ALLEN: AMERICAN COLLARED LEMMINGS. 523 



seem to be born in late June and earl}' July. Mr. Dixon found well- 

 developed embryos in specimens as follows : — 



June 7, one with five embryos. 

 June 10, " " eight 

 June 13, " " seven 

 June 14, " " eleven " 

 July 8, " " five 



The average of these five is seven + young to a litter, which seems 

 to be greater than for the more boreal Greenland Lemming or the 

 Richardson's Lemming. Macfarlane records (1905, p. 736) five em- 

 bryos in each of two females from Mackenzie, taken June 26, 1865. 



Murdoch (1885) records the Eskimo belief that they drop from 

 the clouds, on account of their noticeable appearance in white winter 

 pelage at the time of the first snows in fall. 



Remarks. — By a curious coincidence, both Dr. C. H. Merriam and 

 Dr. Witmer Stone described the Alaskan Collared Lemming as new, 

 in 1900. Their papers appeared within a few days of each other, 

 but Dr. Merriam's was published first and his name, nelsoni, has 

 since been used for this animal. As long ago as 1839, however, 

 Richardson briefly characterized a microtine on the basis of Surgeon 

 Collie's manuscript notes, as Arvicola rubricatvs. Diagnoses in both 

 Latin and English are given, and the latter reads: "Red-sided 

 Meadow-mouse, back slate-coloured, belly ash-coloured, sides nearly 

 scarlet, tail rather short; thumb of fore-foot rudimentary. — Size, a. 

 little greater than that of the common domestic mouse." No speci- 

 mens were preserved but Surgeon Collie recorded that it " burrows 

 in the turfy soil on the shores of Behring's Straits." The name has 

 since been lost sight of, though Baird (1859) reprints the descrip- 

 tion, but includes it among the species of American mammals un- 

 known to him by specimens. He even suggests that it might apply 

 to an Evotomys, were the colors transposed in the description! 

 The diagnosis is unmistakable, however, and describes the highly 

 colored adult Alaskan Lemming sufficiently well. Moreover, the 

 Evotomys is not a tundra-loving species, and is not known to occur 

 at Bering Strait. The lower surfaces of the Alaskan Lemming are 

 usually washed with ochraceous or pale rusty, but in some speci- 

 mens these regions are whitish or "ash-coloured," as described. 

 Richardson placed the species with Ar\'icola (as he used that name) 

 on account of its short tail and vole-like appearance, as he also did 



