sources of information
have been the specimens and the unpublished field reports of the
Biological Survey.

1848. Abert, J. W. Notes of Lieut. J. W. Abert. (App. No. 6 to Notes of a Military

Reeonnoissance from Fort Leavenworth, in Missouri, to San Diego, in Cali-
fornia, by W. H. Emory.) House Exec. Doc. No. 41, 30th Cong., 1st Sess.,

pp. 386^114.
With notes on distribution of plants along the route through New Mexico.
1848. Abert, J. W. Report of Lieut. J. W. Abert of his Examination of New Mexico,

in the years 1846-47. House Exec. Doc. No. 41, 30th Cong., 1st Sess., pp.

417-548, with map. Printed also in Senate Doc. No. 23, 30th Cong., 1st Sess.,

pp. 1-132.

Contains numerous notes on mammals, birds, and plants.
1848. Wislizentjs, A. Memoir of a Tour to Northern Mexico, connected with Col.

Doniphan's Expedition, in 1816 and 1847. Sen. Misc. Doc. No. 26, 30th

Cong., 1st Sess., pp. 1-141.
Contains numerous notes on the botanical and general features of the route

through New Mexico.
1851. McCall, Geo. A. Some Remarks on Habits, etc., of Birds Met with in Western

Texas between San Antonio and the Rio Grande, and in New Mexico; with

descriptions of several species believed to have been hitherto undescribed.

<Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., V, pp. 213-224.
Contains many notes on distribution, abundance, and habits of the 68

species enumerated.
1853. Sitgreaves, L. Report of an Expedition down the Zuni and Colorado Rivers

in 1851. Pub. by Engineer Bureau; and in Vol. 10, Sen. Exec. Doc. 32d

Cong., 2d Sess., 198 pages.

Report on Natural History by S. W. Woodhouse and others, pp. 31-178,

contains lists of mammals, birds, reptiles, batrachians, fishes, and plants.

76 NOETH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

1855. Henry, T. Carlton. Notes Derived from Observations Made on the Birds of

New Mexico during the years 1853 and 1854. <Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila.,
VII, pp. 306-317.

Notes on the country and on 170 species of birds found at Forts Fillmore and
Thorn (on the Rio Grande) and at Fort Webster (near Santa Rita).

1856. Torrey, John. Description of the General Botanical Collections [of Whipple's

Expedition]. Rept. Expl. and Surv. R. R. Pac, IV, pp. 59-182.
Includes many notes upon the flora of New Mexico.

1857. Engelmann, George. Synopsis of the Cactaceae of the United States and

Adjacent Regions. <Proc. Am. Acad. Arts and Sciences, III, pp. 259-314.

Under headings Geography of the Cactus Region of the United States (p.
311) and Geographical Distribution of the Cactaceae in the Territory of the
United States (p. 312), his Texas Region, New Mexican Region, and Gila
Region include much of New Mexico.
1859. Baird, Spencer F. Mammals of the Boundary. First article, pp. 1-62, with
27 plates, in Part 2 of Vol. 2 of Report of the U. S. and Mexican Boundary
Survey, under Lieut. Col. W. H. Emory.

Contains numerous records and notes on distribution of species in New
Mexico.
1859. Baird, Spencer F. Birds of the Boundary. Second article, pp. 1-32, with
25 plates, in Part 2 of Vol. 2 of Report of the U. S. and Mexican Boundary
Survey, under Lieut. Col. W. H. Emory.

Contains many New Mexico records and notes on distribution.
1859. Baird, Spencer F. Reptiles of the Boundary. Third article, pp. 1-35, with
41 plates, in Part 2 of Vol. 2 of Report of the U. S. and Mexican Boundary
Survey, under Lieut. Col. W. H. Emory.

Contains some notes on distribution of species in New Mexico.
1859. Girard, Charles. Ichthyology of the Boundary. Fourth article, pp. 1-85,
with 41 plates, in Part 2 of Vol. 2 of Report on the U. S. and Mexican Bound-
ary Survey, under Lieut. Col. W. H. Emory.

A very few of the records are from New Mexico specimens.
1859. Le Conte,J.L. The Coleoptera of Kansas and Eastern New Mexico. <Smiths.
Contrib. Knowl., XI, pp. 1-58, pi. 1-2.

With a large colored map of the "Entomological Provinces of North
America."
1861. Cooper, J. G. The Forests and Trees of Northern America, as Connected with
Climate and Agriculture. Rept. of Commissioner of Patents (Agriculture) for
the year 1860. House Doc. No. 48, 36th Cong., 2d Sess., Vol. 8, 1860-61,
pp. 416-445, with a map showing distribution of North American forests.

Names and outlines many distribution areas as based on distribution of
trees and shrubs. Makes the "Arizonan" a distinct region including New
Mexico and belonging to the "Mexican Province," and gives both upper
and lower Sonoran plants as characteristic.
1866. Cope, E. D. On the Reptilia and Batrachia of the Sonoran Province of the
Nearctic Region. <Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1866, pp. 300-314.

With special lists (pp. 311-313) of species and genera characteristic of
different districts.
1871. Allen, J. A. Mammals and Winter Birds of East Florida with an Examination
of Certain Assumed Specific Characters in Birds and a Sketch of the Bird
Faunae of Eastern North America. <Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., II, No. 3, pp.
161-450.

The comparison of colors of species from arid and humid regions treated
under individual and geographical variation among birds (pp. 186-250)
applies to a large number of New Mexico species.

1913.] BIBLIOGRAPHY. 77

1873. Binney, W. G. Catalogue of the Terrestrial Air-breathing Molluskfl of North
America, with Notes on their Geographical Range. <Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool.,
Ill, pp. 191-220.
With a colored map showing distribution areas.
1875. Cope, E. D. On the Geographical Distribution of the Vertebrata of the Regnum
Nearcticum, with Especial Reference to the Batrachia and Reptilia. <Bull.
No. 1, U. S. Nat. Mus., Part III, pp. 55-95.

Many New Mexico species are included in the lists characterizing the Central
and Sonoran subdivisions of the Nearctic fauna! region.
1875. Coues, E., and Yarrow, H. C. Report on Collections of Mammals made in
portions of Nevada, Utah, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona
during the years 1871, 1872, 1873, and 1874. <Rept. Geol. and Geog. Expl.
West of 100th Mer., V, pp. 37-129.
1875. Yarrow, H. C. Notes upon Geographical Distribution and Variation, with
Regard to the Zoology of the Western United States as Relates more Particu-
larly to Mammals and Birds. <Rept. Geog. and Geol. Expl. and Surv. West
of 100th Mer., V, Zool., pp. 23-24, 1875.
Mainly quoted from Allen.
1878. Packard, A. S., Jr. Some Characteristics of the Central Zoo-geographical
Province of the United States. <Amer. Nat., XII, pp. 512-517.
Includes New Mexico.

1884. Sargent, C. S. Report on the Forests of North America (exclusive of Mexico).

Rept. Tenth Census, IX, pp. 612.

The forests of New Mexico are treated specifically on p. 568 with a map
showing their distribution.

1885. Batchelder, Charles F. Winter Notes from New Mexico. <Auk, II,

pp. 121-128 and 233-239. Annotated list of birds found about Las Vegas Hot
Springs in December, 1882, with notes on the general features of the country.

1885. Binney, W. G. A Manual of American Land Shells. <Bull. No. 28, U. S. Nat.

Mus., 528 pp.

Contains a chapter (pp. 18-42) on "Geographic Distribution." Applies to
New Mexico only in a very general way.
1885-6. Henshaw, H. W. List of Birds Observed in Summer and Fall on the Upper
Pecos River, New Mexico. <Auk, II, pp. 326-333, July, 1885; and III,
pp. 73-801, January, 1886.

Contains notes on 83 species and subspecies of birds found along the Pecos
River east of Santa Fe, July 18 to October 28, 1883, by H. W. Henshaw and
E. W. Nelson, with a description of the country.

1886. Vasey, George. Report of an Investigation of the Grasses of the Arid Districts

of Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado. Bull. No. 1, Div. Botany, U. S. Dept.
Agric, 18 pp.

Includes notes on northeastern New Mexico.

1888. Rusby, H. H. General Floral Features of the San Francisco and Mogollon

Mountains of Arizona and New Mexico and their Adjacent Regions. <Trans.
N. Y. Acad. Sci., VIII, pp. 76-81.

1889. Ensign, Edgar T. Report on the Forest Conditions of the Rocky Mountains,

especially in the State of Colorado, the Territories of Idaho, Montana, Wyo-
ming, and New Mexico. Bull. No. 2, Div. of Forestry, U. S. Dept. Agric,
pp. 41-152.

With folded map showing forest areas in the Rocky Mountain Region,
including New Mexico. Distribution of forest trees given by counties.

1890. Merriam, C. Hart. Results of a Biological Survey of the San Francisco Moun-

tain Region and Desert of the Little Colorado, Arizona. North Amer.
Fauna No. 3, 136 pp., five colored maps, Sept. 11, 1890.

Extensive discussion of life zones. The first detailed life zone work in a
region bordering on New Mexico.

78 NOETH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

L892. Allen, J. A. The Geographical Distribution of North American Mammals.
<Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., IV, pp. 199-243, pis. V-VIII.
With four colored maps of North America.
1892. Anthony, A. W. Birds of Southwestern New Mexico. <Auk, IX, pp. 357-369.
An annotated list of 129 species and subspecies of birds found in the Apache
Hills and surrounding country near the Mexican line in Grant County during
parts of 1886 and 1889, with a brief description of the country.

1892. Merriam, C. Hart. The Geographical Distribution of Life in North America,

with Special Reference to the Mammalia. <Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., VII,
64 pp., with colored zone map of North America. (Republished in 1893 in
Ann. Rept. Smithsonian Inst, for 1891, pp. 365^415, without map.)

Gives general principles of distribution in North America, also tables of
names proposed by earlier authors for the various distribution areas. The
discussion of the Sonoran division and its synonyms (p. 15) applies particu-
larly to New Mexico.

1893. Allen, J. A. The Geographical Origin and Distribution of North American

Birds, Considered in Relation to Faunal Areas of North America. <Auk, X,
pp. 97-150, pis. III-IV.

With two colored faunal maps of North America.
1893. Coville, F. V. Botany of the Death Valley Expedition. <Contr. U. S. Nat.
Herb., IV, 363 pp.

Contains chapters on the Principles of Plant Distribution and on Distribu-
tion of Plants in Southeastern California.
1S93. Merriam, C. Hart; and others. The Death Valley Expedition, a Biological
Survey of Parts of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. North American
Fauna No. 7, Part II.

The field notes on the zonal distribution of reptiles and batrachians (pp.
159-228) and the notes on the geographical and vertical distribution of trees,
shrubs, cactuses, yuccas, and agave (pp. 285-359), by Merriam, give the
zones of many species found in New Mexico.

1893. Townsend, C. H. T. On the Life Zones of the Organ Mountains and Adjacent

Region in Southern New Mexico, with Notes on the Fauna of the Range.
<Science, XXII, PP- 313-315.

Distinguishes Tornillo or Cottonwood Zone, Mesquite Zone, Juniper or
Cedar Zone, and Pine Zone.

1894. Merriam, C. Hart. Laws of Temperature Control of the Geographic Distri-

bution of Terrestrial Animals and Plants. <Nat. Geog. Mag., VI, pp. 229-
238, December.

Contains three colored maps of the United States and part of Canada,
showing conformity of life zones with isotherms.

1895. Merriam, C. Hart. The Geographic Distribution of Animals and Plants

in North America. Yearbook U. S. Dept. of Agric. for 1894, pp. 203-214.

Has map showing life zones of the United States and southern Canada
in black and white, and discusses the principles of distribution as illustrated
by animals and plants.
1895, 1897. Townsend, C. H. T. On the Bio-geography of Mexico, Texas, New
Mexico, and Arizona. With special reference to the limits of the life areas,
and a provisional synopsis of the bio-geographic divisions of America.
<Trans. Tex. Acad. Sci., I, pp. 71-96, 1895; II, pp. 33-86, 1897.
1S96. Cockerell. T. D. A. Report of the Entomologist. Bull. No. 19, New Mex.
Agric. Exp. Sta., pp. 99-118.
Pages 99 and 100 on life zones, mainly critical.
1S96. Cope, E. D. The Geographical Distribution of Batrachia and Reptilia in
North America. <Amer. Nat., XXX, pp. 886-902, and 1003-1026, 1896.
Applies to New Mexico in a very general way.

1913.] BIBLIOGRAPHY. 79

1897. Cockerell, T. D. A. Life Zones in New Mexico, Pt. I. Bull. No. 24, New

Mex. Agric. Exp. Sta., 44 pp.
With tables of the distribution of certain families of insects in New Mexico.

1898. Cockerell, T. D. A. Life Zones in New Mexico, Pt. II. Bull. No. 28, New

Mex. Agric. Exp. Sta., pp. 137-179.

Gives zonal distribution of Coleoptera.
1898. Merriam, C. Hart. Life Zones and Crop Zones of the United States. Bull.
No. 10, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. Agric, 79 pp.

Contains colored map of Life Zones of the United States, corrected to
December, 1897. Gives lists of native species characterizing the zones and
subdivisions and crops best adapted to each division.
1898. Plumb, C. S. The Geographic Distribution of Cereals in North America.
Bull. No. 11, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. Agric, 24 pp.

Contains colored map of Life Zones of the United States, by C . Hart Merriam,
and shows adaptation of various varieties of cereals to the different zones and
their subdivisions.

1898. Pound, Roscoe; and Clements, F. E. The Vegetation Regions of the Prairie

Province. <Bot. Gaz., XXV, pp. 381-394.
The region includes the northeastern part of New Mexico.

1899. Garriott, E. B. Notes on Frost. Farmers' Bulletin No. 104, Weather Bur.,

U. S. Dept. Agric, 23 pp.

A popular treatment of frost conditions and methods of preventing frost.
Many references to thermal belts or verdant zones.

1899. Smith, J. G. Grazing Problems in the Southwest and How to Meet Them.

Bull. No. 16, Div. Agrost., U. S. Dept. Agric, 47 pp.
Considerable discussion of New Mexican plants.

1900. Carleton, M. A. The Basis for the Improvement of American Wheats. Bull.

No. 24, Div. Vegetable Physiology and Pathology, U. S. Dept. Agric, 87 pp.

AVilh colored map showing distribution of differen t groups of wheat varieties
and areas of irrigated wheat.
1900. Cockerell, T. D. A. The Lower and Middle Sonoran Zones in Arizona and
New Mexico. <Amer. Nat,, XXXIV, pp. 285-293, 1900.

On zonal positions of the Salt River and Mesilla valleys.
1900. Cope, E. D. The Crocodilians, Lizards, and Snakes of North America.
<Rept. U. S. Nat. Mus. for 1898, pp. 153-1244, pis. 1-36.

With an extended chapter on geographic distribution (pp. 1199-1234).
Applies to New Mexico only in a very general way.

1900. Rydberg, P. A. Plant Geography of North America. Composition of the

Rocky Mountain Flora. <Science (new ser.), XII, pp. 870-873, Dec 7, 1900.
A general discussion of distribution areas, particularly of the Rocky
Mountain Region, including New Mexico.

1901. Bray, W. L. The Ecological Relations of the Vegetation of Western Texas.

<Bot. Gaz., XXXII, pp. 99-123, 195-217, 262-291, figs. 1-24.

With a map (fig. 6) of the "Vegetation Provinces of the West Texas Region"
and considerable discussion of zones and distribution.

1902. Bailey, Florence Merriam. Handbook of Birds of the Western United

States. 8vo, xc, 514 pp. Boston.

Map of life zones of Western United States, p. xxxiv; ranges of many
species of birds given by zones; and a chapter on zonal distribution.

1903. Brown, A. E. The Faunal Relations of Texas Reptiles. <Proc Acad. Nat.

Sci. Phila., LV, pp. 551-558.

With lists of species characteristic of different zones and faunal districts.
1903. Coville, Frederick V. ; and MacDougal, D. T. Desert Botanical Laboratory
of the Carnegie Institution. Published by the Carnegie Institution, 58 pp.

Contains an account of the Tularosa Desert and the White Sands, with notes
upon their floras.

80 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

1903. Stone, Witmer; and Rehn, James A. G. On the Terrestrial Vertebrates of

Portions of Southern New Mexico and Western Texas. <Proc. Acad. Nat.
Sci. Phila., LV, pp. 16-34, May 7, 1903.

Contains local lists of mammals, birds, and reptiles, mainly from the Sac-
ramento Mountains and Alamogordo Valley, with notes on zonal distri-
bution.

1904. Plummer, Fred G.; and Gowsell, M. G. Forest Conditions in the Lincoln

Forest Reserve, New Mexico. Professional Paper No. 33, U. S. Geol. Surv.,
47 pp.

The mountains are divided into forest zones; distribution of trees given by
townships; timber stands shown on contour maps.

1905. Bailey, V. Biological Survey of Texas. North American Fauna No. 25, Bio-

logical Survey, U. S. Dept. Agric, 216 pp., illustrated, Oct. 24, 1905.

Contains an extended chapter, "Fauna and Flora of Texas in Relation to
Life Zones and Minor Distribution Areas." Colored map of "Life Zones of
Texas and Parts of Oklahoma and New Mexico, " and numerous distribution
maps.
1905. Bray, W. L. The Vegetation of the Sotol Country in Texas. Bull. No. 60,
Univ. Tex., Scientific Series No. 6, 24 pp., 11 plates, June 15, 1905.

Discusses the change from the humid Austroriparian to arid Sonoran divi-
sion of Lower Austral Zone and names the arid division in West Texas the
Sotol Country.
1905. MacBride, T. H. The Alamogordo Desert. <Science (new ser.), XXI, pp.
90-97.

A discussion of the botanical and geological features of the White Sands and
the surrounding country.

1905. Rixon, T. F. Forest Conditions in the Gila River Forest Reserve, New Mexico-

Professional Paper No. 39, U. S. Geol. Surv., iii+89 pp.

Gives distribution of timber by townships and shows timber stand on con-
tour map of Gila National Forest.

1906. Hilgard, E. W. Soils, their Formation, Properties, Composition and Relation

to Climate and Plant Growth in the Humid and Arid Regions, xxvii-f 595
pp'. New York and London.

Contains chapters on Soils of the Arid and Humid Region, Alkali Soils,
Utilization and Reclamation of Alkali Lands, the Vegetation of Saline and
Alkaline Lands with tables showing tolerance of alkali and salts by native
species and by trees and crop plants.
1906. Hunn, John T. Sharpless. Notes on Birds of Silver City, New Mexico.
<Auk, XXIII, pp. 418-425.

Comprising notes on 112 species and subspecies of birds found about Silver
City from September to May of 1903^4 and 1904-5, and brief notes on general
features of the country.

1906. Rydberg, P. A. Flora of Colorado. Bull. No. 100, Colo. Agric. Exp. Sta.,

448 pp.

Treats a large part of the species of northern New Mexico, and gives dis-
tribution by altitudes and specific localities in Colorado.

1907. Mearns, E. A. Mammals of the Mexican Boundary of the United States. A

descriptive catalogue of the species of mammals occurring in that region; with
a general summary of the natural history and a list of trees. Bull. No. 56,
U. S. Nat. Mus., Pt. I, 501 pp. Families Didelphiidse to Muridse.

With chapters on the "Life Areas" and "Differentiation Tracts" (pp.
70-74). Black and white maps of route and of "Differentiation Tracts," and
numerous illustrations.

1913.] BIBLIOGRAPHY, 81

1907. Ruthven, Alexander G. A Collection of Reptiles and Amphibians from

Southern New Mexico and Arizona. <Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXIII,
pp. 483-604. Illustrated.

A section extending from Cloudcroft on top of the Sacramento Mountains
to the White Sands in the bottom of the Tularosa Valley is divided into plant
associations with which the reptiles are correlated.

1908. Gilman, M. French. Birds of the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico.

<Condor, X, pp. 146-152.

A list of the birds observed about Shiprock Agency in the San Juan River
Valley and in the Chusca Mountains of Northwestern New Mexico between
February 1 and September 1, 1907, with notes on distribution, abundance,
and habits; notes on general features of the country.
1908. Ruthven, Alexander G. Variation and Genetic Relationships of the Garter
Snakes. Bull. No. 61, U. S. Nat. Mus., 201 pp.

With distribution maps of most of the species.
1908. Wheeler, William Morton. The Ants of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
<Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXIV, Art. 21, pp. 399-485.

The distribution of many of the species conform closely to life zones.

1908. Wooton, E. O. The Range Problem in New Mexico. Bull. No. 66, New Mex.

Agric. Exp. Sta., 46 pp.

Contains many notes upon the occurrence of native plants and a map show-
ing the distribution of grass societies in the State.

1909. Blaisdell, Frank E. A Monographic Revision of the Coleoptera belonging to

the Tenebrionide Tribe Eleodiini inhabiting the United States, Lower
California, and Adjacent Islands. Bull. No. 63, U. S. Nat. Mus., 524 pp., and
13 plates.
The detailed ranges given show that many species conform to life zones.

1909. Standley, Paul C. Notes on the flora of the Pecos River National Forest.

<Muhlenbergia, V, pp. 17-30.

1910. American Ornithologists' Union Committee. Check List of North Ameri-

can Birds. Third edition (revised), New York.

The frontispiece is a map of North America showing life zones in colors
prepared by Merriam, Bailey, Nelson, and Preble, and zones are used in
defining ranges of most of the species.
1910. Mead, I. R. Study of the Life of the Tornillo Zone. Thesis, New Mexico
Agricultural College. MS. in library New Mex. Agric. College. (From
Standley.)

"Contains the results of observations upon the plants and insects of certain
parts of Mesilla Valley."
1910. Metcalfe, O. B. A Study of the Atriplex and Larrea Tension Line in the
Mesilla Valley, New Mexico. Thesis for the degree of M. S., New Mexico
Agricultural College. MS. in library New Mex. Agric. College. (From
Standley.)

"An account of the results of efforts to explain the peculiar distribution of
Covillea tridentata and Atriplex canescens in the Mesilla Valley."
1910. Metcalfe, O. B. The Flora of the Mesilla Valley. Thesis for the degree of
B. S., New Mexico Agricultural College. MS. in library New Mex. Agric.
College. (From Standley.)

"A discussion of the zones of plant life to be found in the region, together
with a list of the plants occurring in the vicinity."
1910. Standley, Paul C. The Type Localities of Plants First Described from New
Mexico. <Contr. Nat. Herb., XIII, pp. 143-227.

With two maps of New Mexico, lists of the plants described from each
type locality, and a bibliography of New Mexican botany.
86914°— 13 6

82 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 35.

1911. Bowman, Isaiah. Forest Physiography, Physiography of the United States,
and Principles of Soils in Relation to Forestry. 8vo. 759 pp. Many figures,
plates, and a geological map of North America. New York.
Numerous physiographic areas are named and defined.
1911. Gary, Merritt. A Biological Survey of Colorado. North American Fauna
No. 33, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. Agric, 256 pp.

Colored zone map of Colorado, species maps and lists of zone-marking
species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and plants.
1911. Shantz, H. L. Natural Vegetation as an Indicator of the Capabilities of
Land for Crop Production in the Great Plains Area. Bull. No. 201, Bur.
Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. Agric, 100 pp., numerous illustrations.

This report is especially applicable to the Great Plains division of Upper
Sonoran Zone in eastern New Mexico.
1911. Wooton, E. 0. Cacti in New Mexico. Bull. No. 78, New Mex. Agric. Exp.
Sta., pp. 1-70.
All of the known species in New Mexico are described; ranges are given
by zones.
1911. Harshberger, John William. Phytogeographic Survey of North America.
790 pp., colored map, numerous illustrations, and bibliography (46 pages).
New York and Leipzig.

A compilation based on numerous reports on distribution of plants. On
the map New Mexico includes parts cf three divisions — his Prairie-Great
Plains Region, Great Basin Region, and Rocky Mountain Region.
1913. Wooton, E. O.; and Standley, Paul C. Description of New Plants, Pre-
liminary to a Report on the Flora of New Mexico. <Tontr. Nat. Herb.
XVI, Pt, 4, pp. 109-196.

A large number of new species described; distribution given by specific
localities and by life zones.

INDEX.

[Pages bearing the principal reference to a subject are in bold-faced figures.)

Abert squirrel, 43, 62, 64.

tuft-eared, 61.
townee, 17, 19.
Abies arizonica, 51, 55, 60.

conco'or, 49, 55.
Abiquiu Peak, 57.
Acacia, 15, 17.

James, 36.
spineless, 20.
straight-spined, 20.
toothed, 36.
Acacia con<=tricta, 13, 20.
cusp'data, 36.
filicioides, 20.
greggi, 20.
Accipiter cooperi, 44.

velox, 44.
Acer glabrum, 49.

grandidentatum, 45.
neomexicanum, 45.
Achillea subalpina, 53.
Acknowledgments, 10.
Aconitum porrectum, 49.
Actaea vindiflora, 49.
Acuan jamesi, 36.
Adelia neomexicana, 35.
Aeronautes melanoleucus, 34, 44.
Agave, mescal, 29.
Agave applanata, 37.

lecnuguilla, 13, 21.
palmeri, 37, 67.
par-yi, 21, 28, 37.
schotti, 67.
Agelaius phoeniceus neutralis, 34.
Agriculture, college of, 22.

Lower Sonoran Zone, 12.
Upper Sonoran Zone, 26.
Agropyron arizonicum, 46.
bakeri, 49.
caninum, 51.
pseudorepens, 46.
smithi, 46.
spicatum, 38.
violaceum, 49.
Agrostis exarata, 46.
hiemalis, 46.
idahoensis, 49.
stolonifera, 22.
Aiken's screech owl, 33.
Aimophila mficeps scotti, 34.
Alamo Hueco Mountains, 68.
Alder, 49, 64, 69.

long-leaved, 35.
tree, 29.
Alfalfa, 38, 58.
Allenrolfea occidentalis, 21.
Allthorn, 13, 15, 21.
Almagordo Valley, 70.
Almonds, Lower'Sonoran Zjne, 25.
Alnus oblongifolia, 35.

tenuifolia, 49.
Alopecurus geniculatus, 46.
Alpine forget-me-not, 52.
larkspur, 51 , 52.
lungwort, 52.
meadow rue, 53.
sagebrush, 53.

three-toed woodpecker, 48, 50, 63.
timothy, 51.
yarrow, 53.
Alsinopsis obtusiloba, 52.
Alucopratincola, 19.
Alum root, 51.
Ambystoma tigrinum, 35.

trisruptum, 35.
Amelanchier baked, 36.

oreophilus, 45.
Ammodramus savannarum bimaculatus, 44.
Ammospermophilus harrisi, 17, 18.
interpres, 18.
leucurus cinnamomeus, 32.

Amphib;ans, Upper Sonoran Zone, 35.
Amphilophis saceharoides, 22.
Amphispiza bilineata deserticola, 19.

nevadensis 34.
Andropogon chrysocomus, 46.

halli, 37.
Androsace carinata, 52.
Anemopsis californica, 22.
Angelica, 53.
Animas Mountains, 66.
Annual meadow grass, 46.
Ant-eating woodpecker, 44, 59, 61, 64, 67, '
Antelope, 32, 61, 72.

Mexican, 32.
Antelope squirrel, 32.

Texas, is.
gray-tailed, 17, 18.
Antennaria marginata. 51.
Anthony white-footed mouse, 17, 18.
Anthus rubescens, 52.
Antilocapra americana, 32.

americana mexicana, 32.
Antrostomus vociferus macromystax, 44.
Antrozous pallidus, 19.
Apache plume, 36.

pocket gopher, 43, 61.
pocket mouse, 28, 33.
Aphelocoma woodhousei, 34.
Aplomado falcon, 19.
Apples, 23, 38, 39, 58.
Apricots, 23, 40.
Aquilegia caerulea, 49.
elegantula, 46.
formosa, 46.
Aragallus parryi, 52.

richardsoni, 49.
Arbutus arizonica, 45.
Archilochus alexandri, 44.
Arctic-Alpine Zone, 1 1 , 51.
birds, 52.
mammals, 52.
plants, 52.
Arctic saxifrage, 52.

spring beauty, 52.
Arctostaphylos pungens, 36, 67.

uva-ursi, 45, 60, 64.
Arenaria, 71.

fendleri, 51.
Argemone hispida, 36.

intermedia, 30.
platyceros, 36.
Aristida bromoides, 22.
cirrhatus, 38.
divaricata, 22.
fendleriana, 38.
havardi, 22.
purpurea, 38.
schiediana, 22.
wrighti, 38.
Arizona cypress, 45.
fescue, 49.

grasshopper mouse, 17, 18.
gray live oak, 35.
gray squirrel, '_'!>.
ground squirrel, 43, 64.
jay, 67.
junco, 66.
madrone, 45, 66.
meadow mouse, 32.
pine, 45, 66.
pocket gopher, 17, 18.
porcupine, 43, 62, 64.
pyrrhuloxia, 19.
skunk, 33, 44.
snake, 20.

spotted skunk, 9, 33.
spruce squirrel, 47, 63.
sycamore, 35.
tree cactus, 37.
walnut, 29, 35.
weasel, 43, 48.

0 73.

83

84

NOETH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

Arizona wheat grass, 46.

white-footed mouse, 18.
wood rat. 32.
woodpecker, 33, 67.
Arizona elegans, 20.
Arkansas goldfinch, 34.
kingbird, 34.
\i madillo, Texas, 18.
Arnica, heart-leaved, 49.
Arnica cordifolia, 49.
Arrowwood, gray, 21.
Artemisia, 28.

arbuscula, 36.
filifolia, 21.
scopulorum,53.
tridentata,36.
Arundo donax, 2?.
Asclepias latifolia, 26
speciosa, 20.
Ash, fringe, 35, 69.
leatherleaf, 35.
mountain, 49, 69.
Ash-throated flycatcher, 34.
Aspen, 4', 49, 55, 58, 60, 62, 63, 65, 66, 69, 72.
Astragalinus psaltria psaltria, 34.
Astragalus allochrous, 36.
amphioxus, 36.
bigelovi, 36.
bisulcatus, 46.
caryocarpus, 26.
ceramicus, 36.
diphysus, 36.
gilensis, 46.
haydenianus, 46.
humistratus, 46.
missouriensis, 36.
molissimus, 26.
nuttallianus, 36.
pattersoni, 36.
praelongus, 36.
rushbyi, 46.
scalaris, 46.
shortianus, 36.
sonorae, 36.
thurberi, 36.
wootoni, 20.
yaquianus, 46.
Astur atricapillus striatulus, 48.
Asyndesmus lewisi, 44.
Atfiplex, 13, 15, 17.
Atriplex acanthocarpa, 21.
argentea, 36.
canescens, 21, 28, 36.
confertifolia, 28, 36.
elegans, 21.
expansa, 21.
powelli, 36.
wrighti, 36.
Audubon's caracara, 19.

hermit thrush, 48, 62, 63, 72.
warbler, 44, 59, 62, 63, 73.
Auriparus flaviceps, 19.
Avena striata, 49.
Avens, mountain, 51, 52.
Aztec harvest mouse, 32.
meadow mouse, 33.
Baccharis, 13, 15.

green, 21.
sticky, 21.
winged, 21.
Baccharis glutinosa, 21.

pteronoides, 21.
viminea, 21.
Badger, 43, 58.

Mexican, 18, 33.
Bseolophusinornatus griseus, 28, 34.

wollweberi, 34.
Bailey pocket gopher, 33.
Baird pocket mouse, 18, 33.

wren, 34, 67.
Ball prickly pear, 37.
Balsam, 47.

Banana-fruited yucca, 37.
Band-tailed pigeon, 44, 56, 59, 64, 66, 73.
Baneberry, green-flowered, 49.
Barberry, blue, 36, 45.
Fendler, 45.
red, 36, 70.
three-leaved, 21.
Wilcox, 36.
Barley, 3S.

Barn owl, 19.
Bascanion flagellum, 20.

flagellum frenatum, 35.
taeniatum, 35.
Bassariscus astutus flavus, 33, 67.
Bat, big-eared, 33.

brown, 44, 64, 70, 73.
cave, 19, 33.
free-tailed, 19.
fringed, 19, 33.
hoary, 48, 66.
house, 19, 33.
large pale. 19.
little California, 19, 33.
little canyon, 17, 19.
long-eared, 33.
long-legged, 44.
silver-haired, 62.
Yuma, 19, 33.
Beans, 38, 58, 61.
coral, 20.
screw, 20.
wild, 36, 46.

' black, 44, 48, 56, 58, 59, 61, 66, 70, 72.
grizzly, 44, 56, 58, 66.
Mexican grizzly, 44.
silvertip, 56, 72.
Bear buckthorn, 45.
grass, 28, 65, 67.

Greene's, 37.
small-seeded, 37.
Bear berry, 45, 60.
Beard grass, 46.
Beaver, 56.

broad-tailed, 18, 33, 43.
Bebb willow, 45, 49.
Beets, sugar, 38.
Bell's terrapin, 34.
Berberis fendleri, 45.
fremonti, 36.
haematocarpa, 36.
repens, 45, 64, 70.
trifoliolata, 13, 21.
wilcoxi, 36.
Berlandier cotton rat, 18.
Berry, buffalo, 31,36.

Canadian buffalo, 49, 60.
June, 36, 45.
service, 36, 45.
Besseya alpina, 52.
Betula fontinalis, 31, 45.
Bibliography, 75.
Big Hatchet Mountains, 66, 68.
Big-eared bat, 33.

white-footed mouse, 28, 32.
Bighorn, 72.
Big-seeded juniper, 29.
Birch, Rocky Mountain, 31, 45.
Birds, Arctic-Alpine Zone, 52.
Canadian Zone, 48.
Hudsonian Zone, 50.
Lower Sonoran Zone, 19.
Rio Grande Valley, 28.
Transition Zone, 44,
Upper Sonoran Zone, 33.
Birdseye, Clarence, 11.
Black bear, 44, 48, 56, 58, 59, 61, 66, 70, 72.
grama grass, 22.
live oak, 29, 35.
Mountains, 62.
phoebe, 17,19.
sagebrush, 36.
walnut, 67.
willow, 35.
Blackberries, 41.
Black-billed magpie, 44.
Blackbird, San Diego redwing, 34.

yellow-headed, 34.
Black-chinned hummingbird, 44, 67.

sparrow, 34.
Black-footed ferret, 26, 33.
Black-fruited honeysuckle, 49.
Black-headed grosbeak, 44, 62, 64, 67, 70.
Black-tailed prairie dog, 26, 32.

rattlesnake, 35.
Black-throated gray warbler, 44, 67.

sparrow, 14.
Blazing star, 26.
Blepharoneuron tricholepis, 46.
Blue barberry, 36, 45.

1913.]

INDEX.

85

Blue columbine, 49.
grama grass, 37.
grosbeak, western, 19.
jay, eastern, 31.
live oak, 29.
spruce, 49, 69.
si em, 37.
Blueberry, red, 49.
Bluebird", chestnut-backed, 45, 59, 62, 73.

mountain, 48.
Bluebonnet , 46.
Bluegrass, 46.

Kentucky, 46.
western, 46.
Bluethorn,21.

Blue-throated hummingbird, 44.
Bobcat, 58.

mountain, 43.
Bobwhite. Texas, 19.
Boca Grande, Sierra, 68.
Bouteloua aristidoides, 22.
breviseta, 22.
bromoides, 37.
curtipendula, 37.
eripoda,22.
hirsuta,37.
oligostachya,37.
polystachya,22.
prostrata, 46.
vestita, 22.
Box elder, 29, 35.
Box turtle, painted, 34.
Boxthorn, pale, 36.
Brake, 66.
Brazos Canyon,57.
Brewer's sparrow, 44.
Bridled titmouse, 29, 34, 67.
Broad-tailed beaver, 18, 33 43.

hummingbird, 48, 62, 63, 67, 72,
Brome grass, 46.
Bromus frondosus, 46.
lanatipes, 46.
polyanthus, 46.
porteri, 46.
richardsoni, 46.
Broom grass, 38.
Brown bat, 44,64, 70, 73.
creeper, 62, 72.
garter snake, 35.
sagebrush, 36.
Brown-capped rosy finch, 52.
Brown-spined prickly pear, 37.
Buckeve, Mexican, 21.
Buckthorn, 45, 66.

bear, 45.
Buffalo berry, 31, 36.

Canadian, 49, 60:
Buffalo grass, 37.

false, 22.
Buff-breasted flycatcher, 34.

canyon mouse, 31, 32.
Bufo cognatus, 35.
punctatus, 35.
woodhousii, 35.
Bulbulis dactyloides, 37.
Bull snake, desert, 35.
prairie, 35.
Bullock's oriole. 34.
Bumelia rigida, 67.
Bunch grass, 22, 37.
Bunting, lark, 26, 34.
lazuli, 34.
painted, 19.
Burro Mountains, 43, 62.
Burrowing owl, 19, 33.
snake, 20.
Bush, salt, 36.

silk-tassel, 36.
skunk, 36, 70.
syringa, 36.
Bush cactus, Davis, 37.

Whipple, 37.
Bush tit, 60.

lead-colored, 28, 34.
Lloyd's, 34.
Bushy-tailed wood rat, Colorado, 43.
Buteo abbreviatus, 19.
Butte, Hosta, 59.
Mesa, 59.
Buttercup, woolly, 52.
Cabanis's woodpecker, 64, 66.

Cactus, 29, 56, 65.

arborescent, 67.
Arizona tree, 37.
Ball prickly pear, 37.
brown-spined prickly pear, 37.
Camanche prickly pear, 37.
cane, 37.
creeping, 37.
Davis bush, 37.
devil's head, 21.
Dille prickly pear, 37.
dwarf, 37.

few-spined petaya, 37.
Graham pincushion, 21.
green-flowered petaya, 37.
large-spined pincushion, 21.
little devil's head, 21.
pincushion, 37.
prickly pear, 70.
purple-flowered petaya, 37.
red-fiowered petaya, :;■; .
sand, 21.

Scheer pincushion, 21.
slender bush, 21.
slender-spined prickly pear, 37.
tree, 37, 70.
Whipple bush, 37.
Wooton prickly pear, 37.
yellow-spined prickly pear, 37.
Cactus woodpecker, 19.

wren, 17, 19.
Calamagrostis hyperborea americana, 49.
Calamospiza melanocorys, 34.
California bat, little, 33.

cuckoo, 33.
Calliandra humilis, 36.
Calliope hummingbird, 48.
Callipepla squamata, 19, 33.
Callospermophilus lateralis, 43, 47.

lateralis arizonensis, 43.
Caltha leptosepala, 51.
Caltrop, 21.
Calypte costae, 19.
Camanche prickly pear, 37.
Canada lynx, 48.
Canadian buffalo berry, 49, 60.
River, 10.
River Vallev, 14.
Zone, 11,46.

birds, 48.
grasses, 49.

Jemez Mountains, 57.
mammals, 47.
Mount Taylor Range, 59.
plants, 49.

Sangre de Cristo Mountains,
Cane, 22.
Cane cactus, 37.
Canis estor, 33.
testes, 43.
mearnsi, IS, 33.
mexicanus, 33, 43.
nebracensis, 33.
Canon towhee, 28, 34, 67.

wren, 19.
Cantaloupes, 24.
Canyon, Brazos, 57.
Canyon mouse, buff-breasted, 31, 32.
Capitan Mountains, 71.
Caracara, Audubon's, 19.
Cardellina rubrifrons, 44.
Cardinalis cardinalis canicaudus, 19.
Carduus parryi, 49.

scopulorum, 51.
Carex alpina, 51, 53.
aurea, 49.
bella, 49. 51.
ebenea, 53.
nova, 53.
saxatilis, 53.
siccata, 53.
variabilis, 51.
Carpodacus cassini, 48.

mexicanus frontalis. 34.
Carrizo Mountains, 60.
Cassia bauhinioides, 20.
roemeriana, 20.
wislizeni, 20, 69.
Cassin's kingbird, 19.

purple finch, 48, 63.
sparrow, 14, 19.

86

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

Castilleja, 51.

Castor canadensis frondator, 18, 3.3, 4.3.

Cat, civet, 29,33.

Catbird, 34.

( latently, stemless, 52.

( ii herpes mexicanus conspersus, 19.

Cat's-clavv, 28, 36, 69.

fragrant, 36.
Cave bat, L9, 33.
Ceanothus fendleri, -4:,. 61, 64, 65, 66, 70.

greggi, 36, 69.
Cebolleta Mountains, .os.
Cedar belt cottontail, 28, 3.3.
Cell is reticulata, 35.
Centurus uropygialis, 19.
Century plant, 67.

Guadalupe, 37.
little, 21.
Pp'mer, 37.
I 'any, 21, 37, 69.
< lercocarpus parvifolms, 28, 35.

paucidentatus, 35, 67. 69.
Cerro Montoso, 69.
Certnia familiaris montana, 48.
Cervus canadensis, 47.

merriami, 43, 47.
Cbaca Mesa., 42.
Chacata, dotted, 21.

glandular, 21.
gray, 21.
Chaetochloa composita, 22.
i liama River, 57.
Chamaecrista Leptadenia, 36.
Chamaesyce albomarginata, 21.
chaetocalyx, 21.
flagelliformis, 21.
lata, 21.
revoluta, 21.
serpens, 21.
serrula, 21.
Chat, long-tailed, 34.
Checker-barked juniper, 35, 69.
Cherries, 29, 39, 45, 66.
Chess grass, 46.

Ch&stnut-backed bluebird, 45, 59, 62, 73.
Chestnut-faced pocket gopher, 33.
Chickadee, long-tailed, 48.
Mexican, 44, 67.
mountain, 45.
Chihuahua pine, 45, 66.

prickly pear, 21.
spotted skunk, 19, 33.
white pine, 72.
Chili, 58.
Chilopsis, 15, 17.
Cnilopsis linearis, 21.
Chiraaphila umbellata, 49.
Chinquapin oak, 35.
Chipmunk, 56, 58, 59.

Colorado, 47, 52, 60.
gray-collared, 43, 64.
gray-footed, 43, 72.

fray -sided, 43.
lopi, 31, 43.
rock, 2'.), 32, 60,67.
Rocky Mountain, 43, 62.
Chipping sparrow, western, 44, 70.
Chivato, Sierra, 58.
Chloris brevispica, 22.
cucullata, 22.
elegans, 22.
verticillata, :n.
Choiskai Mountains, 60.
Choisya dumosa, 36.
Chondestes grammacus strigatus, 34.
Chordeiles acutipennis texensis, 19.

virginianus henryi, 34, 44.
Chrysemys cinerea belli, 34.

elegans, 34.
Chrysoma, 28.

lai icifolia, 37.
Chrysothamnus, 13, 28, 31.

bigelovi, 37.
graveolens, 37.
linifolius, 37.
stenophyllus, 37.
Chupadero mesa, 69.
Chusca Mountains, 43, 60.
Cinclus mexicanus unicolor, 48.
Cinnamon teal, 33, 44.
Cinquefoil, 49, 51, 52.

Citellus mexicanus parvidens, 18.
spilosoma arens, 18.
spilosoma macrospilotus, 18.
spilosoma major, 32.
spilosoma obsidianus, 32.
tridecemlineatus pallidus, 32.
tridocemlineatus parvus, 32.
variegatus grammurus, 32, 60, 67.
Civet cat, 29,33, 67.
Cladothrix lanuginosa, 21.
suflruticosa, 21.
Clark's nutcracker, 50, 56, 60, 62, 63, 65, 72.
Claytonia megarrhiza, 52.
Clcmentsia rhodantha, 51.
Cliff rose, 31, 35.
Climate, 9.

Closed gentian, dwarf, 51, 52.
mountain, 49.
Clover, 50.

dwarf, 51.
silky prairie, 36.
white prairie, 36.
Cueniidophoru.s grahami, 34.
gularis, 20.
melanostethus, 20.
sexlineatus, 20.
tigris, 20.
Coachwhip snake, 20, 35.
Coccyzus americanus occidentalis, 33.
Colaptes cafer collarts, 4 -1 .
Coleonyx brevis, 20.
Coleosanthus laciniatus, 15, 21.
Colinus virginianus texanus, 19.
Collared lizard, 26, 34.

western, 34.
College of Agriculture, 22.
Cologania pulcnella, 36.
Colorado busliy-tailed wood rat , 43.
chipmunk, 47, 52, 60.
cottontail, 31, 33.
meadow mouse, 32,43.
poppy, 52.
spruce squirrel, 47.
Valley, 28.

wood rat, 43, 59, 61, 62, 73.
Columba fasciata fasciata, 44.
Columbine, blue, 49.
wild, 46.
Condalia spathulata, 21.
Conepatus mesomelas mearnsi, 19.
Contour furrows, 13, 75.
Cony, dusky rock, 50.
gray rock, 50, 52.
rock, 56, 58.
Cooper's hawk, 44.

tanager, 34.
Cope pocket mouse, 26.
Coral bean, 20.
Cork-barked fir, 50, 51.
Corn, 38, 58, 61.
kafir, 38.
Cornel, 64.

river, 45.
Corvus brachyrhynchos hesperis, 34.
corax sinuatus, 34.
cryptoleucus, 19.
Corynorhinus macrotis pallescens, 33
Costa's hummingbird, 19.
Cotton, Lower Sonoran Zone, 25.
Cotton rat, Berlandier, 18.

Goldman, IS.
Cottontail, 66.

cedar belt, 28, 33.
Colorado, 31, 33.
Holzner, 43.
Manzano, 70.
Manzano Mountain, 43.
mountain, 73.
New Mexico, 33.
rabbit, desert, 18.
Rocky Mountain, 43, 59, 61, 62, 64.
Cottonwood, lance-leaved, 29, 35.

narrow-leaved, 45, 55, 64.
Rio Grande, 20, 35.
Cougar, Mexican, 33.
Coville, F. V., 11.
Covillea glutinosa, 20.
Cowania mexicana, 35.
Cowslip, white, 51.
Coyote, 56, 58, 61.
desert, 33.

1913. J

INDEX.

87

Coyote, Mearns, 18, 33.
mountain, 43.
plains, 33.
Crassina grandiQora, 37.

pumila, 21.
Crataegus erythropoda, 45.
rivularis, 45.
wootoniana, 45.
Cratogeorays castanops, 33.
Creek, Santa Clara, 57.
Creeper, brown, 62, 72.

Rocky Mountain, 48.
Creeping cactus, 37.

willow, 51, 52.
Creosote bush, 13, 15, 17, 20.
Cress, whitlow, 53.
Crissal thrasher, 17, 19.
Crop zones, 11.
Crops, 8.

Lower Sonoran Zone, 22.
Transition Zone, 43.
Upper Sonoran Zone, 38.
Crossbill, Mexican, 48.

red, 59, 72.
Crotalus atrox, 20.

confluentus, 35.
lepidus, 35.
molossus, 35.
Crotaphytus collaris, 34.

collaris baileyi, 34.
wislizeni, 20.
Croton, Texas, 36.
Croton corymbulosus, 21.
frutieulosus, 36.
neomexicanus, 21.
texensis, 36.
Crow, western, 34.
Cryptoglaux acadica acadica, 44.
Cuckoo, California, 33.
Culebra Peak, 53, 54.
Cumberland terrapin, 34.
Cupressus arizonica, 45.
Curlew, long-billed, 26, 33.
Currants, 29, 36, 40, 41, 45, 49, 51, 65.
Curve-billed thrasher, 19.
Cushioned whitlow-wort, 52.
Cyanocephalus cyanocephalus, 28, 34.
Cyanocitta stelleri diademata, 48.
Cyanolaemus clemenciae, 44.
Cymopterus, 53.
Cynomys gunnisoni, 32, 43.
ludovicianus, 32.
Cyperus erythrorhizos, 22.
Cypress, Arizona, 45.
Cyrtonyx montezumae mearnsi, 33.
D'alea, 20, 36.

Danthonia intermedia, 49.
parryi, 49.
spicata, 49.
Dark-spotted ground squirrel, 32.
Dasiphora fruticosa, 49.
Dasylirion leiophyllum, 21.
texanum, 13, 21.
wheeleri, 21, 67.
Dasyochloa pulchella, 22.
Datil Mountains, 62.

National Forest, 63.
Davis bush cactus, 37.
Deer, 73.

gray mule, 32.

mule, 43, 47, 56, 58, 59, 61, 70, 72, 73.
plains white-tailed, 32.
Sonora white-tailed, 29, 32, 62, 67.
white-tailed, 56, 72, 73.
Delphinium alpestre, 51, 52.
cockerelli, 49.
macrophyllum, 51.
Deming Plain, 16.

Dendragapus obscurus obscurus, 44, 48.
Dendroica aestiva aestiva, 34.

auduboni auduboni, 44.
graciae, 44.
nigrescens, 44.
Deschampsia alpicola, 49.

caespitosa, 49.
Desert bull snake, 35.

cottontail rabbit, 18.
coyote, 33.

fox, New Mexico, 17, 18.
horned lark, 26, 44.
jack rabbit, 18.

Desert pocket mouse, 18.
sparrow, 19.
tree frog, 35.
white-footed mouse, 18.
willow, 21.
Devil's claw, 20.
Devil's-head cactus, 21.

little, 21.
Devil's walking stick, 21.
Dewberry, Lucretia, 41.
Diablo Mountains, 62.
Diadophis regalis, 20.
Diamond willow, 45.
Didelphis mexicanus texensis, 18.
Dille prickly pear, 37.
Dipodomys merriami, 17, 18.

merriami ambiguus, 18.
spectabilis, 17, 28, 33.
Dipper or water ouzel, 48, 56, 63.
Distegia involucrata, 63.
Distichlis spicata, 22.
Distribution areas, 7-9.
Ditaxis laevis, 21.
Dock, 22.

Dodecatheon radicatum, 49, 51.
Dog Mountains, 68.
Dondia, 15.

suflrutescens, 21.
Dotted chacata, 21.
Dolicholus texensis, 36.
Douglas phlox, 51.

spruce, 45, 49, 55, 60, 62, 64, 65, 66, 69, 72, 73.
Dove, mourning, 33.

white-winged, 19.
Doyle Hills, 68.
Draba cana, 53.

neomexicana, 53.
streptocarpa. 53.
Drainage, Little Colorado, 29.
Dropseed gr^ss, 37, 46.

Texas, 22.
Dry farming, 10, 31.
Dry Land Experiment Station, 27.
Drymoeallis convallaroides, 49.
Dryobates arizonae, 33.

scalariscactophilus, 19.
villosus leucothorectis, 44.
villosus monticola, 44.
Duck ruddy, 33, 44.
Dugald, yellow, 51.
Dugaldea hoopesi, 51.
Dumetella carolinensis, 34.
Dusky grouse, 44, 48, 56, 58, 63.
rock conv, 50.
shrew, 48, 50, 69.
Dutcher, B. H., 11.
Dutcher pocket mouse, 18.
Dwarf cactus, 37.

closed gentian, 51, 52.
clover, 51.
maple, 63.
meadow mouse, 48.
walnut, 20.
weasel, 48.
willows 50.
Eared shrew, 19.
Eastern blue jay, 31.
Eaton grass, 38.
Eatonia obtusata, 38.
Echinocactus horizonthalonius, 21.

wislizeni, 15, 21.
Echinocereus chloranthus, 21.
coccineus, 37.
dasyacanthus, 21.
fendleri, 37.
neomexicanus, 21.
paucispinus, 37.
stramineus, 21.
triglochidiatus, 37.
viridiflorus, 37.
Edwinia, 45.

americana, 45.
Elaphe emoryi, 20.
Elder, box, 35.
Elderberry, Mexican, 21.

New Mexico, 45.
red, 49.
Elephantella groenlandica, 49.
Elephant-head, 49.
Elf owl, 19.
Elk, 47,58,72.

88

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

Elk, Merriam, 43, 47, 63.

Elk Mountains, 62.

Elkslip, 51.

El Paso kangaroo rat, 18.

Elymus canadensis, 38.

Emmer, 38.

Emory's snake, 20.

prickly pear, 21.
Empidonax difficilis diflieilis, 48.

fulvifrons pygmaeus, 34.
wrighti, 44.
Engelmann prickly pear, 37,49,50,51.

spruce, 49, 50,51
Ephedra torreyana, 21.
trifurca, 15,21.
viridis, 36.
Epicampes rigens, 38.
Eptesicus fuscus, 44.
Eragrostis, 37.

lugens, 37.
major, 37.
neomexicanus, 46.
obtusiflora, 22.
oxylepis, 37.
sessilispica, 37.
trichodes, 37.
Erethizon epixanthum, 43,48.

epixanthum couesi, 43, 62.
Erigeron,71.

large-flowered, 49.
Erigeron leiomeres, 53.

melanocephalus, 53.
superbus, 49.
Eriochloa punctata, 22.
Eriocoma cuspidata, 38.
Eriogonum, 22,36,46.

abertianum, 22.
bakeri, 46.
cernuum, 36.
densum, 36.
divergens, 36.
hieracifolium, 36.
jamesi, 46.
pharanacoides, 46.
polycladon, 36.
racemosum, 46.
subreniforme, 36.
trichopodum, 22.
wrighti, 36.
Erioneuror pilosum, 37.
Erismat ura jamaicensis, 33, 44.
Eritrichium argenteum, 52.
Eumeces guttulatus, 34.

multivirgatus, 34.
obsoletus, 34.
Eurotia Janata, 28, 36.
Eutamias amoenus operarius, 47, 52, 60.
cinereicollis, 43.
cinereicollis canipes, 43.
cinereicollis cinereus, 43.
dorsalis, 32, 60, 67.
hopiensis, 31.
quadrivittatus, 43, 62.
quadrivittatus hopiensis, 43.
Evening grosbeak [western], 44, 56, 59, 64.
Everlasting, 51.
Evotomys gapperi galei, 47.

limitis, 48.
Experiment Station, Dry Land, 27.

New Mexico, 22.
Falco fusco-caerulescens, 19.
Falcon, Aplomado, 19.
Fallugia, 69.

paradoxa, 36.
False bufialo grass, 22.

oats, 49.
Farming, dry, 10, 31.
Farsellesia spinescens, 36.
Feather grass, 37, 46.
Felis hippolestes, 43.

hippolestes aztecus, 33, 43.
onca hernandezi, 18.
Felix River, 74.
Fence lizard, scaly, 34.
Fendler barberry, 45.
Fendlera rupicoia, 36, 67, 69.
Ferret, black-footed, 26, 33.
Fescue, Arizona, 49.
shortleaf, 49.
Thurber, 49.
Fescue grass, 38.

Festuca arizonica, 49.

brachyphylla, 49.
octoflora, 38.
thurberi, 49.
Few-spined petaya, 37.
Fiber zibethicus osoyoosensis, 33.
pallidus, 18, 33.
ripensis, 18.
Figs, Lower Sonoran Zone, 25.
Filamentose saxifrage, 52.
Finch, brown-capped rosy, 52.
Cassin's purple, 63.
house, 34.
rosy, 56.
Fir, 55, 57, 58, 60, 63, 72.
cork-barked, 50, 51.
white, 49, 65, 69.
Fisher, A. K., 11.
Flammulated screech owl, 44.
Flat-nosed snake, 20.
Fleabane, 53.
Flicker, 70.

red-shafted, 44, 73.
Flourensia eernua, 13, 15, 21.
Flycatcher, ash-throated, 34.
buff-breasted, 34.
olive-sided, 48, 69.
vermilion, 17, 19.
western, 48,62,66,72.
Wright's, 44.
Forestiera, 35.
Forget-me-not, Alpine, 52.
Fort Defiance, 29.
Fouquieria, 17.

splendens, 13, 15,21.
Fox, gray, 33.58,67.
mountain red, 48.
New Mexico desert, 17, 18.
red, 52,56.
Foxtail, 49.

grass, 22, 46.
pine, 50,51.
Fragrant cat's-claw, 36.
Frankenia jamesi, 22.
Frasera, 49.

speciosa, 64.
stenosepala, 49.
Fraxinus cuspidata, 35, 69.

velutina, 35.
Fringe ash, 35,69.
Fringed bat, 19, 33.

gentian, mountain, 49.
Frog, desert tree, 35.

leopard, 35.
Frosted white- footed mouse, 32.
Fulvous pocket gopher, 43, 62, 64, 66, 72, 73.
Gaillard jack rabbit, 33.
Galactia wrighti, 36.
Gale red-backed mouse, 47.
Galleta grass, 22, 37.
Gambel's oak, 45, 58, 59, 60, 62.

quail, 17,19.
Garcia, Fabian, 11.
Garrya goldmani, 28,36, 69.
wrighti, 28.36,67,69.
Garter snake, brown, 35.
Marcy's, 20.
Mexican, 35.
red-barred, 35.
western, 35, 45.
Gaut, James A., 11.
Gecko, 20.
Gentian, 50.

dwarf closed, 51, 52.
mountain closed, 49.
mountain fringed, 49.
Gentiana elegans, 49.
parryi, 49.
romanzovi, 51, 52.
Geococcyx californianus, 19.
Geomys arenarius, 18.
lutescens, 33.
Geothlypis trichas occidentalis, 34.
Gerrhonotus, large, 34.
Gerrhonotus nobilis, 34.
Geum, 50.

rossi, 51, 52.
Gila monster, 20.
Mountains, 63.
National Forest, 63.
River, 10.

1913.]

INDEX.

89

Gila Valley, 17, 29.

woodpecker, 17, 19.
Gilia pulchella, 64.
Glandular chacata, 21.
Glasswort, western, 21.
Glaucidium gnoma pinicola, 44.
Gnatcatcher, plumbeous, 19.

western, 34.
Goat Peak, 57.
Golden pocket gopher, 33.
Golden-crowned kinglet, 45, 50.
Goldenrod, 49, 53.
Goldfinch, Arkansas, 34.
Goldman, Edward A., 11.
Gooseberries, 41, 45, 50, 65.
Gopher. See Pocket gopher.
Goshawk, western, 48, 59, 62.
Grace's warbler, 44, 59, 62, 73.
Graham pincushion cactus, 21.
snake, 20.

whip-tailed lizard, 34.
Grama, 22.

six-weeks, 22.
grass, 70.

black, 22.
low, 46.
Grande, Valle, 42.
Grapes, 24, 29, 36, 40, 58.
Grasses, 13, 22, 37, 38, 46, 49, 51, 70.
Grasshopper mouse, 17.

Arizona, 18.
pale, 26, 28, 32.
Grasshopper sparrow, western, 44.
Grass-o-parnassus, 49.

small-flowered, 49.
Gray arrowwood, 21.
chacata, 21.
fox, 33,58, 67.
horned lizard, 20.
live oak, 35.
mule deer, 32.
rock cony, 50, 52.'
saltbush, 21, 31.
shad scale, 36.
squirrel, Arizona, 29, 32.
titmouse, 28, 34.
willow, 35.
wolf, 56.
wood rat, 18, 32.
Gray-collared chipmunk, 43, 64.
Gray-footed chipmunk, 43, 72.
Gray-headed junco, 48, 50.
Gray-leaved willow, 51.
Gray-sided chipmunk, 43.
Gray-tailed prairie dog, 28, 32, 43.
Greasebrush, 36.
Great Basin division Upper Sonoran Zone, 27.

spotted skunk, 33.
Great Plains division Upper Sonoran Zone, 25

jack rabbit, 33.
Great Playas valley, 69.
Green baccharis, 2i.
joint fir, 36.
prickly pear, 21.
snake, smooth, 35.
sumac, 21.
willow, 52.
Greene, E. L., 11.
Greene's bear grass, 37.
Green-flowered baneberry, 49.
Green-flowered petaya, 21,37.
Green-tailed towhee, 44, 62, 73.
Grizzly bear, 44, 56, 58, 66.
Mexican, 44.
Grosbeak, black-headed, 44, 62, 64, 67, 70.
evening, 56, 59, 64.
pine, 56.

Rocky Mountain pine, 50.
western blue, 19.
western evening, 44.
Grossularia inermis, 15.
leptantha, 45.
pinetorum, 45, 63.
Ground squirrel, Arizona, 43, 64.
dark spotted, 32.
large spotted, 28,32.
pale thirteen-lined, 26, 32.
Rio Grande, 18.
Say, 43, 47.

small thirteen-lined, 32.
spotted, 18.

Ground squirrel, thirteen-lined, 73.
Grouse, dusky, 44, 48, 56, 58, 63.
Guadalupe century plant, 37.

meadow mouse, 43, 70, 73.
Mountains, 70, 71.
C.uiraca caerulea lazula, 19.
Gum elastic, 67.
Gunnison oak, 45.
Gutierrezia, 28,31.

filifolia, 37.
glomerella, 21.
longifolia, 37.
hieida, 21.
tenuis, 37.
Guzman, Lake, 69.
Gyalopium canum, 20.
Hachita Valley, 69.
Hackberry, 29, 35.
Hair grass, 49.
Hairy grama grass, 37.

woodpecker [white-breasted], 59. 62, 70, 73.
Rocky Mountain, 44.
Harris's hawk, 19.
Harvest mouse, 31.

Aztec, 32.
large-eared, 18.
little gray, 32.
Havardoak, 20.
Hawk, Cooper's, 44.
Harris's, 19.
sharp-shinned, 44.
zone-tailed, 19.
Hayden orthocarpus, 52.
Heart-leaved arnica, 49.
Hedge mustard, 49.
Heleodytes brunneicapillus couesi, 19.
Heliotrope, 13.
Hellebore, 49.
Heloderma suspectum, 20.
Henshaw, Henry W., 11.
Hepatic tanager, 44, 67.
Hermit thrush, Audubon's, 48. 62, 63, 72.
Hesperiphona vespertina montana, 44.
Heterodon nasicus, 35.
Heuchera parvifolia, 51.
Hilaria jamesi, 37.
mutica, 22.
Hoary bat, 48. 66.
Hoflmanseggia densiflora, 20.

drapanocarpa, 36.
hog-nosed snake, 26,35.
Holbrookia approximans, 34,
flavilenta, 34.
maculata, 34.
texana, 20.
Hollister, N., 11.
Holm paint brush, 53.
Holy grass, 46.
Holzner cottontail, 43.
Honeysuckle, black- fruited, 49.
Hooded oriole, Nelson's, 19.

skunk, 19.
Hop, wild, 46.
Hopi chipmunk, 31, 43.
Hordeum nodosum, 49.
Horned lark, desert, 26, 44.

Montezuma, 28, 34.
scorched, 19.
Horned lizard, gray, 20.

Texas, 20.
Hosta Butte, 59.
House bat, 19, 33.
finch, 34.

wren, western, 44.
Howell, Arthur H., 11.
Huachuca spotted owl, 33.
Hudsonian Zone, 11, 50.
biids, 50.
mammals, 50.
plants, 51.
Hummingbird, black-chinned, 44, 67.
blue-throated, 4-1.
broad-tailed, 48, 62, 63, 67, 72, 73
calliope, 48.
Costa's, 19.
Rivoli's, 67.
Humulus lupulus neomexicanus, 46.
Hyla arenicola, 35.

eximia, 35.
Hylocichla fuscescens salicicola, 45.
guttata auduboni, 48.

90

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

Hymenoclea monogyra, 21.
i [ypsiglena ochrorhyncha, 20.
[cteria virens Longicauda, 34.

Icterus bullock i, .'(4.

cucullatus nelsoni, 19.
parisorum, 19.
Indian grass, 46.
millet, 38.
Intermediate pocket mouse, 18.
Isocoma heterophylla, 37.
Jack rabbit, desert, 18.

(i ail lard. 33.
Great Plains, 33.
Plains, 26.
Texas, 18, 28, 33, 60.
white-tailed, 43.
Jacob's ladder, 52.

musky, 49.
pale, 49.
slender, 51.
Jaguar, 18.
.lames acacia, 36.
Jamesia gracilis, 21.
Jatropha macrorhiza, 21.
Jay, 58.

Arizona, 67.
eastern blue, 31.

long-crested, 48, 56, 59, 60, 62, 63, 65, 66, 72.
piflon, 28, 34.

Rocky Mountain, 48, 50, 56.
Woodhouse's, 28, 34, 60.
Jemez Mountains, 57.
Jicarfila Mountains, 70.
Joint fir, green, 36.

three-scale, 21.
Torrey, 21.
Joint grass, 22.
Juglans major, 35, 67.
rupestris, 20.
Jumping mouse, 43.
Junco, 60, 62, 63, 65, 69.

gray-headed, 48, 50.
red-backed, 44, 66, 72.
Junco phaeonotus caniceps, 48, 50.

phaeonotus dorsalis, 44.
Juncoides parvitlorum, 51.
Juncus drummondi, 53.
dudleyi, 46.
mexicanus, 22.
parous, 46.
triglumis, 53.
June grass, 46.
Juneberry, 36, 45.

Juniper, 26, 28, 29, 31, 55, 56, 58, 60, 65, 67, 70, 73.
big-seeded, 29.
checker-barked, 35, 69.
large-fruited, 35.
one-seeded, 35.
shrubby, 49, 60.
silkv, 35, 69.
Utah, 31, 35.
Juniperus communis, 60, 63.
megalocarpa, 35.
monosperma, 28, 35, 67.
pachyphloea, 28, 35, 67.
scopulorum, 28, 35.
sibirica, 49.
utahensis, 31, 35.
Kafir corn, 38

Kallstroemia brachystylis, 21.
grandiflora, 21.
hirsutissima, 21.
Kangaroo rat, 28, 60, 75.

El Paso, 18.
large, 17, 33.
large-footed, 33.
Merriam, 18.
Ord, 17, 18.
Richardson, 26, 33.
Rio Grande, 33.
small, 17.
Kansas pocket mouse, 26, 33.
Kennicott's rattlesnake, 35.
Kentucky bluegrass, 46.
King snake, 20.
Kingbird, 34.

Cassin's, 19.
Kinglet, golden-crowned, 4S, 50.

ruby-crowned, 48, 62, 63.
Koeberliniaspinosa, 13, 15,21.
Koeleria cristata, 46.

Krameria eanescens, 15, 21.
glandiUosa, 21.
parvifolia, 21.
secundiflora, 14, 36.
Lace-veined oak, 45.
Laciniaria punctata, 26.
Lagopus leucurus leucurus, 52.
Lampropeltis getulus splendidus, 20.
pyrromelanus, 20.
pyrromelanus celaenops, 20.
triangulurn amaurus, 35.
Lance-leaved cottonwood, 29, 35.
Lanius ludovicianus excubitorides, 34.
Lanivireo solitarius plumbeus, 44.
Large gerrhonotus, 34.
kangaroo rat, 33.
mesquite grass, 37.
skink, 34.

spotted ground squirrel, 28, 32.
Large-eared harvest mouse, 18.
Large-flowered erigeron, 49.
Large-footed kangaroo rat, 33.
Large-fruited juniper, 35.

yucea, 21.
Large-leaved larkspur, 51.

maple, 73.
Large-spined pincushion cactus, 21.
Large-toothed maple, 45.
Lark, desert horned, 26, 44.

Montezuma horned, 28, 34.
scorched horned, 19.
Lark bunting, 26, 34.

sparrow, western, 34.
Larkspur, 49.

Alpine, 52.
large-leaved, 51.
Lasionycteris noctivagans, 48, 62.
Lathyrus decaphyllus, 36.
leucanthus, 46.
Lazuli bunting, 34.
Lead-colored bush tit, 28, 34.
Leatherleaf ash, 35.
Lechuguilla, 13, 21.

pocket gopher, 18.
Le Conte's snake, 20.
Lemming mouse, mountain, 47.
Leopard frog, 35.

lizard, 20.
Lepargyrea argentea, 31, 36.

canadensis, 49, 60.
Leptasea chrysantha, 52.

flagellaris, 52.
Leptochloa fascicularis, 22.
Leptotyphlops dulcis, 20.
Lepus bairdi, 48.

californicus eremicus, 18.
californicus melanotis. 33.
californicus texianus, 18, 28, 33.
campestris, 43.
gaillardi. 33.
Leucosticte australis, 52.
Lewis's woodpecker, 44, 64.
Life zones, 11.

Arctic- Alpine, 51.
Canadian, 46.
Hudsonian. 50.
Lower Sonoran, 11.
principles, 7-9.
Upper Sonoran, 25.
Transition, 41.
Ligusticella eastwoodse, 53.
Ligusticum, 71.
Lincoln's sparrow, 48, 59.
Linnasa americana, 49.
Lion, mountain, 58, 66.

Mexican, 43.
Rocky Mountain, 43.
Liopeltis vernalis, 35.
Little California bat. 19, 33.
canyon bat, 17, 19.
century plant, 21.
devil's head cactus, 21.
gray harvest mouse, 32.
Little Colorado drainage, 29
Little Mountains, 62.
Live oak, 28, 55, 58, 60, 65, 67, 73.
Arizona grav, 35.
black, 29, 35.
blue, 29.
gray, 35.
Lizards, Clark scaly, 20.

1913.]

INDEX.

91

Lizards, collared, 26. 34.
fence scaly, 20.
Graham, whip-tailed, 34.
gray horned, 20.
great scaly, 20.
leopard, 20.
light sand, 34.
Lower Sonoran Zone, 34.
painted sand, 34.
Poinsett, 34.
scaly fence. 34.
short-horned, 34, 45.
six-lined, 20.
Stansbury, 20.
striped whip-tailed, 20.
Texas horned, 20.
Texas spotted-tailed, 20.
Transition Zone, 45.
Upper Sonoran Zone, 34.
western collared, 34.
whip-tailed, 20.
Yarrow's, 34.
Lloyd's bush tit, 34.
Loco, Parry, 52.
Locust , 73.

New Mexico, 45, 64, 70.
Long-billed curlew, 26, 33.
Long-crested jay, 48, 56, 59, 60, 62, 63, 65, 66,
Long-eared bat, 33.
Long-leaved alder, 35.
Long-legged bat , 44.
Long-nosed white-footed mouse, 32.
Long-spined prickly pear, 21.
Long-tailed chat, 34.

chickadee, 48.
meadow mouse, 52, 72.
skunk, 33.
Lonicera involucrata, 49.
Lophortyx gambeli, 19.
Loring, J. Aklen, 11.
Lousewort, purple, 49.

short-beaked, 52.
Lower Austral Zone, 11.
Lower Sonoran Zone, 11.

birds, 19.
crops, 22.
lizards, 20.
mammals, 18.
plants, 20.
reptiles, 20.
snakes, 20.
Loxia curvirostra stricklandi, 48.
Lucretia dewberry, 41.
Lungwort, 49.

alpine, 52.
Lupine, 20, 36, 46.
small, 36.
Lupinus aduncus, 36.

brevicaulis, 36.
dispersus, 36.
kingi, 46.

neomexicanus, 46.
micensis, 20.
parviflorus, 40.
pusillus,36.
Lutra canadensis, 43.
Lutreola, 43.
Lycium, 15.

small-flowered, 21.
Torrey,21.
Lycium pallidum, 36.

parviflorum, 21.
torreyi, 21.
Lyme grass, 38, 46.
Lynx, Canada, 48.
Lynx baileyi, 33.

canadensis, 48.
unita, 43.
Macgillivray's warbler, 44.
Madrone, Arizona, 45, HO.
Magdalena Mountains, 65.
Magpie [black-billed], 31, 44, 58.
Mahogany, mountain, 28, 67.

small-leaf mountain, 35.
southern mountain, 35, 69.
Maize, 30.

milo, 38.
Mamillaria dasyacantha, 37.
grahami, 21.
heyderi, 37.
las'iaeantha, 37.

Mamillaria macromeris, 21.
meiacantha, 37.
radiosa, 37.
scheeri, 21.
vivipara, 61.
Mammals, Arctic-Alpine Zone, 52.
Canadian Zone, 47.
Hudsonian Zone, 50.
Lower Sonoran Zone, 18.
Transition Zone, 43.
Upper Sonoran Zone, 32.
Manna grass, 46.
Many-lined sktnk, 34.
Many-ribbed triton, 35.
Manzanita, 36, 67.
Manzano cottontail, 70.

Mountain cottontail, 43.
Mountains, 43, 69.
Maple, dwarf, 63.

large-leaved, 73.
large-toothed, 45.
New Mexico, 45.

Rocky Mountain, 49, 60, 65, 69, 72.
Marcy's garter snake, 20.
Marmota flaviventer, 47, 50, 52.
Marsh pepperroot, 22.

wren, western, 34.
Marten, 48.

Martes eaurina origines, 48.
Martin, western, 64.
Masked shrew, 4S, 50.
Massasauga, 20.
Mayr pine, 45.
Meadow grass, 37, 38.
Meadow mouse, 59.

Arizona, 32.
Aztec, 33.
Colorado, 32, 43.
dwarf, 48.

Guadalupe, 43, 70, 73.
long-tailed, 52, 72.
Mogollon, 43, 62, 64.
mountain, 60.

Rocky Mountain, 48, 63, 65.
Meadow rue, Alpine, 53.
Meadowlark, Rio Grande, 19.
western, 26, 34.
Mearns coyote, IS, 33.

white-backed skunk, 19.
quail, 33, 62, 67, 74.
Meibomia bigelovi, 36.
grahami, 36.
neomexicana, 36.
Melanerpes formicivorus lormicivorus, 44.
Meleagris gallopavo merriami, 44.
Melic grass, 46.
Melica parviflora, 46.
Melopelia asiatica trudeaui, 19.
Melospiza lincolni lincoini, 48.

melodia montana, 44.
Mephitis estor, 33, 44.

leucomitra, 19.
mesomelas varians, 19, 33.
Merganser, 48.
Mergus americanus, 48.
Merriam, C. Hart, 10.
Merriam elk, 43, 47, 63.

kangaroo rat, 18.
turkey, 44, 64, 66.
Mertensia, 49.

caelestina, 52.
Mesa, Chupadero, 69.
Mesa Butte, 59.
Mescal, 28.

agave, 29.
Mesquite, 13, 14, 15, 17, 20.
Mexican antelope, 32.
badger, 18.
bobcat, 43.
buckeye, 21
chickadee, 44, 67.
cougar, 33.
crossbill, 48.
elderberry, 21.
garter snake, 35.
grizzly, 44.
mountain lion, 43.
mountain sheep, 32.
nut pine, 35, 67, 69.
raccoon, 33.
screech owl, 33.

92

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

Mexican white pine, 15, 64.
wolf, 33, 43.
wood rat, 43.
Micranthes arguta, 49.

rhomboirlea, 52.
Micropsias whitneyi, 1!).
MicTOtus aztecus, 33.

mexicanus guadalupensis, 43.
mogollonensis, 43. 62.
montanus arizonensis, 32.
mordax, 48, 52, 60.
nanus, 48.

pennsylvanicus modestus, 32, 43.
Milk pea, 36.
snake, 35.
vetch, 20,36, 46.
vetch, Richardson, 49.
Milkweed, 26.
Millet, 38.

Indian, 38.
Milo maize, 38.
Mimbres Mountains, 43, 62.
Mimosa, 17.

biuncifera, 28, 36, 69.
dysocarpa, 36.
fragrans, 36.
lemmoni, 36.
Mimus polyglottos leucoptenis, 19.
Mining, 8."
Mink, 43.
Mistletoe, 21.

Mockingbird, western, 14, 19.
Mogollon meadow mouse, 43, 62, 64.

Mountains, 43, 62.
Moneses, one-flowered, 49.
Moneses uiiiflora, 49.
Monkshood, 49.
Monster, Gila, 20.
Montezuma horned lark . 28, 34.
Moreno Valley, 42.
Mortoniascabrella, 21.
Morus microphylla, 35.
Mount Sedgwick, 61.
Mount Taylor Range, 58.
Mountain ash, 49, 69.

avens, 51, 52.
bluebird, 48.
chickadee, 45.
closed gentian, 49.
cottontail, 73.
coyote, 43.
fringed gentian, 49.
lemming mouse, 47.
lion, 58, 66.
lion, Mexican, 43.
lion, Rocky Mountain, 43.
mahogany, 28, 67.
mahogany , small-leaf, 35.
mahogany, southern, 35, 69.
meadow mouse, 60.
plover, 33.

pocket gopher, 43, 48.
racer, 35.
red fox, 48.
rice, 49.

sheep, 50, 52, 58.
sheep, Mexican, 32.
sheep, Texas, 32.
shrew, 48, 63.
snowberry, 45.
song sparrow, 44.
sorrel, 52.
willow, 45.
Mourning dove, 33.
Mouse, Anthony white-footed, 17, 18.
Apache'pocket,2s,33.
Arizona grasshopper, 17, 18.
Arizona meadow, 32.
Arizona white-footed, 18.
Aztec harvest, 32.
Aztec meadow, 33.
Band pockety 17, 18, 33.
big-eared white-footed, 28, 32.
buff-breasted canyon, 31, 32.
Colorado meadow, 32, 43.
Tope pocket, 26.
desert pocket , 18.
desert white-footed, 18.
Dutcher pocket, 18.
dwarf meadow, 48.
frosted white-footed, 32.

Mouse, Gale red-backed , 47.

Guadalupe meadow, 43, 70.
harvest, 31.

intermediate pocket, 18.
jumping, 43.
Kansas pocket, 26, 33.
large-eared harvest, 18.
little gray harvest, 32.
long-nosed white-footed, 32.
long-tailed meadow, 52, 72.
meadow, 59.

Mogollon meadow, 43, 62, 64.
mountain lemming, 47.
mountain meadow, 60.
pale grasshopper, 26, 28, 32.
plains pocket, 33.
pocket, 60.
Price pocket, 18.
red-backed, 63, 65.

Rocky Mountain meadow, 48, 63, 65.
Rowley white-footed, 28,32,67.
rusty white-footed, 47, 64.
southern red-backed, 48.
Tornillo white-footed, 18.
white-footed, 72.
Yavapai pocket, 31, 33.
Muhlenbergia acuminata, 37.
afflnis, 37.
arenicola, 37.
comata, 46.
cuspidata, 46.
distichophylla, 37.
gracilis, 46.
mexicana, 37.
monticola, 37.
pungens, 37.
raeemosa, 46.
richardsonis, 46.
subalpina, 46.
texana, 22.
vaseyana, 37.
Mulberry, 29.

small-leaf. 35.
Mule deer, 43, 47, 56, 58, 59, 61, 70, 72, 73.

gray, 32.
Munroa squarrosa, 22.
Muskrat, pale, 18, 33.

Pecos River, 18.
Rocky Mountain, 33.
Musky Jacob's ladder, 49.
Mustard, hedge, 49.
Mustela arizonensis, 43, 48, 52.

frenatus neomexicanus, 19.
nigripes, 33.
streatori leptus, 48.
Mutton grass, 38.
Myadestes townsendi, 48.
Myiarchus cinerascens cinerascens, 34.
Myiochanes richardsoni richardsoni, 44.
Mvotis californicus, 19, 33.
evotis, 33 .
incautus, 19, 33.
lucifugus longicrus, 44.
thvsanodes, 19, 33.
veiifer, 19, 33.
yumanensis, 19, 33.
Narrow-flowered psoralea, 36.
Narrow-leaved cottonwood, 45, 64.
low yucca, 37.
sagebrush, 21.
trefoil, 36.
yucca, 26, 61.
Nasua, IS.

narica pallida, 18.
National Forest, Datil, 63.
Gila, 63.
Notiosorex crawfordi, 19.
Natrix transversa, 20.
Navajo Church, 59.

Indian reservation, 31.
Nazia aliena, 37.

Nebraska white-footed mouse, 26.
Nectarines, 40, 58.
Needle grass, 22.
Negundo aceroides, 35.
Nelson, Edward W., 11.
Neotoma albigula, 28, 32, 60, 67.
albigula warreni, 32.
cinerea arizonae, 32.
cinerea orolestes, 43.
lepida, 31, 32.

1913.]

INDEX.

93

Neotoma lepida stephensi, 32.
mexicana, 43, 66.
mexicana fallax, 43, 59, 62.
micropus canescens, 18, 32.
pinetorum, 43.
New Mexico broom grass, 22.
cottontail, 33.
desert fox, 18.
elderberry, 45.
Experiment Station, 22.
locust, 45, 64, 70.
maple, 45.
oak, 45. 73.
petaya, 21.
pocket gopher, 33.
shrew, 48.
thimbleberry, 45.
weasel, 19.
Nighthawk, Texas, 19.

western, 26, 34, 44.
Ninebark, western, 45.
Nolina, 69.

greenei, 37.

lindheimeriana, 28, 67.
microcarpa, 37.
Northern violet-green swallow, 48.
Nucifraga Columbiana, 50.
Numenius americanus, 33.
Nut pine, 26, 28, 29, 31, 35, 55, 56, 58, 60, 65, 70, 73.

Mexican, 35, 67, 69.
Nutcracker, Clark's, 50, 56, 60, 62, 63, 65, 72.
Nuthatch, pygmy, 44, 59, 61, 62, 64, 67, 70, 73.
red-breasted, 48.

Rocky Mountain, 44, 59, 61, 62, 64, 67, 70,
73.
Nuttallomis borealis, 48.
Nycteris cinerea, 48.
Nyctinomus mexicanus, 19.
Oak, 26, 29, 55.

Arizona gray live, 35.
black live, 29, 35.
blue live, 29.
chinquapin, 35.
Gambel's, 45, 58, 59, 60, 62.
gray live, 35.
Gunnison, 45.
Havard, 20.
lace-veined, 45.
live, 28, 55, 58, 60, 65, 67, 73.
New Mexico, 45, 73.
oblong-leaf, 35.
scale-leaved, 45.
scrub, 31, 35, 70.
shin, 35.
Utah, 45.
Vreeland, 45.
white-leaved, 45, 64.
Wilcox, 45.
Oak Spring Mountains, 62.
Oat grass, 49, 51.
Oats, 38.

Oblong-leaf oak, 35.
Ochotona, 58.

nigrescens, 50.
saxatilis, 50, 52.
Ocotillo, 13, 15, 21.
Odocoileus couesi, 32, 67.

hemionus, 43, 47.
hemionus canus, 32.
virginianus macrourus, 32.
Ojo Caliente pueblo, 30.
Olive warbler, 44.
Olive-sided flycatcher, 48, 69.
One-flowered moneses, 49.
One-seeded juniper, 35.
Onions, 24.
Onychomys leucogaster melanophrys, 28, 32.

torridus, 17, 18.
Opheodrys aestivus, 20.
Oporornis tolmiei, 44.
Opossum, Texas, 18.
Opulaster, 70.

monogynus, 45.
Opuntia arborescens, 37.
arenaria, 21.
balli, 37.

camanchica, 26, 37.
chihuahuaensis, 21.
chlorotica, 21.
clavata, 37.
cyclodes, 13.

Onuntiacymochila, 26, 37.
davisi, 37.
dillei, 37.
dulcis, 21.
emoryi, 21.
engelmanni, 15, 37.
filipendula, 21.
kleinise, 21.

leptocaulis, 13, 14, 15, 21.
macrocentra, 21.
phaeacantha, 37.
polyacantha, 37.
sphaerocarpa, 37.
spinosior, 37.
tenuispina, 37.
toumeyi, 21.
trichophora, 37.
versicolor, 67.
whipplei, 37.
wootoni, 37.
Orange-crowned warbler, 44.
Ord kangaroo rat, 18.
Oreoscoptes montanus, 44.
Oreospizachlorura, 44.
Oreoxis bakeri, 53.
Oriole, Bullock's, 34.

Nelson's hooded, 19.
Scott's, 14, 19.
Orpine, red, 51.
Orthocarpus, 71.

Hayden, 52.
yellow, 51.
Orthocarpus haydeni, 52.

luteus, 51.
Oryzopsis asperifolia, 49.
micrantha, 37.
Oscura, Sierra, 69.
Otocoris alpestris adusta, 19.

leucolaema, 44.
occidentalis, 28, 34.
Otter, 43.
Otus asio aikeni, 33.

asio cineraceus, 33.
flammeolus flammeolus, 44.
Ouzel, water, 48, 56, 63.
O vis canadensis, 50, 52.

canadensis texianus, 32.
mexicanus, 32.
Owl, Aiken's screech, 33.
barn, 19.

burrowing, 19, 33.
elf, 19.

flammulated screech, 44.
Huachuca spotted, 33.
Mexican screech, 33.
pygmy, 44.
saw- whet, 44.
screech, 73.
spotted, 73.
Oxyria digyna, 52.
Pachystima myrsinites, 49, 63, 72.
Paintbrush, 51.

Holm, 53.
Painted box turtle, 34.
bunting, 19.
cup, 51.
pyrola, 49.

redstart, 44, 62, 64, 67.
sand lizard, 34.
Pale boxthorn, 36.

grasshopper mouse, 26, 28, 32.
Jacob's ladder, 49.
muskrat, 18, 33.

thirteen-lined ground squirrel, .32.
Palmer century plant, 37.

tnrasher, 19.
Panic grass, 22, 38, 46.
Panicularia nervata, 46.
Panicum arizonicum, 38.
bulbosum, 46.

fasciculatum chart iginense, 22.
halli, 38.

pampinosum, 38.
plenum, 46.
Papaver coloradense, 52.
Papophorum wrighti, 22.
Parabuteo unicinctus harrisi, 19.
Parnassia fimbriata, 49.
parviflora, 49.
Paronychia pulvinata, 52.
Parosela ardiae, 36.

94

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

Paroselabrachystaehys, 36.
calycosa, 36.
enneandra, 36.

formosa, 13, 14,20.
frutescens, 15, 20.
grayi, 36.
jamesi, 36.
lachnostachys, 20.
scoparia, 20."
Parry century plant, 21, 37, 69.

loco, 52.
Parryella filifolia, 36.
Paspalum distichum, 22.
Pass, San Luis, 66.

Taos, 53.
Passerina amoena, 34.

ciris, 19.
Pea, 38.

milk, 36.
wild, 46.
Peaches, 23, 40, 58.
Pears, 39, 58.
Peccary, Sonora, 31.
Pecos Baldy, 54.
Pecos River, 10.

head, 54.
muskrat, 18.
Pecos Valley, 12, 70.
Pedicularis parryi, 52.

racemosa, 49.
Pelado peak, 57.
Peloncillo Mountains, 66.
Peflasco River, 74.

Penthestesatricapillusseptentrionalis,48.
gambeli, 45.
sclateri, 44.
Pentstemon, 49.

purple, 51.
Pentstemon gracilis, 51.
torreyi, 64.
Pepperroot, marsh, 22.
Perisoreus canadensis capitalis, 48, 50.
Perodipuslongipes, 28, 33.
montanus,28, 33.
montanus richardsoni, 33.
ordi, 17, 18.
Perognathus apache, 33.

flavescens,33.
flavus, 17, 18, 33.
flavus bimaculatus. 31. 33.
hispidus paradoxus, 33.
intermedius,18.
merriami gilvus, 18.
penicillatus pricei, 18.
Peromvscus anthonyi, 17.

boylei rbwley i, 28, 32, 67.
crinitus auripectus, 32.
eremicus, 18.
eremicus anthonyi, IS.
leucopusarizonae, 18.
leucopus tornillo, IS.
maniculatus blandus, 32.
maniculatus ruflnus , 47.
nasutus,32.

penicillatus eremicus, 18.
truei, 28, 32.
Petalostemonoligophyllimi, 36.
purpureum, 36.
tenuifolium, 36.
Petaya, few-spined, 37.

green-flowered, 21, 37.
New Mexico, 21.
purple-flowered, 21, 37.
red-flowered, 37.
yellow-flowered, 21.
Peucaeacassini. 19.
Peucedramus olivaceus, 44.
Pewee, western wood, 44, 62, 63, 64, 70.
Phaceiia, silky, 52.
Phaceliaserisea, 52.
Phainopepla, 19.
Phainopepla nitens, 19.
Phalaenoptilus nuttalli nuttalli, 33.
Phaseolus acutifolius, 36.

angustissimus, 36.
macropoides, 36.
retusus, 46.
Phpiiacomys orophilus, 47.
Phfladelphus argyrocalyx. 36.

microphyllus, 36.
Phleum alpinum, 51.

Phlox, Douglas, 51.
Phlox douglasi, 51.
Phoebe, black, 17, 19.
Phoradendron maerophyllum, 21.
Phrynosoma cornutum, 20.

hernandesi, 34, 45.
modestum, 20.
ornat issimum, 34.
Pica pica hudsonia, 44.
Picea engelmanni, 49, 51, 55, 71.
parryana, 49.
pungens, 55, 60.
Picoidcs americanus dorsalis, 48, 50.
Pigeon, band-tailed, 44, 56, 59, 64, 66, 73.
Pileolated warbler, 48, 59.
Pincushion cactus, 37.

Graham, 21.
large-spined, 21.
Scheer, 21.
Pine, Arizona, 45, 66.

Chihuahua, 45, 66.
Chihuahua white, 72.
foxtail, 50, 51.
Mayr, 45

Mexican nut , 35, 67, 69.
Mexican white, 45, 64.

nut, 26, 28, 29, 31, 35, 55, 56, 58, 60, 65, 70, 73.
pinyon, 35.

Rocky Mountain white, 49.
white, 66, 73.

yellow, 45, 55, 58, 59, 60, 62, 64, 66, 73.
Pine grosbeak, 56.

Rocky Mountain, 50.
Pine siskin, 62, 63, 72.
Pinicola enucleator montana, 50.
Pinon jay, 28, 34.
Pinus aristata, 51.
arizonica, 45.
cembroides, 35, 67.
chihuahuana, 45.
edulis, 28, 35.
flexilis, 49, 69.
mayriana, 45.
scopulorum, 45.
strobiformis, 45.
Pinyon, 35.

Pinyon Mountains, 62.
Pipilo aberti, 19.

fuscus mesoleucus, 28, 34.
maculatus montanus, 44.
Pipistrellus hesperus, 17, 19.
Pipit, 52, 56, 72.
Pipsissewa, 49.
Piranga hepatica, 44.

ludoviciana, 44.

rubra cooperi, 34.

Pituophis catenifer deserticola,35.

sayi, 35.
Plain of San Augustine, 30.
Plain-headed little snake 20.
Plains, cause of lack of trees, 25.

short grass, 10.
Plains coyote, 33.

division Upper Sonoran, 25.
jack rabbit, 26.
pocket mouse, 33.
rattlesnake, 35.
spadefoot, 35.
white-tailed deer, 32.
Planesticus migratorius propinquus, 45.
Plants: Arctic-alpine Zone, 52.
Canadian Zone, 49.
Hudsonian Zone, 51.
Lower Sonoran Zone, 20.
Rio Grande Valley, 28.
Transition Zone, 45.
Upper Sonoran Zone, 35.
Platanus wrighti, 35, 67.
Plateau wildcat, 33.
Plover, mountain, 26, 33.
Pluchea, 15.

sericea, 21.
Plums, 23, 45.
Plumbeous gnatcateher, 19.

vireo, 44.
Plume, Apache, 36.
Poa annua, 46.
bigelovi, 46.
fendleriana, 38.
longipedunculata, 46.
occidentalis, 46.

1913.]

INDEX.

95

Poa pratensis, 46.

Pocket gopher, 52, 56, 59, 60, 69, 72, 75.
Apacho,43, 61.
Arizona, 17, 18.
Bailey, 33.
chestnut-faced, 33.
desert, 18.

fulvous, 43, 62, 64, 66, 72, 73.
golden, 33.
mountain, 43, 48.
New Mexico, 33.
yellow, 33.
Pocket mouse, 60.

Apache, 28, 33.
Baird, 17, IS, 33.
Cope, 26.
desert, 18.
Dutcher, 18.
intermediate, 18.
Kansas, 26, 33.
plains, 33.
Price, 18.
Yavapai, 31, 33.
Podasocys montanus, 33.
Poinsettlizard, 34.
Polemonium confertum, 49, 52.
delicatum, 51.
foliosissimum, 49.
Polioptila caerulea obscura, 34'.

plumbea, 19.
Polyborus cheriway, 19.
Polygala alba, 26.
Polygonum, twisted, 51.
Polygonum bistortoides, 51.

viviparum, 53.
Poniel, 36.

Pooecetes gramineus confinis, 44.
Poor-will, 33, 67.
Poppy, Colorado, 52.

prickly, 36.
Populus acuminata, 35.
angustifolia, 45.
tremuloides, 49.
wislizeni, 20, 35.
Porcupine, 58, 59, 72.

Arizona, 43, 62, 64.
yellow-haired, 43, 48.
Potatoes, 24", 38, 42, 58.
Potentilla diversifolia, 52.

filipes, 51.
Poverty grass, 22, 3S.
Prairie'bull snake, 35.
chloris, 38.
clover, silky, 36.
clover, violet, 36.
clover, white, 36.
dog, 58, 61, 75.
dog, black-tailed, 26, 32.
dog, gray-tailed, 32, 43.
vetchling, 36.
Price pocket mouse, 18.
Prickly pear, 26, 70.

Ball, 37.

brown-spined, 37.
Camanche, 37.
Chihuahua, 21.
Dille, 37.
Emory, 21.
Engelmann, 37.
green, 21.
long-spined,21.
slender-spined, 37.
sweet, 21.
Toumey, 21.
Wootoh, 37.
yellow-spined, 37.
Prickly poppy, 36.
primrose, Parry, 51.
Primula parrvl, 51.
Procyon lotor, 33. 34.

lotor mexicanus, 33.
Prosopis glandulosa, 20.
pubescens, 20.
Primus, 65.

americana, 45.
melanocarpa, 45.
salicifolia acutifolia, 45.
Psaltriparus melanotis lloydi, 34.

plumbeus, 28, 34.
Pseudotsuga mucronata, 45, 49.
Psoralea, narrow-flowered, 36.

Psoralea, small-flowered, 36.
Psoralea linearifolia, 26.
micrantha, 36.
tenuiflora, 36.
Ptarmigan, 56.

white-tailed, 52.
Ptelea, 69.

angustifolia, 36.
Pteridium aquilinum pubescens, 66.
Puccinellia distans, 38.
Puerco Valley, 14.
Purple finch, Cassin's, 48, 63.
lousewort, 49.
pentstemon, 51.
Purple-flowered petaya, 21, 37.
Pygmy nuthatch, 44, 59, 61, 62, 64, 67, 70, 73.

owl, 44.
Pyrocephalus rubinus mexicanus, 19.
Pyrola, painted, 49.
Pyrola picta, 49.

secunda, 49.
Pyrrhuloxia, Arizona, 19.
Pyrrhuloxiasinuata, 19.
Quail, Gambel's, 17, 19.

Mearns's,33,62,67,74.
scaled, 14, 17, 19, 33.
Quereus acuminata, 35.

arizonica, 28, 35, 07.
emoryi, 28, 35, 67.
gambeli, 45, 65, 66, 70.
grisea, 35.
gunnisoni, 45.
havardi, 20.
hypoleuca, 45, 66.
leptophylla, 45.
novomexicana, 45.
oblongifolia, 35.
pungens,35.
reticulata, 45, 66.
submollis, 45.
undulata, 35.
utahensis, 45.
venustula, 45.
vreelandi, 45.
wilcoxi, 45, 66.
Querquedula cyanoptera, 33, 44.
Quinces, 24, 39.
Rabbits, 75.

cedar belt cottontail, 28, 33.

Colorado cottontail, 31, 33.

cottontail , 66.

desert cottontail, 18.

desert jack, 18.

Gaillardjack,33.

great plains jack, 33.

Holzner cottontail, 43.

Manzano cottontail, 43, 70.

mountain cottontail, 73.

New Mexico cottontail, 33.

plains jack, 26.

Rocky Mountain cottontail, 43, 59, til , tiL',

64.
snowshoe, 48, 58.
Texas jack, 18, 28, 33, 60.
white-tailed jack, 43.
Rabbit brush, 28, 31, 37.
Raccoon, 33, 44, 59.

Mexican, 33.
Racer, mountain, 35.
Rana pipiens, 35.
Range, Mount Taylor, 58.
Ranunculus macauleyi, 52.
Raspberries, 41.
Rat, Arizona wood, 32.
Berlandier cotton, is
Colorado bushv tailed wood, 43.
Colorado wood. 48, 59, 61, 62, 73.
El Paso kangaroo, 18.
Goldman cotton, 18.
gray wood, 18, 32.
kangaroo, 28, 60, 75.
large kangaroo, 17, 33.
large-footed kangaroo, 33.
Merriam kangaroo, 18.
Mexican wood, 43.
Ord kangaroo, 17, 18.
Richardson kangaroo, 26, 33.
Rio Grande kangaroo, 33.
San Francisco mountain wood, 43.
small cotton, 32.
small kangaroo, 17.

96

NOKTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

Rat, Stephens wood, 29, 32.
Thomas wood, 31, 32.
Warren wood, 32.
white-throated wood, 28, 32, 60, 67.
wood, 66.
Rattlesnake, black-tailed, 35.
Kennicott's, 35.
plains, 35.

western diamond, 20.
Raven, 34.

white-necked, 19.
Red barberry, 36, 70.
blueberry, 49.
crossbill, 72.
elderberry, 49.
fox, 52, 56.
fox, mountain, 48.
orpine, 51.
Red-backed junco, 44, 72.
mouse, 63, 65.

Gale, 47.
southern, 48.
Red-barred garter snake, 35.
Red-breasted nuthatch, 48.
Red-faced warbler, 44, 64, 67.
Red-flowered petaya, 37.
Red-naped sapsucker, 48, 62.
Red-shafted flicker, 44, 73.
Redstart, painted, 44, 62, 64, 67.
Redtop, 22, 46, 49.
Redwing, San Diego, 34.
Reed grass, 49.

Regulus calendula calendula, 48.
satrapa satrapa, 48, 50.
Reithrodontomys griseus, 32.

megalotis, 18.
megalotis aztecus, 31,32.
Reptiles, Lower Sonoran zone. 20.
Transition zone, 45.
Upper Sonoran zone, 34.
Rhamnus betulaefolia, 45.
fasciculata, 45.
smithi, 66.
ursina, 45.
Rhinocheilus lecontei, 20.
Rhodiola integrifolia, 51.

neomexicana, 51, 71.
polygama, 51.
Rhoedium microphyllum, 21.
Ribes, 72.

cereum, 36.
coloradense, 49.
inebrians, 45.
lentum, 51.
longiflorum, 36.
mescalerium, 45.
wolfl, 49,63.
Rice grass, 37.
Richardson kangaroo rat, 26,33.

milk vetch, 49.
Ring snake, 20.

Rio Grande Cottonwood, 20, 35.
ground squirrel, 18.
kangaroo rat, 33.
meadowlark, 19.
River, 10.
spotted skunk, 19.
Valley, 14, 27.
River cornel, 45.
Rivoli's hummingbird, 67.
Road-runner, 14, 17, 19.
Robin, western, 45, 59, 62, 67, 73.
Robinia neomexicana, 45.
Rock chipmunk, 29, 32, 60, 67.
cony, 56,58.
snake, 20.

squirrel, 29, 32, 60, 67.
willow, 52.
wren, 34.
Rocky Mountain birch, 31, 45.

chipmunk, 43, 62.

cottontail, 43,59,61,62,64.

creeper, 48.

hairy woodpecker, 44.

jay, 48, 50, 56.

maple, 49,60,65,69,72.

meadow mouse, 48, 63, 65.

mountain lion, 43.

muskrat, 33.

nuthatch, 44, 59, 61, 62, 64, 70, 73.

pine grosbeak, 50.

Rocky Mountain spotted skunk, 33.
white pine, 49.
woodchuck, 47,50.
Rosa fendleri, 45.

maximiliana, 45.
Rose, J. N., 11.
Rose, wild, 45.
Rose wort, 51.
Rosy finch, 56.

brown-capped, 52.
Rough green snake, 20.
hair grass, 46.
salt bush, 21.
Rowley white-footed mouse, 28, 32, 67.
Rubacer parviflorus, 63.
Rubus neomexicanus, 45, 66.

parviflorus, 45.
Ruby-crowned kinglet, 48, 62, 63.
Ruddy duck, 33, 44.
Ruidosa River, 74.
Rumex ellipticus, 22.

hymenosepalus, 22.
Rush, 22, 46, 53.
wood, 51.
Rusty white-footed mouse, 47, 64.
Rye, 38.

wild, 38.
Sacramento Mountains, 43, 70.
Sage, white, 28, 31, 36.
Sage sparrow, 34.
thrasher, 44.
Sagebrush, 28.

alpine, 53.
black, 36.
brown, 36.
narrow-leaved, 21.
Salamander, many-ribbed triton, 35.
tiger, 35.

Upper Sonoran Zone, 35.
Salix bebbiana, 45, 49.
chlorophila, 52.
cordata watsoni, 45.
exigua, 35.
glaucops, 51 .
lasiandra, 45.
monticola, 45.
nigra, 35.
petrophila, 52.
saximontana, 51, 52.
wrighti, 35.
Salpinctes obsoletus obsoletus, 34.
Salt grass, 13, 22.
Saltbush, 28, 36.

gray, 21,31.
rough, 21.
Salvadora grahamiae, 20.
hexalepis, 20.
Sambucus mexicanus, 21.
microbotrys, 49.
neomexicana, 45.
San Andres Mountains, 69.
San Antonio, Valle, 42.
San Augustine Plain, 30.
San Diego redwing, 34.
San Francisco Mountain wood rat, 43, 64.

range, 62.
San Juan Mountains, 57.

River valley, 31.
San Luis Mountains, '66.

Pass, 66.
San Mateo Mountains, 43,58,65.
Sand cactus, 21.

lizard, light, 34.

painted, 34.
Sandia Mountains, 43,69.
Sandwort, 51,52.

Sangre de Cristo Mountains, 53, 71.
Santa Clara Creek, 57.
Peak 57
Santa Rosa, Valle, 42.
Sapindus, 17.

drummondi, 21.
marginatus, 14.
Sapsucker, red-naped, 48,62.

Williamson's, 48, 62.
Sarcobatus vermiculatus, 36.
Savastana odorata, 46.
Saw-whet owl, 44.
Saxifraga, 71.

cernua, 52.
Saxifrage, 49, 50.

1913.1

INDEX.

97

Saxifrage, arctic. 52.

fllamentose, 52.
wide-leaved. 52.
yellow-flowered . 52.
Say ground squirrel. 43,47.
Sayornis nigricans, 19.
.Scaled quail, 14,17,19,33.
Scale-leaved oak. 45.
Scaly fence lizard. 34.
Seaphiopus hammondi, 35.

hammondi bombifrons, 35.
Sceloporus clarki. 20.

consobrinus, 20,34.
jarrovi, 34.
magister, 20.
poinsetti, 34.
Scheer pincushion cactus. 21.
Schizachyrium neomexicanum, 22.

scoparium. 38.
ScMeropogon brevifolius, 22.
Schmaltzia glabra, 36.

microphvlla. 13, 11. 15, 21.
pumila, 28, 36.
trilobata. 28, 36, 07, 70.
virens, 21.
Sciurus aberti, 43.

aberti mimus. 43.
arizonensis, 32.
fremonti, 47.
fremonti lychnuchus. 47.

mogollensis, 47, 00.
Scorched horned lark, 19.
Scott's oriole, 14, 19.

sparrow, 29, 34.
Screech owl, 73.

Aiken's, 33.
Hammulated, 44.
Mexican, 33.
Screw bean, 15, 20.
Scrub oak, 31, 35, 70.
Sedge, 49, 51, 53.
Sedgwick, Mount, 61.
Sedum. 71.

stenopetalum. 52.
^elasphorus platycereus, 4S.
Senecio amplectens. 51.
crassulus, 51.
holmi, 53.
triangularis, 51.
Senna, 20.
Sericotheca, 65, 69, 70.

dumosa, 45, 64, 66.
Service berry, 36, 45.
Setophaga picta, 44.
Shadscale, gray, 36.
Sharp-shinned' hawk, 44.
Sheep, Mexican mountain, 32.
mountain, 50, 52, 58.
Texas mountain, 32.
Shin oak, 35.
Shooting star, 49, 51.
Short-beaked lousewort , 52.
Short-horned lizard, 34, 45.
Short leaf fescue, 49.
Shoveler, 44.
Shrew, 56, 60,65, 72.

dusky, 48, 50, 69.
eared, 19.
masked, 48, 50.
mountain, 48, 03.
New Mexico, 4s.
water, 48.
Shrike, white-ramped, 34.
Shrubby cinquefoil, 49.
juniper, 49, 60.
trefoil, ii!'.
Sialia currucoides, 48.

mexicana bairdi, 45.
Sibbaldia, 51, 52.

procumbens, 51, 52.
Sierra Blanca Mountains, 70.
Blanca Peak, 71.
Boca firande, 68.
Chivato, 58.
de los Lobos, 59.
Madre Mountains, 63, 66.
Oscura, 69.
Sie\ ersia turbinata, 51 , 52.
Sigmodon hispidus berlandieri, 18.
minimus, 32.
minimus goldmani, 18.

86914°— 13 7

Silene, 71.

acaulis, 52.
Silk-tassel bush, 28. 36, 67, 69.
Silky juniper, 35, 69!
phacelia, 52.
prairie clover, 36.
Silver-haired bat, 62.
Silvertip bear, 56, 72.
Siskin, pine, 62, 63, 72.
sist rurus catenatus edwardsi, 20.
Sisymbrium vaseyi, 49.
Sitanion longifolium,38.
molle, 40.
pubiflorum, 38.
Sitta canadensis, 48.

carolinensis nelson i, 44.
pygmaea pygmaea, 44.
Six-lined lizard, 2(t.
Six-weeks grama, 22.
Skink, large, 34.

many-lined, 34.
small, 34.
Skunk, Arizona, 33, 44.

Arizona spotted, 19, 33.
Chihuahua spotted, 19, 33.
Great Basin spotted, 33.
hooded, 19.
long-tailed, 33.
Mearns white-backed, 19.
Rio Grande spotted, 19.
Rocky Mountain spotted, 33.
spotted, 67.
Texas, 19.
Skunk bush, 36, 67, 70.

grass, 22.
sleepy grass, 46.
Slender bush cactus, 21.

Jacob's ladder, 51.
Slender-spined prickly pear, 37.
Small cotton rat, 32.
lupine, 36.
skink, 34.

thirteen-lined ground squirrel, 32.
Small-flowered grass-o-parnassus, 49.
lycium, 21.
psoralea, 36.
Small-leaf mountain mahogany, 35.

mulberry, 35.
Small-leaved sumac, 21.
Small-seeded beargrass, 37.
Smooth green snake, 35.

sumac, 36.
Snakes, Arizona, 20.

1 ilack-tailed rattle, 35.
brown garter, 35.
burrowing, 20.
coachwhip, 20, 35.
desert bull, 35.
Emory's, 20.
flat-nosed, 20.
Graham, 20.
hog-nosed, 26, 35.
Kennicott's rattle, 35.
king, 20.
Le Conte's, 20.
Lower Sonoran Zone, 20.
Mexican garter, 35.
milk, 35.

mountain racer, 35.
plain-headed little, 20.
plains rattle, 35.
prairie bull, 35.
red-barred garter, 35.
ring, 20.
rock, 20.
rough green, 20.
smooth green, 35.
Transition Zone, 45.
Vpper Sonoran Zone, 35.
water, 20.

western diamond rattle, 20.
western garter, 35, 45.
Snowberry, mountain, 45.
Snowshoe rabbit, 48, 58.
Soapberry tree, 14, 21.
Solanum tuberosum, 66.
Solidago ciliosa, 53.
parry i, 49.
Solitaire, 56.

Townsend's. 4s, 05, 72.
Song spanow, mountain, 44.

98

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 35.

Sonora peccary, 31.

white-tailed doer, 29, 32, 62, 67.
Sonoran Zone, Lower, 1 1 .
Upper, 26.
Sophora secundinora, 20.
Sorbus scopulina, 49, 63.
Sorex obscurus, 48, SO.

obscurus neomexicanus, 48.
palustris navigator, 48.
personatus, 48, so.
vagrans monticola, 48, 60.
Sorghastrum nutans, 46.
Sorghum, 38.
Sorrel, mountain, 52.
S6tol, 13,67.

Texas, 21.
Wheeler, 21.
Southern badger, 33.

mountain mahogany, 35, GO.
red-backed mouse, 48.
Spadefoot toad, 35.

plains, 35.
Spanish bayonet, 21, 28.
Sparrow, black-chinned, 34.
black-throated, 14.
Brewer's, 44.
Cassia's, 14, 19.
desert, 19.
Lincoln's, 48, 59.
mountain song, 44.
sage, 34.
Scott's, 29, 34.
western chipping, 44, 70.
western grasshopper, 44.
western lark, 34.
western vesper, 44, 64.
white-crowned, 48, 50, 59, 00, 63.
Worthen. 34.
Spatula elypeata, 44.
Spear grass, 38, 46.
Speedwell, 51.
Spelerpes multiplicatus, 35.
Speotyto cunicularia hypugaea, 19, 33.
Sphyrapicus thyroideus, 48.

varius nuchalis, 48.
Spilogale ambigua, 19, 33, 67.
arizonae, 19, 33.
gracilis saxatilis, 33.
leucoparia, 19."
tenuis, 33.
Spineless acacia, 20.
Spinus pinus, 48.
Spiny-fruited gooseberry, 45.
Spizella atrogularis, 34. '
breweri, 44.
passerina arizonae, 44.
wortheni, 34.
Sporobolus airoides, 22.

asperifolius, 22.
auriculatus, 22.
cryptandrus, 37.
flexuosus, 22.
giganteus, 22.
nealleyi, 22.
strictus, 22.
wrighti, 22.
Spotted ground squirrel, dark, 32.
large, 32.
Spotted owl, Huachuca, 33, 73.
Spotted skunk, 67.

Arizona, 19, 33.
Chihuahua, 19,33.
Great Basin, 33.
Rio Grande, 19.
Rocky Mountain, 35.
Spotted toad, 35.
Spotted-lailed lizard, Texas. 20.
Spring beauty, arctic, .",-.'.
Spruce, 47, 55, 57, 5s, 00, 63, 7-'.
blue, 49, 09.

Douglas, 45, 49, 55, 00, 62, 64, 65, 66. 69, 72. 73.
Engelmann, 19, 50, 51.
Spruce squirrel, 56, 60, 69, 72.
Arizona, 47, 63.
Colorado, 47.
White Mountain, 47.
Spurge, 21, 30.

Spurred towhee, 41. 62, 04. 07. 70. 73.
Squashes. 38, 61.
Squirrels, 5S.

A belt, 43, 62, 64.

Squirrels, antelope, 32.

Arizona gray, 29, 32.
Arizona ground, 43, 64.
Arizona spruce, 47, 63.
Colorado spruce, 47.
dark spotted ground, 32.
gray-tailed antelope. 17, 18.
large spotted ground, 28, 32.
pale thirteen-lined ground. 26, 32.
Bio Grande ground. Ik.
rock, 29, 32, 60, 67.
Say ground, 43, 47.
small thirteen-lined ground. 32.
spotted ground. Is.
spruce, 56, 60, 69, 72.
Texas antelope, Is.
thirteen-lined, 73.
tuft-eared. 43.
tuft -eared Abert, 61.
luft -eared gray. 56, 59.
White Mountain spruce. 47.
Standley, Paul C, 11.
Stansburv lizard. 20.
Star-leaf, 36.

Station, New Mexico Experiment, 22
Stellula calliope, 48.
Stemless catchfly, 52.
Stephens's vireo, 67.

whippoorwill, 44. 64. 66.
wood rat, 29. 32.
Sticky baccharis, 21.
StillinfUa linearifolia, 30.
Stinkbush, 21.
Stipacomata, 37.
editorum, 37.
flmbriata, 37.
minor. 40.
neomexicana, 37.
scribneri, 46.
vaseyi. 40.
virid'ula. 46.
Stock raisins;, 8.

Jemez Mountains, 58.
Stone blackberry. 41.
Stonecrop, 52.
Strawberries, 41.
Striped chipmunk, 56.

whip-tailed lizard, 20.
Strix oceidentalis huachucae, 33.
Sturnella magna hoopesi. 19.

neglecta, 34.
Sud worth, George B.. 11.
Sugar beets, 38.
Sumac, 28.

green, 21.

small-leaved, 13, 14, 15, 21.
smooth, 36.
velvet, 36.
velvet-leaved, 29.
Svida riparia, 45.

Swallow, northern violet green, 48.
Sweet potatoes, 24.
Sweet prickly pear, 21.
Swertia perennis, 51.
Swift, white-throated, 34, 44.
Sycamore, 07.

Arizona, 35.
Sylvilagus auduboni cedrophilus, 28, 33.
auduboni minor, 18.
auduboni neomexicanus, 33.
auduboni warreni, 31, 33.
cognatus, 43.

floridanus holzneri, 43, 66.
nuttalli pinetis, 43, 62.
Symphoricarpos oreophilus, 45, 64.
Syringa bush, 36.
Tabosa grass, 22.

Tachycineta thalassina lepida, 48.
Tall grama grass, 37.
white violet, 49.
Tanager, Cooper's, 34.
hepatic, 44, 07.
western, 44, 62, 64, 67, 73.
Tantilla planipeps, 20.
Taos Pass, 53.

Peak, 53, 54.
Tassel bush, silk, 28, 36, 67, 69.
Tat u novemcinctum texanum, 18.
Taxidea taxus, 43.

taxus berlandieri, 18, 33.
Tayassu angulatum sonoriense, 31.

1913.]

INDEX.

99

Tea, wild, 61.
Tea bush, wild, 45.
Teal, cinnamon, 33, 44.
Telmatodytes palustris plesius, 34.
Terrapena ornata, 34.
Terrapin, Bell's, 34.

Cumberland, 34.
Tetrad j-mia, 28, 31.

inermis, 37.
Thalictrum alpinum, 53.
Thamnophis eques, 35.

macrostemma, 35.
marciana, 20.
ordinoides elegans, 34, 45.
sirtalis parietalis, 35.
Thamnosma texanum, 15, 21.
Thermopsis, yellow. 46.
Thermopsis pinetorum, 40.
Thimbleberry, 45.

New Mexico, 45.
Thistle, yellow, 49.
Thomas wood rat, 31, 32.
Thomomys aureus, 33.

aureus apache, 43.
aureus lachuguilla, 18.
baileyi, 33.
cervihus, 17, 18.
fossor, 43, 48, 52, 60.
fulvus, 43, 62.
pervagus, 33.
Thorn apple, 45.
Thrasher, erissal, 17, 19.

curve-billed, 19.
Palmer's, 19.
sage, 44.
Thrush, Audubon's hermit, 48, 62, 63, 72.

willow, 45.
Thryomanes bewicki bairdi, 34.
Thurber fescue, 49.
Tick trefoil, 30.
Tiger salamander, 35.
Timothy, Alpine, 51.
Tit, bush, CO.

lead-colored bu*h, 34.
Lloyd's bush, 34.
Titlark, 52.
Titmouse, bridled, 29, 67.

grav, 28, 34.
Toads, 35.

Tonestus pygmaeus, 53.
Tornillo, 20.

Tornillo white-footed mouse, 18.
Torrey joint fir, 21.
lycium, 21.
Tourney prickly pear, 21.
Towhee, Abert's, 17, 19.
canon, 28, 34, 67.
green-tailed, 44, 62, 73.
spurred, 44, 02, 04, 07, 70, 73.
Townsend's solitaire, 48, 65, 72.
Toxostoma crissale, 19.

curvirostre, 19.
curvirostre palmeri, 19.
Transition Zone, 11,41.
birds, 44.
mammals, 43.
plants, 45.
reptiles, 45.

Sangre de Cristo Mts., 55.
Tree alder, 29.
Tree cactus, 37, 70.

Arizona, 37.
Tree frog, desert, 35.
Tree yucca, 15, 67.

narrow-leaved, 21.
wide-leaved, 37.
Trefoil, narrow-leaved, 36.
shrubby, 69.
tick, 30.
Trichloris fasciculata, 38.
Tridens muticus, 22.
Trifolium nanum, 51.
parry i, 51.
stenolobum, 51.
T rise turn montanum, 49.

subspicatum, 51.
Triton, many-ribbed, 35.
Troglodytes aedon parkmani, 44.
Trout, 50.
Truchas Peak, 53.
Tucson Mountains, 62.

Tularosa Mountains, 62.
River, 74.
Valley, 14.
Tule, 46.

Tunicha Mountains, 60.
Tunitcha Mountains, 60.
Turkey, Merriam's, 44, 64, 66.

Wild, 50, 58, 59, 01, 09, 72, 73.
Turtles, Upper SonoranZone, 34.

painted box, 34.
Twinflower, 49.
Tyrannus tyrannus, 34.
verticalis, 34.
vociferans, 19.
Ungnadia speciosa, 21.
Upper Austral Zone, arid division, 25.
Upper Sonoran Zone, 11, "25.

amphibians, 35.
birds, 33.
crops, 3S-41.
grasses, 37.

Great Basin division, 27.
mammals, 32.
plants, 35.
reptiles, 34.

Sangrede Cristo Mountains,'.'"'.
Urocyon cinereoargenteus scotti, 33, 67.
Ursus americanus ambliceps, 44, 48.
horribilis, 44.
horribilis horriaeus, 44.
Uta levis, 34.
ornata, 34.
stansburiana, 20.
Ctah juniper, 31, 35.

oak, 45.
Yaccinium erythrococcum, 49.

oreophilum, 63.
Valle Grande, 42.

San Antonio, 42.
Santa Rosa, 42.
Varnish bush. 21.
Velvet-leaved sumac, 29, 36.
Veratrum lenuipetalum, 49.
Yerdin, 19.

Vermilion flycatcher, 17, 19.
Vermivora celata celata, 44.

virginiae, 44.
Veronica wormskjoldi, 51.
Vesper sparrow, western, 44, 64.
Vetch, 46.

milk, 20, 36, 40.
Richardson milk, 49.
Yelchling, prairie, 36.
Vicia americana, 40.
leueopbaea, 46.
pulchella, 46.
Viola neomexicana, 49.
nephrophvlla, 49.
Violet, tall white, 49.
Violet prairie clover, 30.
Violet-green swallow, northern, 48.
Vireo, plumbeous, 44.
Stephens's, 67.
Virginia's warbler, 44, 67.
Visnaga, 21.
Yitisarizonica, 36.
Vreeland oak, 45.
Vulpes fulva macroura, 48, 52.

macrotis neomexicana, 17, 18.
Walking-stick, devil's, 21.
Walnut, 29, 67.

Arizona, 29.
dwarf, 20.
Warbler, Audubon's, 44, 59, 62, 63, 73.
black- throated grav, 44, 67.
Grace's, 44, 59, 02, 73.
Macgillivray's, 44.
olive, 44.

orange-crowned, 44.
pileolated, 48, 59. _
red-faced, 44, 04, 67,
Virginia's, 44, 67.
yellow, 34.
Warren wood rat, 32.
Water ouzel, 4S, 56, 63.
shrew, 48.
snake, 20.
Watermelons, 24.
Weasel, 52.

Arizona, 43, 48.
dwarf, 48.

100

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

LXo. 35.

Weasel, New Mexico, 19.

Weller, E. A., 11.

Wheat, 38, 58, 61.

Wheal grass, 38, 46, 49,51.

Wheeler Peak, 9, 53, 54.

Wheeler sotol, 21.

Whipple bush carl us, 37.

Whippoorwill, Stephens's, 44, 04, 00.

Whip-tailed lizard, 20.

Graham, 34.
striped, 20.
White cowslip, 51.
flr, 49. 05, 69.
Mountain Peak, 71.
Mountain spruce squirrel, 47.
Mountains, 03, 72.
pine, 60, 73.
pine, Chihuahua, 72.
pine, Mexican, 45, 04.
pine, Rocky Mountain, 49.
prairie clover, 30.
sage, 28, 31,30.
White-tailed deer, 56, 72, 73.
deer, plains, 32.
deer, Sonora, 29, 32, 02, 07.
jack rabbit, 43.
ptarmigan, 52.
Whitlow cress, 53.
Whitlow-wort, cushioned, 52.
Wilcox barberry, 36.

oak, 45.
Wild bean, 30, 40.
cherries, 29.
columbine, 46.
grape, 29, 36.
hop, 46.
oat grass, 49.
pea, 46.
potato, 66.
red plum, 45.
rose, 45.
rye, 38.
tea,' 61.
tea bush. 4.~>.

turkey, 56, 58, 59, 61, 62, 69, 72, 73.
Wildcat, plateau, 33.
Williamson's sapsucker, 48, 62.
Willow, 64.

Bebb, 45, 49.
black, 35.
creeping, 51, 52.
diamond, 45.
dwarf, 50.
gray, 35.
gray-leaved, 51.
green, 52.
mountain, 45.
rock, 52.

western black, 45.
Wright, 35.
Willow thrush, 45.
Willow-leaved cherry, 60.
Wilsonia pusilla pileblata, 48.
Winged baccharis, 21.
Winter fat, 30.

lettuce, 49.
Wolf, gray, 56.

Mexican, 33, 43.
Wood pewee, western, 44, 62, 63, 64, 70.
Wood rat. 66.

Arizona, 32.

Colorado, 43, 59, 61, 62, 73.
Colorado bushy-tailed, 43.
gray, 18, 32.
Mexican, 43.

San Francisco Mountain, 43, 64.
Stephens, 29, 32.
Thomas, 31, 32.
Warren, 32.

white-throated, 28, 32, 60, 67.
Wood rush, 51.
Woodchuck, 52, 56.

Rockv Mountain, 47, 50.
Woodhouse's jay, 28, 34, 60.
Woodpecker, 58.

Alpine three-toed, 48, 50, 63.
ant-eating, 44. 59, 61, 62, 64, 67, 70, 73.
Arizona, 33, 67.

Woodpecker, Cabanis's, 64, 66.
"■actus, 19.
'Mia, 17, 19.
hairy, 59, 70, 73.
Lewis's, 44, 04.
red-naped sapsucker, 48, r.2.
Rocky Mountain hairy, 44.
Texas, 14, 17.
three-toed, 56.
white-breasted, 44.
Williamson's sapsucker, 48, 62.
Y\ oolly buttercup, 52.
Wooton, E. O., 11.
Wooton prickly pear, 37.
Wort hen's sparrow, 34.
Wren, Baird's, 34, 67.
cactus, 17, 19.
canon, 19.
rock, 34.
Wren, western house, 44.
western marsh, 34.
Wright willow, 35.
AVright's flycatcher, 44.
Wyethiaarizonica, 04.
Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus, 34.
Ximenesiaexauriculata, 28, 37.
Yarrow, alpine, 53.
Yarrow's lizard, 34.
Yavapai pocket mouse, 31, 33.
Yellowthroat, western, 34.
Yucca, 29, 56, 65, 70.

banana-fruited, 37.
large-fruited, 21.
narrow-leaved, 26, 61.
narrow-leaved low, 37.
narrow-leaved tree, 21.
tree, 15, 67.
wide-leaved tree, 37.
Yucca baccata, 28, 37.
glauca, 26, 28, 37.
macrocarpa, 13, 15, 21.
radiosa, 14, 15, 17, 21.
schotti, 37, 67.
Yuma bat, 19, 33.
Zamelodia melanocephala, 44.
Zapusluteus, 43.

Zenaidura macroura marginella, 33.
Zinnia, 21.
Zizyphus, 15, 17.

lycioides, 21.
obtusifolia, 13, 21.
Zones, crop, 11.
life, 11.

life, principles, 7-9.
Arctic-Alpine, 11,51.
Canadian, 1 1 , 46.

birds, 48.
grasses, 49.
mammals, 47.
plants, 49.
Hudsonian, 11, 50.
birds, 50.
mammals, 50.
plants, 51.
Lower Austral, 11.
Lower Sonoran, 11.

birds, 19.
crops, 22.
mammals, 18.
plants, 20.
reptiles, 20.
Transition, 11, 41.

birds, 44.
mammals, 4:;.
plants, 45.
reptiles, 45.
Upper Austral, arid division, 25.
Upper Sonoran, 11, 25.

amphibians, 35.
birds, 33.
crops, 38.
mammals, 32.
plants, 35.
reptiles, 34.
Zonotrichia leucophrvs leucophrvs, 48, 50.
Zufii Indians. 29.

Mountains, 43, 61.

o

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

BUREAU OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

HENRY W. HENSHAW, Chief

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA

N"o. 36

O

[Actual date of publication, June 5, 1914]

REVISION OF THE AMERICAN HARVEST MICE

(Genua REITHRODONTOMYS)

BY

ARTHUR H. HOWELL

ASSISTANT BIOLOGIST, BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

1914

B. S. SUPT. 01

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

United States. Department of Agriculture,

Bureau of Biological Survey,
Washington, D. C, January 3, 1914-
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith, for publication as
North American Fauna No. 36, the results of a study of the American
harvest mice by Arthur H. Howell, assistant biologist, Biological
Survey.

The American harvest mice occur abundantly in or near meadows
and cultivated lands over a large part of the United States. Their
exact economic relations are still little known, but they belong to a
group of mammals many species of which are injurious to agriculture,
and there is no doubt that they consume large quantities of forage
and some grain.

Up to the present time the relationships and distribution of the
many species have been imperfectly understood. The present report
furnishes for the first time a complete systematic synopsis of the
group, with maps showing the ranges of the species of most economic
importance.

Respectfully, H. W. Henshaw,

Chief, Biological Survey.
Hon. David F. Houston,

Secretary of Agriculture.

CONTENTS.

Introduction 7

History and material 7

Distribution 10

Habits and economic status 10

Food 11

Pelages 12

Genus Reithrodontomys 13

Generic characters 13

List of species and subspecies, with type localities 14

Key to species and subspecies 16

Subgenus Reithrodontomys 19

Subgenus Aporodon 63

Table of cranial measurements 81

Index 95

5

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Plate I. Skulls (upper views) of Reithrodontomys h. humulis, R. h. merriami,
R. a. albescens, R. a. griseus, R. montanus, R. m. megalotis, R. m.
dychei, R. in. saturatus, R. m. zacatecx, R. m. alticolus, R. r.

raviventris, R. r. haliccetes 82

II. Skulls (upper views) of Reithrodontomys amaznus, R. otus, R. a.
australis, R. dorsalis, R. c. colimse, R. r. luteolus, R.f. tenuis, R.f.
difficilis, R. f. helvolus, R. f. toltecus 84

III. Skulls (upper views) of Reithrodontomys hirsutus, R. levipes, R. c.

chrysopsis, R. m. mexicanus, R. in. cherrii, R. m. goldmani, R.
gracilis, R. t. aureus, R. in. microdon 86

IV. Skulls (lower views) of Reithrodontomys li. humulis, R. h. mer-

riami, R. a. albescens, R. a. griseus, R. montanus, R. m. mega-
lotis, R. m. dychei, R. m. saturatus, R. m. zacatecse, R. m. alti-
colus, R. r. raviventris, R. r. halicaztes 88

V. Skulls (lower views) of Reithrodontomys amcenus, R. otus, R. a.
australis, R. dorsalis, R. c. colimse, R. r. luteolus, R.f. tenuis,

R. f. difficilis, R. f. helvolus, R. f. toltecus 90

VI. Skulls (lower views) of Reithrodontomys hirsutus, R. levipes, R. c.
chrysopsis, R. m. mexicanus, R. m. cherrii, R. m. goldmani,

R. gracilis, R. t. aureus, R. m. microdon 92

VII. Molar teeth of Reithrodontomys m. megalotis, R. t. aureus, R. levipes,
R. m. mexicanus, R. c. chrysopsis, R. h. merriami; skull of type
of R. m. mexicanus 94

TEXT FIGURES.

Fig. 1. Distribution of Reithrodontomys humulis, R. albescens and subspecies... 20

2. Distribution of Reithrodontomys montanus, R. megalotis and subspecies. 27

3. Distribution of Reithrodontomys fulvescens and subspecies 45

4. Distribution of Reithrodontomys rufescens, R. dorsalis, R. australis,

R. colimse, R. alleni and subspecies 58

5. Distribution of Reithrodontomys chrysopsis, R. perotensis, R. levipes,

R. hirsutus and subspecies 67

6. Distribution of Reithrodontomys mexicanus, R. gracilis and subspecies.. 73

6

No. 36. NOKTH AMERICAN FAUNA. June, 1914,

REVISION OF THE AMERICAN HARVEST

MICE.

(Genua Reithrodontomys.)

By Arthur H. Howell.

INTRODUCTION.
HISTORY AND MATERIAL.

The mice of this genus have been known to naturalists since the
days of Audubon and Bachman. At that time only a single species,
the eastern harvest mouse, was known, it having been described by
Bachman in 1841 under the name of Mus Tiumulis from specimens
collected near Charleston, S. C. The following year (1842) the same
authors redescribed this species as Mus lecontii from a specimen
collected by Maj. John Leconte in Liberty County, Ga.

Although the species was known from only a few localities (Geor-
gia, South Carolina, and Virginia), and considered rare, its habits
were quite fully described by Bachman in "Quadrupeds of North
America," published in 1851. The spelling of the name was there
changed to "humilis." Even at that time Bachman appreciated
the fact that this species was not closely related to true Mus, as is
indicated by the following statement :

In examining the teeth of this species, we have found that the tuberculous sum-
mits on the molars were less distinct than in those which legitimately belong to the
genus Mus, and that there are angular ridges on the enamel by which it approaches
the genus Arvicola; it is in fact an intermediate species, but in the aggregate of its
characteristics perhaps approaches nearest to Mus, where we for the present have
concluded to leave it.1

His keenness in noting the distinction between the molars of the
harvest mouse and of Mus makes his failure to mention the groov-
ing of the incisors all the more remarkable, but as pointed out by
Osgood 2 the rest of the description fits the species so well that there

1 Aud. & Bach., Quad. N. Am., II, 1851, p. 106.
« Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XX, 1907, pp. 49-50.

8 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 86.

can be no doubt of the applicability of the name humulis to the
harvest mouse of the Atlantic coast.

In 1853 Leconte pointed out that " Mus Lecontei of Bachman is a
Reithrodon, and neither a Mus nor a Hesperomys. " l

In 1855 Baird described a second species in the genus, Reithrodon
montanus, based on a single specimen collected on one of the Govern-
ment exploring expeditions in the Rocky Mountains, the exact local-
ity being unknown. This specimen remained unique in collections
for over 50 years, and not until 1907 was a series of topotypes secured,
making possible accurate characterization of the species. In his
great work on the "Mammals of North America," published in 1857,
Prof. Baird recognized four valid species — humilis and montanus,
already described, and megalotis and longicauda, proposed as new,
the range of the genus being extended to the Mexican border and to
the coast of California. A fifth species, R. carolinensis (Aud. &
Bach.), was provisionally recognized.

Baird realized that considerable differences existed between true
Reithrodon of South America and the North American mice placed
in the same genus, but as he had never seen either skins or skulls of
the former, he found it impossible to indicate the discrepancies.

In 1860 De Saussure described a species from Vera Cruz, Mexico,
as R. mexicanus and the next year another, R. sumichrasti, also from
Mexico but without definite locality.

In 1874 Coues published a synopsis of the genus,2 pointing out the
characters which distinguish it from true Reithrodon and proposing
the name Ochetodon for the North American species. Five species
were recognized in this paper — humilis, longicauda, mexicanus, mon-
tanus, and sumichrasti, the last two provisionally. R. megalotis was
placed in synonymy under humilis. Using practically the same
material, he published in 1877 a more detailed revision of the genus 3
in which he recognized only four species, having dropped 0. sumi-
chrasti even from synonymy.

The name Ochetodon quickly became current, American naturalists
having overlooked the name Reithrodontomys proposed by Giglioli
some months earlier than Ochetodon, and not until Merriam called atten-
tion to this fact in 1892, 4 was the earlier name given precedence.

In 1893 Allen revived the names megalotis and montanus, placing
them formally in the genus Reithrodontomys and naming a new form,
R. aztecus, from New Mexico.5

In 1895 Allen published an extended revision of the genus 6 in
which he recognized 15 forms, 8 of which were there first described,

i Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1853, p. 410.

* Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1874, pp. 184-186.

»Mon. N. Am. Rodentia, Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv. Terr., XI, 1877, pp. 120-130.

* Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., VII, 1892, p. 26.

6 Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., V, 1S93, p. 79.

« Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VII, 1895, pp. 107-143.

1914.] INTRODUCTION. 9

and the range of the genus was shown to extend practically across
the continent from the Carolinas to California and south to Costa
Rica. Of the 15 forms recognized, three (nebrascensis, deserti, and
pallidas) are considered synonyms by the present writer. Dr.
Allen's material consisted of 920 specimens, chiefly from the United
States. The paucity of material from southern Mexico, where the
genus reaches its highest development, of course accounts for the
incompleteness of this revision in so far as the southern forms are
concerned. Only 2 specimens from southern Mexico and 17 from
Costa Rica were at that time available — only 19 specimens from a
region where over 35 subspecies are now known.

As a result of increased activity in the collection and study of
North American mammals, new species were discovered almost
every year. In 1898 Thomas described R. soderstromi from Ecuador,
thus extending the range of the genus into South America. In 1901
Merriam published a paper * giving descriptions of 23 new forms,
based chiefly on the unexampled collections of Nelson and Goldman
in Mexico and Guatemala. Since that date 9 additional species
have been described, bringing the total number of named forms up
to 67, of which 16 are at present regarded as synonyms. Fifty-eight
forms are recognized in the present revision, of which 7 are here
described as new.

The material on which the present revision is based consists of
2,280 specimens contained in the collections of the United States
National Museum, including that of the Biological Survey, and the
Merriam Collection. This material has been supplemented by a con-
siderable number of specimens borrowed from other American muse-
ums, thus bringing the total number of specimens examined up to
2,583. All the existing types have been examined with the excep-
tion of R. tenuis, R. soderstromi, and R. modestus, which are in the
British Museum, and R. mexicanus and R. sumichrasti, which are in
the Geneva Museum. Of the last two I have seen photographs of
the type skulls, while of tenuis and modestus I have examined prac-
tical topotypes. The National Museum collections contain repre-
sentatives of all but 5 or 6 of the recognized forms and in most cases
considerable series showing all ages and pelages.

In this connection I wish to acknowledge the kindness of the fol-
lowing gentlemen, who have generously loaned from the collections
under their charge such material as was needed to supplement the
collections in the National Museum: Dr. J. A. Allen, of the Ameri-
can Museum of Natural History ; Mr. Outram Bangs, of the Museum
of Comparative Zoology; Mr. F. J. V. Skiff, of the Field Museum of
Natural History; Mr. Witmer Stone, of the Academy of Natural Sci-

» Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., III, 1901, pp. 547-558.

10 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

ences of Philadelphia; and Mr. Joseph Grinnell, of the Museum of
Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, Cal. I am indebted, also, to Mr. Ger-
rit S. Miller, jr., and Mr. Ned Hollister for valuable criticism.

DISTRIBUTION.

The genus ReitTirodontomys is clearly of Austral origin, being most
abundant and highly developed in southern Mexico.

In western North America the typical subgenus ranges practi-
cally throughout the Upper and Lower Austral Zones, the northern
limits of its range being indicated by the following localities where
specimens have been taken: Prescott, Wash.; Custer, Mont.; and
Fort Clark, N. Dak. East of the Mississippi River its range is more
restricted, and so far as known the genus does not occur north* of the
Ohio and Potomac Valleys, the most northerly records being at
Ceredo, W. Va., and Falls Church, Va. Southward the subgenus
ReitTirodontomys ranges through Mexico and Central America to
Panama, but it is not known from South America.

The subgenus Aporodon * ranges from central Mexico (Jalisco and
Vera Cruz) south throughout Central America and thence to Ecua-
dor, its exact limits being very imperfectly known.

In the United States the genus is confined to the Austral Zones,
but in Mexico and Central America ranges from the Tropical at or
near sea level through all the zones to and including the Canadian
at timber line.

HABITS AND ECONOMIC STATUS.

The harvest mice are preeminently field mice. Practically all the
known species live in more or less open grassy situations and are
partial to neglected fields overgrown with grasses or sedges and to
weedy and grassy borders of cultivated tracts. Many species seem
to prefer moist situations, and some (as R. raviventris) live exclu-
sively in wet marshes, either salt or fresh; others (notably R. albescens
and R. montanus) are found only in dry, sandy uplands. In the arid
West in general harvest mice are most often taken along the grassy
borders of sloughs, small streams, or irrigation ditches; but they may
be found in almost any situation where there is sufficient cover of
vegetation to hide them from their enemies.

Certain Mexican and Central American species ascend the moun-
tains to timber line and live in grassy openings or among brush in
the more open parts of the forest. R. soderstrbmi, of South America,
is described as living in gardens among climbing plants.

Some species, and perhaps all, construct substantial nests of
grasses, often lined with soft materials and placed either on the

i See page 63.

1914.1 INTRODUCTION. 11

ground or in vines, bushes, or low trees some distance above the
ground. Deserted birds' nests are sometimes used as a base for the
nest of the mouse. Mr. H. P. Attwater has found their nests in old
woodpecker holes in fence posts, and Mr. Howard Lacey, at Kerr-
ville, Tex., has found them on cornstalks and made of corn silk. The
breeding season extends in northern latitudes from April to October
and in tropical regions may cover the entire year. The number of
young produced at a birth varies from three to seven.

All the species live chiefly above ground, but burrows are also
used, and cracks and openings in the ground are often occupied by
the nests. The mice sometimes travel in narrow beaten paths of their
own, and also are caught in the runways of other mammals, particu-
larly those of cotton rats (Sigmodon) and meadow mice (Microtus).
They are both nocturnal and diurnal in habit and remain active
during the entire year.

FOOD.

The food of harvest mice consists largely of seeds and grain, with
considerable green vegetation and occasionally fruit. Our knowl-
edge of their preferred habitat indicates that most of their food
must be obtained from wild plants of little or no value to man.

Bachman, who had studied the habits of the eastern harvest mouse
rather closely, writes of it as follows :

We doubt whether this species is of much injury to the farmer. It consumes but
little grain, is more fond of residing near grass fields, on the seeds of which it subsists,
than among the wheat fields. We have observed in its nest small stores of grass
seeds — the outer husks and other remains of the broom grass (Andropogon dissiti-
florum) — also that of the crab grass (Digitaria sanguinalis) , and small heaps of the
seeds of several species of paspalum, poa, and panicum, especially those of panicum
Italicum.1

Mr. H. P. Attwater, writing of Reithrodontomys intermedins, as
observed in Bexar County, Tex., says:

These mice seem to be fond of peaches, eating the peach and leaving the stone
hanging on the tree.2

Mr. E. A. Goldman, at Metlaltoyuca, Mexico, captured a specimen
of R. mexicanus goldmani on a bunch of bananas hanging about 8
feet above the ground.

Only rarely is any damage to crops reported. Mr. C. W. Seeg-
miller, of St. George, Utah, states that he has known harvest
mice to do some damage by climbing grain stalks and cutting off
the heads. He has found their nests built several feet from the
ground in close-growing clusters of grain stalks. Prof. D. E. Lantz
reports that in eastern Kansas Reithrodontomys dychei is often found
in the fall under shocks of wheat and corn, and in such situations it
may be expected to glean some of the grain.

» Aud. & Bach., Quad. N. Am., II, 1851, p. 105.

* Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VIII, 1896, p. 236.

12 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

Although in most places harvest mice are only moderately numer-
ous, in a few regions they occur in great abundance.

PELAGES.

The mice of this genus usually molt but once a year, normally in
the late fall (at least in northern latitudes), but the changes produced
in the pelage by wear and fading are so great that the summer pelage
of adults differs markedly from their winter pelage. The young are
usually less ochraceous and in some species darker than adults, but
the difference between young and adults is less marked than in
Peromyscus and other related genera. Of the forms examined,
R. Jiumulis merriami presents the greatest differences between young
and adults.

Immature or subadult individuals taken in summer and fall always
present a fresh, unworn appearance, the color usually being decidedly
paler than in fresh winter pelage. Adults taken in midsummer or
early fall are almost always in a more or less worn condition — often so
much so as to appear "ragged" — but occasionally one may be found
in summer in fresh pelage. The fresh, full pelage is retained during
most of the winter, and little evidence of wear is seen before March
or April. As the tips of the hairs wear off, the pelage in most species
becomes redder, and by midsummer the evidences of fading are often
pronounced, individuals and local colonies, however, showing marked
differences in the amount of wear and the date of its appearance.
Excessively worn individuals of certain species (particularly R. mega-
lotis) often become very pale and gray.

Specimens showing clearly the process of molting are comparatively
rare, and in the majority of cases the molt seems to progress insidi-
ously, new hairs coming in simultaneously over all parts of the body.
In a few cases, however, the line of demarcation is plainly evident,
new pelage appearing first on the hinder back and along the sides,
the fore part of the back being the last portion to be invested. This
is equally true of young and adults.1

While the fall molt is doubtless normal in northern latitudes, occa-
sional exceptions have been noted, indicating the occurrence (prob-
ably abnormal, at least rare) of a spring or midsummer molt. A
young adult male specimen of R. megalotis dychei, from Meadow,
Wyo., taken June 28, 1909, has nearly completed a full molt, the
new pelage covering the whole of the anterior portion of the body to
the rump, where the old pelage, decidedly redder than the new,
remains. A specimen of R. fulvescens aurantius (also a young adult
male), from Sour Lake, Tex., taken July 18, 1902, shows a fresh, long

1 Specimens showing this molt are as follows:

R. humulis merriami, $ juv., Lexington, Ky., November 19.
R. megalotis longicauda, tf ad., Stanford University, Cal., November 7.
R. megalotis aztecus, <j? subadult, Grand Junction, Colo., November 2.
R. montanus, $ ad., Medano Ranch, Colo., November 4.

1914.] GENUS REITHRODONTOMYS. 13

pelage covering the anterior half of the body. As in the previous
instance, the new pelage is darker and more ochraceous Qess reddish)
than the old. In both examples it will be noticed that the progress
of the molt is directly the reverse of the normal autumn molt, the
rump being the last part of the body to be invested, instead of the
first, as in the usual method.

The molting period of the species inhabiting Mexico and Guatemala
is less strictly confined to the autumn, but as a general rule (with
many exceptions) individuals taken from December to June show a
fuller and fresher pelage than those taken in the other half of the
year. In the entire collection from Mexico I have been able to find
only two specimens showing a clearly marked molting line. These
are both adult males of R. megalotis alticolus, taken at La Parada,
Oaxaca (in the lower edge of the Transition Zone), August 19, 1894.
In these the molt is nearly completed, the new pelage covering the
anterior portion of the body to the rump.

Genus REITHRODONTOMYS Giglioli.

Reiihrodon Leconte, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1853, pp. 410, 413; Baird, Mamm.
N. A., 1857, p. 447. (Not Reiihrodon Waterhouse.)

Reiihrodontomys Giglioli, Ricerche intorno alia Distrib. Geog. Gener. <Boll. Soc.
Geog. Ital., Roma, XI, May-July, 1874, p. 326. Author's separates dated 1873
(probably dated from first part of paper in Vol. X), repaged, p. 160. (North
American members of the genus Reiihrodon; no species mentioned.) 1

Ochetodon Coues, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., December 15, 1874, p. 184 (no type
selected; species included : 0. humilis, 0. longicauda, 0.mexicanus,0. montanus,
and 0. sumichrasti) .

Aporodon Howell, postea, p. 63. Type, Reiihrodontomys tenuirostris Merriam.

Remarks. — Since no species were mentioned by Giglioli when he
named the genus Reithrodontomys , the type must be fixed by subse-
quent designation. Miller and Rehn 2 have selected Mus lecontii
Aud. and Bach. [ = R. humulis] as the type, but this is in violation of
Opinion 46 of the International Commission on Zoological Nomencla-
ture, which advises that the species first associated with the name be
considered the type.3 Allen, in 1893, was the first to use the generic
name in connection with a specific name, his paper including three
species — R. megalotis, R. aztecus, and R. montanus.4 Since both
megalotis and montanus were published prior to the naming of the
genus, either may be selected as the type. I therefore designate
Reiihrodon megalotis Baird as the type of the genus Reithrodontomys.

GENERIC CHARACTERS.

Form murine; tail long, always more than one-third, often more
than one-half total length, slender, scaly, thinly haired; ears promi-

1 Elliot in Pub. Field Columb. Mus., Zool. Ser. Ill, 1903, p. 145, and several times subsequently, spoils
this name " Rhithrodontomys" .
s Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., XXX, 1901, p. 95.
3 Smiths. Inst., Pub. 2060, February, 1912, p. 104. * Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., V, 1893, pp. 79-80.

14 NORTH AMERICAN" FAUNA. [No. 36.

nent, often large, more or less hairy; soles of hind feet 6-tubercu-
late; mammae, 6 — P-J-, If; no cheek pouches. Skull with smoothly
rounded braincase, more or less inflated, without prominent ridges;
zygomata slender; outer wall of anteorbital foramen a broad thin plate;
anterior palatine foramina relatively large, forming long narrow slits
separated by a thin septum, slightly narrower anteriorly, terminating
about at the plane of anterior border of tooth row; posterior border
of palate square, often with a slight median spine, terminating at
plane of posterior border of tooth row; pterygoids nearly parallel;
audita! bullae more or less inflated, longer than broad, and obliquely
situated. Descending process of mandible a broad flattened plate,
strongly deflected inward, the lower portion twisted into a nearly
horizontal position and the inner margin raised, leaving a distinct
depression in the ramus;1 coronoid process short. Upper incisors
with a deep longitudinal groove near the middle of the tooth. Molars
brachyodont, tuberculate, the tubercles arranged in two longitudinal
series; first upper molar with five principal tubercles, an anterior
median one, and two pairs of lateral ones; m1 and m2 with or without
accessory tubercles or enamel loops in the principal angles; upper
molars normally three-rooted, but in some species four-rooted; lower
molars two-rooted.

List of Species and Subspecies, with Type Localities.

Subgenus REITHRODONTOMYS.

R. humulis group:

Reithrodontomys humulis humulis (Bachman).. Charleston, S. C.

humulis impiger Bangs White Sulphur Springs, W. Va.

humulis merriami Allen Alvin, Tex.

albescens albescens Cary 18 miles northwest of Kennedy,

Nebr.

albescens griseus Bailey San Antonio, Tex.

R. megalotis group:

Reithrodontomys montanus (Baird) "Rocky Mountains, latitude 38° "

[=San Luis Valley, Colo., near
San Luis Lakes].

megalotis megalotis (Baird) "Between Janos, Sonora [=Chi-

huahua] and San Luis Spring"
[New Mexico].

megalotis aztecus Allen La Plata, N. Mex.

megalotis dychei Allen Lawrence, Kans.

megalotis nigrescens nobis Payette, Idaho.

megalotis longicaudus (Baird) Petaluma, Cal.

megalotis peninsulae Elliot San Quintin, Lower California.

megalotis cinereus Merriam Chalchicomula, Puebla.

1 Less importance is to be ascribed to tbis character in distinguishing Reithrodontomys from Peromyscus
than the remarks of Baird (Mamm. N. Am., p. 447) and Coues (Mon. N. Am. Rodentia, p. 122) would
indicate, for although typical Peromyscus differs noticeably on the average from Reithrodontomys in the
shape of the descending process, yet certain species of the subgenus Haplomylomys show practically the
same condition as Reithrodontomys.

1914.] LIST OF SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES. 15

R. megalotis group — Continued.

Reithrodontomys megalotis saturatus Allen &

Chapman Las Vigas, Vera Cruz .

megalotis alticolus Merriam Cerro San Felipe, Oaxaca.

megalotis arizonensis Allen Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz.

megalotis zacatecx Merriam Valparaiso Mountains, Zacatecas.

amoles nobis Pinal de Amoles, Queretaro.

catalinx Elliot Santa Catalina Island, Cal.

raviventris raviventris Dixon Redwood City, Cal.

raviventris halictcees Dixon Petaluma, Cal.

R.fulvescens group:

Reithrodontomys fulvescens fulvescens Allen. . . .Oposura, Sonora.

fulvescens tenuis Allen Rosario, Sinaloa.

fulvescens intermedins Allen Brownsville, Tex.

fulvescens aurantius Allen Lafayette, La.

fulvescens difficilis Merriam Orizaba, Vera Cruz .

fulvescens toltecus Merriam Tlalpam, D. F., Mexico.

fulvescens helvolus Merriam Oaxaca, Oaxaca.

fulvescens chiapensis nobis Canjob, Chiapas.

fulvescens nelsoni nobis Colima, Colima.

fulvescens mustelinus nobis Llano Grande, Oaxaca.

amcenus Elliot Reforma, Oaxaca.

otus Merriam Sierra Nevada de Colima, Jalisco.

R. rufescens group:

Reithrodontomys rufescens rufescens Allen &

Chapman Jalapa, Vera Cruz.

rufescens luteolus nobis Juquila, Oaxaca.

alleni nobis Mountains near Ozolotepec, Oa-
xaca.

colimx colimx Merriam Sierra Nevada de Colima, Jalisco;

altitude, 12,000 feet.

colimx nerterus Merriam Sierra Nevada de Colima, Jalisco;

altitude, 6,500 feet.

dorsalis Merriam Calel, Guatemala.

australis australis Allen Volcan de Irazu, Costa Rica.

australis modestus Thomas Jinotega, Nicaragua.

Subgenus APORODON.
R. levipes group:

Reithrodontomys levipes Merriam San Sebastian, Jalisco.

hirsutus Merriam Ameca, Jalisco.

R. chrysopsis group:

Reithrodontomys chrysopsis chrysopsis Merriam. .Mount Popocatepetl, Mexico.

chrysopsis tolucx Merriam Volcan Toluca, Mexico.

chrysopsis orizabx Merriam Mount Orizaba, Puebla.

perotensis Merriam Cofre de Perote, Vera Cruz.

R. mexicanus group:

Reithrodontomys mexicanus mexicanus (De Saus-

sure) Mountains of Vera Cruz.

mexicanus goldmani Merriam Metlaltoyuca, Puebla.

mexicanus cherrii (Allen) San Jose, Costa Rica.

milleri Allen Munchique, Colombia.

soderstrbmi Thomas Quito, Ecuador.

gracilis Allen & Chapman Chichen Itza, Yucatan.

16 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

R. tenuirostris group:

Reithrodontomys tenuirostris tenuirostris Mer-

riam Todos Santos, Guatemala.

tenuirostris aureus Merriam Calel, Guatemala.

creper Bangs Volcan de Chiriqui, Panama.

microdon microdon Merriam Todos Santos, Guatemala.

microdon albilabris Merriam Cerro San Felipe, Oaxaca.

Key to Species and Subspecies.1

[Based on adults.]

a. Outer wall of anteorbital foramen decidedly broader than width of interpterygoid
fossa; upper molars usually without subsidiary enamel loops.2
b. Tail length, 120 mm. or more.

c. Greatest length of skull more than 24 mm hirsutus (p. 66).

cc. Greatest length of skull less than 24 mm.

d. Dorsal area blackish toltecus (p. 51).

dd. Dorsal area not blackish otus (p. 55).

bb. Tail length less than 120 mm.
c. Tail length more than 65 mm.
d. Ears blackish brown, without ochraceouo hairs.
e. Underparts whitish.
/. Tail length 100 mm. or more.

g. Hind foot more than 20 mm tolucse (p. 68).

gg. Hind foot less than 20 mm alleni (p. 59).

ff. Tail length less than 100 mm.

g. Upperparts mainly ochraceous chiapensis (p. 53) .

gg. Upperparts mainly blackish or brownish.
h. Paler; sides light ochraceous-buff.

i. Larger; hind foot more than 18 mm cinereus (p. 35).

ii. Smaller; hind foot less than 18 mm.

j. Sides of face pure buff (Arizona) arizonensis (p. 38).

jj. Sides of face ochraceous-buff or grayish.

k. Tail length more than 80 mm. (Lower California)

peninsulse (p. 35).
kk. Tail length less than 80 mm.

I. Feet gray (California) longicaudus (p. 33)-

II. Feet white nigrescens (p. 32).

hh. Darker; sides dark ochraceous-buff or pinkish cinnamon.

i. Skull length less than 21.5 mm.

j. Smaller; hind foot less than 17 mm amoles (p. 40).

jj. Larger; hind foot more than 17 mm haliceetes (p. 42).

ii. Skull length more than 21.5 mm.
j. Tail length more than 80 mm.

k. Breadth of braincase more than 11 mm tolucse (p. 68).

kk. Breadth of braincase less than 11 mm.

I. Skull larger, with wider zygomata dorsalis (p. 61).

II. Skull smaller, with narrower zygomata, .saturatus (p. 36).
jj. Tail length less than 80 mm.

k. Ear from notch more than 13 mm alticolus (p. 37).

kk. Ear from notch less than 13 mm modestus (p. 63).

ee. Underparts ochraceous-buff or pinkish cinnamon.
/. Tail unicolor or nearly so.

g. Tail length more than 80 mm ru/escens (p. 56) .

gg. Tail length less than 80 mm raviventris (p. 41).

i Color comparisons made with Ridgway's "Color standards and color nomenclature" (1912).
* Present in levipes, hirsutus, chrysopsis, tolucx, oritabz, and perotensis.

1914.] KEY TO SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES. 17

ff. Tail distinctly bicolor.

g. Pelage long; upper molars always with subsidiary enamel loops
(except in colimae); habitat above 9,000 feet altitude.

h. Braincase flattened perotensis (p. 69).

hh. Braincase globular.
i. Larger; tail length more than 95 mm.

j. Breadth of braincase more than 11 mm chrysopsis (p. 66).

jj. Breadth of braincase less than 11 mm orizabse (p. 69).

m. Smaller; tail length less than 95 mm colimss (p. 59)

gg. Pelage short; upper molars usually without subsidiary enamel loops;
habitat below 9,000 feet altitude.

h. Skull length less than 22 mm zacatecse (p. 39).

hh. Skull length more than 22 mm.
i. Larger; hind foot 20-21 mm.

j. Braincase flattened luteolus (p. 57).

jj. Braincase rounded nerterus (p. 60).

W. Smaller; hind foot 18-20 mm.
j. Nasals longer (8-9.7 mm.); black dorsal area well denned.

k. Skull larger, with wider zygomata dorsalis (p. 61).

kk. Skull smaller, with narrower zygomata. . . .saturatus (p. 36).
jj. Nasals shorter (7.3-8.8 mm.); black dorsal area not well defined.

k. Tail longer (88-101 mm.); (Mexico) diffitilis (p. 50).

kk. Tail shorter (82-92 mm.); (Costa Rica) australisip. 62).

dd. Ears light brown or drab, with ochraceous hairs.
e. Underparts buffy or ochraceous.
/. Skull length more than 22.5 mm.

g. Length of nasals more than 8.5 mm toltecus (p. 51).

gg. Length of nasals less than 8.5 mm levipes (p. 64).

ff. Skull length less than 22.5 min.

g. Tail length 105 mm. or more mustelinus (p. 54).

gg. Tail length less than 105 mm.
h. Upperparts strongly mixed with blackish.

i. Underparts strongly washed with buff diffitilis (p. 50).

ii. Underparts faintly washed with buff aurantius (p. 48).

hh. Upperparts mainly ochraceous-buff.

i. Larger and paler tenuis (p. 45).

ii. Smaller and brighter nelsoni (p. 53).

ee. Underparts white.
/. Tail length more than 104 mm.

g. Larger; skull length 23 mm. or more toltecus (p. 51).

gg. Smaller; skull length less than 23 mm helvolus (p. 52).

ff. Tail length less than 104 mm.

g. Skull length less than 20 mm amcenus (p. 55).

gg. Skull length more than 20 mm.
h. Tail length more than 80 mm.
i. Upperparts tawny -ochraceous, or cinnamon mixed with black.

j. Braincase flatter; nasals shorter chiapensis (p. 53).

jj. Braincase higher; nasals longer aurantius (p. 48).

ii. Upperparts ochraceous-buff or mixed with blackish.
j. Upperparts mainly ochraceous-buff.

k. Sides deep ochraceous-buff tenuis (p. 45).

kk. Sides pale ochraceous-buff.
28657°— 14 2

18 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

I. Paler; sides of face grayish fuhescens (p. 43).

II. Darker; sides of face ochraceous-buff . .intermedins (p. 47).
jj. XJpperparts mainly blackish or brownish.

k. Skull heavy; in terpterygoid fossa broad.

I. Paler (less ochraceous) intermedins (p. 47).

II. Darker (more ochraceous) aurantius (p. 48).

kk. Skull light; interpterygoid fossa narrow catalinx (p. 40).

hh. Tail length less than 80 mm.

i. XJpperparts mainly deep ochraceous-buff longicaudus (p. 33).

ii. XJpperparts mainly light ochraceous-buff or brownish.

j. Skull length more than 21.5 mm aztecus (p. 30).

jj. Skull length less than 21.5 mm.

k. Tail longer; ear 12-13 mm megalotis (p. 26).

kk. Tail shorter; ear 10-11 mm dychei (p. 30).

cc. Tail length less than 65 mm.
d. XJpperparts mainly grayish or light buff, mixed with black.

e. Black dorsal stripe distinct; ears usually with blackish patches.

/. Paler; skull heavier albescens (p. 22).

/. Darker; ekull lighter griseus (p. 23).

ee. No distinct dorsal stripe; ears without blackish patches.

/. Darker and more ochraceous dychei (p. 30).

ff. Paler and less ochraceous.

g. Larger; skull broader megalotis (p. 26).

gg. Smaller; ekull narrower montanus (p. 24).

dd. XJpperparts mainly blackish or dark brown.
e. XJpperparts Prout's brown.

/. Ear from notch 8-9 mm impiger (p. 20).

ff. Ear from notch 9-10 mm humulis (p. 19).

ee. XJpperparts sooty or with blagkish stripe merriami (p. 21) .

aa. Outer wall of anteorbital foramen usually narrower than width of interpterygoid
fossa;1 upper molars always with subsidiary enamel loops.
6. Skull length more than 25 mm.
c. XJpperparts tawny or ochraceous-tawny.

d. XJpperparts tawny tenuirostris (p. 78).

dd. XJpperparts ochraceous-tawny aureus (p. 78).

cc. XJpperparts mummy-brown (Panama) creper (p. 79).

lb. Skull length less than 25 mm.
c. Rostrum long and slender; braincase inflated.

d. Darker; underparts (in adult) pinkish cinnamon microdon (p. 80).

dd. Paler; underparts white albilabris (p. 80).

cc. Rostrum short and broad ; braincase not inflated .
d. XJpperparts tawny or cinnamon-brown.

e. Colors darker; skull smaller mexicanus (p. 70).

ee. Colors paler; skull larger.

/. XJpperparts bright tawny cherrii (p. 73).

ff. XJpperparts dull tawny or brownish.

g. Smaller; underparts white milleri (p. 74).

gg. Larger; underparts buffy soderstromi (p. 75).

dd. XJpperparts pinkish cinnamon.

e. Skull length less than 23 mm gracilis (p. 76).

ee. Skull length more than 23 mm goldmani (p. 72).

i In gracilis of about equal width or slightly broader.

1914.] SUBGENUS REITHRODONTOMYS. 19

Subgenus REITHRODONTOMYS Giglioli.

Subgeneric characters. — Enamel pattern of upper molars simple,
the first and second each with two outer reentrant angles, usually
without accessory tubercles.1

REITHRODONTOMYS HUMULIS GROUP.

REITHRODONTOMYS HUMULIS HUMULIS (Bachman).

Eastern Harvest Mouse.

(PI. I, fig. 1; PI. IV, fig. 1.)

Mus humulis Aud. & Bach., Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., I, 1841, pp. 97-98.

Mus lecontii Aud. & Bach., Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., VIII, 1842, p. 307 (Georgia,

taken by Major John Le Conte).
Mus humilis Aud. & Bach., Quad. N. Am., II, 1851, pp. 103-106, Plate LXV.
Reithrodon lecontei Le Conte, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., VI, 1853, p. 413.
Reithrodon humilis Band, Mamm. N. Am., 1857, p. 448.
Ochetodon humilis Coues, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1874, p. 185 [part].
Reithrodontomys humilis Bhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1894, p. 161.
Reithrodontomys lecontii Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VII, 1895, p. 116.
Reithrodontomys humilis dickinsoni Pvhoads, Amer. Nat., XXIX, 1895, p. 590 (Willow

Oak, Florida).
Reithrodontomys humilis Rhoads and Young, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1897, p. 309.
Reithrodontomys humulis Osgood, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XX, 1907, pp. 49-50 (name
formally reinstated).

Type locality. — Charleston, S. C.

Distribution. — Southeastern United States, east of the Alleghenies,
from southern Virginia to central Florida.

Characters. — Size small; color dark brown; skull narrow, with
highly arched cranium and heavy rostrum.

Color. — General tone of upperparts about Prout's brown, being a
mixture of blackish brown and pinkish cinnamon, usually darkest
along median line; underparts ashy, usually with a tinge of light
pinkish cinnamon; tail bicolor, fuscous or hair-brown above, grayish
white below; ears fuscous or fuscous-black; feet grayish white.
Immature specimens are more fuscous above with slight admixture
of brown.

Skull. — Braincase narrow, highly arched ; rostrum short and broad;
nasals broad, ending nearly on a line with end of premaxillae; zygo-
mata parallel or slightly contracted anteriorly; palatal foramina
broadest in the middle, ending posteriorly about on a line with plane
of first molars ; bullae rather small and elongated.

Measurements. — Average of 5 adults from Georgia and South Caro-
lina: Total length, 120 (114-124); tail vertebra, 57 (53-60); hind
foot, 16 (15-17); ear, 9.5 (9-10). Average of 8 adults from Dismal
Swamp, Va.: 122; 56; 16; (ear) 9.6. Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This little species — the first member of the genus to be
described — has a rather extensive range in the South Atlantic States,
from southern Virginia to Florida. In Georgia, Alabama, and Florida

i Small tubercles irregularly present in some species, particularly R, rufescens and R. dorsalis.

20

NORTH AMEEICAN FAUNA.

[No. 36.

the typical race shades insensibly into the subspecies merriami of the
Mississippi Valley. Specimens from North Carolina and Virginia, as
might be expected, exhibit the specific characters in their most pro-
nounced form, the color of the upperparts being uniformly brownish.
Specimens from Florida are intermediate but nearer on the whole to
Jiumulis. In a series of three from Kissimmee one is clearly humulis,
while the others might without impropriety be referred to merriami.
The skulls, however, are nearer to Tiumulis. The type of "dickinsoni,"
from Willow Oak, is a very dark specimen, but is in the uniform sooty
pelage indicative of immaturity. It is closely similar to numerous in-
dividuals of merriami examined from Alabama and Louisiana. A
single specimen from Tarpon Springs, however, can be exactly matched
by specimens of humulis from the coast of Georgia. In the absence

Fig. 1.— Distribution of Reithrodontomys humulis, R. albescens, and subspecies.

of suitable material the west Florida form is provisionally referred to
Jiumulis, but a larger series may show it to be nearer merriami.

Specimens examined.— -Total number, 96, from the following locali-
ties:

Virginia: Dismal Swamp, 17.

North Carolina: Chapanoke, 1; Currituck, 4; Moran, 1; Raleigh, 53.
South Carolina: Georgetown, 1.
Georgia: Riceboro (Le Conte Plantation), 8.

Florida: Enterprise, l;1 Gainesville, 4;1 Kissimmee, 3; Sawgrass Island, Polk
County, 1; Tarpon Springs, l;2 Willow Oak, Pasco County, l.2

REITHRODONTOMYS HUMULIS IMPIGER Bangs.
Small-eared Harvest Mouse.
Reithrodontomys lecontii impiger Bangs, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XII, 1898, p. 167.
Type locality. — White Sulphur Springs, W. Va.
Distribution. — Northern Virginia and mountains of West Virginia.

i Collection Field Mus. Nat. Hist.

* Collection Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila.

1914.] REITHRODONTOMYS HUMULIS GROUP. 21

Characters. — Closely similar in size and color to humulis; ears
decidedly smaller.

Color. — Not appreciably different from that of humulis.

Skull. — Closely similar to that of humulis.

Measurements. — Average of 9 adults from type locality: Total
length, 116 (114-122); tail vertebrae, 53 (50-57); hind foot, 15.7
(15-16.5) ; ear from notch, 8.7 (8-9). Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — Tins subspecies is a rather poorly marked race of humulis
occupying the northern end of the range of the species. In the series
from the type locality — White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. — I have been
unable to see any color differences to distinguish it from humulis from
the coast of the Carolinas. Three specimens from the vicinity of
Washington, D. C, however, are considerably paler than the series of
topotypes, with which they agree in having very small ears. These
may represent an undescribed race, but it seems best not to name it
until more material can be secured.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 12, from the following locali-
ties:

West Virginia: White Sulphur Springs, 9.

Virginia: Alexandria, 1; Falls Church, 1; Fort Myer, 1.

REITHRODONTOMYS HUMULIS MERRIAMI Allen.

Merriam Harvest Mouse.
(PL I, fig. 2; PI. IV, fig. 2; PI. VII, fig. 8.)
Reithrodontomys merriami Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VII, 1895, p. 119.

Type locality. — Austin Bayou, near Alvin, Tex.

Distribution. — Coast region of east Texas and southern Louisiana
north to northeastern Kentucky and West Virginia; east to Ala-
bama; limits of range imperfectly known.

Characters. — Similar to humulis, but upperparts blacker and grayer
(less brownish) ; ears smaller and blacker.

Color. — Adults: Upperparts mixed blackish and light pinkish cin-
namon, the black prevailing and forming usually a well-defined stripe
in middle of back. Specimens in full, unworn pelage show an indis-
tinct lateral stripe of light pinkish cinnamon. Ears blackish brown;
tail fuscous above, grayish white below; underparts grayish, some-
times with a distinct wash of light pinkish cinnamon. Some speci-
mens in worn pelage have a broad median dorsal band of black and
scarcely any cinnamon on the sides. Young: Upperparts fuscous-
black, practically without cinnamon hairs.

Skull. — Practically identical in size and proportions with that of
humulis, but rostrum slightly heavier.

Measurements. — Average of 7 adults from type locality: Total
length, 113 (107-128); tail vertebrae, 54 (51-60); hind foot, 16
(15.5-17). Skull (see table, p. 81).

22 NOETH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

Remarks. — This subspecies is a slightly differentiated race of
liumulis, with which it is connected by a complete series of inter-
grades. Indeed, occasional specimens of liumulis from localities
within the range of the typical race are difficult to distinguish from
merriami. The differences are perhaps most evident on comparing
individuals of the two forms in worn pelage, merriami being in that
condition decidedly sooty, while liumulis is a warm brown. Three
specimens from Lexington, Ky., seem referable to this subspecies,
but one from Ceredo, in the extreme western corner of West Virginia,
is intermediate in color between merriami and liumulis.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 37, from the following locali-
ties :

Texas: Austin Bayou near Alvin, 8; Richmond, 2.
Louisiana: Hackley, 1^ Lafayette, 3; Mermenton, 3.1
Alabama: Barachias, 5; Carlton, 1; Dean, 1; Jackson, 2; York, 7.
Kentucky: Lexington, 3.
West Virginia: Ceredo, 1.

REITHRODONTOMYS ALBESCENS ALBESCENS Cary.

Pallid Harvest Mouse.

(PI. 1, fig. 4; PI. IV, fig. 4.)

Reithrodontomys albescens Cary, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVI, 1903, p. 53.
Reiihrodontomys montanus albescens Cary, N. Am. Fauna No. 33, 1911, p. 110.

Type locality.- — Eighteen miles northwest of Kennedy, Nebr.

Distribution. — Sand-hill region of Nebraska and western South
Dakota; west to Loveland, Colo.

Characters. — Similar to R. montanus, but paler, with a more dis-
tinct dorsal stripe; ears smaller; skull shorter and broader.

Color. — Unworn winter pelage (November): Upperparts mixed
blackish and light buff, darkest on the median line and shading to
pure buff on the sides ; ears buffy, usually with two rather large brown-
ish or blackish patches; tail sharply bicolor, dark hair-brown above,
white below; feet soiled whitish; underparts pure white. Worn
summer pelage (October): Upperparts mixed ochraceous-buff and
blackish, the buff prevailing, shading to light ochraceous-buff on sides.
A gray phase occurs in which the upperparts are mixed blackish and
pale mouse-gray, with very slight admixture of buff.

Skull. — Shorter and relatively broader than that of montanus;
rostrum short and heavy; zygomata heavy and widely expanded.

Measurements. — Average of 6 adults from Nebraska: Total length,
125 (121-129); tail vertebra, 53.4 (50-56); hind foot, 16.7 (16.5-17).
Skull (see table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This handsome mouse is the palest member of the genus.
According to Cary it occurs only in sand-hills or on sandy land. At

1 Collection Field Mus. Nat. Hist.

1914.] KEITHRODONTOMYS HUMULIS GROUP. 23

Kennedy and Neligh, Nebr., it has been taken in the same weed
patches with R. megdlotis dycliei. It may be distinguished from the
latter by its smaller size, paler and less ochraceous coloration, and
small ears with distinct black spots.

Although closely resembling montanus in color, it differs consider-
ably from it in cranial characters, and no evidence of intergradation
between the two species has been obtained. In southern Nebraska
it grades into the subspecies griseus.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 25, from the following locali-
ties:

Nebraska: Kennedy,!; 18 miles northwest of Kennedy, 4; Neligh, 8; Niobrara,

1; Niobrara River, 10 miles south of Cody, 2; Verdigris, 4.
South Dakota: Belle Fourche River (15 miles from mouth), 1.
Colorado: Loveland, 4.1

REITHRODONTOMYS ALBESCENS GRISEUS Bailey.

Little Gray Harvest Mouse.

(PI. I, fig. 3; PI. IV, fig. 3.)

Reithrodontomys dychei Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VIII, 1896, p. 67 (not of

VII, 1895, p. 120).
Reithrodontomys griseus Bailey, N. Am. Fauna No. 25, 1905, p. 106.

Type locality. — San Antonio, Tex.

Distribution. — Southern Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, central and
western Texas, and eastern New Mexico. Limits of range imper-
fectly known.

Characters. — Similar to albescens but colors darker and skull
narrower; much paler and grayer than merriami.

Color. — Upper parts mixed black and light ochraceous-buff, the
black predominating and usually forming an indistinct stripe along
the median line; lateral line of buff very faintly indicated; buff on
si4es of head darker than in montanus; ears same color as back,
usually with a large blackish patch on exterior surface; tail sharply
bicolor, hair-brown above, grayish white below.

SlcuTl. — Similar to that of albescens, but zygomata weaker and less
widely expanded and rostrum narrower. Compared with merriami:
Braincase less elongated; rostrum slenderer; zygomata more widely
expanded posteriorly; interpterygoid fossa averaging narrower;
bullae less elongated. Compared with montanus: Braincase shorter
and relatively broader, with shorter rostrum; zygomata more
contracted anteriorly.

Measurements. — Average of 9 specimens (mostly immature) from
type locality: Total length, 115 (107-120); tail vertebrae, 54 (48-61);
hind foot, 14.6 (14-16).2 Average of 2 adults from Clyde and San

i Collection of G. S. Miller, jr.

2 The total length is probably less than in adult specimens and the foot measurements are apparently
smaller in some cases than they should be.

24 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

Angelo, Tex.: 142; 60; 15. Average of 8 (subadult) from Alva, Okla.:
117; 51.5; 16. Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — Although clearly belonging in the same group with
R. humulis merriami, this form appears not to intergrade with it. In
both skin and skull characters it agrees closely with albescens and
differs widely from merriami, its nearest relative geographically.
Specimens from Kansas and Oklahoma and one from Santa Rosa,
N. Mex., can not be distinguished from typical examples.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 82, from the following locali-
ties:

Nebraska: London, 2.

Kansas: Onaga, 18; Pendennis, 5; Trego County, 10.

Oklahoma: Alva, 12. 1

Texas: Clyde, 1; Gainesville, 1; Mason, 9; San Angelo, 1; San Antonio, 22.

New Mexico: Santa Rosa, 1.

REITHRODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS GROUP.

REITHRODONTOMYS MONTANUS (Baird).

San Luis Valley Harvest Mouse.

(PI. I, fig. 5; PI. IV, fig. 5.)

Reithrodon montanus Baird, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., VII, 1855, p. 335; Mamm.

N. Am., 1857, p. 449.
Ochetodon montanus Coues, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1874, p. 186.
Reithrodontomys montanus Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., V, 1893, p. 80; VII,

1895, p. 123; Cary, N. Am. Fauna No. 33, 1911, p. 108.

Type locality. — "Rocky Mountains, latitude 38°" [upper end San
Luis Valley, Colo., near San Luis Lakes].

Distribution. — San Luis Valley, Colo.

Characters. — Size medium (smaller than R. m. megalotis, larger
than R. a. griseus); ears small; color slightly paler and less ochra-
ceous than in megalotis; skull similar to that of megalotis but smaller
and narrower. Compared with R. a. albescens and R. a. griseus:
No distinct blackish dorsal stripe; skull relatively longer and nar-
rower; tail slightly longer.

Color. — Fresh winter pelage (October and November): Light buff,
clearest on sides and face, much mixed with blackish on dorsal sur-
face; black hairs most pronounced on hinder back; no distinct
median line of black; ears dark hair-brown, often clothed on inner
surface with ochraceous-buff hairs (a little darker than body hairs),
rarely with a distinct blackish area on lower outer margin; tail dis-
tinctly bicolor, dark hair-brown above, white beneath; feet and
underparts white. Compared with megalotis, the general tone is paler
and less intensely ochraceous; the sides light buff instead of ochra-
ceous-buff.

i Collection Field Mus. Nat. Hist.

1914.] REITHRODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS GROUP. 25

STcuU. — Similar in shape to that of R. m. megalotis, but smaller and
braincase relatively narrower; zygomata (in adults) with sides par-
allel. Compared with R. a. griseus: Longer and relatively narrower,
with longer rostrum.

Measurements. — Average of 10 specimens (including adults and
subadults) from Medano Ranch, nearMosca, Colo.: Total length, 126
(118-139); tail vertebrae, 58 (51-64); hind foot, 17 (16-17); ear from
notch, 11.2 (11-12). Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This species, the second member of the genus to be
recognized, was described by Baird in 1855 from a single specimen,
and until within the last few years has remained practically un-
known. Efforts were made by the Biological Survey field party
in 1904 to secure specimens from the San Luis Valley and a single
immature individual was caught at Del Norte by Vernon Bailey.
In the autumn of 1907, Merritt Cary trapped for about 10 days at
Medano Ranch, 15 miles northeast of Mosca, and succeeded in se-
curing a series of 20 specimens, including several adults, which for
the first time made possible accurate comparison and characteriza-
tion of the species. Most of the specimens taken by Cary were caught
in a grassy weed-patch on a broad sand-ridge extending through the
meadows and perhaps 6 feet above their level. None was taken
in wet situations.

Dr. J. A. Allen has determined the approximate type locality of
this species from a careful study of the records of Capt. Beckwith's
expedition, on which the type was secured.1 The type specimen
(No. 13 of the expedition) was collected in August, 1853, in the
upper end of the San Luis Valley, at some point between Fort Massa-
chusetts and Sahwatch Creek. The route of the expedition was
northward along the east side of the valley to a point a little north
of 38° latitude, and thence westward across the valley not far
from the present town of Saguache.2 The second camp of the party,
on the night of August 24, was on a small stream "nearly opposite
to Roubideau's or Mosca Pass," about 21 miles from Fort Massa-
chusetts. The specimens collected by Cary in 1907 were taken
along the very creek on which the Beckwith party camped, now called
Medano Creek. The type may have been taken on this creek or at
one of the other camping places a few miles farther north.

Even with a series of 20 topotypes, the relationships of this species
are not entirely clear. This uncertainty is due in part to the fact
that the topotype series includes only two adults, one of which has
the skull broken, and in part to the failure to find in the series a
single skull that agrees with that of the type. The latter, an adult
with moderately worn teeth, is decidedly smaller and has a much

i See Bull. Am. Mu3. Nat. Hist., VII, 1895, pp. 124-125.

* See Expl. & Surv. Pac. R. R., U, pp. 41-45, and map accompanying Vol. XI.

26 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

shorter rostrum than the two adults taken by Cary at Medano Ranch,
thus closely agreeing with specimens of R. a. griseus from Texas.
The rostrum of this specimen is deflected markedly to the right,
indicating an injury during life, which may account for its small
size and peculiar characters. The original description of the color
accords perfectly with the series now in hand, so that there seems
no alternative but to consider the type skull aberrant, and to con-
tinue to use the name for the form represented by the modern series.

The species, although combining in a remarkable degree the char-
acters of the megalotis and albescens groups, seems not to be directly
connected with either of them. It is perhaps best placed in the
megalotis group, but seems not to intergrade with any member of it.1

Though but lit.tle smaller than R. m. megalotis, it is markedly
smaller than aztecus — the form ranging through northern New Mexico,
nearest to the home of montanus. It may be distinguished from both
megalotis and aztecus by smaller size, particularly of the ears and tail,
and by paler and less ochraceous coloration. Externally it much
resembles R. a. albescens but is somewhat darker and has larger ears
and feet. The nearest approach geographically of R. albescens griseus
to the range of montanus is at Santa Rosa, N. Mex., and the single
specimen taken there shows no departure from typical griseus.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 21, from the following locali-
ties:

Colorado: Del Norte, 1; Medano Ranch (15 miles northeast of Mosca), 20.

REITHRODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS MEGALOTIS (Baird).

Desert Harvest Mouse.

(PI. I, fig. 6; PI. IV, fig. 6; PI. VII, figs. 1, 7.)

Reithrodon megalotis Baird, Mamm. N. Am., 1857, p. 451.

Reithrodontomys megalotis Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., V, 1893, p. 79; VII,

1895, p. 125.
Reithrodontomys megalotis deserti Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VII, 1895, p. 127

(Oasis Valley, Nev.).
Reithrodontomys megalotis sestinensis Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XIX, 1903,

p. 602 (Rio Sestin, northwestern Durango).

Type locality. — Between Janos, Chihuahua, and San Luis Springs,
N. Mex.

Distribution. — From northern Nevada and southern Idaho south
to Zacatecas, Mexico ; occupying the greater part of Nevada, Arizona,
and Utah (except eastern part) ; southern New Mexico ; western Texas
(west of Pecos River) ; desert regions of southern and northeastern
California, northeastern Lower California, and northern Sonora;
and northern portion of Mexican table-land.

» Cary's assignment of this species to the albescens group (N. Am. Fauna No. 33,1911, p. 108) was on the
authority of the present writer, who, after more detailed study, has reached the conclusions set forthabove.

1914.]

REITHRODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS GEOUP.

27

Characters. — Size medium (larger than R. montanus and smaller
than R. f. fulveseens) ; general tone brownish buff above and white
below; ears usually without dark markings.

Fig. 2.— Distribution of Reithrodontomys montanus, R. megalotis, and subspecies.

Color. — Unworn winter pelage: Upperparts mixed blackish brown
and light ochraceous-buff, darkest in middle of back, shading to
nearly pure buff on sides; feet and underparts white; tail hair-brown
above, whitish below; ears drab, usually with a tuft of ochraceous-
buff hairs at base. Unworn summer pelage: Similar to the fresh

28 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 38.

winter pelage, but colors less strongly contrasted and black variations
of upperparts much reduced. Worn spring and summer pelage: Gen-
eral tone browner and colors less contrasted than in the winter
pelage, the buff on sides less pronounced and often lacking.

STcuU. — Larger than that of montanus, with broader, flatter brain-
case. Compared with fulvescens and tenuis: Slightly smaller, with
longer palatal foramina and narrower interpterygoid fossa.

Measurements. — Average of 6 adults from type region (Casas
Grandes, Chihuahua; Mexican boundary, 50 to 100 miles west of
El Paso; and Organ Mountains, N. Mex.): Total length, 140 (128-
145); tail vertebrae, 71 (65-77); hind foot, 17.6 (17-18.5); ear from
notch, 12.5 (12-13.2). Average of 12 adults from Lone Pine, Cal.:
139; 70; 17.5; of 10 adults from Oasis Valley, Nev. (measured to
end of tail hairs) : 139; 72; 18.4. Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This subspecies has the widest range of any of the forms
of megalotis and is subject to considerable individual variation, both
in color and in size of skull. It intergrades with aztecus in central
New Mexico, with longicaudus in California, with nigrescens in south-
ern Idaho, and with cinereus in central Mexico. The present writer
is in accord with Dr. J. A. Allen, who revised the group in 1895, in
his failure to find any constant color differences between the series
from the deserts of Nevada and California and that from the type
region (southern New Mexico and northern Chihuahua), individuals
in comparable pelage from the two regions being practically indis-
tinguishable. Specimens from the Death Valley region of southern
California and Nevada have slightly larger skulls than those of the
typical form from Chihuahua and southern New Mexico but smaller
than those of aztecus. These have been separated as a subspecies,
"deserti" by Dr. Allen on the basis of an alleged difference in the rel-
ative length of body and tail. A careful comparison of measurements
of adult specimens from the two regions, however, fails to show any
appreciable differences in proportion. The apparent differences
shown in Dr. Allen's published measurements probably are due in
part to differences in methods of measurement and in part to the inclu-
sion of a greater number of immature examples in the series from
New Mexico and Utah. The cranial differences are considered too
slight and inconstant to warrant recognition of the form by name.

A large series from the Colorado River, Sonora, at Monument No.
204, Mexican boundary, are practically typical megalotis. Two in-
dividuals from Volcano Lake, head of Hardy River, Lower California,
are very small, but no smaller than an individual in the series from
Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, quite close to the type locality.

A large series from various places in northwestern Nevada and a
small series from Salt Lake Valley, Utah, are fairly typical megalotis,
having slightly smaller skulls than the Death Valley series and thus
showing no approach to aztecus.

1914.] EEITHKODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS GEOUP. 29

Intergradation with longicaudus is perfectly shown by a large
series from the Mojave Desert in southern California. In color these
specimens are intermediate between the two races, but rather nearer
to megalotis, while in skull characters they most resemble longicaudus.
Some individuals in the series much resemble nigrescens, but are
generally more suffused with buff. A series from the south fork of
Kern River, Cal., are nearly typical megalotis but slightly browner.

In New Mexico the typical form occurs only in the extreme south-
ern part, near the Mexican boundary, a gradual increase in size of
skull being observed as we proceed northward toward the range of
aztecus. Southward over the Mexican table-land there is no percep-
tible change in color as far as Zacatecas. Specimens from north-
western Durango, described by Allen under the name "sestinensis,"
do not differ appreciably from the typical form.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 415, from the following
localities :

Idaho: American Falls, 2; Swan Lake, 1.

California: Amedee, 2; Argus Mountains, 1; Barstow, 12; Bishop Creek, 1;
Cartago, Owens Lake, 10; Colorado River (opposite Parker, Ariz.), 4; Emi-
grant Spring, 1; Fort Yuma, 1; Furnace Creek, Death Valley, 5; Grapevine
Spring, 4; Keeler, 4; Lone Pine, 30; Long Valley (Lassen County), 4; Mojave,
3;1 Olanche, Owens Lake, 22; Owens Valley, 8; Onyx, south fork of Kern
River, 19; * Panamint Mountains, 7; Panamint Valley, 2; Pilot Knob, 8;
Resting Spring, 3; Saratoga Spring, 3; Shepherd Canon, Argus Mountains,
1; Tehachapi, 20;1 Twelve Mile Spring, Inyo County, 1; Victorville, l.1* 2

Nevada: Ash Meadows, 30; Carson Sink, 1; Fallon, 5; Gardner ville, 1; Grape-
vine Mountains, 2; Oasis Valley, 16; Pahranagat Valley, 4; Pahrump Valley,
11; Panaca, 1; Pine Forest Mountains, 7;3 Quinn River Crossing, 20;3 St.
Thomas, 1; Smoky Creek, 1; Vegas Valley, 5; Verdi, 3; Virgin Valley, l.3

Arizona: Colorado River at Monument No. 204, Mexican boundary, 27; Fair-
bank, 2; Grand Canyon (Indian Gardens), 2; Lee's ferry, 1; Parker, 5; St.
Johns, 2; Winslow, 17; Zuni River, 1.

New Mexico: Animas Valley, 1; Deming,3; Dry Creek, Socorro County, 3; Fair-
view,!; Gallo Canyon, 35 miles southeast of Corona, 1; Gila, Grant County, 1;
Glenwood, 1; Jicarilla Mountains, 1; Kingston, 2; Las Cruces, 3; Las Palo-
mas, 5; Mesa Jumanes, 2; Monument No. 15, Mexican boundary, 1; Monu-
ment No. 40, Mexican boundary, 3; Organ Mountains, 3; Pleasanton, 1;
Redrock, Grant County, 1; Roswell, 1; San Andreas Mountains, 2; San
Mateo Mountains, Socorro County, 2; Silver City, 3; Tularosa, 5.

Texas: Alpine, 1; 25 miles west of Fort Stockton, 1; Franklin Mountains, 1;
Guadalupe Mountains, 1; Pecos City, 1.

Lower California: Gardners Lagoon, 1; Seven Wells, 2.

Sonora: CienegaWell, 30 miles south of Monument No. 204, Mexican boundary, 1.

Chihuahua: Casas Grandes, 4; Chihuahua, 2.

Coahuila: Saltillo, 1; Sierra Guadalupe, 1.

Durango: Rio Sestin, 4.4

Zacatecas: Zacatecas, 2.

1 Approaching longicaudus. 3 Collection Mus. Vert. Zool., Univ. of Cal.

2 Received from Jos. Grinnell. * Collection Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.

30 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

REITHRODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS AZTECUS Allen.
Aztec Harvest Mouse.
Reithrodontomys aztecus Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., V, 1893, p. 79.

Type locality. — La Plata, N. Mex.

Distribution. — Northern New Mexico, northeastern Arizona, south-
eastern Utah, and western Colorado, north to Grand Junction and
Rifle.

Characters. — Similar to megalotis but with larger ears and skull.

Color. — Not appreciably different from that of megalotis; ears some-
times with irregular dusky blotches.

Skull. — Decidedly larger than that of megalotis.

Measurements. — Average of 7 adults from La Plata and Aztec,
N. Mex., and Noland Ranch, Utah: Total length, 144 (133-155); tail
vertebrae, 68 (62-73); hind foot, 18 (17-19); ear from notch, 13.8
(12-15.5). Skull (see table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This subspecies does not differ from megalotis in color,
but its skull is so much larger that it seems desirable to recognize the
race. The ears average larger, also, in the series from the type region.
Dr. Allen provided the form with a provisional name many years ago,
but later placed it in synonymy.

This race is connected with megalotis by a complete series of inter-
grades from New Mexico and Arizona. The specimens from Datil
and Manzano Mountains are too young to be satisfactorily identified,
but are provisionally referred to aztecus.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 143, from the following locali-
ties:

New Mexico: Aztec, 39; Espanola, 8; Farmington, 4; Fruitland, 6; Gallup, 1;

Guadalupita, 1; La Plata, 32; Las Vegas, 2; Manzano Mountains, 1; Rinco-

nada, 1; Rio Puerco, 4; Wingate, 2.
Arizona: Canyon de Chelly, 1.

Utah: Bluff City, San Juan River, 4; Noland Ranch, San Juan River, 5.
Colorado: Arboles, 1; Ashbaugh's Ranch, Montezuma County, 2; Cortez, 1;

Grand Junction, 26; Rifle, 2.

REITHRODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS DYCHEI Allen.

Prairie Harvest Mouse.

(PL I, fig. 7; PL IV, fig. 7.)

Reithrodontomys dychei Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VII, 1895, p. 120.
Reithrodontomys dychei nebrascensis Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VII, 1895, p. 122

(Kennedy, Nebr.).
Reithrodontomys griseus Ruthven & Wood, Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci., XIX, 1912,

p. 204 (not of Bailey).1

Type locality. — Lawrence, Kans.

1 Misidentification of specimen by the present writer.

1914.] REITHRODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS GROUP. 31

Distribution. — Greater part of Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri,
and South Dakota; southern North Dakota; southeastern Montana;
eastern Colorado and eastern Wyoming.

Characters. — Similar to megalotis, but black of upperparts more
extensive and ochraceous shades more intense; ears slightly smaller;
tail shorter.

Color. — Full winter pelage (topotypes): Upperparts mixed black
and light ochraceous-buff ; in some specimens the median dorsal area
is noticeably darker, hi others the color is nearly uniform over the
whole back; sides clear buff, the lateral line sometimes, though not
always, well-marked; ears hair-brown externally, thinly clothed with
buffy hairs on inner surface, and with a tuft of ochraceous-buff hairs
at anterior base; feet and underparts white; tail sharply bicolor,
dark hair-brown above, white beneath.

Skull. — About same size as that of megalotis (smaller than that of
aztecus); rostrum shorter and broader.

Measurements.1 — Type: Total length, 133; tail vertebrae, 52; hind
foot, 15.5. Average of 6 nearly adult specimens from eastern
Nebraska (Neligh and Verdigris): Total length, 135 (130-142); tail
vertebrae, 61 (57-65); hind foot, 17.5 (16.5-18); ear from notch, 10. 5
(10.3-11.1). Average of 8 adults from Kennedy, Nebr.: 133; 63;
17.5; 10.8. Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This form clearly belongs in the megalotis group and
apparently intergrades with aztecus, as indicated by specimens from
central Colorado (Loveland, Greeley, and Canon City). These aver-
age slightly paler and grayer than the typical form and their skulls are
intermediate in size, with somewhat longer rostri than in typical
dychei.

The series from Kennedy, Nebr., on which Dr. Allen based the sub-
species "nebrascensis" seem to be indistinguishable from specimens
of typical dychei in comparable pelage. At many localities in
Nebraska and Kansas R. albescens griseus occurs with the present
species, and although occasional specimens are hard to distinguish by
color alone, yet in size and cranial characters the species are distinct.
Dr. Allen confused the two in his original description of dychei, the
series listed from Onaga, Kans., and London, Nebr., being referable
to griseus. The latter race may be distinguished from dychei by its
smaller size, shorter tail, and smaller skull with short rostrum and
short palatal- foramina. In coloration dychei is more intensely ochra-
ceous than griseus and often not conspicuously darkened on the dorsal
area; griseus is distinctly grayer and the ochraceous-buff of the sides
is paler and less extensive.

1 The great variation in the measurements of this species given by Dr. Allen in the original description
indicates that probably many of the specimens were immature and the average therefore too small.

32 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 153, from the following locali-
ties:

North Dakota: Ellendale, 2; Fort Clark, 4; Hankinson, 4; Ludden, 2;Oakes, 1.

South Dakota: Clay County, 2.

Montana: Billings, 5; Fort Custer, 4.

Wyoming: Arvada, 4; Casper, 1; Meadow, 1; Pole Creek, Laramie County, 1;
Splitrock, 3; Sun, 3.

Colorado: Boulder, 1; Canon City, 5; Denver, 2; Golden, 2; Greeley, 1; Love-
land, 14; Valmont, 1.

Kansas: Cloud County, 2;1 Lawrence, 9;2 Neosho Falls, 1; Onaga, 18; Pen-
dennis, 5.

Nebraska: Alliance, 2; Beemer, 1; Callaway, 3; Cherry County, 1; 10 miles
south of Cody, 1; Columbus, 3; Ewing, 1; Glen, Sioux County, 1; Haigler,
2;3 Kearney, 2; Kennedy, 12; 18 miles northwest of Kennedy, 5; Neligh, 9;
Norfolk, 1; Two Mile Lake, Cherry County, 1; Valentine, 2; Verdigris, 2.

Iowa: Atlantic, 2; Hillsboro, 2; Palo Alto County, 1*

Missouri: St. Louis, 1; Thayer, 2.

REITHRODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS NIGRESCENS subsp. nov.
Dusky Harvest Mouse.

Type from Payette, Idaho. No. 201616, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biologi-
cal Survey Collection, <$ adult, June 9, 1913; L. E. Wyman. Original
No. 98.

Distribution. — Eastern Oregon and western Idaho; north to Pres-
cott, Wash., south to Bieber, Cal.

Characters. — Similar to megalotis, but upperparts more blackish and
less buffy; grayer and less ochraceous than longicaudus.

Color. — Winter pelage: Upperparts mixed blackish and pale ochra-
ceous-buff, the black predominating on dorsal area; lateral line of
buff only faintly indicated; ears hair-brown, clothed with ochraceous
hairs; tail blackish brown above, white below; feet and underparts
white. Summer pelage (July): General tone of upperparts more
brownish and less blackish than in winter pelage.

STcuU. — Closely similar to that of megalotis, but with slightly longer
nasals.

Measurements. — Average of 7 adults from Idaho : Total length, 144
(140-153); tail vertebrae, 68 (63-75); hind foot, 17 (16-18). Skull:
(See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This race occupies the extreme northwestern part of the
range of the species, chiefly in a region of old lava beds where the soil
is richer and vegetation more abundant than in the more arid deserts
to the southward. It is most nearly related to megalotis, but probably
intergrades also with longicaudus.

' Collection Kansas Univ. Mus. a Collection Univ. of Nebraska.

' Collection Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. * Collection Univ. of Michigan,

1914.] REITHKODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS GROUP. 33

Specimens examined. — Total number, 36, from the following locali-
ties:

Washington: Prescott, 7.

Oregon: Narrows, Malheur County, 11; Vale, 1.

California: Bieber, 1; Brownell, 4.

Idaho: Nampa, 5; Payette, 5; Weiser, 2.

REITHRODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS LONGICATJDUS (Baird).

California Harvest Mouse.

Reithrodon longicauda Baird, Mamm. N. Am., 1857, p. 451.

Ochetodon longicauda Coues, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1874, p. 186; Mon. N. Am.

Rodentia, 1877, p. 126.
Reithrodontomys pallidus Rhoads, Am. Nat., XXVII, 1893, p. 835 (Santa Ysabel,

Cal.).
Reithrodontomys longicauda Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VII, 1895, p. 129.
Reithrodontomys klamathensis Merriam, N. Am. Fauna No. 16, 1899, p. 93 (Shasta

Valley, Cal.).
Reithrodontomys megalotis longicauda Grinnell, Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, III,

1913, p. 303.

Type locality. — Petaluma, Cal.

Distribution. — Greater part of western California, east to the foot-
hills of the Sierra Nevada, San Bernardino, and San Jacinto Ranges;
north to Grants Pass, Oreg., and south into northwestern Lower
California to about latitude 32°.

Characters. — Slightly smaller than megalotis; colors darker and more
intense.

Color. — Fresh winter pelage: Upperparts mixed blackish and ochra-
ceous-buff, the black predominating on dorsal area, shading to nearly
pure ochraceous-buff on sides; lateral line of buff often well defined;
ears same color as back, clothed with scattering ochraceous hairs;
feet grayish white; tail sharply bicolor, hair-brown or fuscous above,
grayish white below; underparts grayish white, usually with a tinge
and often with a strong wash of ochraceous-buff. Fresh summer
pelage: Similar to the winter pelage, but decidedly paler and lacking
most of the black on the dorsal area.

STcull. — Similar to that of megalotis, but smaller.

Measurements. — Adult topotype: Total length, 152; tail vertebra?,
75; hind foot, 17.5. Average of 13 specimens (mostly young adults)
from vicinity of San Francisco Bay: 139 (130-146); 73 (68-79);
17 (16-18). Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This form has a wide range on the Pacific coast and inter-
grades with megalotis at various points along the edge of the deserts.
Intermediate specimens have been examined from Barstow, Mojave,
Tehachapi, Santa Paula, Kern River, Bieber, etc. The form from
Shasta Valley described under the name "Mamathensis" is likewise
intermediate between longicaudus and megalotis, specimens from there
agreeing exactly in color with summer specimens of longicaudus from
28657°— 14 3

34 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

Petaluma, while their skulls can be matched very closely in the series
of megalotis. The type of " Mamathensis" is a very old individual
and has a skull as large as that of R. m. aztecus. Skulls of topotypes,
however, do not differ appreciably from skulls of megalotis from the
Death Valley region. Reiihrodontomys "pallidus ' ' of Rhoads is a pure
synonym of longicaudus, neither the type nor topotypes being distin-
guishable from typical specimens of this race. Color variation in
this subspecies is considerable and the winter and summer pelages
are strikingly different.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 555, from the following locali-
ties:

Oregon: Grants Pass, l.1

California: Adobe Station, l;2 Alton Junction, Humboldt County, 3; Aptos, 15;
Armona, 1; Arroyo Seco, 10 miles south of Paraiso Springs, 4; Arroyo Seco
Canyon, near Pasadena, l;3 Ballena, San Diego County, 3; Banta, 8; Bear
Valley, head of Carmel River, 2; Bear Valley, San Benito County, 1; Berg-
man, Riverside County, 1; Berkeley, 31; Boulder Creek, 2; Briceland, 2;
Burbank, 4; Calabasas, 1; Cameron's Ranch, San Diego County, 1; Campo,
San Diego County, 1; Carlsbad, San Diego County, 3; Carpenteria, 2; Chico, 6;
Chinese Camp, 1 ; Church Ranch, 5 miles north of Tassajara Springs, 2 ; Dulzura,
1; El Nido, Jamul Creek, 9; Elsinore, 2; Eshom Valley, Tulare County, 1;
Fairfield, 3; Fort Bragg, 1; (old) Fort Tejon, 1; Freestone, 2; Fremont Peak,
Gabilan Range, 3; Fresno, 3; Fresno Flat, 4; Gaviota Pass, 5; Gilroy, 2; Glen
Ellen, 10; Hueneme, 3; Humboldt Bay, 3; Jackson, 1; Jacumba, 8; James-
burg, 5; Jolon, 4; King City, 1; Lagunitas, 1; Las Virgines Creek, 2; Layton-
ville, 1; Lebec, 1; Leesville, 6; Lemoore, 2; Los Banos, 1; LosOlivos, 2; Lower
Lake, 3; Ly tie Creek, Los Angeles County, 2; Martinez, 1; Marysville, 6; Marys-
ville Buttes, 12; Mendota, 2; Milpitas Ranch, south base Santa Lucia Peak, 3;
Milquatay Valley, 1; Modesto, 1; Mono Flats, Santa Ynez River, 2; Montalvo,
3; Monterey, 16; Morro, 2;2 Mountain Spring, San Diego County, 3; Mount
George, 2; Mount St. Helena, 2; Nelson, Butte County, 2; Nicasio, 5; Novato,
3; Oakland, 1; Oceanside, 1; Orosi, 2; Pacheco Pass, Santa Clara County, 1;
Pacific Grove, 3; Pacific Ocean, near Mexican boundary, 6; Palo Alto, 1;
Paraiso Springs, 8;2 Paso Robles, 5; Petaluma, 6;1 Petrolia, 9; Pine Valley,
Monterey County, 1; Point Reyes, 19; Porterville, 1; Posts, 5; Pozo, 3;2
Radec, Riverside County, 2; Riverside, 5; Rockport, 5; Salinas, 4; San
Bernardino, 13 ;2 San Bernardino Mountains (altitude 5,200 feet), 6; San
Diego, 6; San Emigdio Canyon, 7; San Fernando, 7; San Jacinto, 1; San Luis
Obispo, 5;2 San Marcos, 1; San Mateo, 15; San Pasqual Valley, 1; San Pedro,
1; San Simeon, 5; Santa Barbara, 2; Santa Maria, 3; Santa Monica, 4; Santa
Paula, 17;2 Santa Ynez Mission, 4; Santa Ysabel, 5; Santiago Springs, San
Luis Obispo County, l;2 San Ygnacio Valley, San Diego County, 1; Shasta
Valley, 7;2 Soledad, 2;2 Stanford University, 22; Strawberry Valley, San
Jacinto Mountains, 3; Sur, 6; Sur River, 6; Tecate Valley, 3; Tecelote Canyon,
1; Tehama, 4; Tejon Canyon, 3; Temescal, 2; Three Rivers, 1; mouth Tia
Juana River, 1; Tracy 10; Twin Oaks, 1; Ventura River, 2; Walnut Creek,
20; Warren's Ranch, Riverside County, 1; Westport, 2.

Lower California: El Rayo, Hanson Laguna Mountains, 1 ; La Huerta, Hanson
Laguna Mountains, 1; Nachoguero Valley, 2; Rancho Viejo, 15 miles east of
Alamos, 1; San Isidro Ranch, near monument No. 250, Mexican boundary, 5.

1 Collection Field Mus. Nat. Hist. 'Approaching megalotis. > Collection of Joseph Grinnell.

1914.] REITHRODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS GROUP. 35

REITHRODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS PENINSULA Elliot.

Peninsula Harvest Mouse.

Rhithrodontomys peninsulae Elliot, Pub. Field Columb. Mus., Zool. Ser., Ill, 1903,
p. 164.

Type locality. — San Quintin, Lower California.

Distribution. — West coast of Lower California, between latitude 30°
and 31°; southern limit of range not definitely known.

Characters. — Similar to longicaudus, but with larger ears and
longer tail.

Color. — Fresh pelage (October to January) : Similar to corre-
sponding pelage of longicaudus, but averaging richer and redder, and
less brownish on the back; underparts white with a tinge of ochraceous-
buff. Worn summer pelage: Specimens not appreciably different from
longicaudus in same pelage.

Skull. — Similar to those of megalotis and longicaudus.

Measurements. — Average of 11 specimens (adult and subadult)
from type locality: Total length, 154 (140-170); tail vertebrae, 84
(78-91); hind foot, 17.4 (16-18). Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This form has a rather restricted range on the Pacific
coast of Lower California. It is closely related to longicaudus, with
which it intergrades in the vicinity of San Telmo.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 32, from the following locali-
ties:

Lower California: Pozo Luciano (northwest slope San Pedro Martir Moun-
tains), 1; Rosario, 20;1 San Quintin, 8; San Telmo, 1; Socorro, 2.

REITHRODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS CINEREUS Merriam.

Ashy Harvest Mouse.

Reithrodontomys saturatus cinereus Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., III, 1901, p. 556.

Type locality. — Chalchicomula, Puebla, Mexico.

Distribution. — Southern portion of Mexican table-land in the States
of Hidalgo, Puebla, and Tlaxcala.

Characters. — Slightly larger and darker than megalotis with much
darker ears and tail; paler than saturatus.

Color. — Upperparts mixed black and light ochraceous-buff; darkest
in the median line where the black sometimes appears as a broad
band; sides light ochraceous-buff; underparts grayish white with a
tinge of ochraceous-buff and scmetimes with one or more small
blotches of the same color, chiefly in the pectoral region; ears fuscous,
with a large blackish patch on the inferior inner margin and another
on the superior outer margin; tail, fuscous, darker than in megalotis.

Skull. — Practically the same as that of saturatus, possibly a little
shorter.

1 Including 9 from Collection Mus. Comp. Zool.

36 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

Measurements. — Average of 5 adults from type locality: Total
length, 148 (142-151); tail vertebrae, 74 (71-78); hind foot, 19
(18.5-19.5). Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This form is intermediate between megalotis and satu-
ratus, being slightly larger externally than megalotis, with skull about
the size of that of saturatus. One of the topotype series matches
megalotis very closely in color, but the others are much darker; all
have darker ears, tail, and underparts.

The range of cinereus is apparently not extensive and is nearly
surrounded by that of saturatus, at least on the east, south, and west.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 11, from the following locali-
ties in Mexico :

Puebla: Chalchicomula, 5; Mount Orizaba, 1.
Tlaxcala: Apixaco, 2; Huamantla, 1.
Hidalgo: Real del Monte, 2.

REITHRODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS SATURATUS Allen & Chapman.

Dusky Harvest Mouse.

(PL I, fig. 8; PL IV, fig. 8.)

Reithrodontomys saturatus Allen and Chapman, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., IX, 1S97,
p. 201.

Type locality. — Las Vigas, Vera Cruz.

Distribution. — From Jalisco (Ocotlan), Hidalgo, and Vera Cruz
south to Oaxaca; altitudinal range approximately from 6,000 to
10,000 feet.

Characters. — Larger and darker (blacker and more intensely
ochraceous) than cinereus.

Color. — Upperparts mixed black and ochraceous-buff, the black
predominating; sides with less black but without a distinct ochra-
ceous line; underparts grayish white, often strongly suffused with
ochraceous-buff; ears blackish, or fuscous with a large blackish patch
on the inner posterior margin; tail sharply bicolor, fuscous-black
above, whitish beneath; feet grayish white.

Skull. — Similar in proportions to that of megalotis but decidedly
larger; zygomata parallel or slightly contracted anteriorly; closely
similar to those of tenuis and dijficilis, but averaging larger, with
larger bullae and longer palatal foramina.

Measurements. — Average of 7 adults from type locality: Total
length, 162 (158-169); tail vertebras, 87 (80-95); hind foot, 19
(18-19.5). Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This is the largest and darkest form in the megalotis
group. It occupies the humid mountain slopes of southern Mexico,
intergrading with cinereus along the edge of the table-land and with
zacatecx in Michoacan. Its range meets that of R. fulvescens

1914.] KEITHRODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS GROUP. 37

difficilis in Vera Cruz, and the two may occur together in some
localities. They are closely similar in general appearance, but
saturatus may be distinguished by its blacker ears and back, whiter
underparts, and larger skull. Specimens from Oaxaca City are redder
than typical specimens, with less black on the dorsal area, but two
from the mountains west of Oaxaca are typical.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 68, from the following locali-
ties in Mexico :

Vera Cruz: Huauchinango, 1; Las Vigas, 11; Mofint Orizaba, 2;1 Perote, 6;
Xuchil, 7.1

Hidalgo: Tulancingo, 1.

Mexico: Salazar, 6; Toluca Valley, 2; Volcan Toluca, 1.
Morelos: Huitzilac, 3.
Michoacan: Nahuatzin, 9.
Jalisco: Ocotlan, 3.

Oaxaca: Mount Zempoal tepee, 4; mountains 15 miles west of Oaxaca, 2; moun-
tains near Ozolotepec, 1; Oaxaca City, 6; Tamazulapam, 1; Tlapancingo, 2.

REITHRODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS ALTICOLUS Merriam.

Cerro San Felipe Harvest Mouse.

(PL I, fig. 12; PI. IV, fig. 12.)

Reithrodontomys megalotis alticolus Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., Ill, 1901, p. 556.

Type locality. — Cerro San Felipe, Oaxaca, Mexico (altitude 10,000
feet).

Distribution. — Known only from vicinity of type locality.

Characters. — Similar to saturatus; tail shorter; skull with larger
bullse and more inflated braincase.

Color. — Upperparts mixed black and ochraceous-buff, darkest
on the dorsal area; ears fuscous, with a blackish patch on lower
inner margin; feet buffy white; ankles with a dusky streak; tail hair-
brown above, grayish white beneath.

Skull. — Similar in size and proportions to that of saturatus; brain-
case more inflated (subglobular) ; bullse larger and more inflated;
nasals narrowed to a point posteriorly.

Measurements. — Type ( J ad.): Total length, 153; tail vertebrae,
75; hind foot, 19. Average of two adults from La Parada, Oaxaca:
152; 78.5; 18.5. Skuil: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This subspecies is a slightly differentiated form, very
closely related to saturatus, from which it differs cliiefly in shorter
tail and in slight cranial characters. It seems to be confined to the
Cerro San Felipe and its environs. Specimens from La Parada, at
the base of the mountain, are not quite typical.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 3, from the following localities
in Mexico :

Oaxaca: Cerro San Felipe, 1; La Parada, 2.

i Collection Field Mus. Nat. Hist.

38 NOBTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

REITHRODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS ARIZONENSIS Allen.
Chiricahua Harvest Mouse.
Reithrodontomys arizonensis Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VII, 1895, p. 134.

Type locality. — Rock Creek, Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz, (altitude
about 8,000 feet).

Distribution. — -Known only from the type locality.

Characters. — About the size of megalotis; tail averaging slightly
longer; colors much darker and more ochraceous. Very similar to
longicaudus, but a little redder on the head, ears blacker, and tail
paler (hoary gray instead of brown).

Color. — Upperparts ochraceous-buff, heavily mixed with black;
front and sides of face nearly pure buff; ears dark hair-brown, with
darker patches on both inner and outer margins; feet white; ankles
dusky; underparts white, with an ochraceous patch on the breast
between the fore legs; tail mouse-gray above, grayish white below,
clothed all around with scattered whitish hairs.

Skull. — Closely similar to that of megalotis.

Measurements. — Average of 4 adults from type locality: Total
length, 149 (145-152); tail vertebrae, 78 (74-80); hind foot, 17
(16-18); ear, 13 (12.5-14). Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This subspecies, as noted by the original describer,
bears a surprising resemblance to R. megalotis longicaudus of Cali-
fornia, but the ranges of the two forms are separated by an extensive
area occupied by R. m. megalotis, and the present form is probably
more closely related to R. m. zacatecse of the mountains of western
Mexico, the range of which is known to extend north at least to
southern Chihuahua. The latter differs from arizonensis chiefly
in its more ochraceous underparts.

No intergrades between arizonensis and megalotis are known,
but quite probably such will later be found. Likewise the present
form is so close to zacatecse that the two will probably be found
to intergrade. Mr. W. W. Price, who collected the type series,
thus describes its habitat:

Five specimens of this species were trapped on Rock Creek, in the Chiricahua
Mountains, July 7-8, at an elevation of about 8,000 feet. Two were in rocks and
dry soil away from the bed of the creek, and the others were caught under logs and
brush near the water.1

Specimens examined. — Four, from type locality.2

i Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VII, 1895, p. 235.

* Two in Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 2 in Field Mus. Nat. Hist.

1914.] REITHRODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS GROUP. 39

REITHRODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS ZACATEC^ Merriam.

Mountain Harvest Mouse.

(PI. I, fig. 11; PL IV, fig. 11.)

Reithrodontomys megalotis zacatecse Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., Ill, 1901, p. 557.
Reithrodontomys megalotis obscurus Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., Ill, 1901,

p. 558 (Sierra Madre, near Guadalupe y Calvo, Chihuahua).
Reithrodontomys colimx Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXII, 1906, p. 249 (not

of Merriam; specimens from Volcan de Fuego, Jalisco).

Type locality. — Valparaiso Mountains, Zacatecas, Mexico.

Distribution. — Mountains of Western Mexico, from southern
Chihuahua to Michoacan.

Characters. — Very similar to arizonensis, but with darker under-
pays; smaller and paler than saturatus, with less black on upperparts.

Color. — Adults: Upperparts ochraceous-buff, heavily mixed with
black, the ochraceous color most pronounced on head and sides;
the black predominating on dorsal area but not forming a distinct
band; underparts washed with ochraceous-buff, this color usually
most intense between the fore legs; ears fuscous or dark hair-brown,
usually with a blackish patch on lower inner margin; feet whitish
or buffy white, ankles dusky; tail sharply bicolor, dark hair-brown
above, grayish white beneath. Young: Paler and grayer on upper-
parts; sides with a well-marked lateral line of light ochraceous-buff;
underparts whiter.

STcull.— Similar to that of megalotis but smaller; rostrum slenderer,
narrowed at the tip; zygomata slightly narrower anteriorly; nasals
narrowed to a point posteriorly, ending on a line with premaxillge.

Measurements. — Average of 3 adults from type locality: Total
length, 154; tail vertebrae, 84; hind foot, 18.5. Average of 3 adults
from Guadalupe y Calvo, Chihuahua: 160; 85; 18. Skull: (See
table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This subspecies is a small, dark-colored race of megalotis
inhabiting the mountains of western Mexico. No specimens have
been seen indicating intergradation between megalotis and zacatecse,
but very likely such material may in the future be secured. Inter-
gradation with saturatus is indicated by specimens from the State of
Mexico (Salazar, Toluca Valley, etc.) which resemble saturatus in color
but have smaller ears and skulls intermediate in size between the two
forms. From jNTahuatzin, Michoacan, specimens nearly typical of both
forms are at hand. Some are larger with larger, darker ears and large
skulls (as in saturatus), but at least 2 adult individuals, by reason
of small size, small skull, small ears, and ochraceous underparts,
must be referred to zacatecse. Specimens from Patamban, Michoacan,
average more intensely ochraceous, especially on the underparts,
and have more black on the ears, but are otherwise typical. The

40 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 38.

series from Guadalupe y Calvo, Chihuahua, forming the basis of
"obscurus", is too slightly different to warrant recognition. The
coloration of the two series is practically the same, and the skulls of
"obscurus" average only slightly larger.

This subspecies bears a striking resemblance to longicaudus from
California, but differs in having ochraceous underparts, slightly
longer tail, and a little more ochraceous color on the head .

Specimens examined. — Total number, 27, from the following locali-
ties in Mexico :

Chihuahua: Sierra Madre, near Guadalupe y Calvo, 3.

Durango: El Salto, 2.

Zacatecas: Valparaiso Mountains, 14.

Michoacan: Nahuatzin, 2; Patamban, 4.

Jalisco: Volcan de Fuego, 2.1

REITHRODONTOMYS AMOLES sp. nov.

QlJERETARO HARVEST MOUSE.

Type from Pinal de Amoles, Queretaro, Mexico. No. 81234, U. S.
Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Collection, $ adult, September 20, 1896;
E. W. Nelson and E. A. Goldman. Original No. 10169.

Characters. — Similar in color to R. m. saturatus, but very much
smaller.

Color. — Worn pelage: Upperparts mixed blackish and ochraceous-
buff; underparts whitish, strongly tinged on pectoral region with
ochraceous-buff; tail fuscous above, grayish white below; hind feet
whitish; fore feet white with a pronounced dusky stripe on upper
surface; ears dark brown (much mutilated, and size not known).

Skull. — Similar to that of R. m. megalotis but much smaller;
zygomata parallel; bullae smaller and rather flat.

Measurements. — Tj^pe: Total length, 154; tail vertebrae, 83 ; hind
foot 16.5. Skull: (See table, p. 81.)

Remarks. — On geographical grounds this form ought to be close to
R. m. saturatus, but it differs markedly in size from that race. It is
even smaller than R. m. zacatecse of the Sierra Madre, which it some-
what resembles in color.

Specimen examined. — One, the type.

REITHRODONTOMYS CATALINA Elliot.

Catalina Harvest Mouse.

Rhithrodontomys catalinx Elliot, Pub. Field Columb. Mus., Zool. Ser. Ill, 1903, p. 246.
Reithrodontomys megalotis catalinx Grinnell, Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, III, 1913,
p. 304.

Type locality. — Santa Catalina Island, Cal.
Distribution. — Santa Catalina Island, Cal.

1 Collection Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.

1914.] REITHRODONTOMYS MEGALOTIS GROUP. 41

Characters. — Similar to longicaudus but larger and slightly paler.

Color. — Worn spring pelage:1 Upperparts mixed light ochraceous-
buff and blackish brown, darkest on back, but without a distinct
dorsal stripe; underparts white, tinged with buff in pectoral region ;
tail dark hair-brown above, white beneath; ears hair-brown, clothed
with ochraceous hairs.

Skull. — Larger than that of R. m. longicaudus, but not otherwise
different.

Measurements. — Average of 10 adults from type locality: Total
length, 169 (165-175); tail vertebrae, 94 (90-99); hind foot, 18.6
(18-19.5). Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — So far as known this is the only insular species in the
genus. Mr. C. P. Streator, who collected a series in 1892, found the
mice abundant on the island in brush and cactus.

Specimens examined. — Twenty-eight, from type locality.

REITHRODONTOMYS RAVIVENTRIS RAVIVENTRIS Dixon.
Red-bellied Harvest Mouse.
(PI. I, fig. 9; PL IV, fig. 9.)
Reithrodontomys raviventris Dixon, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXI, 1908, p. 197.

Type locality. — Redwood City, Cal.

Distribution. — Salt marshes of San Francisco Ba3^, Cal.

Characters. — Similar to R. megalotis longicaudus but upperparts
darker and underparts reddish; skull larger; tail slightly shorter.

Color. — Upperparts mixed black and pinkish cinnamon, the black
predominating on dorsal area; sides pale tawny in some individuals;
underparts pinkish cinnamon (rarely with a small white spot on chin) ;
ears black or fuscous on both surfaces, with a tuft of ochraceous hairs
at anterior base; hind feet and tail usually very dark, varying from
fuscous to clove-brown or sepia, the tail slightly paler beneath, but
feet usually darker beneath; toes whitish; front feet sepia, often
tinged with buffy white.

Skull. — Decidedly larger than that of R. m. longicaudus; with rela-
tively shorter rostrum; nasals and palatal foramina shorter; zygo-
mata more widely expanded anteriorly.

Measurements. — Average of 21 from type locality: Total length,
130.7 (120-142); tail vertebrae, 64.8 (56-74); hind foot, 16.6 (15-18).
Average of 8 from Melrose Marsh, Alameda County: 137; 66; 17.7.
Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This species is remarkable on account of its peculiar
characters and limited distribution. It is the darkest form found
in the United States and the only one having reddish underparts.
In color it most nearly resembles R. australis of Costa Rica, but the
underparts are even darker than in that species.

1 Fresh pelage not seen.

42 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. Sfi.

It is apparently confined to the salt marshes in the southern part of
San Francisco Ba}r and although in many places its range abuts on
that of longicaudus, no evidence of intergradation between them has
been discovered. Two specimens — one from Palo Alto and one from
Berkeley — have whitish underparts but in other respects are typi-
cal raviventris. Intergradation with lialicoztes seems probable. The
pelage of both of these marsh forms is longer and seemingly thicker
than that of longicaudus.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 44, from the following locali-
ties:

California: Berkeley, 2; Elmhurst, I;1 Melroae Marsh, Alameda County, 13;1
Palo Alto, 4;2 Redwood City, 24. »

REITHRODONTOMYS RAVIVENTRIS HALICCETES Dixon.
Petaluma Marsh Harvest Mouse.
(PI. I, fig. 10; PI. IV, fig. 10.)
Reithrodontomys haliccetes Dixon, Univ. Cal. Pub. in Zool., V, 1909, p. 271.

Type locality. — Salt marsh 3 miles south of Petaluma, Cal.

Distribution. — Salt marshes of San Pablo Bay, Suisun Bay, and the
lower San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers.

Characters. — Similar in color to raviventris but larger; underparts
white; ears and feet paler; tail more distinctly bicolor. Compared
with R. m. longicaudus: Decidedly larger and darker, with a large
white patch on the throat; skull larger, with more widely spreading
zygomata.

Color. — Fresh pelage: Upper parts ochraceous-buff, heavily mixed
on the back with black; sides ochraceous-buff without a well-defined
lateral line; underparts white (the bases of hairs plumbeous), some-
times irregularly blotched with ochraceous-buff; throat and sides of
mouth pure white to base of hairs; sides of nose and eye ring blackish;
ears and upper surface of tail fuscous or fuscous-black; underside of
tail dull grayish white with a buffy tinge; feet white or buffy white.
TYom pelage: Decidedly more ochraceous, the black tips of the hairs
seemingly worn off.

Skull. — Similar to that of raviventris; larger than that of R. m.
longicaudus; zygomata usually (at least in adults) widely expanded
anteriorly.

Measurements. — Average of 13 from type locality : Total length, 156
(149-64); tail vertebrae, 82 (75-85); hind foot 17.7 (17-19). Skull:
(See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This form, although living only a short distance from
raviventris and under seemingly identical conditions, is readily sep-
arable from it. Nor is it in any sense a connecting form between

i Collection Mus. Vert. Zool., Univ. of Cal. » Three from Collection Mus. Vert. Zool.

1914.] REITHRODONTOMYS FULVESCENS GROUP. 43

raviventris and longicaudus, being larger than either with upperparts
fully as dark as raviventris. The underparts are whiter than in
longicaudus, the latter usually being more or less tinged with pale
ochraceous-buff. The close resemblance between Tialicoztes and ravi-
ventris in skull characters and the fact that nearly half of the speci-
mens of Tialicoztes examined from Petaluma are more or less suffused
beneath with ochraceous (though never so completely as in raviven-
tris) leads to the belief that the two are subspecifically related.
Specimens of Tialicoztes in worn pelage are much redder (less blackish)
than those in fresh pelage, thus rather closely resembling in color
certain specimens of longicaudus.

Mr. Joseph Dixon, who collected the type series of this mouse,
states:

This mouse seems to be restricted to the salt marsh, its range being coextensive with
that of the "pickle grass" (Salicornia). Diligent search and trapping failed to reveal
its presence outside the Salicornia and no specimens of R. longicauda could be caught
in the Salicornia. The harvest mice use the runways of Micro tus extensively.1

Specimens examined. — Total number, 56, from the following locali-
ties:

California: Brentwood, 1; Cordelia, Solano County, 6;2 Grand Island (2 miles
north of Knights Landing, Yolo County), l,2 Grizzlj Island, Solano County,
27 ;2 Petaluma, 21. 2

REITHRODONTOMYS FULVESCENS GROUP.

REITHRODONTOMYS FULVESCENS FULVESCENS Allen.
Sonoran Harvest Mouse.

Reithrodontomys mexicanus fulvescens Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VI, 1894,

p. 319.
Reithrodontomys fulvescens Allen, Ibid., VII, 1895, p. 138.

Type locality. — Oposura, Sonora, Mexico.

Distribution. — Mountainous parts of southern Sonora, western Chi-
huahua, and northern Durango.

Characters. — Size medium — a little larger than R. m. megalotis, with
decidedly longer tail; prevailing color of upperparts ochraceous-buff
with a pronounced lateral line.

Color. — Upperparts light ochraceous-buff, sparingly mixed with
blackish brown ; buff color most strongly marked on sides where it
frequently forms a pronounced lateral line, unmixed with brown; front
and sides of face tinged with grayish; underparts white, sometimes
faintly tinged with pale buff; feet buffy white; ears hair-brown
externally, clothed on inner surface with ochraceous-tawny hairs;
tail hair-brown above, grayish white beneath.

Skull. — Similar to that of R. m. megalotis but slightly larger; inter-
pterygoid fossa broader.

» Univ. of Cal. Pub. in Zooh, V, 1909, p. 271. 2 Collection Mus. Vert. Zool., Univ. of Cal.

44 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 183; tail vertebrae, 102; hind
foot, 19. One specimen (sub adult) from Providencia Mines, Sonora:
158.5; 84; 20.5. Average of 4 (adult and subadult) from Casas
Grandes, Chihuahua: 165 (157-174); 93 (84-97); 20. Skull: (See
table, p. 81).

Remarks. — The mice of this group may be distinguished from R. m.
megalotis by their greater size, longer tails, and more intensely ochra-
ceous coloration. The present form resembles megalotis more closely
than do any of the other subspecies and certain specimens of the two
forms are colored almost alike on the back. The sides of fulvescens,
however, are more extensively buff y and less mixed with brown than
those of megalotis. The skulls of fulvescens may usually be distin-
guished from those of any member of the megalotis group by the
greater breadth of the interpterygoid fossa.1 The ranges of the two
species meet along the eastern border of the Sierra Madre in Chi-
huahua, but there is no indication of intergradation between them.

This subspecies was the first member of the group to be described
and the third distinctively Mexican species to receive recognition.
Although described in 1894, it is still imperfectly known, only a small
number of specimens having been collected in the type region. At the
time of naming this form Dr. Allen considered it a subspecies of mexi-
canus2 and noted its close relationship to the Rio Grande form. Later
he accorded it specific rank. The abundant material now available
from Mexico shows clearly that fulvescens, tenuis, and intermedins are
closely related subspecies, connected through central Mexico by a per-
fect series of intergrades. The present form apparently intergrades,
also, with toltecus, as indicated by a specimen from Inde, Durango,
which agrees with fulvescens in color, but has a long tail like toltecus,
and skull intermediate in size between the two forms. The series
from Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, agrees with the type series in ex-
ternal characters, except for a more pronounced grayish wash on
the head and shoulders, but the single adult in the series has a some-
what larger skull than any in the Oposura series. In this character
it is matched by a specimen from Parral, Chihuahua.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 12, from the following locali-
ties in Mexico :

Sonora: Oposura, 3;3 Providencia Mines, 2.4
Chihuahua: Casas Grandes, 5; Parral, 1.
Durango: Inde, l.5

1 Skulls of iS. m. saturatus are sometimes difficult to distinguish by this character from those of R.f .tenuis.
i The name mciicanus at that time was applied to all the mice of this group from Texas and Mexico.
3 Collection Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.
* Collection Field Mus. Nat. Hist.
6 Approaching toltecus.

1914.]

REITHRODONTOMYS FULVESCENS GEOUP.

45

REITHRODONTOMYS FULVESCENS TENUIS Allen.
Mexican Harvest Mouse.
(PL II, fig. 7; PI. V, fig. 7.)

Reithrodontomys tenuis Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XII, 1899, p. 15.
Reithrodontomys griseoflavus Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., Ill, 1901, p. 553
(Ameca, Jalisco).
Type locality. — Rosario, Sinaloa, Mexico.

Fig. 3.— Distribution of Reithrodontomys fulvescens and subspecies.

Distribution. — Greater part of Mexico, except extreme northern and
southern portions; from southern Sonora, Durango, Zacatecas, San
Luis Potosi, Nuevo Leon, and central Tamaulipas, south to southern
Jalisco, Michoacan, and the coast region of Vera Cruz.

Characters. — Similar to fulvescens, but colors darker and more
intensely ochraceous.

46 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

Color. — Upperparts and sides rich ochraceous-buff; head and
shoulders strongly ochraceous, without trace of grayish; back more
heavily mixed with black than in fulvescens; ears slightly darker;
undcrparts usually grayish white, sometimes faintly tinged with buff;
tail hair-brown above, grayish white below.

SJcuU. — Closely similar to that of fulvescens.

Measurements. — Average of 3 adults from Mazatlan, Sinaloa: Total
length, 169 (163-177); tail vertebras, 98 (96-102); hind foot, 20.8
(20.5-21). Average of 5 adults from Chacala, Durango: 177; 105;
21.3. Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This is the most widely distributed member of the
fulvescens group and over its extensive range shows remarkably little
variation. Specimens from opposite sides of the continent can not
be distinguished by characters either of skin or skull. There is con-
siderable individual variation in both color and cranial characters, but
none which is correlated with distribution.

The subspecies intergrades with fulvescens in southern Sonora, with
intermedins in Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, with difficilis in Vera
Cruz and with toltecus in Michoacan. Direct comparison with the
type has not been possible, but specimens in the Biological Survey
Collection from Mazatlan, forwarded to Mr. G. S. Miller, jr., while he
was in London, were compared by him with the type in the British
Museum and found to agree very closely with it. Mr. Miller states:
"I should say there is no question of the identity of the Mazatlan
specimens with tenuis." In making comparisons these specimens
have been chiefly used.

Specimens from Ameca, Jalisco, forming the basis of " griseoflavus,"
show in comparison with tenuis a very slight cranial difference, con-
sisting of a more inflated braincase. In this character they resemble
lielvolus, although on geographical grounds they should be approach-
ing toltecus. In color and size they agree closely with tenuis. The
type is decidedly more grayish on the back and less intensely buffy
on the sides than is usual in this subspecies, but two topotypes agree
perfectly with the Mazatlan specimens of tenuis. A series from Cha-
cala, Durango, is a little darker and more richly colored, as well as
slightly larger than the typical form. Specimens from the arid coast
region of Vera Cruz (Carrizal, Santa Maria, and Catemaco) are clearly
intermediate between tenuis and difficilis, the ears and tails being
noticeably darker than in tenuis but the underparts and backs paler
than in difficilis.

Specimens from as far north as Cerro de la Silla and Santa Catarina,
Nuevo Leon, are referable to tenuis, though those from Santa Cata-
rina might almost as well be considered intermedius. Specimens
from Acambaro, Michoacan, are intermediate in size between tenuis
and toltecus.

1914.] KEITHRODONTOMYS FULVESCENS GROUP. 47

Specimens examined. — Total number, 127, from the following local-
ities in Mexico :

Sinaloa: Sinaloa, 2; Altata, 1; Culiacan, 1; Mazatlan, 4; Rio Mazatlan, 1.
Sonora: Alamos, 6.1

Jalisco: Ameca, 3; Atemajac, 2; Estancia, l;2 Etzatlan, 6;3 Lagos, 1; Las
Canoas, 2;2 Los Masos, l;2 Mascota, 1; Ocotlan, 2; Plantinar, 2; San Sebas-
tian, 8;3 Talpa, 1; Zapotlan, 7.
Tepic: Tepic, 2.

Durango: Chacala, 8; Durango, 3.
Zacatecas: Berriozabal, 1; Valparaiso, 5.
San Luis Potosi: Hacienda La Parada, 3.
Queretaro: Jalpan, 2; Tequisquiapam, 2.
Michoacan: Acambaro, 2.
Morelos: Cuernavaca, l.4
Guanajuato: Santa Rosa, 1; Silao, 2.

Vera Cruz: Carrizal, 4; Catemaco, 1; San Carlos, 2;s Santa Maria, 4.
Tamaulipas: Alta Mira, 11; Hidalgo, 9; Jaumave, 1; Victoria, 5.
NuevoLeon: Cerro de la Silla, 3; Santa Catarina, 3.

REITHRODONTOMYS FULVESCENS INTERMEDIUS Allen.
Rio Grande Harvest Mouse.

Ochetodon mexicanus Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. Ill, 1891, p. 223 (not Reith-

rodon mexicanus Sauss.)
Reithrodontomys mexicanus intermedius Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VII, 1895,

p. 136.
Reithrodontomys laceyi Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VIII, 1896, p. 235 (Watson's

Ranch, 15 miles south of San Antonio, Tex.).
Reithrodontomys intermedius Bailey, N. Am. Fauna No. 25, 1905, p. 104.

Type locality. — Brownsville, Tex.

Distribution. — Southern Texas and adjacent parts of Mexico from
Del Rio to Brownsville; east to Bexar and Bee Counties; north to
Wichita Mountains, Okla.

Characters. — Very similar to tenuis but averaging duller and less
intensely ochraceous above, and sides paler. Compared with, fulves-
cens: Upper parts, particularly head and shoulders, deeper ochraceous.

Color. — Winter pelage (February) : Ground color of upperparts
light ochraceous-buff, brightest on sides, strongly mixed with blackish
brown on the back; ears hair-brown, usually tinged with ochraceous
on inner surface; tail hair-brown above, grayish white beneath; feet
white; underparts white, sometimes faintly tinged with buff. Sum-
mer (worn) pelage: Decidedly redder on back and sides, some speci-
mens approaching dull orange-cinnamon. Young: Colors grayer and
less ochraceous.

1 Approaching fulvescens.
3 Collection Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.
' Approaching nelsoni.

* This specimen seems best referable to this subspecies, although on geographical grounds it should
be either toltecus or helvolus.
s Collection Field Mus. Nat. Hist.

48 NOETH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

Skull. — Very similar to that of tenuis, but braincase averaging
slightly larger.

Measurements. — Average of 8 adults from Rio Grande Valley
(Matamoras and Camargo, Tamaulipas) : Total length, 169 (160-181) ;
tail vertebrse, 98 (88-103); hind foot, 20.8 (20-21.5). Skull: (See
table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This subspecies is most nearly related to tenuis, than
which it has a much less extensive range. The differences between
intermedins and tenuis are really very slight, consisting in a more
intense suffusion of ochraceous-buff in tenuis, especially noticeable on
the sides. Specimens from Bexar and Kerr Counties — the type region
of "laceyi" — average slightly grayer and less ochraceous than speci-
mens from the mouth of the Rio Grande, but individuals in each
series may be matched by those from the other and the differences
seem too slight to warrant recognition of the form. If both inter-
medins and "laceyi" were to be recognized, the former would be
nothing more than a series of intermediates between tenuis on the
one side and "laceyi" on the other.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 65, from the following locali-
ties:

Oklahoma: Mount Scott, 9.

Texas: Brownsville, 26; Corpus Christi, 2; Del Rio, 2; Lacey's Ranch, near

Kerrville, 4; Padre Island, 1; Rio Grande City, 1; San Antonio, 3; San

Diego, 5; Santo Tomas, 2.
Tamaulipas: Camargo, 4; Matamoros, 6.

REITHRODONTOMYS FULVESCENS ATJRANTIUS Allen.
Golden Harvest Mouse.

Reithrodontomysmexicanusaurantius Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VII, 1895, p. 137.
Reithrodontomys chrysotis Elliot, Field Columb. Mus., Zool. Ser., I, 1899, p. 281

(Dougherty, Okla.).
Reithrodontomys aurantius Bailey, N. Am. Fauna No. 25, 1905, p. 105.

Type locality. — Lafayette, La.

Distribution. — Louisiana (west of the Mississippi River), southern
and east-central Arkansas, eastern Texas, and eastern Oklahoma;
north to southwestern Missouri (Carthage). Confined to Lower
Austral Zone.

Characters. — Colors decidedly richer and darker than in interme-
dins; skull slightly larger.

Color. — Adults in unworn pelage: Upperparts varying from pinkish
cinnamon to ochraceous-tawny, usually heavily mixed with blackish
brown; sides of head and body usually rich ochraceous or tawny but
without a pronounced lateral line where the color of the sides meets
that of the underparts; dark markings of back frequently forming a

1914.] REITHEODONTOMYS FULVESCENS GROUP. 49

distinct median band; ears dull sepia, clothed on inner surface with
tawny hairs; underparts grayish white, often with a distinct tinge of
pale buff. Immature pelage: Decidedly more grayish, often lacking
entirely the bright tawny shades. Variation: There is considerable
variation in color in this subspecies, even among adult specimens.
This consists both in the intensity of the ochraceous shades and in the
amount of blackish suffusion on the back and sides. Some individ-
uals have the whole back heavily sprinkled with blackish hairs,
while others show only a rather narrow band down the median line.
A specimen from Matagorda Island (March 31) is quite exceptional
in being intensely tawny over the entire upperparts with only faint
indications of black hairs on the back, thus closely resembling speci-
mens of Peromyscus nuttdlli. Other individuals from the same island
are normal in color.

Skull. — Very similar to that of intermedius, but braincase averag-
ing a little broader.

Measurements. — Adult from Houma, La.: Total length, 176; tail
vertebrae, 100; hind foot, 20. Average of 5 adults from Velasco,
Tex. : 170; 97 ; 21. Average of 9 young adults from Sour Lake, Tex. :
162 (154-170); 89 (83-94); 20 (19-21). Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This subspecies is a well-marked race, occupying the
humid or Austroriparian division of the Lower Austral Zone, west of the
Mississippi River. Although it shows considerable individual varia-
tion and occasional specimens — chiefly immature ones — are hardly
distinguishable from specimens of intermedius, the general intensity
of coloration shown by any series of specimens makes identification
possible at a glance. The type and topotypes of " clirysotis" have
been examined and found to agree perfectly with specimens of auran-
tius from eastern Texas.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 88, from the following local-
ities :

Louisiana: Avery, 5; Belcher, 1; Foster (5 miles east of Shreveport) 1; Houma,
1; Iowa Station, 1; Lafayette, 2; Lecompte, 1 (skull); Mer Rouge, 4; Natchi-
toches, 1.

Arkansas: Beebe, 2; Delight, 4.

Missouri: Carthage, 2.

Oklahoma: Dougherty, 3;1 Stilwell, 3.

Texas: Barnard Creek, west of Columbia, 6; East Caranchua Creek, Matagorda
County, 2; Elliott, Matagorda County, 1; Hempstead, 8; Joaquin, 7; Mata-
gorda, 5; Matagorda Island, 5; Nacogdoches, 2; Selkirk Island, Matagorda
County, 1; Sour Lake, 10; Texarkana, 1; Velasco, 9.

' Collection Field Mus. Nat. Hist.
28657°— 14 4

50 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

REITHRODONTOMYS FULVESCENS DIFFICILIS Merriam.

Orizaba Harvest Mouse.

(PL II, fig. 8; PI. V, fig. 8.)

? ? Reithrodon sumichrasti De Saussure, Rev. Mag. Zool., 2d Ser., XIII, 1861, p. 3.1
Ochetodon mexicanus Coues, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1874, p. 186; Mon. N. Am.

Rodentia, 1877, pp. 128-130. (Not Reithrodon mexicanus Sauss.)
Reithrodontomys mexicanus Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VII, 1895, p. 135; IX,

1897, p. 199 (not Reithrodon mexicanus Sauss).
Reithrodontomys difficilis Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., Ill, 1901, p. 556.

Type locality. — Orizaba, Vera Cruz.

Distribution. — Interior mountain slopes along the southern end of
the Mexican table-land in the States of Vera Cruz and Puebla.

Characters. — Similar to tenuis, but colors decidedly darker; ears and
tail blacker, and underparts more ochraceous.

Color. — Upperparts pinkish cinnamon mixed with blackish brown,
in some specimens the brown prevailing, in others the cinnamon;
sides of face and body usually clear pinkish cinnamon, though in
certain worn or immature specimens this color is nearly absent;
ears fuscous or sepia, usually with more or less tawny hairs on inner
surface; tail fuscous above, grayish white below; underparts grayish,
with a strong wash of light pinkish cinnamon, the latter color pre-
vailing in the majority of the individuals; feet grayish white; ankles
dusky.

Skull. — Closely similar to that of tenuis; braincase averaging a
trifle broader. Compared with R. megalotis saturatus: Skull shorter
and relatively broader, with shorter nasals and broader interptery-
goid fossa.

Measurements. — Average of 5 (subadult) from type locality:
Total length, 170 (162-177); tail vertebras, 96.6 (88-101); hind foot,
19.5 (19-20). Adult from Maltrata, Vera Cruz: 172; 97; 21. Skull:
(See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This is the darkest of the races oifulvescens. Although
rather restricted in range, it is a well-marked form, easily distin-
guished from tenuis by its darker colors, but intergradation is clearly
shown by specimens from the coast region of Vera Cruz (Carrizal
and Santa Maria). From R. megalotis saturatus, the range of which
is adjacent to that of difficilis in Vera Cruz, it differs in more tawny
coloration, ochraceous instead of grayish underparts, and smaller
and paler ears.

1 When the type of R. "sumichrasti" can be compared with modern material it may be possible to
identify the species and use the name. I have seen photographs of the type skull, which clearly show it to
belong in the typical subgenus, and the original description agrees best with the present form; but as no
definite type locality is assigned and the description is inadequate for subspecific determination, it seems
best to let the name remain in synonymy.

1914.] EEITHRODONTOMYS FULVESCENS GROUP. 51

Specimens examined. — Total number, 36, from the following local-
ities in Mexico:

Vera Cruz: Maltrata, 1; Orizaba, 18; Mirador, 2; Jalapa, 14. '
Puebla: Tehuacan, 1.

EEITHRODONTOMYS FULVESCENS TOLTECUS Merriam.

Toltec Harvest Mouse.

(PI. II, fig. 10; PI. V, fig. 10.)

Reithrodontomys levipes toltecus Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., Ill, 1901, p. 555.
Rhithrodontomys inexspectatus Elliot, Field Columb. Mus., Zool. Ser., Ill, 1903, p.
145 (Patzcuaro, Michoacan).

Type locality. — Tlalpam, Federal District, Mexico.

Distribution. — Table-land region of southern Mexico, from southern
San Luis Potosi to Michoacan and the Valley of Mexico.

Characters. — Similar to tenuis, but decidedly larger and slightly
darker.

Color. — Upperparts mixed black and rich ochraceous-buff, with a
cinnamon tinge, the black usually showing a tendency to f orm a median
band on the back from nose to tail; sides pure ochraceous-buff or
sparingly mixed with black; underparts with a slight tinge of pale
buff; tail fuscous or hah -brown above, grayish white below.

STcull. — Similar in shape to that of tenuis but decidedly larger;
braincase somewhat more inflated, and evenly rounded; rostrum
long and relatively slender; zygomata nearly parallel to axis of skull.

Measurements.— Average of 2 adults from type locality: Total
length, 193 (189-196); tail vertebrae, 106 (104-108); hind foot, 21.5
(21-22). One adult from Patzcuaro, Michoacan: 180; 105; 21.
Average of 2 adults from Rio Verde, San Luis Potosi: 192; 110;
21.8. Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This is a well-marked form of the fulvescens group
occupying the higher parts of the Mexican table-land. It is poorly
represented in the material at hand, and its characters and exact
distribution are not well known. Skulls from the same or near-by
localities show an unusual amount of variation in size.

Intergradation apparently takes place between toltecus and tenuis
and between toltecus and Tielvolus, but the material at hand is
too scanty to show this clearly. Specimens from Rio Verde, San
Luis Potosi, and from Zamora and Los Reyes, Michoacan, are con-
sidered intermediates between this form and tenuis, and specimens
from Huajuapam, Oaxaca, and Chilpancingo, Guerrero, interme-
diates between it and Tielvolus. The series from Los Reyes is very
puzzling. In color the specimens are all exactly alike, being a little
darker and redder than either tenuis or typical toltecus. One speci-

i Collection Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.

52 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

men, an adult male, equals toltecus in size and agrees perfectly with it
in skull characters. Several other skulls in the series, however,
equally old, are very much smaller — as small, indeed, as typical
tenuis, while between the two extremes is a nearly perfect series of
intergrades.

Two specimens from Patzcuaro, Michoacan, including the type of
"inexspectatus," do not differ appreciably from toltecus. The topo-
type has the underparts strongly suffused with ochraceous and has
no white on the tail. This species differs widely in skull characters
from levipes, with which it was originally associated as a subspecies.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 30, from the following locali-
ties in Mexico :

Mexico: Tlalpam, 3.

Hidalgo: Marques, 1 (skull); Zimapan, 1.

San Luis Potosi: Rio Verde, 6.

Michoacan: Los Reyes, 13; Patzcuaro, 2;1 Zamora, 4.

REITHRODONTOMYS FULVESCENS HELVOLUS Merriam.

Oaxaca Harvest Mouse.

(PI. II, fig. 9; PL V, fig. 9.)

Reithrodontomys griseoflavus helvolusMerri&m, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., Ill, 1901, p. 554.

Type locality. — Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, Mexico.

Distribution. — Interior plateau of Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Puebla.

Characters. — About the size of toltecus but differing in paler colors,
larger ears, and smaller skull; very similar to tenuis, but color of back
and sides more pinkish (less ochraceous) and belly whiter.

Color. — Upperparts light ochraceous-salmon, sparingly lined with
black but without a distinct median band; underparts white, often
with a slight yellowish tinge, but never (in type series) with any
suffusion of ochraceous. Ears dark hair-brown, clothed on inner sur-
face with ochraceous hairs; tail fuscous or hair-brown, soiled whitish
below.

Skull. — Smaller than that of toltecus and slightly larger than that
of tenuis; braincase rounded and moderately inflated, narrowed pos-
teriorly; rostrum rather short; interpterygoid fossa actually and
relatively broader than in either toltecus or tenuis.

Measurements. — Average of 11 adults from type locality: Total
length, 189 (181-200); tail vertebrae, 110 (104-116); hind foot, 20.5
(20-21); ear, 13.2 (12.5-13.7). Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This subspecies agrees in size with toltecus, but most
nearly approaches tenuis in color and cranial characters. No inter-
mediate specimens between Tielvolus and tenuis have been examined,
however, and our present knowledge of the distribution indicates a

1 Including type of "inexspectatus" from Collection Field Mus. Nat. Hist.

1914.] REITHRODONTOMYS PULVESCENS GROUP. 53

gap between the ranges of these two forms, but further collecting in
Michoacan and Guerrero may show that they intergrade. From
toltecus this form differs, as already pointed out, in having a decidedly
smaller skull, larger ears, and whiter belly. A specimen from Hua-
juapam, Oaxaca, is intermediate in characters between the two forms.
Specimens examined. — Total number, 22, from the following locali-
ties in Mexico :

Oaxaca: Huajuapam, 1; Oaxaca, IS; Yalalag, 1.
Guerrero: Tlalixtaquilla, 1; Tlapa, 1.

REITHRODONTOMYS FULVESCENS CHIAPENSIS subsp. nov.

Chiapas Harvest Mouse.

Type from Canjob, Chiapas, Mexico. No. 132865, U. S. Nat. Mus.,
Biological Survey Collection, <? adult, May 2, 1904; Nelson and
Goldman. Original No. 16741.

Distribution. — Highlands of Chiapas.

Characters. — Similar to lielvolus but darker and smaller, with smaller
ears.

Color. — Upperparts ochraceous-salmon heavily lined on back with
black hairs; lateral line of salmon moderately well defined; ears fus-
cous; underparts grayish white; tail fuscous above, soiled whitish
below; feet grayish; ankles fuscous.

Skull. — Not appreciably different from that of lielvolus.

Measurements. — Average of 8 adults from type locality: Total
length, 169 (163-183); tail vertebra?, 96 (92-102); hind foot, 20.1
(20-20.5); ear, 14. Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This is a small dark form apparently most nearly related
to lielvolus. In size and general color it resembles tenuis rather closely,
but is darker, especially on the head and ears. It is almost as dark above
as difficilis, but has whiter underparts. It closely resembles aurantius
also, but the underparts are more nearly pure white (never tinged with
buff), and the general tone of the upperparts is slightly paler. The
skull of chiapensis averages a little broader with flatter braincase and
shorter nasals than that of aurantius.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 17, from the following locali-
ties in Mexico :

Chiapas: Canjob, 9; Comitan, 4; San Bartolome, 3; San Vicente, 1.
REITHRODONTOMYS FULVESCENS NELSONI subsp. nov.
Nelson Harvest Mouse.

Type from Colima, Colima, Mexico. No. fffff, U. S. Nat. Mus.,
Biological Survey Collection, $ adult, Mar. 9, 1892; E. W. Nelson.
Original No. 2050.

Distribution. — Coast region of Colima (and Jalisco?).

54 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

CJiaracters. — Smilar to tenuis, but smaller; colors brighter and more
intensely ochraceous.

Color. — Adults .vUpperparts varying from deep ochraceous-buff to
pinkish cinnamon, mixed on top of head and back with black; under-
parts suffused (sometimes heavily) with pinkish buff; ears dusky
hair-brown; tail dark hair-brown or fuscous above, grayish white
below; fore feet pale buff; hind feet soiled whitish. Young: Colors
less intensely ochraceous; underparts whiter.

Skull. — Similar to that of tenuis, but smaller; zygomata more
contracted anteriorly.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 173; tail vertebrae, 95; hind
foot, 19. Average of 5 from type locality: 166; 92; 19.2. Skull:
(See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This subspecies is a small, bright-colored form occupying
the coast plain of Colima and perhaps of adjacent States. Specimens
from San Sebastian and Etzatlan, Jalisco, are intermediate between
this form and tenuis, but seem to be nearer to the latter. A single
specimen from Acaponeta, Tepic, is very small, and clearly referable
to nelsoni, although on geographical grounds it might be expected to
be tenuis.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 8, from the following localities
in Mexico :

Colima: Colima, 7.
Tepic: Acaponeta, 1.

REITHRODONTOMYS FULVESCENS MUSTELINUS subsp. now
Buff-bellied Harvest Mouse.

Type from Llano Grande, Oaxaca, Mexico. No. 71549, U. S. Nat.
Mus., Biological Survey Collection, ? adult, February 18, 1895;
E. W. Nelson and E. A. Goldman. Original No. 7483.

Distribution. — Coast region of Oaxaca and Guerrero.

Characters.- — Similar to Ttelvolus but colors darker and richer; un-
derparts buffy.

Color. — Upperparts varying from ochraceous-salmon to rich pinkish
cinnamon, heavily mixed on head and back with black; underparts
strongly suffused with pinkish buff; ears hair-brown; tail fuscous
above, whitish beneath; fore feet buffy white; hind feet grayish
white.

Skull. — Similar in size and proportions to that of helvolus; nasals
longer, narrowed to a point posteriorly; palatal foramina short, not
reaching plane of molars; bullae small.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 184; tail vertebrae, 105; hind
foot, 20. Adult from Chilpancingo, Guerrero: 198; 110; 20. Skull:
(See table, p. 81).

1914.] REITHRODONTOMYS FULVESCENS GROUP. 55

Remarks. — This subspecies is most nearly related to helvolus, dif-
fering from it in much deeper coloration. It resemples R. levipes
rather closely in external appearance, but differs widely from it in
skull characters. A specimen from Chilpancingo, Guerrero, has a
longer skull than the type, somewhat suggesting the skull of toltecus.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 4, from the following locali-
ties in Mexico :

Oaxaca: Llano Grande, 2.

Guerrero: Acapulco, 1; Chilpancingo, 1.

REITHRODONTOMYS AMCENUS Elliot.
Tehuantepec Harvest Mouse.
(PL II, fig. 1; PI. V, fig. 1.)
Rhithrodontomys amcenus Elliot, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XVIII, 1905, p. 234.

Type locality. — Reforma, Oaxaca, Mexico.

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality.

Characters. — Size very small; tail moderate; similar in color to
R.f. Jielvolus but upperparts deeper ochraceous.

Color. — Upperparts bright ochraceous-buff, becoming tawny-ochra-
ceous on middle of the back, where indistinctly lined with black;
underparts and feet white; tail hair-brown above, paler below.

SlcuU. — Small, with short heavy rostrum; braincase moderately flat
and narrowed posteriorly; zygomata slightly contracted anteriorly;
bullae small and flat; interpterygoid fossa very broad; palatal foramina
long, reaching behind plane of molars.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 141; tail vertebra?, 81; hind
foot, 18.5. Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This species, known from only a single specimen, seems
not to be closely related to any of the recognized forms. It most
nearly resembles R. f. Jielvolus in color, but differs widely from it in
size and cranial characters, being decidedly smaller than any other
species in southern Mexico. It inhabits the low coast plain bor-
dering the Gulf of Tehuantepec in southern Oaxaca.

Specimen examined. — One, the type.

REITHRODONTOMYS OTUS Merriam.
Big-eared Harvest Mouse.
(PL II, fig. 2; PL V, fig. 2.)
Reithrodontomys levipes otus Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. ScL, III, 1901, p. 555.

Type locality. — Sierra Nevada de Colima, Jalisco, Mexico (altitude
6,500 feet).

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality.

Characters. — Similar to R.f. toltecus, but tail longer and ears larger;
colors more ochraceous and less blackish.

56 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

Color. — Upperparts pinkish cinnamon with an ochraceous tinge,
mixed with brownish black; underparts heavily washed with light
pinkish cinnamon; sides without a distinct lateral line of ochraceous;
ears between fuscous and hair-brown with scattering ochraceous hairs
on inner surface; front feet dull buffy white; hind feet grayish, with
a tinge of buff; ankles dark hair-brown; tail hair-brown above,
soiled whitish below.

Skull. — Similar in size and shape to that of R. f. toltecus but brain-
case flatter and zygomata narrowed anteriorly; nasals and pre-
maxillae as in toltecus; audital bullae also similar (larger than in R.
levipes); foramen magnum very large; molars with simple enamel
pattern, as in the fulvescens group.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 202; tail vertebrae, 120; hind
foot, 22. Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This seems to be a well-marked species, but as only a
single specimen is known its relationships are not clear. In skull
characters it resembles R. f. toltecus rather closely and differs from
R. levipes in having a longer, narrower skull, with larger bullae and
no subsidiary enamel loops on the upper molars, being therefore in
the typical subgenus. The ground color of the upperparts is similar
to that of toltecus, but is a little duller and the blackish median
band is lacking; the underparts are decidedly more ochraceous.
There is no evidence to show that it intergrades with toltecus, so for
the present it seems best to consider it a distinct species. The
simple enamel pattern of the molars shows it to be not closely related
to levipes, which is in the subgenus Aporodon.

Specimen examined. — One, the type.

REITHRODONTOMYS RUFESCENS GROUP.

REITHRODONTOMYS RUFESCENS RUFESCENS Allen & Chapman.

Rijpescent Harvest Mouse.

Reithrodontomys rufescens Allen & Chapman, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., IX, 1897,
p. 199.

Type locality. — Jalapa, Vera Cruz, Mexico.

Distribution. — Mountain slopes of eastern Mexico in the States of
Queretaro, Hidalgo, Puebla, Vera Cruz, and Oaxaca.

Characters. — Larger than R. fulvescens difficilis and much darker;
sides lacking the bright ochraceous line characteristic of the fulves-
cens group; tail blackish, unicolor.

Color. — Fresh pelage (April specimens, Jalapa, Vera Cruz): Upper-
parts tawny, strongly mixed with black over the entire dorsal area from
nose to tail; sides nearly pure tawny; ears varying from fuscous to
fuscous-black; feet buffy white washed with fuscous; tail fuscous,
nearly unicolor, clothed with scattered grayish hairs; underparts

1914.] REITHRODONTOMYS RUFESCENS GROUP. 57

heavily washed with pinkish cinnamon. Worn pelage (July specimens,
Jico, Vera Cruz) : Underparts somewhat paler; ears and tail blacker.

Skull. — Larger than that of R. fulvescens difficilis, with longer and
relatively slenderer rostrum; braincase usually subglobular (occasion-
ally moderately flattened) ; nasals long and narrowed posteriorly to a
point, ending about on a line with premaxillae; zygomata moderately
contracted anteriorly; audital bulke relatively small; palatal foramina
long, reaching to or beyond plane of first molars. Enamel pattern of
upper molars in some specimens simple, in others showing incomplete
subsidiary loops and small accessory tubercles.

Measurements. — Average of 10 adults from Jico and Jalapa, Vera
Cruz: Total length, 176 (168-182); tail vertebras, 98 (93-104); hind
foot, 20 (18-21). Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This subspecies is one of the darkest forms in the genus.
It has a rather limited range in the humid mountainous parts of
eastern Mexico, intergrading with luieolus in Oaxaca and Guerrero.
Its range overlaps slightly that of R. fulvescens difficilis (both species
occurring at Jalapa, Vera Cruz), but it does not intergrade with any
member of the fulvescens group. It is readily distinguished from
them by its dark tawny coloration and unicolor tail.

In dental characters this species is quite inconstant, as pointed out
above; it is considered an aberrant member of the subgenus
Reithrodontomys, bridging the gap between it and Aporodon in much
the same way that levipes does.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 15, from the following locali-
ties in Mexico :

Vera Cruz: Jalapa, 10; 1 Jico, 8.
Puebla: Huauchinango, 3.
Queretaro: Pinal de Amoles, 1.
Oaxaca: Reyes, 1.

REITHRODONTOMYS RUFESCENS LUTEOLUS smbsp. nov.

Yellow Harvest Mouse.

(PI. II, fig. 6; PI. V, fig. 6.)

Type from Juquila, Oaxaca, Mexico (altitude 5,000 feet). No.
71558, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Collection, $ adult, Feb. 28,
1895; E. W. Nelson and E. A. Goldman. Original No. 7579.

Distribution. — Mountains of Oaxaca and Guerrero.

Characters. — Similar to rufescens but colors brighter and less
blackish; ears larger and tail longer; skull with flattened braincase;
molars without accessory cusps.

Color. — Upperparts and sides rich ochraceous-buff, varying to
pinkish cinnamon, more or less darkened on the back with blackish

1 Collection Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.

58

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 36.

brown; underparts light pinkish cinnamon; tail usually bicolor,
fuscous above, soiled whitish below; fore and hind feet whitish,
tinged with buff; ankles dusky; ears fuscous on both surfaces.

Skull. — Similar to that of rufescens but averaging broader; brain-
case very flat; nasals decidedly narrow posteriorly, ending on a line
with premaxillse; audital bullae rather small (as in rufescens).

Measurements. — Average of 8 adults from type locality: Total
length, 181 (169-199); tail vertebras, 103 (92-112); hind foot, 20.4
(20-21). Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This subspecies is a well-marked race of rufescens,
occupying the mountains of the west coast of southern Mexico. It
closely resembles R. colimse nerterus in color, but differs from it

Fig. 4. Distribution of Reithrodontomys rufescens, R. dorsalis, R. australis, R. colimse, R. alleni,
and subspecies.

in skull characters. Additional material, however, may show that
nerterus intergrades with the present form.

Specimens from Omilteme, Guerrero, are slightly darker than the
type series and one of them has a unicolor tail, as in rufescens. These
specimens, as also one from the mountains west of Oaxaca City,
are considered intermediate between rufescens and luteolus. Speci-
mens from the type locality of this form show no approach to the
subgenus Aporodon, but in the series from Omilteme is one specimen
having well-developed subsidiary tubercles, as is frequently seen in
the subspecies rufescens.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 15, from the following locali-
ties in Mexico :

Oaxaca: Juquila, 11; mountains 15 miles west of Oaxaca, 1.
Guerrero: Omilteme, 3.

1914.] REITHRODONTOMYS EUFESCENS GROUP. 59

REITHRODONTOMYS ALLENI sp. nov.
Allen Harvest Mouse.

Type from mountains near Ozolotepec, Oaxaca, Mexico (altitude
10,000 feet). No. 71563, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Collection,
<? adult, Mar. 27, 1895; E. W. Nelson and E. A. Goldman. Original
number 7749.

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality.

Characters. — Externally similar to R. c. colimse but back darker,
underparts whiter, and tail longer; skull apparently nearest to that
of R. rufescens luteolus.

Color. — Upperparts mixed black and light pinkish cinnamon; darkest
along the median line ; sides without a lateral line, less richly colored
than in colimse and much less so than in luteolus; underparts white;
ears pale fuscous; tail fuscous above, slightly paler beneath; front
feet buffy white; hind feet grayish white, washed with hair-brown;
ankles dusky.

Skull.1 — Apparently similar to that of luteolus, but smaller; bullae
similar; rostrum short and broad; nasals longer than premaxillseand
narrowed to a point at posterior end ; zygomata standing out rather
squarely; molars without accessory enamel loops.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 182; tail vertebras, 100; hind
foot, 19. Skull: (See table, p. 81).1

Remarks. — This species, although living at a high altitude and
somewhat resembling in color one of the members of the chrysopsis
group, nevertheless seems to be most nearly related to R. rufescens
luteolus, which occupies the lower foothill country below the range of
alleni. The skull of alleni resembles that of luteolus in having small
bullae and long nasals narrowed posteriorly. Externally alleni is
paler than luteolus and has white underparts. Additional material
may show it to be a subspecies of the latter. The species is named
for Dr. J. A. Allen, in recognition of his extensive work on the genus.

Specimen examined. — One, the type.

REITHRODONTOMYS COLBLE COLIMA Merriam.

Colima Volcano Harvest Mouse.
(PI. II, fig. 5; PI. V, fig. 5.)
Reithrodontomys colimse, Merriam, Proc. Wash. Aead. Sci., Ill, 1901, p. 551.

Type locality. — Sierra Nevada de Colima, Jalisco, Mexico (altitude,
12,000 feet).

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality.

Characters. — Externally similar to R. c. chrysopsis, with long, woolly
pelage, but smaller and paler; skull similar to that of R. c. tolucse, but
smaller and with simple enamel pattern.

1 Type and only specimen badly broken; shape of braincase not known.

60 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

Color. — Upperparts dull ochraceous-buff (slightly paler than in
chrysopsis) , sparingly mixed with black on the back, the median
dorsal band only faintly indicated; sides paler but without lateral
line of buff; ears fuscous; underparts pinkish buff; fore feet buffy
white, washed with brownish; hind feet hair-brown, becoming white
toward the toes; tail pale fuscous above, grayish white beneath.

Skull. — Similar in shape to that of R. c. tolucse, but slightly smaller,
with less inflated braincase; rostrum a little shorter and broader;
zygomata standing out a little more squarely anteriorly; nasals
long, ending on plane of premaxillae; interpterygoid fossa rather
wide (as in chrysopsis) ; bullae intermediate in size between those of
chrysopsis and tolucse; palatal foramina short and widely open;
enamel pattern of upper molars simple, with only a trace of a sub-
sidiary enamel loop.

Measurements. — Average of 2 specimens from type locality: Total
length, 165.5; tail vertebras, 90; hind foot, 20. Skull: (See table,
p. 81).

Remarks. — This species resembles externally the members of the
chrysopsis group, but the absence of sudsidiary loops on the upper
molars makes it necessary to place it in the rufescens group in the
typical subgenus. It is apparently a connectant species between
the two subgenera.

Specimens examined. — Two, from type locality.

REITHRODONTOMYS COLIMA NERTERUS Merriam.
Colima Harvest Mouse.
Reithrodontomys colimx nerterus Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., Ill, 1901, p. 551.

Type locality. — Sierra Nevada de Colima, Jalisco, Mexico (altitude,
6,500 feet).

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality.

Characters. — Similar to colimsc, but ochraceous color more intense,
pelage shorter, and tail longer; skull slightly smaller.

Color. — Upperparts deep ochraceous-buff, nearly pure on sides,
mixed with black on median dorsal area; underparts heavily washed
with light ochraceous-buff; ears fuscous, shading to fuscous-black;
tail indistinctly bicolor, pale fuscous above, dusky drab below; feet
buffy white, shaded with dusky; ankles dark hair-brown.

Skull. — Slightly smaller than that of colimse, but of essentially similar
shape; nasals considerably shorter; interpterygoid fossa relatively
wide; enamel pattern of upper molars simple. Compared with
luteolus: Braincase narrower and higher; rostrum slenderer; nasals
broader at posterior end; bullae smaller but more inflated (rounder);
palatal foramina shorter. Compared with R. r. rufescens: Braincase
higher; rostrum and nasals shorter; bullae more inflated.

1914.] REITHKODONTOMYS RUFESCENS GROUP. 61

Measurements. — Typo (9 ad.): Total length, 190; tail vertebrae,
110; hind foot, 20; ear from notch, 14.5; topotype ( <? ad.): 182;
99; 21. Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This form closely resembles R. rufescens luteolus, both
in color and in the character of the pelage, which is shorter and less
wooly than in R. colimse colimse, which lives at higher altitudes.
Compared with luteolus the present form is a slightly paler shade of
ochraceous-buff. Its skull characters indicate close relationship to
colimse and necessitate its separation from luteolus, but additional
material may serve to connect the two groups, making luteolus a sub-
species of colimse.

Specimens examined. — Two, from type locality.

REITHRODONTOMYS DORSALIS Merriam.
Black-backed Harvest Mouse.
(PI. II, fig. 4; PI. V, fig. 4.)
Reithrodontomys dorsalis Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci, III, 1901, p. 557.

Type locality. — Calel, Guatemala.

Distribution. — Highlands of Chiapas and Guatemala.

diameters. — Smaller than R. rufescens luteolus, with blacker back
and paler sides; skull with higher braincase.

Color. — Fresh pelage (January) : Upperparts ochraceous-buff,
mixed with black, with a well-defined median band or stripe of black;
sides varying from ochraceous-buff to pinkish cinnamon, sometimes
with a rather pronounced lateral line next to the belly; underparts
washed with light ochraceous-buff; ears fuscous-black, darker than
in luteolus; tail bicolor, fuscous above, grayish white beneath; hind
feet grayish white ; front feet buffy with a dusky stripe reaching half-
way to the toes. Worn pelage: General tone redder (pinkish cinna-
mon to pale tawny) ; black dorsal area much less clearly defined.

Skull. — Resembling that of R. r. rufescens in general shape, but
averaging smaller, with larger bullae. Compared with R. r. luteolus:
Smaller; braincase decidedly more inflated; interpterygoid fossa
much narrower. Compared with saturatus: Larger, with heavier
rostrum and more widely expanded zygomata. The upper molars
in a majority of the specimens examined have a simple enamel pat-
tern, but some specimens show an incomplete subsidiary loop and
well-developed accessory tubercles on the outer border, thus com-
pletely bridging the gap between the two subgenera.

Measurements. — Average of 10 specimens (adult and subadult) from
type locality: Total length,167.5 (160-175); tail vertebras, 90 (82-96);
hind foot, 19.3 (19-20). Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This species, although clearly belonging to the rufescens
group, seems not to intergrade with luteolus, its nearest neighbor on

62 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

the north. The low country on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec appar-
ently is an effective barrier separating the ranges of these two moun-
tain-loving species.

The species exhibits considerable individual and seasonal variation
in color. Specimens in worn pelage very much resemble similar speci-
mens of rufescens, but the ears and tail are paler.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 154, from the following
localities :

Guatemala: Calel, 23; Hacienda Chancol, 29; Jacaltenango, 1; Todos Santos,

10; Volcan Santa Maria, 4; Zunil, 3.
Chiapas: Canjob, 2; Comitan, 27; Pinabete, 8; San Cristobal, 5; Tenejapa, 3;
Teopisca, 6; Tumbala, 33.

REITHRODONTOMYS AUSTRALIS AUSTRALIS Allen.

Irazu Harvest Mouse.

(PI. II, fig. 3; PL V, fig. 3.)

Reithrodontomys australis Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VII, 1895, p. 328.
Reithrodontomys australis vulcanius Bangs, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., XXXIX, 1902,
p. 38 (Volcan de Cbiriqui, Panama).

Type locality. — Volcan de Irazu, Costa Rica.

Distribution. — Mountains of Costa Rica and western Panama.

Characters. — Similar to R. dorsalis, but slightly smaller, with
smaller ears; tail less sharply bicolor; ochraceous colors slightly
deeper and black dorsal band less clearly defined.

Color. — Upperparts ochraceous-buff, varying to pale orange-
cinnamon, rather heavily mixed on back with black; median dorsal
band usually very indistinct; underparts washed with light pinkish
cinnamon; ears pale fuscous to fuscous-black; tail fuscous above,
grayish white beneath; feet buffy white, shaded with hair-brown;
wrists and ankles hair-brown.

Skull. — Slightly smaller than that of dorsalis, with flatter brain-
case; bullae rather flat, averaging smaller than in dorsalis; ascend-
ing arms of premaxillse projecting a little beyond end of nasals;
upper molars simple, without accessory tubercles.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 169 (160-179); tail verte-
bra-, 84.5 (82-92) ; hind foot, 18.5 (18-19). Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This species belongs in the rufescens group, being
apparently the most southerly ranging member of the group and of
the subgenus. It closely resembles dorsalis both in color and cranial
characters, and additional material from Central America may make
it necessary to unite the two as a single species.

The type of "vulcanius'1 from Panama has been examined and
found to agree closely with topotypes of australis in the Biological
Survey Collection.

1914.] SUBGENUS APORODON. 63

Specimens examined. — Total number, 18, from the following locali-
ties:

Costa Rica: Volcan de Irazu, 17.
Panama: Volcan de Chiriqui, l.1

REITHRODONTOMYS AUSTRALIS MODESTUS Thomas.

Nicaragua Harvest Mouse .

Reithrodontomys modestvs, Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 7, XX, 1907, p. 163.

Type locality. — Jinotega, Nicaragua.

Distribution. — Known only from vicinity of type locality.

Characters. — Closely similar to australis, but underparts whiter and
tail darker.

Color. — Upperparts mixed black and dull ochraceous-buff, with
a fairly well-defined median band of blackish; underparts grayish
white, rarely with a faint tinge of light ochraceous-buff and a pectoral
spot of the latter color; tail distinctly bicolor, except at the tip,
fuscous above, soiled whitish below; ears fuscous; hind feet grayish
white; ankles dusky; front feet buffy, with a dusky stripe.

Skull. — Not seen. Apparently slightly smaller than that of aus-
tralis, with smaller audital bullae.

Measurements. — Type: "Head and body, 59; tail, 70; hind foot
(s. u.), 16.5; ear, 12.5." Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This form appears to be very closely related to aus-
tralis, but the material at hand is too scanty to show clearly its
characters. The color description above is from specimens taken by
Mr. William B. Richardson at San Rafael del Norte and kindly
loaned by Dr. J. A. Allen of the American Museum of Natural His-
tory. These differ from Thomas's description of the type in having
ochraceous instead of "drabby" sides and pectoral spot, and tail
distinctly whiter beneath. The Richardson specimens are without
complete skulls, so a study of the cranial characters has not been
possible. Mr. W. H. Osgood, who compared the type specimen with
material from the Biological Survey Collection, notes that its skull
is slightly smaller than that of australis, the premaxillee shorter, and
the audital bullae somewhat smaller.

Specimens examined:

Nicaragua: San Rafael del Norte, 8.2

Subgenus APORODON nobis.

Type. — Reithrodontomys tenuirostris Merriam.

Subgeneric characters. — Upper molars with subsidiary enamel loops
in the outer primary reentrant angles, these loops in most species
reaching the outer border of the tooth and appearing, when viewed

i Collection Mus. Comp. Zool. 2 Collection Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.

64 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA [No. 36.

in profile, as prominent accessory tubercles; in other species (chrys-
opsis group) the enamel loops sometimes do not reach the outer
border of the tooth and the accessory tubercles are often absent or
much reduced.

Remarks. — The subgenus Aporodon, while not sharply set off from
Reithrodontomys by any constant external characters, differs so
widely in the molar pattern as described above that its segregation
seems desirable.

It includes several well-marked groups, some of which possess
striking characters, both cranial and external, while other species
resemble the typical subgenus in all but the tooth characters.

The tenuirostris-microdon group (including also creper) and the
mexicanus group (including milleri, soderstromi, and gracilis) show the
greatest amount of differentiation from typical Reitlirodontomys.
These agree in having the outer wall of the anteorbital foramen rela-
tively narrow (usually much narrower than width of interpterygoid
fossa), broad interpterygoid fossa, short palatal foramina, unicolor
tail, and dense pelage (rather woolly in most species) of a uniform
tawny or ochraceous color, without pronounced darker grizzling. In
all species in these groups the subsidiary enamel loops of the upper
molars are well-developed and in unworn specimens appear as promi-
nent tubercles.

The chrysopsis group approaches the typical subgenus in having
the outer wall of anteorbital foramen broader, interpterygoid fossa
narrower and palatal foramina longer. The subsidiary enamel loops
of the upper molars are always well developed, but are usually (except
in perotensis) not continuous to the outer edge of the tooth and the
accessory tubercles are absent or much reduced. The pelage is long
and full, and somewhat more silky than in tenuirostris; the upper-
parts are more or less varied with black, and the tail is bicolor.

R. levipes and R. Mrsutus seem to be aberrant members of the
subgenus, agreeing in the character of the pelage with the members
of the typical subgenus, but having the subsidiary enamel loops of
the upper molars well developed.

REITHRODONTOMYS LEVIPES GROUP.

REITHRODONTOMYS LEVIPES Merriam.

San Sebastian Harvest Mouse.
(PL III, fig. 2; PI. VI, fig. 2; PL VII, figs. 3, 5.)
Reithrodontomys levipes Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., III, 1901, p. 554.

Type locality. — San Sebastian, Jalisco, Mexico.

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality.

Characters. — About the size of R. fulvescens toltecus; color more
decidedly tawny than any members of the fulvescens group ; skull
relatively short and broad.

1914.] REITHRODONTOMYS LEVIPES GROUP. 65

Color. — Upperparts ochraceous-salmon, sparingly mixed on back
with black; general tone of sides between ochraceous-salmon and
ochraceous-orange ; underparts strongly suffused with light pinkish
cinnamon; fore and hind feet grayish white, sometimes tinged with
the color of the sides; ears pale fuscous, with ochraceous hairs on
inner surface; tail pale fuscous above, grayish white below. Com-
pared with toltecus, the ochraceous color is more intense, there is
much less darkening on the middle of the back, and the underparts
are more intensely buffy.

STcull. — About the size of that of R. /. toltecus but shorter and
broader; braincase rather flat; zygomata narrowed anteriorly ; nasals
short; ascending arms of premaxillse extending about 1 mm. beyond
end of nasals; audital bullaB very small; interpterygoid fossa broad;
palatal foramina short and widely open. First and second upper
molars with accessory enamel loops in primary reentrant angles.

Measurements. — Average of 3 adults from type locality: Total
length, 190 (188-192); tail vertebras, 110.5 (110-111); hind foot,
20.8 (20.5-21). Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This species is remarkable not only for its peculiar
characters but because of its (seemingly) restricted range. It resem-
bles somewhat in color and character of pelage certain members of
the fulvescens group, but its skull characters place it in the subgenus
Aporodon. It seems to be most nearly related to the much larger
hirsutus, known only from Ameca, Jalisco.

At the type locality of levipes occurs another much smaller species —
R. fulvescens tenuis — a member of the typical subgenus. In the series
referred to this species are three specimens which combine in a
remarkable manner the characters of the two species. Externally
they differ very little from levipes except in being somewhat less
intensely ochraceous, both above and below, and in having rather
shorter tails (103 and 104 mm.). Their skulls, however, are decidedly
narrower than those of levipes and about intermediate in size between
skulls of the latter and of tenuis. The upper molars have small acces-
sory tubercles present in the principal angles, but the enamel pattern
is practically the same as in tenuis. Another much smaller (adult)
skull in the series shows a strong tendency to develop the accessory
enamel loop characteristic of the subgenus Aporodon. This skull
(No. 88056, U. S. Nat. Mus.) is smaller than those of typical tenuis.
Anomalous as this situation may be, there seems to be no other expla-
nation than that these specimens are hybrids between levipes and
tenuis.

Specimens examined. — Three, from type locality.
28657°— 14 5

66 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

REITHRODONTOMYS HIRSUTUS Merriam.

Giant Harvest Mouse.

(PI. Ill, fig. 1; PL VI, fig. 1.)

Reithrodontomys hirsutus Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., Ill, 1901, p. 553.

Type locality. — Ameca, Jalisco, Mexico.

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality.

Characters. — Size very large; colors much as in R.f. tenuis, paler
than in R. levipes.

Color. — Upperparts ochraceous-buff, brightest on sides, sparingly
mixed on the back with blackish brown; underparts grayish white,
usually with a distinct tinge of light buff; fore feet whitish, washed
with light buff; hind feet grayish white, tinged with dusky; ankles
fuscous; tail pale fuscous above, grayish white below; ears brownish
drab.

Skull. — Large and robust with a well-defined supra-orbital bead
which extends back to the parietals; braincase rather flat and some-
what narrowed posteriorly ; zygomata contracted anteriorly ; rostrum
and nasals short; ascending arms of premaxillse extending back of
end of nasals; audita! bullae very small; palatal foramina short and
wide; upper molars with subsidiary enamel loops.

Measurements. — Average of 5 adults from type locality: Total
length, 211 (203-233); tail vertebrae, 127 (122-143); hind foot, 21.8
(21-22). Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This species is one of the largest in the genus, being
exceeded in size of skull only by R. tenuirostris, a widely different
species. So far as known, it has no near relative except levipes, and
from that it differs both in size and color. It agrees with it, how-
ever, in every important cranial character — heavy rostrum, short
and wide palatal foramina, broad interpterygoid fossa, and small
bullae.

In color, Mrsutus bears a remarkable resemblance to R. f. tenuis,
which inhabits the same region, but is hardly more than half the size
of the present species.

Specimens examined. — Six, from type locality.

KEITHRODONTOMYS CHRYSOPSIS GROUP.

REITHRODONTOMYS CHRYSOPSIS CHRYSOPSIS Merriam.
Volcano Harvest Mouse.
(PI. Ill, fig. 3; PI. VI, fig. 3; PL VII, fig. 6.)
Reithrodontomys chrysop&is Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XIII, 1900, p. 152.
Type locality. — Mount Popocatepetl, Mexico (altitude 11,500 feet).

1914.]

REITHRODONTOMYS CHEYSOPSIS GROUP.

67

Distribution. — High mountains around the valley of Mexico; Mount
Patamban and Mount Tancitaro in Michoacan. Altitudinal range
from 9,000 feet to 13,500 feet (timber line).

Characters. — Size large (almost equaling R. Mrsutus); tail long;
pelage very long, soft, and silky; ears black or blackish; tail bicolor;
skull with rounded and much inflated braincase; bullas large.

Color. — Upperparts a rich shade of ochraceous, between ochraceous-
buff and orange-buff, rather heavily mixed on back with black, the
latter color usually forming an indistinct median band ; general tone
of sides near pinkish cinnamon; ears fuscous-black; tail sharply
bicolor, fuscous above, grayish white beneath; feet grayish white;
ankles fuscous; underparts strongly suffused with light pinkish cin-
namon.

SlcuU. — Of large size (considerably exceeding that of R. r. rufescens) ;
braincase subglobular, usually much inflated, sometimes moderately

17"

1

2
3

5

R.C.CHRYSOPSIS
" C. T0LUCAE
" C. ORIZABAE
" PEROT EN!.
" LEVI PES
" HIRSUTUS

Fig. 5.— Distribution of Reithrodontomys chrysopsis, R. perotensis, R.levipes, R. Mrsutus, and subspecies.

flattened; zygomata slender, strongly contracted anteriorly; outer
wall of anteorbital foramen broad; rostrum slender, narrowing
gradually to the tip; audital bullae very large and moderately inflated;
interpterygoid fossa relatively narrow (compared with R. levipes);
palatal foramina long (as in rufescens); upper molars with sub-
sidiary enamel loops in primary angles, but these usually not reaching
outer border of tooth; accessory tubercles absent or much reduced.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 194; tail vertebrae, 108; hind
foot, 21. Average of 5 specimens from Ajusco, Salazar, and Huit-
zilac: Total length, 185 (177-188); tail vertebras, 106 (98-111);
hind foot, 20.8 (20-21). Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This handsome and striking species is an inhabitant of
the upper slopes of the mountains about the valley of Mexico and on
more or less isolated mountains in western Michoacan. It is the
first-described and best-known member of a subalpine group of
species found on most of the higher mountains of southern Mexico

68 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

and is apparently the only form having an extensive range. Speci-
mens from Mount Tancitaro and Patamban show no characters to
distinguish them from the typical form. From R. f. toltecus, which
occupies the valley of Mexico, chrysopsis differs in larger size, richer
colors, longer pelage, and blacker ears, as well as in cranial char-
acters.

On Mount Popocatepetl, Nelson and Goldman found this species
occurring sparingly in grassy places in the open forest from the base
of the mountain up to 12,000 feet. On Mount Patamban it was most
numerous at about 11,000 feet in the upper part of the Canadian
Zone, a few ranging to the extreme summit above 12,000 feet. In the
upper part of its range it was found among grass and brush.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 25, from the following locali-
ties in Mexico:

Mexico: Ajusco (11,000 feet), 3; Mount Iztaccihuatl (13,500 feet), 1; Mount

Popocatepetl (11,500 feet), 3; Salazar (9,000 feet), 1.
Morelos: Huitzilac (10,000 feet), 1.
Michoacan: Mount Tancitaro (10,000-12,000 feet), 7; Patamban (11,000 feet), 9.

REITHRODONTOMYS CHRYSOPSIS TOLUCA Merriam.

Toluca Harvest Mouse.

Reithrodontomys chrysopsis tolucse Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., Ill, 1901, p. 549.

Type locality. — North slope of Volcan Toluca, Mexico (altitude,
11,500 feet).

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality.

Characters. — Similar to chrysopsis, but slightly smaller and much
less intensely ochraceous; skull slenderer.

Color. — Worn pelage: Upperparts mixed black and ochraceous-
tawny with a well-defined black median band, as in chrysopsis, but
lacking almost entirely the bright golden color shown by the latter;
ears fuscous; front feet buffy white, with a band of hair-brown
reaching half way to the toes; hind feet soiled whitish, tinged with
dusky; ankles fuscous; ring around eye blackish; underparts grayish
with scarcely a trace of buff; tail hair-brown above, grayish white
below.

STcull. — Slightly smaller than that of chrysopsis; braincase nar-
rower; rostrum slenderer, much narrowed at the tip; bullae much
smaller; subsidiary enamel loops of upper molars low and slightly
developed; accessory tubercles absent.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 180; tail vertebras, 98; hind
foot, 21. Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This form, known from only a single specimen, has
rather pronounced characters. On account of the worn condition
of the type specimen, the colors can not be satisfactorily described.
Specimens in fresh pelage will doubtless prove less different from

1914.] REITHRODONTOMYS CHRYSOPSIS GROUP. 69

chrysopsis than is this worn individual, but the underparts apparently
are distinctly whiter.

Specimen examined. — One, the type.

REITHRODONTOMYS CHRYSOPSIS ORIZABA Merriam.
Mount Orizaba Harvest Mouse.
Reithrodontomys orizabse Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., Ill, 1901, p. 550.

Type locality. — Mount Orizaba, Puebla, Mexico (altitude, 9,500
feet).

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality.

Characters. — Externally the same as chrysopsis; skull narrower and
bulla3 smaller.

Color. — As in chrysopsis.

SJcull.1 — Apparently smaller than that of chrysopsis, but length of
skull and shape of zygomata not known; braincase narrower, audital
bullae decidly smaller; molar series and nasals shorter; subsidiary
enamel loops of m2 well developed, of m1 present but shorter. Com-
pared with tolucse: Braincase and bullae similar; rostrum broader.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 182; tail vertebrae, 105; hind
foot, 20. Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This form so closely resembles chrysopsis in color that
it seems best to consider it a subspecies of the latter; in cranial
characters it more nearly resembles tolucse. Additional material is
necessary to determine its true relationship.

Specimen examined. — One, the type.

REITHRODONTOMYS PEROTENSIS Merriam.
Perote Harvest Mouse.
Reithrodontomys perotensis Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., Ill, 1901, p. 550.

Type locality. — Cofre de Perote, Vera Cruz, Mexico (altitude, 9,500
feet).

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality.

Characters. — Externally similar to chrysopsis, but color of upper-
parts less intensely ochraceous; skull smaller with much smaller
bullae.

Color. — Upperparts cinnamon with strong tinge of ochraceous,
extensively mixed with black and with a distinct median band of
the latter color; ears fuscous, somewhat paler than in chrysopsis;
underparts strongly washed with light pinkish cinnamon; tail pale
fuscous above, slightly whitened beneath.

SJcull. — Smaller than that of R. c. chrysopsis, with flatter braincase
and smaller bullae; zygomata squarely spreading anteriorly, nearly

1 The type and only known specimen is badly broken.

70 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

parallel to axis of skull; subsidiary enamel loops in upper molars well
developed, reaching outer border of tooth.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 176; tail vertebras, 119; hind
foot, 19. Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This species differs widely in cranial characters from the
other members of the clirysopsis group. Indeed, its skull somewhat
resembles that of R. megalotis saturatus (which occupies the low
country around the base of the Cofre de Perote), especially in the
widely spreading zygomata and in the shape and size of the audita!
bullse. It differs from saturatus, however, in having a much broader
and flatter braincase, longer and slenderer rostrum, buffy instead of
white underparts, and in dental characters.

Specimen examined. — One, the type.

REITHRODONTOMYS MEXICANUS GROUP.

REITHRODONTOMYS MEXICANUS MEXICANUS (De Saussure).

Saussure Harvest Mouse.

(PL III, fig. 4; PL VI, fig. 4; PL VII, figs. 4, 9, 10, 11.)

Reithrodon mexicanus De Saussure, Rev. Mag. ZooL, 2d ser., XII, 18G0, p. 109.
Ochetodon mexicanus Coues, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1874, p. 186.
Reithrodontomys costaricensis jalapse Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., III, 1901,

p. 552 (Jalapa, Vera Cruz).
Reithrodontomys cherriei jalapse Miller, Bull. 79, U. S. Nat. Mus., 1912, p. 130.

Type locality. — Mountains of Vera Cruz, Mexico.

Distribution. — From Jalapa, Vera Cruz, south to Chiapas and
Guatemala.

Characters. — Size rather large (about like R. f. toltecus) ; tail long,
concolor; color uniform tawny above, white below; hind feet, ears,
and tail dark; skull short, broad, and flat.

Color. — Upperparts varying from tawny to pinkish cinnamon, spar-
ingly darkened on the back with blackish hairs; general tone of back
varying from cinnamon-brown to Prout's brown; an indistinct black-
ish ring around eye; tail nearly unicolor, fuscous or clove-brown to
fuscous-black, in some specimens slightly paler beneath; upper sur-
faces of both fore and hind feet dark hair-brown; toes usually buffy
or grayish white; ears fuscous or fuscous-black; sides of nose, upper
lips, and underparts white.

SJcuTl. — Short and relatively broad, with very short, broad rostrum
and short nasals; braincase squarish, rather flat, depressed poste-
riorly; zygomata slender, contracted anteriorly; nasals ending behind
rather squarely, on a line with ends of premaxillse or slightly anterior
to them ; outer wall of anteorbital foramen narrow; interpterygoid
fossa broad; palatal foramina short, ending at or slightly in front of
plane of first molars; audital bullsB small.

1014.1 HEITHEODONTOMYS MEXICANUS GROUP. 71

Measurements. — Adult male (Jalapa, Vera Cruz) : Total length, 197;
tail vertebrae, 119; hind foot, 21. Average of 2 adults from Toton-
tepec, Oaxaca: 193; 117; 21. Average of 3 adults from Jacalte-
nango, Guatemala, and Tumbala, Chiapas: 194; 117; 20.2. Skull:
(See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This species, although described over 50 years ago, is
still imperfectly known, and the name mexicanus has been misapplied
by all authors since De Saussure. Three distinct species of ReitJiro-
dontomys occur in the mountains of Vera Cruz and a fourth (R.
megalotis saturatus) not far away on the table-land. These (using the
modern names) are R. rufescens rufescens, R. fulvescens difficilis, and
R. "cherrii jalapse."1

The original description2 is so complete and agrees so perfectly with
the last of these that there appears to bo not the slightest doubt that
the species now known as "jalapse" should be referred to mexicanus.
The combination of tawny upperparts, white belly, dark feet, and
unicolor tail is possessed by no other species in this region.

Through the kindness of M. Maurice Bedot, director of the Geneva
Museum, who has furnished the Biological Survey with photographs
and measurements of the type skull, I am able to present additional
evidence corroborative of the above decision. The photographs
clearly show the relatively narrow outer wall of the anteorbital fora-
men and the broad interpterygoid fossa, characteristic of the sub-
genus Aporodon, and the measurements agree closely with those of
specimens of "jalapse" from Jalapa, Vera Cruz.

The type of R. mexicanus, with the skull inside the skin, was bor-
rowed in 1890 from the Geneva Museum and examined in Washington
by Drs. Allen, Merriam, and True. Comparison was made with a
specimen 3 (No. 7007a, U. S. Nat. Mus.) from Tehuacan, Puebla, at that
time practically the only available specimen from southern Mexico.
Dr. Allen in referring this specimen to mexicanus stated that it agreed
with the type.4 Dr. Merriam's notes, however, taken at the same
time, indicate some important differences. These are as follows:

No. -fw- This specimen is the type of De Saussure's description. Measure-
ments.— Hind foot, 18.5. Ear from crown, 10; from anterior base, 13. The upper-

i All of these have been taken at Jalapa, Vera Cruz.

2 Following is a translation of the pertinent portions:

"The size of this animal is nearly exactly that of the European field-mouse {M us silvaticus), though its
forms are somewhat more thick set. * * * Tail very long, its length exceeding that of the body and
head. The color of the pelage is tawny brown, on the sides becoming absolutely tawny, or even orange-
tawny. The tawny color becomes fainter toward the line where it comes in contact with the white of the
belly. The lips, lower part of cheeks, chin, throat, and entire underparts are almost pure white, here and
there slightly washed with a tawny tint, especially on the breast and throat. * * * The hairs are slate
gray, the tips only passing into russet, or white. The ears are brown * * *. The fore feet are white,
except above, as far as the root of the digits, where they are gray. The tail is blackish, scaly, unicolor, and
covered with rather dark gray hairs; it is especially hairy toward the tip; at its base the hairs are scanty
and very short; but they become longer toward the tip."

8 Referred by the writer to R . fulvescens difficilis.

* Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VII, 1895, p. 136.

72 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

parte are so thoroughly suffused with fulvous that it can almost be called a
"red mouse." The upper surface of the hind foot is dark brown to base of
toes. The toes are whitish. The skull has never been removed from the skin
There is a skin of this species or a closely related subspecies in the United States
National Museum (No. 7007a) collected at Tehuacan, Puebla, Mexico, by Sumi-
chrast. Upperparts rusty fulvous, but not quite so deep or bright as in the mounted
specimen [the type]. The only departure of importance from the type is the color
of the upper surface of the hind foot, which is soiled whitish instead of dark brown,
and the color of the underside of the tail, which is whitish instead of being concolor
with the upper surface.

These differences — whiter feet and bicolor tail — are sufficient to
show that the Tehuacan specimen can not be referred to mexicanus.
No mention is made, either by Allen or Merriam, of the color of the
underparts, but taking into consideration the soiled and faded condi-
tion of the Tehuacan specimen (and probably, also, of the type) this
omission is not strange.

On the evidence of this determination the name mexicanus was used
by Allen for the dark form of the fulvescens group later described
from Orizaba by Merriam as R. difficilis, but, as shown above, it prop-
erly applies to the species now under consideration — a member of the
subgenus Aporodon.

The species exhibits considerable individual variation in color. One
specimen from Totontepec, Oaxaca, is fairly typical, while another
from the same place is considerably darker, with darker ears and tail.
A specimen from Jacaltenango, Guatemala, is considerably paler
than Vera Cruz specimens, but agrees with them in other characters.

Intergradation with goldmani on the north and with ch errii in Central
America seems fairly certain to be established.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 10, from the following locali-
ties in Mexico and Guatemala :

Vera Cruz: Jalapa, 2.1

Oaxaca: Totontepec, 2.

Chiapas: Comitan, 1; Tenejapa, 1; Tumbala, 3.

Guatemala: Jacaltenango, 1.

REITHRODONTOMYS MEXICANUS GOLDMANI Merriam.
Goldman Harvest Mouse.
(PI. Ill, fig. 6; PI. VI, fig. 6.)
Reithrodontomys goldmani Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., Ill, 1901, p. 552.

Type locality. — Metlaltoyuca, Puebla, Mexico (altitude 800 feet).

Distribution. — Known only from northern Puebla.

Characters. — Similar to mexicanus, but smaller and paler.

Color. — Upperparts pinkish cinnamon, faintly darkened on top of
head and back with brownish hairs; general tone of back about
snufT-brown; sides of nose, upper lips, and underparts white, the

1 One in Collection Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.

1914.] REITHRODONTOMYS MEXICANUS GROUP. 73

latter with a faint tinge of pale buff; ears dark hair-brown; tail
fuscous, nearly unicolor or slightly paler beneath; fore and hind feet
grayish white, tinged with dusky; ankles hair-brown.

Skull. — Longer and relatively narrower than that of mexicanus;
braincase flattened, and narrowed posteriorly; rostrum and nasals
longer, the latter narrowed to a point posteriorly; audital bullae
slightly larger; palatal foramina wide.

Measurements. — Type: Total length, 190; tail vertebrae, 109; hind
foot, 21.5. Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This subspecies is the most northerly ranging member
of the group. It occupies the low, arid, coast region of northern
Puebla and probably adjacent States. It is distinctly paler than
mexicanus and the skull of the type shows pronounced characters,

Fig. 6.— Distribution of Reithrodontomys mexicanus, R. gracilis, and subspecies.

some of which, however, may not prove to be constant. Two speci-
mens from Huauchinango, Puebla (altitude 5,000 feet) are inter-
mediate between goldmani and mexicanus, the skulls being nearer to
the latter form, the skins nearer goldmani.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 3, from the following local-
ities in Mexico :

Puebla: Huauchinango, 2; Metlaltoyuca, 1.

REITHRODONTOMYS MEXICANUS CHERRII (Allen).

Central American Harvest Mouse.

(PL III, fig. 5; PL VI, fig. 5.)

Hesperomys (Vesperimus) cherrii Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Ill, 1891, p. 211.
Sitomys cherriei Allen, Ibid., V, 1893, p. 238.

Reithrodontomys costaricensis Allen, Ibid., VII, 1895, p. 139 (LaCarpintera, Costa Rica).
Reithrodontomys cherriei Osgood, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XX, 1907, p. 50 (type fixed).

74 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

Type locality. — San Jose, Costa Rica.

Distribution. — Costa Rica and Chiriqui, Panama.

Characters. — Similar to mexicanus, but colors brighter (more tawny,
less blackish); ears paler; skull larger.

Color. — Upperparts varying from bright tawny to hazel, more or
less mixed with black on dorsal area; ears dusky hair-brown, scantily
haired; underparts white (rarely washed with yellowish buff); tail
fuscous, unicolor, clothed with short, bristly hairs; fore and hind feet
pale sepia, broadly edged with whitish; toes buffy white.

Skull. — Larger than that of mexicanus, with longer rostrum; brain-
case more inflated.

Measurements. — Average of 7 adults from Costa Rica (San Pedro
and La Carpintera): Total length, 191 (182-198); tail vertebrae, 111
(103-123); hind foot, 20 (19.5-20.5). Average of 13 adults from
Boquete, Chiriqui: Total length, 207 (192-227); tail vertebrae, 126
(115-140); hind foot, 20 (19-22). Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — Through an unfortunate mixing of skulls this species
was originally described as a Hesperomys [ = Peromyscus] and a few
years later, before the mistake was discovered, redescribed as
Reithrodontomys "costaricensis," by which name it has usually been
known. Osgood has shown the pertinence of the original description
to the present species and has selected a type specimen from the
original series.1

The species is one of the larger members of the genus, though not so
large as R. t. tenuirostris and R. Jiirsutus. Intergradation with mexi-
canus seems probable, though not perfectly shown by the material
at hand. A specimen from Jacaltenango, Guatemala, is somewhat
intermediate in characters, but apparently nearest to mexicanus.
Specimens from Boquete, Chiriqui, have somewhat longer tails than
the series from Costa Rica. A single specimen from Nicaragua is
much less tawny than the type series, somewhat resembling the Gua-
temala specimen.

Specimens examined.— Total number, 21, from the following locali-
ties:

Costa Rica: La Carpintera, 3;2 San Jose, 2;2 San Pedro, 3.2
Panama: Boquete, Chiriqui, 13. 3

REITHRODONTOMYS MILLERI Allen.

Colombian Harvest Mouse.

Reithrodontomys milleri Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXXI, 1912, p. 77.

Type locality. — Munchique, Cauca, Colombia (altitude, 8,325 feet).
Distribution. — Known only from Colombia (altitude 6,000 to 10,300
feet).

i Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. XX, 1907, p. 50. 8 Eleven in Collection Mus. Comp. Zool.

* Collection Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.

1914.] RETTHRODONTOMYS MEXICANUS GROUP. 75

Characters. — Paler and less tawny than R. m. cherrii; tail shorter.

Color. — Upperparts varying from light ochraceous-salmon, exten-
sively mixed with brownish to nearly pure tawny, with slight admix-
ture of brown; lateral line only faintly indicated; underparts white,
sometimes with a faint tinge of light buff; ears and tail dark hair-
brown, the latter almost unicolor, but slightly paler beneath; feet
hair-brown, sometimes edged with grayish white.

STcull. — Very similar to that of R. m. cherrii, with short, heavy
rostrum, broad frontals, and short palatal foramina.

Measurements. — Ten adults: Total length, 181 (169-190); tail
vertebra, 107 (98-116); hind foot, 19 (18-20). Skull: (See table,
p. 81).

Remarks. — This species is rather closely related to R. m. cherrii,
from which it differs in browner, less tawny coloration and shorter
tail. No intermediate specimens are known, but further collecting in
Panama may result in securing such.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 7, from the following locali-
ties :*

Colombia: Cocal, 1; El Roble (7,000 feet), 5; La Guneta, 1; Munchique, 5; San
Augustin, Huila (10,300 feet), 1.

REITHRODONTOMYS SODERSTROMI Thomas.

Ecuador Harvest Mouse.

Reithrodontomys soderstromi Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, I, 1898, p. 451.

Type locality. — Quito, Ecuador.

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality and from Valle
de las Papas, southern Colombia.

Characters. — Apparently in the cherrii group and closely related
to milleri; colors less tawny above and more buffy or fawn-colored
below; hind foot, ear, and skull larger.

Color. — " Dull grayish fawn, not nearly so rufous as in costaricensis
[cherrii]. Brighter lateral line little developed. Under surface not
sharply defined, its color much less bright than in costaricensis, the
tips of the hairs more or less buffy or fawn-colored. Ears thinly
haired, brown, little darker than the general color. Hands and feet
white, without darker markings on the metapodials. Tail pale brown
above and below, the tip white."2 A series of 4 specimens from Valle
de las Papas, central Andes, Huila, Colombia,3 may be described as
follows: Upperparts mixed blackish brown and ochraceous-salmon;
ears clove-brown; tail dark mummy-brown; hind feet soiled whitish,
with a broad band of mummy-brown reaching nearly to the toes;

1 All in Collection Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.

2 Thomas, loc. cit.

3 Compared by Dr. J. A. Allen and Mr. Oldfleld Thomas with the type and 12 topotypes in the British
Museum and said to agree perfectly with them.

76 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

front feet similar, but with less brown; underparts white, strongly
tinged with pale ochraceous-salmon. With regard to the color of
the hind feet in the typical series, Mr. Thomas writes me as follows:

Of 20 specimens, 12 have large metapodial patches [of brown], 7 have smaller ones
down to quite minute ones (often not the same on both sides) and the type has prac-
tically none at all — though even there a few hairs are dark on each foot, making a
minute spot.

STcull. — Similar to that of milleri, but larger. "Low, with a flat
superior profile. Palatal foramina short, barely reaching backward
to the level of the front of m1." * More recently Mr. Thomas has com-
pared the topotype series with specimens of R. m. cherrii and states:2
"I can find no skull difference of any importance or constancy."

Measurements. — Type (from dry skin): "Head and body, 72; tail
(tip doubtfully perfect), 83; hind foot (wet) without claws, 19; ear
(wet), 14. Skull: Back of parietal to nasal tip, 21.1 ; greatest breadth,
11.5; nasals 8.9 x 2.6; interorbital breadth, 3.7; palate from hense-
lion, 9.2; diastema, 5.9; palatal foramina, 4.1 x 1.6; upper molar
series, 3.8."3 Skull of fully adult topotype (measured by Mr.
Thomas): Greatest length 24.2; breadth of braincase, 11.5; length
of nasals, 9.1; width of outer wall of anteorbital foramen, 1.9.

Remarks. — This species, so far as known, is the most southerly
ranging member of the genus. I have not been able to examine the
type series of 20 specimens in the British Museum, but I have seen a
small series from southern Colombia, kindly loaned by Dr. Allen,
and which both he and Mr. Thomas consider typical of this species.
From an examination of this series it is clear that soderstromi is a
member of the mexicanus group and rather closely related to milleri,
but whether it is connected with the latter by intermediate forms
can not at present be determined.

Its habits are described by Mr. L. Soderstrom, the collector of the
type series, as follows: "Feeds on flowers and seeds in the gardens.
Comes out from among the climbing plants every evening at about
7 p. m."

Specimens examined. — Four, from Valle de las Papas, Huila, Co-
lombia (central Andes, altitude 10,000 feet).4

REITHRODONTOMYS GRACILIS Allen & Chapman.

Yucatan Harvest Mouse.

(PI. Ill, fig. 7; PI. VI, fig. 7.)

Reithrodontomys mexicanus gracilis Allen and Chapman, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.,
IX, 1897, p. 9.

Type locality. — Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico.
Distribution. — Yucatan and Campeche.

1 Original description by Thomas. s Thomas, loc. cit.

2 In epistle, Oct. 21, 1913. * Collection Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.

1914.] KEITHRODONTOMYS MEXICANUS GEOUP. 77

Characters. — Size small; similar in color to R. m. goldmani, but
brighter; skull much smaller with narrow braincase.

Color. — Upperparts pinkish cinnamon, sparingly lined on dorsal
surface with blackish brown; color brightest on sides next to the
belly, sometimes forming an indistinct lateral line (as in the fulvescens
group); ears dark hair-brown; tail fuscous, slightly paler beneath;
fore feet buffy white; hind feet grayish white; ankles fuscous;
underparts white, sometimes with a slight yellowish cast; less white
on sides of nose than in mexicanus and goldmani.

Skull. — Decidedly smaller than that of either mexicanus or gold-
mani; similar in size and general proportions to that of difficilis, but
differing in the characters of the subgenus; rostrum short and broad;
braincase narrow and moderately flat; nasals short; zygomata nearly
parallel to axis of skull (much less contracted anteriorly than in
mexicanus); palatal foramina very short; bullae rather small.

The outer wall of the anteorbital foramen, although much nar-
rower than in skulls of R. fulvescens difficilis, is relatively broader
than in the other members of the subgenus and may slightly exceed
the width of the interpterygoid fossa. The subsidiary enamel loops
are present on the upper molars, but the accessory tubercles are
rather low.

Measurements. — Type (immature): Total length, 165; tail verte-
bras, 98; hind foot, 16. Average of 2 topotypes (immature): 169;
100; 18. A somewhat older (subadult) specimen from Yohaltun,
Campeche: 191; 113; 20. Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This is the smallest member of the mexicanus group.
Externally it bears a striking resemblance to R. fulvescens tenuis,
differing chiefly in darker and more nearly unicolor tail and more
uniform ochraceous color (less grizzled with black) on the upper-
parts. In skull characters the two differ widely, gracilis clearly be-
longing in the subgenus Aporodon.

From R. m. mexicanus, its nearest relative, it differs in much
smaller size, paler coloration, and narrower skull. Judging from the
very limited material at hand, it seems to be specifically distinct
from the other members of the group. One specimen from Yohaltun,
Campeche, differs from the type series in being somewhat darker,
with blacker, more nearly unicolor tail.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 9, from the following locali-
ties in Mexico :

Yucatan: Chichen Itza, 6;1 Progreso, 1.
Campeche: Apazote, 1; Yohaltun, 1.

1 Four in Collection Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.

78 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

REITHRODONTOMYS TENUIROSTRIS GROUP.
REITHRODONTOMYS TENUIROSTRIS TENUIROSTRIS Merriam.
Wooly Harvest Mouse.
Reithrodontomys tenuirostris Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., Ill, 1901, p. 547.

Type locality. — Todos Santos, Guatemala (altitude 10,000 feet).

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality.

Characters. — Size very large (equaling R. hirsutus, except in
length of tail); pelage long, soft, and wooly; color rich tawny; tail
unicolor; skull with much swollen braincase and narrow rostrum.

Color. — Adults: Upperparts deep tawny, darkest on the dorsal
area where the color becomes hazel; an indistinct blackish ring around
eye; underparts light pinkish cinnamon; ears and tail fuscous ; ankles
and hind feet clove-brown; tips of toes whitish; upper surface of fore
feet hair-brown ; toesbuffy. Young: Upperparts Prout's brown, with
a tinge of tawny; underparts paler than in the adult; toes buffy white.

SJcull. — Braincase broad, much inflated, depressed posteriorly;
anterior portion of frontals abruptly depressed, forming a shallow
sulcus at posterior end of nasals; rostrum long and narrow; nasals
narrowed to a point posteriorly, ending on a line with premaxillse;
zygomata slender, slightly contracted anteriorly; palatal foramina
relatively short, not reaching plane of first molars; interpterygoid
fossa broad (about as wide as outer wall of anteorbital foramen) ;
bulla? small and rather flat.

Measurements. — Type ( c? ad.): Total length, 210; tail vertebrae,
124; hind foot, 23. Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This is one of the largest and most striking members
of the genus. Resembling R.m. mexicanus in the color of the upper-
parts, it is readily distinguished by its cinnamon belly. Its skull is
so peculiar that it is placed in a different group from the latter.

Specimens examined. — Two, from type locality.

REITHRODONTOMYS TENUIROSTRIS AUREUS Merriam.

Calel Harvest Mouse.

(PI. Ill, fig. 8; PI. VI, fig. 8; PI. VII, fig. 2.)

Reithrodontomys tenuirostris aureus Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., ITI, 1901, p. 548.

Type locality. — Calel, Guatemala (altitude 10,200 feet).

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality.

Characters. — Slightly smaller and paler than tenuirostris.

Color. — Adults: Upperparts ochraceous-tawny moderately dark-
ened on dorsal area with black; underparts light ochraceous-buff
(a little yellower than in tenuirostns) ; ears fuscous-black; tail fus-
cous, slightly paler beneath; fore feet dark hair-brown; hind feet
clove-brown, both edged with white; toes whitish. Young: Upper-

1914.] REITHRODONTOMYS TENUIROSTRIS GROUP. 79

parts Prout's brown, faintly tinged with ochraceous; underparts
white.

SJcull. — Slightly smaller than that of tenuirostris, with flatter brain-
case and more inflated bullae; palatal foramina longer and slightly
broader, extending behind plane of first molars.

Measurements. — Adult female: Total length, 196; tail vertebrae, 112
hind foot, 22.5. Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This subspecies lives at about the same altitude as
does tenuirostris and only a short distance away. With the very
limited amount of material at hand, it is impossible to say whether
the characters distinguishing the two forms will prove to be constant.

Specimens examined. — Two, from type locality.

REITHRODONTOMYS CREPER Bangs.
Chiriqui Harvest Mouse.
Reithrodontomys creper Bangs, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., XXXIX, 1902, p. 39.

Type locality. — Volcan de Chiriqui, Panama (altitude, 11,000 feet).

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality.

Cliaracters. — Size large; colors very dark (similar to R. a. australis
above, but darker beneath) ; skull similar to that of R. t. tenuirostris,
but smaller.

Color.1 — Type: Upperparts mummy-brown, varying on sides to
Mars brown; sides of face blackish; underparts russet; ears dark
sepia; tail dusky — almost clove-brown — all around, except terminal
fourth which is whitish; feet whitish, palest on toes.

STcuU. — Similar in shape to that of R. t. tenuirostris, but smaller;
braincase narrowed posteriorly; palatal foramina expanded in the
middle, narrowing anteriorly; zygomata much contracted anteriorly.
Compared with R. t. aureus: Skull slightly shorter and much nar-
rower; bullae smaller.

Measurements. — Type (? ad.): Total length, 215; tail vertebrae,
130; hind foot, 23. Skull: (See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This very distinct species is known only from a single
specimen, "caught on the cold barren summit of the Volcan de
Chiriqui".2 It seems to be nearest related to R. tenuirostris, from
Guatemala.

Specimen examined. — One, the type.3

Comparisons with Ridgway's " Nomenclature of Colors" (1886).

8 Bangs, loc. cit.

* Collection Mus. Comp. Zool.

80 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 36.

REITHRODONTOMYS MICRODON MICRODON Merriam.
Small-toothed Harvest Mouse.
(PL III, fig. 9; PI. VI, fig. 9.)
Reithrodontomys microdon Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., Ill, 1901, p. 548.

Type locality. — Todos Santos, Guatemala.

Distribution. — Highlands of Guatemala; limits unknown.

Characters. — Closely similar in color to R. t. tenuirostris, but very

much smaller.

Color. — Adults: Upperparts tawny, brighter on the sides next to
the belly, darkened on back and head with black, where the tone
becomes hazel; blackish ring around eye; underparts light pinkish
cinnamon; ears and tail fuscous, the latter slightly paler beneath;
hind feet dark hair-brown edged with whitish; toes white; fore feet
buffy white with a patch of dusky. Subadults: Upperparts browner
(about Prout's brown) and less mixed with tawny; underparts white.

STcuU. — Similar in general shape to that of R. t. tenuirostris, but
very much smaller; braincase moderately inflated, narrowed and
depressed posteriorly; zygomata slender, decidedly contracted ante-
riorly; rostrum narrow; palatal foramina ending on plane of front
molars; interpterygoid fossa very broad; bullae rather large and
inflated; outer wall of anteorbital foramen very narrow.

Measurements. — Type ($ ad.): Total length, 185; tail vertebrae,
113; hind foot, 21. Topotype ( 3 subadult): 180; 112; 21. Skull:
(See table, p. 81).

Remarks. — This little species is in every way a miniature of the large
tenuirostris, which lives in the same region.

Specimens examined. — Total number, 3, from the following locali-
ties:

Guatemala: Todos Santos, 2; Volcan Santa Maria 1.

REITHRODONTOMYS MICRODON ALBILABRIS Merriam.

White-lipped Harvest Mouse.

Reithrodontomys microdon albilabris Merriam, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., Ill, 1901, p. 549.

Type locality. — Cerro San Felipe, Oaxaca, Mexico (altitude, 10,000
feet).

Distribution. — Known only from the type locality.

Characters. — Similar to microdon, but paler; underparts white;
closely similar in color to R. mexicanus goldmani.

Color. — Upperparts pinkish cinnamon, darkened on dorsal area with
black, where the tone becomes snuff-brown; blackish ring around eye;
ears, tail, and hind feet fuscous, the last edged with whitish; toes
whitish; fore feet buffy, with a dusky patch; underparts white.

STcuU. — Very similar to that of microdon; braincase slightly broader
and more inflated; interpterygoid fossa narrower; bullae slightly
smaller; nasals ending on aline with premaxillae; zygomata decidedly

1914.]

CRANIAL MEASUREMENTS.

81

contracted anteriorly; palatal foramina short, not reaching plane of
molars.

Measurements. — Type (? ad.): Total length, 187; tail vertebrae,
117; hind foot, 20. Skull: (See table below).

Remarks. — This form is closely related to microdon, differing chiefly
in paler coloration.

Specimen examined. — One, the type.

Average cranial measurements of Reithrodontomys.

Species.

Localities.

S3 03 g

O Cj

humulis humulis

humulis impiger

humulis merriami

albescens albescens

albescens griseus

montanus

megalotis raegalotis

megalotis azlecus

megalotis dychei

megalotis nigrescens

megalotis longicaudus . .
megalotis peninsulx...

megalotis cinereus

megalotis saturatus

m egalot isaltkolus

megalotis arizonensis. .

megalotis zacatecz

amoles

catalinse

raviventris raviventris.
raviventris haliccetes . . .
fulvescens fulvescens .

fulvescens tenuis

fulvescens intermedius.
fulvescens aurantius. . .

fulvescens difficilis

fulvescens toltecus

fulvescens hclvolus

fulvescens chiapcnsis. .

fulvescens nelsoni

fulvescens mustelinus .
amcenus

otus

rufescens rufescens

rufescens luteolus

alleni

colimxcolimx

colimse nerterus

dorsalis

australis australis

australis modestus

levipes

hirsutus

chrysopsis chrysopsis. .

chrysopsis tolucse

chrysopsis orizabx

perotensis

mexicanus mexicanus .
mexicanus goldmani . .

mexicanus cherrii

milleri

soderstrbmi

R . tenuirostris tenuirostris.

R. tenuirostris aureus

R.creper

jR . microdon microdon

R. microdon albilabris.

North Carolina; South Carolina; Georgia. .

West Virginia: White Sulphur Springs

Texas: Austin Bayou; Louisiana: Lafayette

Nebraska; South Dakota

Texas: San Antonio, San Angelo

Colorado: San Luis Valley

New Mexico (southern); Chihuahua

New Mexico: La Plata, Aztec, Guadalupita.

Kansas: Lawrence, Onaga

Idaho: Payette, Weiser, Nampa

California: Vicinity of Ban Francisco Bay. .

Lower California: San Quintin, Rosario

Puebla: Chalchicomula

Vera Cruz: Las Vigas

Oaxaca: Cerro San Felipe

Arizona: Chiricahua Mountains

Zacatecas: Valparaiso Mountains

Queretaro: Pinal de Amoles

California: Catalina Island

California: San Francisco Bay

California: Petaluma (marshes)

Sonora: Oposura, Providencia Mines

Sinaloa: Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Escuinapa

Texas: Brownsville; Tamaulipas

Texas and Louisiana

Vera Cruz: Orizaba, Jalapa

Mexico: Tlalpam, D. F

Oaxaca: Oaxaca

Chiapas: Canjob

Colima: Colima

Oaxaca: Llano Grande

Oaxaca: Reforma

Jalisco: Sierra Nevada de Colima

Vera Cruz: Jalapa, Jico

Oaxaca: Juquila

Oaxaca: Mountains near Ozolo tepee

Jalisco: Sierra Nevada de Colima

do

Guatemala: Calel

Costa Rica: Volcan Irazu

Nicaragua: Jinotega

Jalisco: San Sebastian

Jalisco: Ameca

Mexico (State) and Morelos

Mexico: Volcan Toluca

Puebla: Mount Orizaba

Vera Cruz: Cofre de Perote

Vera Cruz; Oaxaca; Guatemala

Puebla: Metlaltoyuca

Costa Rica: La Carpintera, San Pedro

Colombia: Munchique

Ecuador: Quito

Yucatan: Chichen Itza; Campeche: Yohal-

tun.

Guatemala: Todos Santos

Guatemala: Calel

Panama: Volcan de Chiriqui

Guatemala: Todos Santos, Volcan Santa

Maria.
Oaxaca: Cerro San Felipe

19.4

19.4

19

19.5

19.3

20

20.7

22.1

20.6

20.8

20.2

20.7

21.6

22.5

22.4

20.4

20.5

19.8

21.9

21.2

20.8

21.6

21.9

21.9

22.2

21.8

23.4

22.4

22.4

21.2

22.3

19.5

23.8

23.6

23.9

23.2

22.6

23

22.5

21

22.7

24.9

24.3

24

23.2

23.1

24

23.7

22.5

24.2

21.6

25.7
25.2
25.4
22.3

22.3

9.3
9.2
9.3

9.6
9.3
9.4
9.9

10.5
10.1

10.2
10.3
10.4
10.5
9.9
9.9
9.5
10.3
10.2
10.1
10.3
10.2
10.3
10.5
10.5
10.7
10.6
10.7
10
10.4
10.3
11

10.9
11.1

11.3

11

10.6

10.7

10.5

11.4

11.8

11.7

11.5

10.7

11

11.3

11.5

11.7

11.2

11.5

10.5

12.5
12.1
11.6
11.1

11.4

6.4
6.4
6.9
7.3
7.2
7.9
7.5
8.5
7.8
8

7.7
8.1
8.2
8.7
8.5
7.5
8.2
7.6
8.8
7.6
7.5
8.2
8.3
8.5
8.5
7.8
9.4
8.5
8.1
8
9

7.7
9.3
9

9.1
9

10.1
8.4
9

8.2
7.8
7.9
8.9
9.3
9.3
9

9.1
8.7
9.5
8.1
7.6
9
7.5

9.1

7.8

1.9

1.7

2.1

2.2

1.9

2.1

2.1

2.2

2.1

1.9

2

1.9

2.2

2.2

2.3

1.9

1.9

1.7

2.3

2.1

2

2

2

2

2.2

1.9

2.1

2.1

2

1.8

2.2

1.8

2.1

2.1

2.2

2.1

1.9

2.2

2.1

1.8

1.8

1.9

2

2.2

2.2

2

2

1.8

1.7

1.7

1.4

1.8

1.7

1.7
1.7
1.9
1.3

1.3

28657°— 14 6

PLATE I.

[Twice natural size.]

Fig. 1. Reithrodontomys humulis humulis. Raleigh, N. C. (No. 189304, U. S. Nat.
Mus., Merriam Coll.)

2. Reithrodontomys humulis merriami. Austin Bayou, Tex. (No. 44849, U. S.

Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

3. Reithrodontomys albescens griseus. Type, San Antonio, Tex. (No. 87852,

U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

4. Reithrodontomys albescens albescens. Type, Kennedy, Nebr. (No. 116358,

U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

5. Reithrodontomys montanus. Medano Ranch, Costilla County, Colo. (No.

150714, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

6. Reithrodontomys megalotis megalotis. Dry Creek, Socorro County, N. Mex.

(No. 158319, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

7. Reithrodontomys megalotis dychei. Onaga, Kans. (No. 147132, U. S. Nat.

Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

8. Reithrodontomys megalotis saturatus. Las Vigas, Vera Cruz. (No. 54434,

IT. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

9. Reithrodontomys raviventris raviventris. Berkeley, Cal. (No. 93208, U. S.

Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

10. Reithrodontomys raviventris haliccetes. Type, Petaluma, Cal. (No. 7146,

Mus. Vert. Zool., Univ. California.)

11. Reithrodontomys megalotis zacatecx. Valparaiso Mountains, Zacatecas. (No.

91912, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

12. Reithrodontomys megalotis alticolus. Type, Cerro San Felipe, Oaxaca. (No.

68392, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.) •

82

North American Fauna No. 36, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate I.

1. R. h. humulis.

2. R. h. merriami.

3. R. a. griseus.

4. R. a. albescens.

Skulls of Reithrodontomys.

5. R. montanus.

6. R. m. megalotis.

7. R. m. dychei.

8. R. m. saturatus.

9. R. r. raviventris.

10. R. r. halicoetes

11. K. m. zacateese.

12. R. in. altieolus.

PLATE II.
[Twice natural size.)

Fig. 1. Reithrodontomys amcenus. Type, Reforma, Oaxaca. (No. 14064, Field Mus.
Nat. Hist.)

2. Reithrodontomys otus. Type, Sierra Nevada de Colima, Jalisco. No. 45705,

U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

3. Reithrodontomys australis australis. Volcan Irazu, Costa Rica. (No. 116614,

IT. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

4. Reithrodontomys dorsalis. Type, Calel, Guatemala. (No. 77009, U. S. Nat.

Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

5. Reithrodontomys colimse colimx. Type, Sierra Nevada de Colima, Jalisco.

(No. 45706, IT. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

6. Reithrodontomys rufescens luteolus. Type, Juquila, Oaxaca. (No. 71558,

IT. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

7. Reithrodontomys fulvescens tenuis. Mazatlan, Sinaloa. (No. 96713, IT. S.

Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

8. Reithrodontomys fulvescens difficilis. Orizaba, Vera Cruz. (No. 58268, IT. S.

Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

9. Reithrodontomys fulvescens helvolus. Type, Oaxaca, Oaxaca. (No. 68387,

IT. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)
10. Reithrodontomys fulvescens toltecus. Type, Tlalpam, D. F., Mexico. (No.
50746, IT. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

84

North American Fauna No.

36, U. S.

Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate II.

>

W wv •'

1

A

2

AHA

■S

WW ~i

s

: ^W^ LLrf^

M 1

^P 1M l

n ftl

1 11

i ^M

Lii

■

4

5

(

->

i

n

A

w^

* 5_^S ^^ 1

jd

Ml 1
I - 1

1

I 00

1 t*«

V 1

Ic^a M

1 °%*

7

8 9

10

1. R. amcenus.

2. R. otus.

3. R. a. australis.

4. R. dorsalis.

Skulls of Reithrodontomys.

5. R. c. colimse.

6. R. r. luteolus.

7. R. f. tenuis.

8. R. f. difficilis.

9. R. f. helvolus.
10. R. f. toltecus.

PLATE III.

[Twice natural size.]

Fig. 1. Reithrodontomys hirsutus. Type, Ameca, Jalisco. (No. 82200, IT. S. Nat.
Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

2. Reithrodontomys levipes. Type, San Sebastian, Jalisco. (No. 88057, U. S.

Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

3. Reithrodontomys chrysopsis chrysopsis. Type, Mount Popocatepetl, Mexico.

(No. 52031, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

4. Reithrodontomys mexicanus mexicanus. Jalapa, Vera Cruz. (No. 108538,

U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

5. Reithrodontomys mexicanus cherrii. La Carpintera, Costa Rica. (No. 7898,

Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.)

6. Reithrodontomys mexicanus goldmani. Type, Metlaltoyuca, Puebla. (No.

93096, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)
7 ] Reithrodontomys gracilis. Chichen Itza, Yucatan. (No. 108143, U. S. Nat.
Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

8. Reithrodontomys tenuirostris aureus. Type, Calel, Guatemala. (No. 76939,

U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

9. Reithrodontomys microdon microdon. Type, Todos Santos, Guatemala. (No.

76923, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)
86

North American Fauna No. 36, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate III.

Skulls of Reithrodontomys.

1.

R. hirsutus.

■4.

R. m.

niexicanus.

7. R. gracilis.

2.

R. levipes.

5.

R. m.

cherrii.

S. R. t. aureus.

a.

R. c. chrysopsis.

6.

R. m.

goldmani.

9. R. m. microdot]

PLATE IV.

[Twice natural size.]

Fig. 1. Reiihrodontomys humulis humulis. Raleigh, N. C. (No. 189304, U. S. Nat.
Mus., Merriam Coll.)

2. Reithrodontomys humulis merriami. Austin Bayou, Tex. (No. 44849, U. S.

Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

3. Reithrodontomys albescens griseus. Type, San Antonio, Tex. (No. 87852,

U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

4. Reithrodontomys albescens albescens. Type, Kennedy, Nebr. (No. 116358,

U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

5. Reithrodontomys montanus. Medano Ranch, Costilla County, Colo. (No.

150714, IT. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

6. Reithrodontomys megalotis megalotis. Dry Creek, Socorro County, N. Mex.

(No. 158319, IT. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

7. Reithrodontomys megalotis dychei. Onaga, Kans. (No. 147132, IT. S. Nat.

Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

8. Reithrodontomys megalotis saturatus. Las Vigas, Vera Cruz. (No. 54434,

IT. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

9. Reithrodontomys raviventris raviventris. Berkeley, Cal. (No. 93208, IT. S.

Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

10. Reithrodontomys raviventris haliccetes. Type, Petaluma, Cal. (No. 7146,

Mus. Vert. Zool., Univ. California.)

11. Reithrodontomys megalotis zacatecx. Valparaiso Mountains, Zacatecas. (No.

91912, IT. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

12. Reithrodontomys megalotis alticolus. Type, Cerro San Felipe, Oaxaca. (No.

68392, IT. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

88

North American Fauna No. 36, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate IV.

1. R. h. humulis.

2. R. h. merrianii.

3. R. a. griseus.

4. R. a. albescens.

Skulls of Reithrodontomys.

5. R. montanus.
0. R. m. megalotis.

7. R. m. dychei.

8. R. m. saturatus.

9. R. r. raviventris.

10. R. r. halicoetes.

11. R. m. zacatecee.

12. R. m. alticolus.

PLATE V.

[Twice natural size.]

Fig. 1. Reithrodontomys amoenus. Type, Reforma, Oaxaca. (No. 14064, Field Mus.
Nat. Hist.)

2. Reithrodontomys otus. Type, Sierra Nevada de Colima, Jalisco. (No. 45705,

U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

3. Reithrodontomys australis. Volcan Irazu, Costa Rica. (No. 116614, U. S.

Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

4. Reithrodontomys dorsalis. Type, Calel, Guatemala. (No. 77009, U. S. Nat.

Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

5. Reithrodontomys colimse colimse. Type, Sierra Nevada de Colima, Jalisco.

(No. 45706, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

6. Reithrodontomys rufescens luteolus. Type, Juquila, Oaxaca. (No. 71558,

U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coil.)

7. Reithrodontomys fulvescens tenuis. Mazatlan, Sinaloa. (No. 96713, U. S. Nat.

Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

8. Reithrodontomys fulvescens difficilis. Orizaba, Vera Cruz. (No. 58268, U. S.

Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

9. Reithrodontomys fulvescens helvolus. Type, Oaxaca, Oaxaca. (No. 68387,

U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)
10. Reithrodontomys fulvescens toltecus. Type, Tlalpam, D. F., Mexico. (No.
50746, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

90

Plate V.

1. R. amcenus.

2. R. otus.

3. R. australis.

4. R. dorsalis.

Skulls of Reithrodontomys.

5. R. c. colimae.

6. R. r. lutolus.

7. R. f. tenuis.

8. R. f. difficilis.

9. R. f. helvolus.
10. R. f. toltecus.

PLATE VI.

[Twice natural size.]

Fig. 1. Reiihrodontomys hirsutus. Type, Ameca, Jalisco. (No. 82200, U. S. Nat.
Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

2. Reiihrodontomys levipes. Type, San Sebastian, Jalisco. (No. 88057, U. S.

Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

3. Reiihrodontomys chrysopsis chrysopsis. Type, Mount Popocatepetl, Mexico.

(No. 52031, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

4. Reiihrodontomys inexicanus mexicanus. Jalapa, Vera Cruz. (No. 108538,

U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

5. Reiihrodontomys mexicanus cherfii. La Carpintera, Costa Rica. (No. 7898,

Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.)

6. Reiihrodontomys mexicanus goldmani. Type, Metlaltoyuca, Puebla. (No.

93096, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

7. Reiihrodontomys gracilis. Chichen Itza, Yucatan. (No. 108143, U. S. Nat.

Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

8. Reiihrodontomys tenuirostris aureus. Type, Calel, Guatemala. (No. 76939,

U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)

9. Reithrodontomys microdon microdon. Type, Todos Santos, Guatemala. (No.

76923, IT. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)
92

North American Fauna No. 36, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate VI.

1. R. hirsutus.

2. R. levipe.s.

3. R. c. chrysopsis.

Skulls of Reithrodontomys.

4. R. m. mexicanus.

5. R. m. cherrii.

6. R. m. goldrnani.

7. R. gracilis.

8. R. t. aureus.

9. R. m. ruicrodon.

PLATE VII.

[Teeth about 10 times natural size; skulls twice natural size.]

Figs. 1, 7. Reithrodontomys (Reithrodontomys) megalotis megalotis.

Fig. 1. Side view of upper molars. (No. 167353, U. S. Nat. Mus.,

Biological Survey Coll.)
Fig. 7. Worn crowns of upper molars. (No. 58090, U. S. Nat. Mus.,
Biological Survey Coll.)
2. Reithrodontomys (Aporodon) tenuirostris aureus. Side view of upper
molars. (No. 77008, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)
3, 5. Reithrodontomys (Aporodon) levipes.

Fig. 3. Worn crowns of lower molars. (No. 88057, U. S. Nat. Mus.,

Biological Survey Coll.)
Fig. 5. Worn crowns of upper molars. (No. 88057, U. S. Nat. Mus.,
Biological Survey Coll.)
4, 9, 10, 11. Reithrodontomys (Aporodon) mexicanus mexicanus.

Fig. 4. Worn crowns of upper molars. (No. 68684, U. S. Nat. Mus.,

Biological Survey Coll.)
Figs. 9, 10, 11. Skull of type. (No. ^~, Geneva Museum.)
6. Reithrodontomys (Aporodon) chrysopsis chrysopsis. Worn crowns of upper

molars. (No. 125883, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)
8. Reithrodontomys (Reithrodontomys) humulis merriami. Worn crowns of
upper molars. (No. 178261, U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll.)
94

North American Fauna No. 36, U. S. Dept. Agr. Biological Survey.

Plate VII.

Molar Teeth and Skulls of Reithrodontomys.

1. R. m. megalotis.

2. R. t. aureus.

3. R. levipes.

■i. R. m. mexicanus.

5. R. levipes.

6. R. c. chrysopsis.

7. R. m. megalotis.

8. R. h. merriami.

9. 10. 11. R. m. mexieanus.

INDEX.

[New names in bold-face type; synonyms in italics; pages containing the principal reference to a subject

in bold-face figures.]

Acknowledgments, 9-10.

albescens, Eeithrodontomys albescens, 10, 22-23*

Reithrodontomys montanus, 22.
albilabris, Eeithrodontomys microdon, 80-81.
alleni, Eeithrodontomys, 59.
alticolus, Eeithrodontomys megalotis, 13, 37.
amcenus, Eeithrodontomys, 55.

Rhithrodontomys, 55.
amoles, Eeithrodontomys, 40.
Aporodou, subgenus, 10, 13, 58, 63-64, 71, 72, 77.

subgenus, species, list of, 15.
type localities, list of, 15.
arizonensis, Eeithrodontomys megalotis, 38.
A rvicola, 7.
aurantius, Eeithrodontomys fulvescens, 12, 48-49.

Reithrodontomys mexicanus, 48.
aureus, Eeithrodontomys tenuirostris, 78-79.
australis, Eeithrodontomys australis, 62-63.
aztecus, Eeithrodontomys megalotis, 8, 13, 30.

carolinensis, Reithrodon, 8.
catalinse, Eeithrodontomys, 40-41.

Reithrodontomys megalotis, 40.

Rhithrodontomys, 40.
Characters, generic, 13.
cherriei, Reithrodontomys, 73.

Sitomys, 73.
cherrii, Hesperomye ( Vesperimus), 73, 74.

Eeithrodontomys mexicanus, 73-74.
chiapensis, Eeithrodontomys fulvescens, 53.
chrysopsis, Eeithrodontomys chrysopsis, 64, 66-

68.
chrysotus, Reithrodontomys, 48, 49.
cinereus, Eeithrodontomys megalotis, 35-36.

Reithrodontomys saturatus, 35.
colimx, Reithrodontomys, 39.

Eeithrodontomys colimte, 59-60.
costaricensis , Reithrodontomys, 73, 74.
Cranial measurements, table of, 81.
creper, Eeithrodontomys, 79.

D.

deserti, Reithrodontomys, 9.

Reithrodontomys megalotis, 26, 28.
dickinsonl, Reithrodontomys humilis, 19, 20.
difficilis, Eeithrodontomys fulvescens, 50-51, 71.
Distribution, 10.

dorsalis, Eeithrodontomys, 61-62.
dychei, Reithrodontomys, 23.

Eeithrodontomys megalotis, 11, 12, 30-32.

E.
Economic status, habits and, 10.

F.
Food, 11.

fulvescens, Eeithrodontomys fulvesoens, 43-44.
Reithrodontomys mexicanus, 43.

G.

Generic characters, 13.

Genus Eeithrodontomys, 13.

goldmani, Eeithrodontomys mexicanus, 11, 72-73*

gracilis, Eeithrodontomys, 64, 76-77.

Reithrodontomys mexicanus, 76.
griseoflavus, Reithrodontomys, 45, 46.
griseus, Reithrodontomys, 30.

Eeithrodontomys albescens, 23-24.
Groups, genus Eeithrodontomys, 14-16.

Habits and economic status, 10.

halicoetes, Eeithrodontomys raviventris, 42-43.

helvolus, Eeithrodontomys fulvescens, 52-53.

Reithrodontomys griseoflavus, 52.
Hesperomys, 8, 74.

[Peromyscus], 74.

( Vesperimus) cherrii, 73, 74.
hirsutus, Eeithrodontomys, 64, 66.
History and material, 7.
humilis, Mvs, 7, 19.

Ochetodon, 8. 13, 19.

Reithrodon, 8, 19.

Reithrodontomys, 19.
humulis, Mus, 7, 19.

Eeithrodontomys humulis, 13, 19-20.

I.

impiger, Eeithrodontomys humulis, 20-21.

Reithrodontomys lecontii, 20.
inexspectatus, Rhithrodontomys, 51, 52.
intermedius, Eeithrodontomys fulvescens, 11, 47-
48.

Reithrodontomys mexicanus, 47.

jalapse, Reithrodontomys cherriei, 70.
Rtithrodontomys cherrii, 71.
Reithrodontomys costaricensis, 70, 71.

K.

Key to species and subspecies, 16.
klamathensis, Reithrodontomys, 33, 34.

95

96

NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA.

[No. 36

laceyi, Reithrodontomys, 47, 48.
lecontci, Mus, 8.

Reithrodon, 19.
lecontii, Mus, 7, 13, 19.

Reithrodontomys, 19.
levipes, Reithrodontomys, 64-65.
longicauda, Ochetodon, 8, 13, 33.

Reithrodon, 8, 33.

Reithrodontomys, 33.
megalotis, 33.
longicaudus, Reithrodontomys megalotis, 33-34.
luteolus, Reithrodontomys rufescens, 57-58.

M.

Measurements, table of cranial, 81.
megalotis, Reithrodon, 8, 13, 26.

Reithrodontomys megalotis, 8, 12, 13, 26-29.
merriami, Reithrodontomys humulis, 12, 21-22.
mexicanus, Ochetodon, 8, 13, 47, 50, 70.

Reithrodon, 8, 47, 50, 70.

Reithrodontomys, 50.

mexicanus, 9, 64, 70-72.
microdon, Reithrodontomys microdon, 64, 80.
milleri, Reithrodontomys, 64, 74-75.
modestus, Reithrodontomys australis, 9, 63.
montanus, Ochetodon, 8, 13, 24.

Reithrodon, 8, 24.

Reithrodontomys, 8, 10, 13, 24-26.
Mus, 7, 8.

humilis, 7, 19.

humulis, 7, 19.

lecontei, 8.

lecontii, 7, 13, 19.
mustelinus, Reithrodontomys fulvescens, 54-55.

N.

nebrascensis, Reithrodontomys, 9.

Reithrodontomys dychci, 30, 31.
uelsoni, Reithrodontomys fulvescens, 53-54.
nerterus, Reithrodontomys colimce, 60-61.
nigrescens, Reithrodontomys megalotis, 32-33.

O.

obscurus, Reithrodontomys megalotis, 39, 40.
Ochetodon, 8, 13.

humilis, 8, 13, 19.

longicauda, 8, 13, 33.

mexicanus, 8, 13, 47, 50, 70.

montanus, 8, 13, 24.

sumichrasti, 8, 13.
orizabse, Reithrodontomys chrysopsis, 69.
otus, Reithrodontomys, 55-56.

Reithrodontomys levipes, 55.

pallidus, Reithrodontomys, 9, 33, 34.

Pelages, 12.

peninsula, Reithrodontomys megalotis, 35.

Rhithrodontomys, 35.
perotensis, Reithrodontomys, 64, 69-70.

R.

raviventris, Reithrodontomys raviventris, 10, 41-

42.
Reithrodon, 8, 13.
carolinensis, 8,
humilis, 8 , 19.

Reithrodon— Continued.
lecontei, 19.
longicauda, 8, 33.
megalotis, 8, 13, 26.
mexicanus, 8, 47, 50, 70.
montanus, 8, 24.
sumichrasti, 8, 50.
Reithrodontomys, genus, 8, 10, 13.
genus, groups, 14-16.

chrysopsis group, 15, 64, 66-70.

fulvescens group, 15, 43-56.

humulis group, 14, 19-24.

levipes group, 15, 64-66.

megalotis group, 14, 24-43.

mexicanus group, 15, 64, 70-77.

rufescens group, 15, 56-63.

tenuirostris group, 16, 64, 78-81.
genus, key to species, 16.

species, list of, 14.

type localities, list of, 14.
subgenus, 10, 19, 64.

species, list of, 14.

type localities, list of, 14.
Reithrodontomys albescens albescens, 10, 22-23.
albescens griseus, 23-24.
alieni, 59.
amcenus, 55.
amoles, 40.
australis australis, 62-63.

modestus, 9, 63.

vulcanius, 62.
catalinae, 40-41.
cherriei, 73.

jalapse, 70.
cherrii jalapse, 71.
chrysopsis chrysopsis, 64, 66-68.

orizabse, 69.

tolucse, 68-69.
chrysotis, 48, 49.
colimx, 39.

colimjE, 59-60.

nerterus, 60-61.
costaricensis, 73, 74.

jalapse, 70, 71.
creper, 79.
dorsalis, 61-62.
deserti, 9.
dychei, 23.

nebrascensis, 30, 31.
fulvescens aurantius, 12, 48-49.

chiapensis, 53.

difflcuds, 50-51, 71.

fulvescens, 43-44.

helvolus, 52-53.

intermedius, 11, 47-48.

mustelinus, 54-55.

nelsoni, 53-54.

tenuis, 9, 45-47.

toltecus, 51-52.
gracilis, 64, 76-77.
griseoflavus, 45, 46.

helvolus, 52.
griseus, 30.
hirsutus, 64, 66.
humilis, 19.

dickinsoni, 19, 20.
humulis humulis, 13, 19-20.

impiger, 20-21.

merriami, 12, 21-22.

1914.]

INDEX.

97

Reithrodontomys — Continued.
klamathensis, 33, 34.
laceyi, 47, 48.
lecontii, 19.

impiger, 20.
levipes, 64-65.

otus, 55.

toltecus, 51.
Icmgicauda, 33.
megalotis alticolus, 13, 37.

arizonensis, 38.

aztecus, 8, 13, 30.

catalinx, 40.

cinereus, 35-36.

deserti, 25, 28.

dychei, 11, 12, 30-32.

longicauda, 33.

longicaudus, 33-34,

megalotis, 8, 12, 13, 26-29.

nigrescens, 32-33.

obscurus, 39, 40.

peninsulae, 35.

saturatus, 36-37, 71.

scslinensis. 26, 29.

zacatecoe, 39-40.
•mexicanus, 50.

aurantius, 4S.

cherrii, 73-74.

fulvescens, 43.

goldmani, 11, 72-73.

gracilis, 70.

intermedins, 47.

mexicanus, 9, 64, 70-72.
microdon albilabris, SO-81.

microdon, 04, 80.
milleri, 04, 74-75.
montanus, 8, 10, 13, 24-36.

albescens, 22.
nebrascensis , 9.
otus, 55-56.
pallidus, 9, 33, 35.
perotensis, 04, 69-70.
raviventris haliccetes, 42-4-3.

raviventrL, 10, 41-42.

28657°— 14 7

Reithrodontomys — Continued.

rufescens luteolus, 57-58.
rufescens, 56-57, 71.

saturatus cinereus, 35.

soderstromi, 9, 10, 64, 75-76.

sumichrasti, 9.

tenuirostris aureus, 78-79.
tenuirostris, 13, 63, 64,78.
Rhithrodontomys , 13 (footnote).

ametnus, 55.

calalinx, 40.

incxspectatus, 51, 52.

pcninsulx, 35.
rufescens, Reithrodontomys rufescens, 56-67, 71.

S.

saturatus, Reithrodontomys megalotis, 36-37, 71.
scstinensis, Reithrodontomys megalotis, 26, 26.
Sitomys cherriei, 73.

soderstromi, Reithrodontomys, 9, 10, 64, 75-76.
Species and subspecies, key to, 16.

list of, 14.
Subgenus Aporodon, 63.

Reithrodontomys, 19.
sumichrasti, Ochetodon, 8, 13.

Reithrodon, 8, 50.

Reithrodontomys, 9.

T.

tenuirostris, Reithrodontomys tenuirostris, 13, 63

64, 7S.
tenuis, Reithrodontomys fulvescens, 9, 45-47.
toltecus, Reithrodontomys fulvescens, 51-52.

Reithrodontomys levipes, 51.
toluca?, Reithrodontomys chrysopsis, 68-69.
Type localities, list of, 14.

( Vesperimus) Hespcromys cherrii, 73, 74.
vulcanius, Reithrodontomys australis, 62.

Z.
zacateeae, Reithrodontomys megalotis, 39-40.

o

MAY 21 1915