2 Miller A Jumping Mouse (Zapus insigms), 



especially attractive to these animals ; many that I have caught 

 actually sprang into the water in their death struggles. In such 

 places they may be taken without difficulty in traps baited with 

 rolled oatmeal, after these have been left in one place long enough 

 to thin out the white-footed mice and short-tailed shrews. In 

 my experience Zapus insigtiis is wholly a dweller in deep woods, 

 never venturing out into grass fields and damp pastures, such as 

 Z. hudsonius delights in, and avoiding thinly wooded places in 

 general. Zapus hudsonius, on the other hand, seldom penetrates 

 far into the woods, and the two species are not often found to- 

 gether, though I have several times taken both in the same traps 

 on successive days, near the edge of some meadow or clearing. 

 Dawson states that both kinds of jumping mice are found in 

 grain fields near Halifax and Pictou, N. S. He adds, however, 

 that the smaller species (i. e., Z. hudsonius) is in such places 

 much the more common and easily observed. 



The original description of this species, based on three speci- 

 mens somewhat faded by grease and age, was necessarily in- 

 complete, and in some respects misleading. Hence it seems 

 advisable to redescribe the animal, that there may be no future 

 difficulty in recognizing it. 



Zapus insignia Miller. 



Meriones labradorius Dawson. Edinburgh New Phil. Journ., iii, 1856, 2. 



Zapus insigms Miller. American Naturalist, xxv, August, 1891, 472. 



Sp. Ch. Larger than Zapus hudsonius Zimmerman, with longer 

 ears and paler, more fulvous coloration ; tail when uninjured 



always tipped with white; teeth, i. - ' , pm. - *. m. ^-^ 



1 \ o o 



= 16. 



Adult male (No. \\\\, collection of G. S. Miller, Jr., Peterboro, 

 N. Y., August 22, 1892) ; length, 250; tail vertebra, 154; hind 

 foot, 31.6 ; ear from notch, 18.6. Tip of tail for 23 mm., dorsuni 

 of manus and pes, and entire ventral surface pure white to base 

 of hairs ; sides buff-yellow, tinged with clay color, except on 

 cheeks, fore neck, and a narrow line bordering white of belly, 

 where the yellow is noticeably purer ; the fur plumbeous gray 

 at base and a trifle sprinkled with blackish bristly hairs. These 

 blackish hairs predominate on the back, where they form a 

 sharply defined dorsal stripe slightly mixed with the color of 

 the sides, broadest just back of the shoulders, tapering gradually 



