VOL. X, PP. 119-125 NOVEMBER 5, 1896 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



THE COTTON MOUSE, PEROMYSCUS GOSSYPINUS. 

 BY OUTRAM BANGS. 



The present revision of the subspecies of Peromyscus gossypinus 

 is based on the study of several hundred specimens in the col 

 lection of E. A. and O. Bangs and the type and five topotypes 

 of Peromyscus gossypinus mississippiensis kindly lent me by Mr. 

 Samuel N. Rhoads. 



LeConte, in 1853, bestowed the name Hesperomys gossypinus 

 upon the large dark-colored, white-footed mouse of Georgia. 

 Two years later the same author named what he supposed to be 

 another species from the same general region, calling it Hesper 

 omys cognatus. This last name has troubled subsequent mam- 

 malogists not a little, until Mr. Rhoads, in his ' Mammals of 

 Tennessee,'* in 1896, relegated it to its proper place, and it 

 became a synonym of P. gossypinus, based on the young in the 

 pelage assumed after the plumbeous first coat has disappeared. 

 There is, however, a name earlier than LeConte's H. gossypinus 

 that must be considered. It is Hesperomys polionotus of Wag 

 ner, described in 1843. f This animal is said to have come 



*Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1896, p. 189. 



t Archiv fur Naturgeschichte von Wiegmann, 1843, 2ter. Bd., pp. 51-52. 

 "Aus eben diesem Staate [Georgia] herriihrend liess mir Prof. Schinz 

 zwei Miiuse zur Ansicht zukommen, unter denen die eine mit M. Lecontii 

 ubereinstimmt. Der andern, die mir unbeschrieben scheint, habe ich 

 den Namen Mus polionotus beigelegt : M. supra flavido-plumbeus subtua 

 pedibusque albidus ; auriculis mediocribus, dent. prim, integris, cauda 

 pilosa abbreviata. Korper 2" 4 /x/ , Schwanz 1" 2 //x , Ohren 4 X// , Hinter- 

 fuss 7 /7/ . Wie schon erwiihnt, werden beide nicht zu Mus gehoren, doch 

 ist mir ihr Gebiss unbekannt." 



21-Bioi,. Soc. WASH., Vol.. X, 1890 (119) 



