Merriam American Wood Rats. 123 



Museum, Department of Agriculture Collection. Collected June 1, 1889, by 

 Vernon Bailey (Original number 114). 



Measurements (taken in liesh). Type: Total length 335; tail vertebrae 

 151 ; hind foot 34. Ear from anterior base 22 (in dry skin). 



General characters. Similar to N. mexicana', audital bullse 

 peculiar. 



Color. Upper parts dull ochraceous buff, becoming grayish on the head 

 and legs, and copiously lined with black-tipped hairs on the back ; fore and 

 hind feet pure white ; under parts white ; under fur plumbeous ; a faint 

 ochraceous pectoral collar in type specimen ; tail bicolor, grayish brown 

 above, whitish beneath. 



Cranial characters. Skull similar to that of mexicana in size and general 

 characters ; nasal bones broadly truncate posteriorly ; audital bullse rather 

 small and curved toward median line anterioriy in a manner not observed 

 elsewhere in the genus, the inner side decidedly concave, and sloping 

 inward. 



Neotoma baileyi sp. nov. 



Type from VALENTINE, NEBRASKA. No. S 9 acL Merriam Collection. 

 Collected June 16, 1888, by Vernon Bailey (Original number 41). 



Measurements (taken in flesh). Type: Total length 371; tail vertebrae 

 165 ; hind foot 39. Ear from anterior base 23 (in dry skin). 



General characters. Similar in a general way to Neotoma flori 

 dana, but ears smaller, tail shorter, color grayer ; differs also in 

 cranial characters. 



Color. Upper parts grizzled gray ; face nearly clear gray ; fore and hind 

 feet white ; tail sharply bicolor, dusky above, white below ; under parts 

 white to roots of hairs except on sides of belly where the basal fur is plum 

 beous and shows through. 



Cranial characters. Skull clearly of the Neotoma floridana-micropus type, 

 having the frontal platform broad and flat, and the postpalatal notch 

 broadly excavated, but differing from floridartn in the following characters : 

 Nasal and nasal branches of premaxiHee decidedly shorter ; basisphenoid 

 spine narrower and sloping from base to apex where it is continuous with 

 slope of presphenoid ; presphenoid without the enlarged base of floridana ; 

 palate much shorter ; incisive foramina decidedly shorter [length of palate 

 from incisive foramina equals length of incisive foramina ; in floridana the 

 palate is much shorter than incisive foramina]. Molar teeth above and 

 below decidedly larger and heavier than in floridana ; m * with antero- 

 internal sulcus nearly obsolete, as in micropus. 



Neotoma fallax sp. nov. 



Type from GOLD HILL, BOULDER Co., COLORADO. No. ISS (^ ad. Mer 

 riam Collection. Collected November 1, 1889, by Denis Gale. 



Measurements of type (taken from dry skin) : Total length 330 ; tail verte 

 brae 140 ; hind foot 31 ; ear from anterior base 22. 



