vot. Iv.] Motes on a Collection of Mammals. 325 
blends into the gray of the sides. The young, collected August 
12, is not so dark as the specimens taken on August 3, the gray 
having become clearer. There are also more pronounced traces 
of yellowish brown. Unfortunately I took no measurements 
and am unable to give comparative size. 
15. Zhomomys monticola* Allen. Sierra Nevada Gopher. 
Four specimens of this gopher, which proved to be new, 
were taken on Mount Tallac, at altitudes varying from 6500 
feet, close to Lake Tahoe, up to 9500 feet near the summit of 
the mountain. The work of gophers was observed all over the 
high — be stad in damp patches of vegetable mould 
about Summit Station, along the Truckee River, and on the 
grassy ita and slopes of Mount Tallac. On this mountain 
they were often noticed throwing up earth in the daytime and 
were especially abundant well toward the summit, often close to 
snow fields. 
This gopher is characterized by a long and narrow skull, an 
exceptionally broad interparietal bone and very long and soft 
pelage. Above it is pale reddish brown, tinged with gray, and 
below, ashy white. 
16. Lagomys schtsticeps Merr. Gray-headed Pika. 
Only two specimens of this curious little alpine rodent were 
secured; these were taken on July 28 among broken rocks on the 
very summit of Mt. Tallac. No more were seen in that locality, 
but on Pyramid Peak and on a rocky ridge near it they were 
abundant on August 5. It was late in the afternoon and the 
snow banks and tiny streams of water were freezing in shady 
places, but the little animals did not seem at all to mind the cold. ° 
They ran about over the rocks and snow beds and some had 
ventured a distance away from their homes and were feeding on 
‘a bright red alpine flower. Their sharp, squeaking cries were 
continually heard even after the sun had set. Several of their 
nests had little heaps of flower-stems and grass before the open- 
ings, and it may have been that even at this early date they 
were laying in their winter stores. 
* Descriptions of Four New Species of Thomomys, with Remarks on other Species 
of the Genus. By J. A. Allen, Bull. Am. Mus, Nat. Hist., v, p.48, April 28, 
1893. 
