VOL. XI, P. 45 MARCH 16, 1897 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



PHENACOMYS PREBLEI, A NEW VOLE FROM THE 

 MOUNTAINS OF COLORADO. 



BY C. HART MERRIAM. 



During the past few years the field parties of the Biological 

 Survey have collected numerous specimens of Phenacomys in the 

 mountains of Idaho, Montana, and Oregon. All of these speci 

 mens belong to the species described by me in 1891 under the 

 name P. orophilus (N. Am. Fauna, No. 5, p. 66, August, 1891), 

 the type of which came from the Salmon River Mountains, in 

 Idaho. 



In August, 1895, one of my assistants, Mr. Edward A. Preble, 

 trapped a new species on the side of ' Twin ' or ; Lilies ' Peak, 

 near Longs Peak, Colorado, at an altitude of about 2,700 meters 

 (approximately 9,000 feet). " The locality was perfectly dry 

 and had been covered by a forest, most of which had fallen." 

 The species may be described as follows: 



Phenacomys preblei sp. nov. 



Type from Longs Peak, Colorado. No. 74513, $ adult, U. S. National 

 Museum, Biological Survey collection. Collected August 12, 1895, by Ed 

 ward A. Preble. Original No. 647. 



General characters. Size rather small ; color very pale and decidedly 

 ochraceous. 



Color. Upper parts clay color, suffused with ochraceous buff and 

 heavily lined on the back with black-tipped hairs ; feet soiled whitish ; 

 under parts white, with a yellowish tinge, the plumbeous under color 

 showing through. 



Cranial and dental characters. Skull similar to that of P. orophilus, but 

 somewhat smaller, with posterior ends of ascending branches of premax- 

 illse more broadly expanded ; interorbital ridges more strongly developed ; 

 jugal decidedly narrower and hardly, if at all, mortised into maxillary 

 arm of zygoma ; end of pterygoids swollen where they articulate with 

 audital bullee. 



Measurements (type specimen). Total length, 130; tail vertebrae, 30; 

 hind foot, 17. 



9 BIOL. Soc. WASH., VOL. XI, 1897 (45) 



