General Notes. 95 



THE STATUS OF PEROGNATHUS LONGIMEMBRIS (COUES). 



While identifying certain specimens in the Field Museum I have had 

 occasion lately to refer to rather detailed memoranda made some years 

 ago regarding a reexamination of the type specimen of Perognathus 

 longimembris. This reexamination was induced by the acquisition of 

 considerable material by the U. S. Biological Survey subsequent to the 

 publication of a revision of the genus Perognathus in 1899 (North Ameri- 

 can Fauna No. 18). In this revision the immature and poorly preserved 

 type was identified with the larger of the two species found in the vicinity 

 of the type locality and previously known as Perognathus inornatus. A 

 later and somewhat reluctant conclusion, not heretofore published, is 

 that the type is an example not of the larger but of the smaller species, 

 that is, the one currently known in a broad sense as Perognathus pana- 

 mintinus. The case is one of considerable difficulty and final solution of 

 all the points involved probably awaits careful field work fortified by 

 previous study of all the specimens now in collections. In the hope that 

 they may be of use to those having opportunity for such field work, there- 

 fore, these notes are published. 



The type of Otognosis longimembris, now in the U. S. National Museum, 

 i^ labeled as having been collected by John Nantus some fifty years ago 

 at old Fort Tejon, Canada de las Uvas, Kern County, California. This 

 locality is situated in one of the passages leading through the Tejon or 

 Tehachapi Mountains from the southern part of the San Joaquin Valley 

 to the Mojave Desert. These mountains also connect the Sierras with the 

 southern coast ranges. Hence, the site of Fort Tejon, long since aban- 

 doned as a military post, is within comparatively easy reach of several 

 faunal districts. Recent collectors have failed to secure any pocket mice 

 at the actual site of the old fort and it is, therefore, probable that the 

 type did not come from there but from some of the surrounding country. 

 There are two species inhabiting this surrounding country which as adults 

 are easily distinguishable but which may be exceedingly similar when 

 only partly mature. For convenience, these species may be referred to 

 as the larger and the smaller, one having a range to the northward, 

 principally in the San Joaquin Valley, and the other to the south and 

 east, except as noted below. 



Of the specimens which have been taken in the general Tejon region, 

 the majority belong to the smaller species. In fact the larger species has 

 been found in the region at but one locality, namely Rose Station, which 

 is well within the San Joaquin Valley. Specimens from this locality are 

 in the Biological Survey collection and in the Field Museum. This 

 species has not been found farther south. On the other hand, specimens 

 of the smaller species have been obtained at various places on all sides of 

 the old fort. Thus there are examples of it in the Biological Survey col- 

 lection from San Emigdio Canyon and Tejon Canyon and in the Field 

 Museum from Lockwood Valley and Castac Lake, in all about a dozen 

 specimens. Possibly still others are now in collections, but I am unable 

 to bring them all together at present. 



