MURID.E— SIGMODONTES— DESPEROMYS PALUSTRIS. 



117 



Journal (vol. xxxi), bestowing on it the name of Mus palustris, making use 

 of the head of our specimen for an examination of the teeth." 



Thus it appears that Harlan's species was based, in part at least, upon 

 the very same specimen that afterward became the type of Arvicola oryzi- 

 vora, Aud. & Bach. The latter authors, naturally disliking Harlan's pre- 

 emption of their species, re-appropriated it to themselves in this wise : — They 

 took it for an Arvicola, and reasoned that "as the name 'Arvicola palustris' 

 is preoccupied (Harlan,* Fauna, p. 136) we are favored with an opportunity 

 * * of restoring it to its true genus under the name [oryzivora] given by 

 its legitimate describer." How such excellent naturalists as Audubon and 

 Bach man could have been betrayed into such a blunder as to consider Oryzo- 

 mys an Arvicola, we cannot imagine ; but they were just as wide of the mark 

 when they placed Hesperomys sonoriensis, Led, and "campestris", LeC, and 

 "texana", Woodh., all under Arvicola; and when they described the Texan 

 Sigmodon as Arvicola texiana. To be sure, it was vexatious that Harlan 

 should have anticipated them in such a summary way; but for this often- 

 recurring accident there is no help that we can see ; and, at any rate, the 

 genus Arvicola proved an inconveniently small loop-hole in this case. 



Table XXXI. — Measurements of keenly specimens of Hesperomys palustris. 





[ This number is complemented by suckling young from Nos. 9998 to 10012, inclusive. 

 •Harlan's Arvicola palustris \& = A» riparius, Ord. 



