bangs: the land mammals of Newfoundland. 513 



has increased extraordinarily and is now abundant all over the island. 

 Its rapid increase during the course of a few years was due solely to an 

 abundance of the food the Lynx likes better than any other. All 

 trappers or hunters in Newfoundland, however, disbelieve this, 

 holding that the lynxes appeared suddenly in great numbers from 

 some adjacent region. Comparison of skins entirely breaks down any 

 such theory, the Newfoundland animal being very dark in color and 

 easily recognized at a glance from continental specimens. 



The Newfoundland vole, Microtus terraenovae (Bangs), has the 

 distinction of being the only indigenous small mammal of Newfound- 

 land. It is also a fine species, wholly unlike any of the voles of the 

 Labrador peninsula, and, if such resemblances do not deceive us by 

 what Maynard calls the "law of cyclic recession," is more like the vole 

 of the sandy coasts and islands of southeastern Massachusetts, which 

 is a slightly modified form of M. pennsylvanicus pennsylvanicus (Ord.) 

 It is abundant throughout the island. 



The Newfoundland muskrat, Fiber l obscurus Bangs, is another of 

 the very distinct species, peculiar to the island, differing from all other 

 muskrats in both external and cranial characters. It is very common 

 and found in the island wherever there is water. 



The Newfoundland beaver, Castor caecator, sp. nov. 2 



Type, skull no. 6979 adult <?, Coll. E. A. and O. Bangs, M. C. Z. 

 Near Bay St. George, Newfoundland in 1896. Ernest Doane. 



Characters: — Similar to Castor canadensis Kuhl, but slightly 

 smaller, and differing in the following marked cranial characters: — 

 interparietal very much wider, more roundish in shape; zygoma 

 much lighter, much less flaring — the outer side of the arch, much 

 straighter, less bowed outward, giving a much more triangular appear- 

 ance to the skull when viewed from above; nasals shorter and wider; 

 dentition about the same. In all skulls I have examined the upper 

 incisors in C. canadensis are orange and in C. caecator yellow. 



Measurements: — Type skull, basal length, 133.4; occipitonasal 

 length, 131.; zygomatic width, 90.4; interorbital width, 24.; length 

 of palate to end of pterygoid, 96.8; lo palatal notch, 74.; length of 

 nasals, 47.4; width of nasals, 23.2; length of single half of man- 

 dible, 103. 



« There appears still to be difference of opinion as to whether Fiber or Ondatra is 

 the generic name of the muskrat. I therefore use the former. 



2 Caeco, to make blind, hence caecator, he who stops or obstructs a fountain. 



