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W 18/896 



VOL. *, PP. 55-64 ^<*^RCH 19, 1896 



PROCE: 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



REVISION OF THE LEMMINGS OF THE GENUS SYNAP- 

 TOMYS, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES. 



BY DR. C. HART MERRIAM. 



The genus Synaptomya has an interesting history. It was de 

 scribed by Professor Baird about forty years ago from a speci 

 men received from William Cooper, of Hoboken, New Jersey, for 

 whom the species was named Synaptomys cooperi. 1 The locality 

 at which it was collected is unknown. For many years the 

 species continued to elude the notice of naturalists, and it was 

 not until 1874 that additional information was published con 

 cerning it. In this year Coues recorded specimens from Indiana, 

 Illinois, Minnesota, and Kansas. He also mentioned specimens 

 from Oregon [= Washington] and Alaska; but these, as will be 

 shown later, do not belong to the present species.' 2 



In 1881 Dr. F. W. Langdon recorded its occurrence u in num 

 bers " at Brookville, Indiana, and described the locality at which 

 it had been found by E. R. Quick.* 



In 1885 Edgar R. Quick and Amos W. Butler described its 

 habits as observed at Brookville, Indiana. 5 



In December, 1892, I published a notice of the occurrence of 

 the species on Roan Mountain, North Carolina, and of the dis 

 covery of its remains in ' pellets 1 of the long-eared owl found in 

 Virginia, near Washington, D. C., by Dr. A. K. Fisher, and of 

 others taken from the stomachs of hawks and owls killed at 

 Sandy Spring, Maryland, and Alfred Center, New York. 6 At the 

 close of this paper I suggested that mammal collectors would 

 " do well to keep a sharp lookout for this species in the cooler 

 parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey." 



In January, 1893, S. N. Rhoads recorded the species from May 



1 The numeral references in the present paper refer to titles in the bib 

 liography at the end of the article. 



9-Bioi,. Soc. WASH., Von. X, 1896 (55) 



