PROCKEDINQS 



OF THE 



WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Vol. Ill, pp. 547-55S. November 29, 1901, 



DESCRIPTIONS OF 23 NEW HARVEST MICE 

 (GENUS REITHRODONTOMYS). 



By C. Hart Merriam. 



The mammal collection of the Biological Survey contains a 

 large number of specimens of the so-called harvest mice, genus 

 Reithrodo7itomys. Among these are many not heretofore known 

 to naturalists. Twenty-three of these are here described, as fol- 

 lows : 



REITHRODONTOMYS TENUIROSTRIS sp. nov. 



737^^ from Todos Santos, Guatemala (altitude 10,000 ft.). No. 



76919. $ ad. U. S. National Museum, Biological Survey Coll. 



Dec. 29, 1895. E. W. Nelson and E. A. Goldman. Orig. no. 



8917. 



Characters. — Size large ; tail and ears long and dark; fore feet very 

 large ; fur long, soft and full ; color intense fulvous. 



Color. — Upperparts rich deep fulvous, becoming intense ferrugi- 

 nous on posterior part of back and rump, somewhat more yellowish an- 

 teriorly; palest on top of head; underparts salmon fulvous; chin and 

 lips much paler, almost whitish; wrists and middle part of fore feet 

 dark brown ; outer side of feet and toes white ; ankles and hind feet 

 nearly to base of toes, dark brown; toes whitish; tail dark brown or 

 dusky all around ; a small dark ring around eye. 



Cranial characters. — Braincase inflated, subglobular, abruptly 

 contracted anteriorly at posterior corner of orbits ; zygomata squarely 

 spreading anteriorly, their outer sides nearly parallel; rostrum and 

 nasals long and slender, slightly upturned from plane of frontals; 

 nasals acute posteriorly, ending on plane of premaxillae ; incisive for 

 Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., Nov., 1901 547 



