MAMMALS oh' THE MEXICAN BOUNDARY 



345 



Cranial measurements of four adults of Cynomys ludovieiunus arizonensis from southern 



Arizona. 



a American Museum if Natural Hiolor-, 



CYNOMYS GUNNISONI Baird. 

 SHORT-TAILED PRAIRIE-DOG. 



Cynomys gunnisoni Baird, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., VII, Apr., 1855, p. 334 

 (original description); Mam. X. Am., 1857, p. •">:!?>. — Merriam, North Ameri- 

 can Fauna, No. 3, 1890, p. 58, pi. i.\, figs. 5, 6, 7 (skull); No. 5, July 30, 1891, 

 p. 40.— Price, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist, VII, 1895, p. 237, note. 

 [Cynomys~] gunnisoni, Elliot, Field Col. Mus., Zool., Ser. II, 1901 (Synop. .Mam. 

 N. Am.); IV, 1904, p. 156 (Mam. Mid. Am.). 

 Tuck-se' of the Hualapi Indians. 

 Till'keha of the Hopi Indians. 



Type-locality. — Cooaehetope (Cochetopa Pass). Rocky Mountains, 

 Saguache Count}', Colorado. (Type, skull. Cat. No. 501 (skin lost). 

 I'. S. National Museum.) 



Geographical range. — Transition zone of the Colorado Plateau and 

 mountains of northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico, 

 and thence northward. 



Description. — Size small. Length, 350 mm.; tail vertebrae, 7<>; 

 hind foot. 60; head 67. Skull, 60 by 43. Mammae, 5 pairs. In sum 

 mer, tawny fulvous above, grizzled and much mixed with Mack hairs; 

 forehead blackish, especially above the eyes; t;iil without terminal 

 black, but often with many blackish hairs above and a narrow sub- 

 terminal bar, resulting from broad black simulation of the hairs, the 

 dark rings increasing in extent from the base of the tail to its 

 extremity. In winter, pale buff above, mixed with black hairs, which 

 aggregate to form blackish patches over the eyes; color below varying 

 from pale yellow to fulvous. It appears less grizzled than Cynorfiys 

 ludovidanus, because it lacks the strong vinaceous tint. 



The short-tailed prairie-dog is abundant on the mesas and open 

 parks of Arizona, often living in pine forests, and sometimfes in cliffs, 

 where it climbs over the rocks like 1 the large ground-squirrel (Otosper- 



