82 Miller Synopsis of flic Voles of tlic Gains Plienacomys. 



sufficient extent. As might be expected, members of the various colonies 

 differ from each other. These differences are, however, too slight to be 

 worthy of recognition by name. The most northerly specimen that I 

 have seen, a female collected at Fishing Lake, Alberta, on September 17, 

 1896 (No. 81477, U. S. National Museum, Biological Survey collection), 

 has the fur much less thick and woolly than in typical orophilus. The feet 

 are brownish as in P. intermedium, but in all other characters it agrees per 

 fectly with orophilus. Specimens from St. Marys Lake, Montana, aver 

 age a trifle smaller than those from the type locality. 



Since Pfienacomys orophilus was first described it has received two ad 

 ditional names. The first of these, P. truei Allen, was based on the dis 

 torted skin and fragmentary skull of a young animal supposed to have 

 been taken in the Black Hills of South Dakota, a region so isolated that 

 if inhabited by the genus it would be expected to furnish a species differ 

 ent from those occurring farther west. The type specimen is, however, 

 exactly like immature orophilus in color and in enamel pattern. In size 

 it agrees perfectly except that the tail, in its present condition (a few of 

 the proximal vertebrae removed, the rest dried in the skin), is about 7 

 millimeters shorter than in fresh specimens of the same age. No weight 

 can be attached to this one difference in the absence of all others. Further 

 more, it is practically certain that the type was not collected in the Black 

 Hills of South Dakota, but in the Black Hills of Wyoming, now known 

 as the Laramie Mountains. It was taken on August 10, 1857, by Dr. 

 Hammond, a member of the expedition commanded by Lieut. F. T. 

 Bryan. I have not been able to find any account of the Bryan expedi 

 tion of 1857 further than the statement, on page 91 of the eleventh volume 

 of the Pacific Railroad Reports, that "the wagon-road expedition under 

 Lieutenant Bryan this year [1857] was confined to routes which he had 

 previously mapped and explored." The map of Bryan's routes shows 

 that he never entered the region now known as the Black Hills, but that 

 his course followed up the Platte River and Lodge Pole Creek through the 

 Laramie Mountains. It is therefore almost beyond doubt that the type 

 of Phenacomys truei was collected in Albany County or Laramie County, 

 Wyoming, a few miles northeast of the present town of Laramie. This 

 region is almost continuous with the mountains included in the known 

 range of orophilus. Phenacomys oramontis Rhoads was based on a speci 

 men from the Mount Baker range in British Columbia, just north of the 

 United States boundary. Four topotypes in rny collection are indistin 

 guishable from P. orophilus. 



Phenacomys preblei Merriam. 

 Phena corny sjjreblei Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, X, p. 45, March 



Type locality. Longs Peak, Colorado. Type in U. S. National Museum 

 (c? adult, No. 74513), Biological Survey collection. 



Geographic distribution. Phenacomys preblei is at present known from 

 the type locality only. 



