NEW PERUVIAN MAMMALS 



BY WILFRED H. OSGOOD. 



The mammals described below are those obviously new from a 

 collection made during the past year in northern Peru by Mr. M. P. 

 Anderson and myself. Doubtless there are further novelties, but since 

 it is the first considerable collection of middle Andean mammals brought 

 to the United States, this is not readily ascertained. A complete report 

 on the entire collection is in preparation but its publication is neces- 

 sarily delayed. Knowledge of South American mammals as yet 

 is so imperfect that no general monographic work has been done and in 

 many groups there is much confusion. Year by year, however, the 

 task of settling individual problems becomes simpler and it is to be 

 hoped that the day is not very remote when some of the important 

 general questions of distribution and relationship may be studied with 

 accurate and sufficient data. 



Peramys peruvianus sp. nov. 



Type from Moyobamba. Peru. No. 19362 Field Museum of Natural 

 History. Male adult. Collected July 21, 191 2, by W. H. Osgood and 

 M. P. Anderson. 



Characters. Size small; coloration dark and rich; hair short and 

 close, 4-5 mm. long on back; head, shoidders, and back Vandyke brown, 

 darkening to blackish seal brown on rump; sides of belly and entire 

 inguinal region drabbish or broccoli brown; median throat, chest, and 

 anterior part of abdomen light buff to bases of hairs; chin brownish 

 drab; arms, legs, and feet slightly darker than body. 



Skull small, light, and devoid of angularity; interorbital region 

 smoothly rounded with only a slight postorbital protuberance; nasals 

 moderately expanded posteriorly, ending far back of premaxillae; last 

 upper molar greatly compressed. 



Measurements. Type: Total length 173; head and body 118; 

 tail vertebrae 55; hind foot 16. Skull of type (lacking posterior half of 

 braincase): Zygomatic breadth 15.3; nasals 14.5x3.8; interorbital 

 constriction 5.7; palate 15.2; front of canine to back of M * 12.4. Skull 



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