MAMMALS OF THE MEXICAN BOUNDARY. 469 



/. Color pale grayish buff. ..Neotoma intermedia gilva (p. 186). 

 //. ( !olor pale cinereous gray 



Neotoma albigvla angusticeps (p. 182). 

 jjj. Coloration pallid; 8kull broad .......Neotoma venusta (p. 475). 



NEOTOMA FLORIDANA ATTWATERI (Mearns). 

 ATTWATER WOOD RAT. 



Neotoma attwaten Mearns, Proc. I". S. Nat. Mus., XIX. pp. 721, July 30, 1S97 

 (original description). Miller and Ki.u\. Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., XXX, 

 No. 1. Dec. 27, 1901, p. 101 (Syst. Results Study X. Am. Mam. to close of L900). 



Neotoma mexicana, Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VIII, p. 60, Apr. 22, L896. 



[Neotoma floridana] attwaieri, Elliot, Field Col. Mus., Zool. Ser., II, 1901, p l- r >7 

 (Synop. Mam. X. Am.). 



Type-locality.— Ij&cey's Ranch, on Turtle Creek, Kerr County, 

 Texas. (Type, skin and skull, in the American Museum of Natural 

 History, New York.) 



Geographical range. — Known only from the Sonoran Zone of middle 

 Texas. 



Description. — Size, large. Length, 387 mm.; tail vertebrae, L78; 

 hind foot, 39.4. Skull, .V2 by 27. The ears are small, like those of 

 Neofoiiia floridana. Tail well covered with hair. Pelage, in winter, 

 long, dense, and soft. Upper surface of body ochraceous buff, mixed 

 with grayish above and strongly lined with black; sides clearer ochra- 

 ceous buff. Outer surface of limbs light gray. Under surfaces 

 creamy white. Feet all white but the heel, which is light plumbeous. 

 Whiskers black or colorless, and very long (80 mm.). Upper side of 

 head smoke gray. The under pelage is dark plumbeous on the upper 

 and white on the lower side of the body. The tail, which is sharply 

 bicolored, is mouse gray above and white below. 



Half-grown young are smoke gray above, drab gray on the sides 

 and white below; upper side of tail, mouse gray. 



('run 'ml and <1< nful characters. — The skull is similar in shape, and in 

 its dental characters, to that of X<<>toi,i<t floridana, from which it 

 differs only in being rather high in the frontal region, with the zygo- 

 matic arches more prominent posteriorly. The five skulls examined 

 have a prominent crest on the basioccipital bone, which is absent in 

 N. floridana. The rostral portion of the skull is as long as that of N. 

 floridana, the nasal bones measuring 20 mm. in length. The teeth 

 agree closely with those of X. floridana. 



Remarks. — This species, which is named in honor of Mr. II. P. Att- 

 water, the well-known held naturalist of San Antonio, Texas, was 

 found by him associated with the Texas wood-rat ( Neotoma micropus 

 Baird), from which it differs so materially as to require no comparison. 

 in coloration it resembles V. leucodon of Merriam, from farther south, 

 in San Luis Patosi, Mexico; but is less reddish, and has smaller ears 

 than that species. Compared with X. /< ur<></<>n, its skull exhibits 



