VOL. XII, PP. 167-168 AUGUST 10, 1898 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THK 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



A NEW RACE OF THE LITTLE HARVEST MOUSE 

 FROM WEST VIRGINIA. 



BY OUTRAM BANGS. 



Within the last year Mr. Thaddeus Surber has found that the 

 Little Harvest Mouse is comparatively common in the country 

 about White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. He has sent me five 

 specimens and has taken several more that are in his own pri 

 vate collection. The one specimen taken at Fort Myer, Va., by 

 L. Z. Mearns* is the only other record I know for this mouse 

 from so far north in the eastern United States On comparing 

 these West Virginia specimens with true Reithrodontomys lecontii 

 from Georgia and northern Florida some differences in color, 

 proportions, and cranium can be seen, and I propose to separate 

 the northern form as follows : 



Reithrodontomys lecontii impiger subsp. nov. 



Type from White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. No. 7784, $ old adult 

 (with much worn teeth), coll. of E. A. and O. Bangs. Collected Feb. 27, 

 1898, by Thaddeus Surber. Original No. 466. 



General characters. Size a little smaller than true R. lecontii; tail 

 slightly shorter; ear much smaller; pelage longer and softer; colors of 

 back richer brown, sides paler, the contrast in color between sides and 

 back more marked; skull smaller, more slender and lighter throughout; 

 molar teeth rather larger. 



Color. Adult in winter pelage, upper parts dark russet brown, rather 

 darker along middle of back and on rump, sides much paler, almost 

 ochraceous buff on lower sides ; under parts grayish white, irregularly 

 washed, in some specimens, with fawn color; feet and hands grayish 



* Recorded in Am. Nat., XXXI, p. 161, Feb., 1897. 



36 BIOL. Soc. WASH., VOL. XII. 1898 (167) 



