Oct. 1899. MAMMALS FROM OKLA. AND IND. TERRS. ELLIOT. 301 



" Pocket Mice are common about Alva, both on the bottom- 

 lands and the high prairie, but they were evidently hibernating 

 during my stay, and but few specimens were taken, these being 

 secured on soft days when the earth had thawed to a certain 

 extent. They almost invariably inhabit the unbroken prairie 

 where they make their burrows among the short buffalo grass. 

 While the burrow of this species is equally as large and in some 

 instances even larger than the Striped Spermophile, it can be told 

 even at a glance by its circular form and being sunk perpendicu- 

 larly to a depth of six or eight inches, whereas the Spermo- 

 phile's burrow is usually slightly flattened and goes into the 

 earth at an angle of about 30 degrees. I have almost invariably 

 found, at a distance of from six inches to two feet from their bur- 

 row, little mounds of sand and gravel, varying in size from a 

 quart to a half bushel, and can only account for their presence 

 by believing that it is cast there by these mice when digging 

 their burrows." (T. S.) 



FAM. LEPORID^E. 

 Lepus melanotis. 



Lepus melanotis. Mearns, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. N. Y. , 

 1890, p. 299. 



One specimen, White Horse Springs, Oklahoma Territory. 



Lepus alacer. 



Lepus alacer. Bangs Proc. Biol. Soc., Wash., 1896, p. 136. 



Two specimens, Alva, Oklahoma Territory. 



"This hare is very abundant among the willow brush and high 

 grass along the Salt Fork River bottom-lands, but so far as I 

 could learn was replaced on the prairies by a smaller species 

 which frequents prairie dog towns, living in deserted burrows 

 of these rodents. This species is one of the fleetest runners of 

 the cotton tail group, and unless a greyhound has a fair open 

 field, it will outrun the dog every time. In my opinion they are 

 much fleeter than the Lepus melanotis, and .harder to get a shot 

 at. The two specimens secured were taken in Schuyler Rat 

 Traps baited with corn and set for 'Sand Rats.' Some were 

 caught in steel traps but were unfit for specimens. In some 

 small sand-hills east of the river, but in the bottom land, this 

 hare was very common among the sage-brush, but they usually 

 left their forms before I could get in shotgun range and only 

 afforded me a glimpse of their cottony tails before disappearing. 



