1894.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADEL,PHIA. 221 



Alleuiieiiiau Fauna, as restricted by Dr. J. A. Allen,' and extends 

 northward toward the Canadian Fauna as far as Potter County, 

 Pennsylvania, in the west, and probably along the Blue Ridge to 

 the Delaware River. It is possible that it may be found in northern 

 New Jersey. 



The specimens of Neotoma taken on the Hudson River, by Jolm 

 G. Bell, and mentioned by Baird in his work on mammals, are, ap- 

 parently, from the table of measurements, large N. jioridana. 



It is doubtful if X macjider ever inhabited the State of New York, 

 and the specimens taken by Mr. Bell were probably imported in a 

 cargo of southern lumber. 



Probably the earliest reference to the Allegheny cave rat in 

 literature is made by the Swedish naturalist, Peter Kalm, in 1759, 

 in his book of Travels, where he quotes John Bartram, of Philadel- 

 phia, as authority for the existence of such an animal in the " Blue 

 Mountains." This reference is quoted by Pennant in his History 

 of Quadrupeds, page 441, under caption of "American Rat," as fol- 

 lows : " Mr. Bartram (in Kalm's Trav., ii, 48) mentions the rat, but 

 does not determine the species, which lives among the stones and 

 caverns in the Blue Mountains, far from mankind: comes out at 

 night, and makes a terrible noise, but in very severe weather keeps 

 silent within its holes." William Turton in his Systema Naturte 

 (1802, p. 80) enumerates an American rat to which he gives the 

 name Miu amerieanus. His description is mainly a quotation of 

 Pennant's account, above cited, of the same animal. Were not 

 Turton's binomial antedated by the Mm agrarius var. amerkanas of 

 Kerr (Syst. Nat., 1792, 231), now accepted as the first tenable name 

 for the eastejrn white- footed mouse, Sitomys amevicanwi. (Kerr), it 

 would have a strong claim, in the light of our present knowledge, to 

 precedence over Baird's specific name, magister. 



' Bull. Amcr. Mus. N. Hist.. 1892, pi. viii. 



