3 i2 NOTES AND COMMENTS [November 



same district, and descriptions of apparently new mammals from 

 Oklahoma and Indian territory. Since the author is by no means 

 addicted to unnecessary " splitting," it may be taken for granted that 

 such forms as receive new names are certainly entitled to distinction. 



To mention any of the smaller animals by name would be of no 

 general interest ; and we may therefore direct attention to his account 

 of the Western Wapiti, which has only recently been brought to the 

 notice of naturalists, although described long ago by Hamilton Smith 

 under the name of G. occidentalis. Mr. Elliot regards it as merely a 

 local variety of the Wapiti, and accordingly refers to it as C. canadensis 

 occidentalis. 



Failing to find any satisfactory characters in the antlers whereby 

 it can be distinguished from the typical Eastern Wapiti, the author 

 turns to the coloration of the animal, and writes as follows : — " In 

 nearly all seasons of the year, except winter, the colour of the coat is 

 apparently indistinguishable from that of the Eocky Mountain species, 

 and I have seen a number of heads, killed in winter, that resembled 

 precisely the Eastern animal, being in no wise any darker. But, as a 

 rule, I believe in winter the head and neck of the Olympic Wapiti, 

 together with the legs, reaching to the groin and rump, are black, 

 varying in intensity and in a mixture of brown, among different in- 

 dividuals. This peculiar coloration I have never seen in the Eastern 

 Wapiti, and when in this pelage the Olympic animal would be always 

 readily recognisable. It is to be expected that all the animals inhabit- 

 ing a country subjected to such an annual rainfall as in north-west 

 Washington, would be very dark in appearance, and this is almost 

 universally the case, all colours being intensified ; and it is not sur- 

 prising that the Wapiti should prove to be no exception to the rule, 

 but assumes at certain seasons a partly black pelage. This colouring 

 is practically the only character there is by which the Wapiti of the 

 Olympics and Eocky Mountains can be separated, and when it is absent 

 the animals are indistinguishable from each other." 



In the geological series of the same journal (i. p. 181) Mr. E. S. 

 Eiggs describes certain Eodent remains from the Miocene of North 

 America, which he refers to the hitherto imperfectly known family 

 Mylagaulidm. This family was established by the late Professor Cope 

 on the evidence of jaws from the Upper Miocene of Nebraska described 

 as Mylagaulus. The other forms, respectively from the Deep Eiver and 

 John Day beds, are named Mesogaidus and Protogatdus. Although 

 showing some dental characters approximating to the Porcupines, these 

 Eodents are regarded as undoubted Sciuromorphs, allied to the 

 Castoridaz, although to a great extent forming an isolated type. " The 

 one prominent feature," writes Mr. Eiggs, " is the unusual development 

 of the premolar, to the exclusion of the posterior-lying teeth. As- 

 sociated with this is the great strength and sharpness of the mandible, 

 the prominence and anterior position of the masseteric ridge, and the 



