VOL. VII, PP. 175-177 DECEMBER 22, 1892 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



THE OCCURRENCE OF COOPER'S LEMMING MOUSE 



(SYNAPTOMYS COOPERI} IN THE 



ATLANTIC STATES* 



BY DR. C. HART MERRIAM. 



Synaptomys coopcri is one of the rarest of North American 

 mammals. Both genus and species were described and named 

 35 years ago by Professor Baird in a peculiarly informal way, in 

 some remarks under the genus Myodes in his great work on mam- 

 mals published in 1857 (Pacific R. R. Reports, vol. vin, 1857, 

 pp. 556-558). The description was based on a very imperfect 

 specimen from an unknown locality, transmitted by Mr. William 

 Cooper, of Hoboken, New Jersey. Of its probable source Pro- 

 fessor Baird said : " The animal is undoubtedly North American, 

 probably from the New England states or New York ; possibly 

 from Iowa or Minnesota." The type specimen lacked three feet, 

 the tail, and the skin of the head. Another badly damaged skin, 

 lacking both head and skull, accompanied it and may or may 

 not have belonged to the same species. 



The next specimen of which we have any record was captured 

 near Brookville, Indiana, in 1866, by Rums Haymond, and by 

 him transmitted to the Smithsonian, but its identity evidently 

 was not made known until much later, for the species is not 

 mentioned by Haymond in his annotated list of the * Mammals 

 found at the present time in Franklin County, 7 Indiana, pub- 



* Read at a meeting of the Biological Society of Washington, Nov. 5, 1892. 



24 BIOL. Soc. WASH., VOL. VII, 1892. (175) 



