LEMMING MOUSE 



Ungava Lemming Mouse. — Synaptomys borealis innuitus 

 (True). 

 "Skull very small and flat, with short and narrow rostrum. 

 Color.— Not dependable, as the type has been in alcohol 

 ever since collected (1884). Known only from Fort Chimo , ' ' 

 Ungava, Canada. (Howell) 



Labrador Lemming Mouse. — Synaptomys borealis medioximus 

 (Bangs). 

 "Coloration bright. The skull is intermediate m size 

 between those of innuitus and sphagnicola. The type, in 

 very full pelage, is quite bright dorsally. Anteriorly the 

 coloration is slightly darker, because, in large measure, of 

 the more plentiful admixture of black-tipped hairs. Feet 

 and tail dark, the latter scarcely bicolor. Underparts, 

 without buff." Total length, 4.8 inches; tail vertebrae, .88 

 inch; hind foot, .84 inch. "Known only from the coast 

 district of southern Labrador." (Howell) 



Preble Lemming Mouse. — Synaptomys borealis sphagnicola 

 (Preble). 

 "A race with large, well-ridged skull, long rostrum, . . . 

 Dorsal coloration close to the Prout brown of Ridgway, 

 which is most intense upon the rump; anteriorly duller, 

 grayer, and more grizzled. Tail, distinctly bicolor. ' ' Total 

 length, 5.3 inches; tail vertebrae, i inch; hind foot, .8 inch. 

 Found in "Canadian Zone in the northern New England 

 States from the type locality north to include New Bruns- 

 wick and the portion of Quebec east and south of the St. 

 Lawrence River." (Howell) 



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''Synaptomys is not common in collections, but it is by no 

 means certain that it is not more numerous in nature than 

 is generally supposed. Except in a very few places, or in 

 years of unusual abundance, lemming mice have proved 

 exceedingly difficult to obtain in numbers. Because they are 

 usually confined to bogs and tracts of swampy land, they are 

 rarely if ever of economic importance. 



"The habits of lemming mice are almost unknown. The 

 members of the genus Synaptomys belong at the present day 

 definitely to a boreal fauna, and in the north, although usually 

 found in moist situations, they also occur in dry patches of 

 grass and other low cover, as well as in bogs. In the districts 

 farther south, however, they have evidently been able to 

 survive only because of the presence of occasional cold 

 sphagnum bogs, to which they are almost entirely confined in 

 the lower latitudes of the Eastern States. Near Lake Drum- 

 mond, Va., however, and at Horseshoe Lake, Mo., in Indiana, 



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