VOL. IV.] Notes on a Collection of Mammals. 325 



blends into the gray of the sides. The young, collected August 

 12, is not so dark as the specimens taken on August 3, the gray 

 having become clearer. There are also more pronounced traces 

 of yellowish brown. Unfortunately I took no measurements 

 and am unable to give comparative size. 



15. Thomoniys monticola^ Allen. Sierra Nevada Gopher. 

 Four specimens of this gopher, which proved to be new, 



were taken on Mount Tallac, at altitudes varying from 6500 

 feet, close to I^ake Tahoe, up to 9500 feet near the summit of 

 the mountain. The work of gophers was observed all over the 

 high Sierras, especially in damp patches of vegetable mould 

 about Summit Station, along the Truckee River, and on the 

 grassy glades and slopes of Mount Tallac. On this mountain 

 they were often noticed throwing up earth in the daytime and 

 were especially abundant well toward the summit, often close to 

 snow fields. 



This gopher is characterized by a long and narrow skull, an 

 exceptionally broad interparietal bone and very long and soft 

 pelage. Above it is pale reddish brown, tinged with gray, and 

 below, ashy white. 



16. Lagomys schisticeps Merr. Gray-headed Pika. 



Only two specimens of this curious little alpine rodent were 

 secured; these were taken on July 28 among broken rocks on the 

 very summit of Mt. Tallac. No more were seen in that locality, 

 but on Pyramid Peak and on a rocky ridge near it they were 

 abundant on August 5. It was late in the afternoon and the 

 snow banks and tiny streams of water were freezing in shady 

 places, but the little animals did not seem at all to mind the cold. 

 They ran about over the rocks and snow beds and some had 

 ventured a distance away from their homes and were feeding on 

 a bright red alpine flower. Their sharp, squeaking cries were 

 continually heard even after the sun had set. Several of their 

 nests had little heaps of flower-stems and grass before the open- 

 ings, and it may have been that even at this early date they 

 were laying in their winter stores. 



* Descriptions of Four New Species of Thomoniys^ with Remarks on other Species 

 of the Genus. By J. A. Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., v, p.48, April 28, 

 1893- 



