VOL. XIII, PP. 19-21 JANUARY 31, 1899 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



DESCRIPTIONS OF SIX NEW RODENTS OF THE 

 GENERA APLODONTIA AND THOMOMYS. 



BY C. HART MERRIAM. 



Specimens of Aplodontia from a few miles south of the Cas 

 cades of the Columbia apparently the type locality of A. rufa 

 differ specifically from the small coast animal commonly mis 

 taken for rufa. Comparison of the typical form with specimens 

 from the Olympic Mts., the coast of Oregon, and Point Reyes, 

 California, shows that several very distinct species remain un- 

 described. The northern form of the Sierra-Cascade species 

 also proves to be different from typical A. major. All of these 

 are here described, and with them two new Pocket Gophers 

 from northwestern Washington. 



Aplodontia pacifica sp nov. 



Type from Newport, mouth of Yaquina Bay, Oregon. No. 77372 9 ad. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Coll. Collected March 20, 1896, by 

 B. J. Bretherton. Original No. 2219. 



Characters. Size small, by far the smallest of the known species; ear 

 longer (higher) than in any of the others; color darker and richer; 

 white spot at base of ear usually distinct. 



Color. Upper parts in winter pelage fulvous brown, strongly mixed 

 with black hairs, the fulvous strongest on flanks and sides of neck, least 

 apparent on head and rump, which parts are sepia or bister, becoming 

 dusky on nose; top of head strongly mixed with black hairs; cheeks 

 suffused with fulvous ; under parts plumbeous, strongly washed with ful 

 vous ; legs, feet and tail grizzled grayish-dusky. 



Cranial characters. Skull small, light, and relatively narrow ; zygomata 

 less spreading than in the other species; rostrum slender; interorbital 

 constriction rather broad; palate narrow. Contrasted with A. rufa the 



6 BIOL. Soc. WASH., VOL. XIII, 1899 (19) 



