128 Osgood Two New Pocket Mice. 



Remarks. The type of this subspecies has been in the collection of the 

 Biological Survey for a number of years. It has heretofore been doubtfully 

 referred toflavescms on the assumption that its very dark color was due to 

 melanism or other abnormal condition. Apparently this is not the case, 

 for a second specimen from Vermilion, South Dakota, while quite immature, 

 shows the same dark color, and two adults from Verdigris, Nebraska, are 

 distinctly intermediate. One of these, collected April 23, 1903, by Merritt 

 Gary, has decidedly more dusky than is usual in flavescens, and has the 

 posterior half of the underparts almost entirely buff. The other, collected 

 by V. Bailey, June 11, 1893, is more like flavescens in the color of the upper- 

 parts, but has the buffy suffusion on the belly. The specimens from Ver 

 milion, South Dakota, seem to represent an extreme development of these 

 characters. Typical flavescens invariably has pure white underparts, and 

 except in very high pelage is quite pale throughout. Its home is in the 

 sand hills of Nebraska, where conditions are decidedly different from those 

 in the more humid region inhabited by pe,rniger. 



Perognathus californicus ochrus subsp. nov. 



Type from Santiago Springs (16 miles southwest of McKittrick), Kern 

 County, California. Young-adult female, No. 130,348, U. S. National 

 Museum, Biological Survey Collection. July 30, 1903. Luther J. 

 Goldman. 



Characters. Similar to P. callfornicas dispar, but decidedly paler. 



Color. Upperparts mixed pinkish buff and dusky, producing a general 

 effect varying from ecru drab to broccoli brown ; lateral line pale pinkish 

 buff; underparts creamy white; tail hair brown above, white below; 

 hands and feet white. 



/Skull. As in P. c. dispar. 



Measurements. Average of 10 young-adult topotypes : Total length, 200 

 (190-216); tail vertebra, 108.7 (100-119); hind foot, 25. 



Remarks. This pale form of P. californicus seems to be confined to the 

 region about the lower end of the San Joaquin Valley. The palest speci 

 mens are those from localities nearest the bottom of the valley. Specimens 

 from Tehachapi and Old Fort Tejon show a slight approach to dispar, to 

 which they were formerly referred. A series from Three Kivers, Kern 

 County, is typical of dispar, which seems to indicate that the range of this 

 form is interrupted in the passes at the foot of the San Joaquin Valley by 

 the paler form ochrus. P. c. dispar is itself slightly paler than californicus, 

 but the principal reason for recognizing it is its larger size and cranial 

 characters. Should these cranial characters prove inconstant on the acqui 

 sition of larger series of true californicus, dispar would fall as a synonym 

 of californicus. In any case the form here called ochrus would merit 

 recognition. 



Specimens examined. Total number, 65, from localities in California as 

 follows : Alcalde, 1 ; Carrizo Plains, 1 ; Cayama Valley, 3 ; Fort Tejon, 2 ; 

 25 miles above Kernville, 1 ; Onyx, 4 ; Painted Rock, 25 miles southeast of 

 Simmler, 1 ; San Emigdio, 4 ; San Emigdio Canyon, 5 ; Santiago Springs, 

 16 miles southwest of McKittrick, 36 ; Tehachapi, 2 ; Tejon Canyon, 5. 



