LAGOMYID.E— LAGOMYS— LAGOMYS PEINCEPS. 407 



munities, and lay up a store of food for winter use. They sit erect like a 

 Marmot, and utter frequently a sharp, shrill, barking cry. They are thus in 

 their habits totally unlike the Hares. 



A single species only is found in North America, which is confined to 

 the higher parts of the mountains of the western half of the continent. The 

 group is more numerously represented in Northern Asia, and is not now 

 found elsewhere. Three species inhabit the elevated parts of Northern India, 

 and three others occur farther northward. None occur west of the Black 

 Sea, but they range thence eastward to Kamtschatka. Their habitat hence 

 embraces only Western North America and Northern Asia. Formerly they 

 extended much farther westward and southward ; their fossil remains having 

 been found in the Pliocene strata of England, France, and on the islands of 

 Corsica and Sardinia. The species are apparently all referable to the single 

 genus Lagomys. The Pikas are a less specialized form than the Hares. 



Genus LAGOMYS G. Cuvier. 



Lagomys Cuvier, Regne Anim., i, 1817, 219. 



Ogotoma Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., 3d ser., xx, 1807, 220 (type, Lepus ogotoma, Pallas). 



LAGOMYS PRINCEPS Richardson. 

 North American Pika. 



SYNONYMY. 



Lepus (Lagomys) prineeps Richardson, Zool. Journ., 1828, 520 ; Fauna Ror.-Amer., i, 1829, 227, pi. xix. — 



Fischer, Syn. Mam. (add. 1830), 403 [003] (from Richardson). 

 Lagomys prineeps Wagner, Supp. Scbreber's Siinget., iv, 1844, 123, pi. ccxxxix a (from Richardson). — 



Waterhouse, Nat. Hist. Mam., ii, 1848, 28. — Addudon &, Bachman, North Araer. Quad., ii, 



1851, 244, pi. lxxxiii (mainly from Richardson). — Giebel, Siiuget., 1855, 455. — Baii:i>, Mam. 



N. Amer., 1857, 619 (from Waterhouse).— Cooper, Proc. Cal. Acad. Nat. Sci., iii, 1863, 09; 

 . ib., 1868, 6 (Sierra Nevada, Cal.).— Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., 3d ser., xx, 1867, 220.— 



Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., 1868,2 (Lower California). — Allen, Bull. Essex Institute, 



vi, 1874, 57, 66.— Coues & Yarrow, Wheeler's Expl. and Surv. west of the 100th Merid., v, 



Zool., 1875, 125. 

 Lagomys minimis Lord, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1863, 96. — Gray, Ann. &, Mag. Nat. Hist., 3d Ber., xx, 



1867, 220. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Above grayish-brown, varied with black and yellowish-brown ; sides 

 yellowish-brown ; below grayish, more or less strongly tinged with pale 

 yellowish-brown. 



The color varies greatly in different specimens, irrespective of age, sex, 

 season, or locality. The dorsal surface is always more or less varied with 

 black, through the prevalence of numerous black-tipped hairs, especially over 



