136 CALIFORNIA MAMMALS. 



white tinged with buff; the slaty bases of the hairs showing 

 through more or less according to the amount of wear ; feet and 

 tail pale buffy gray. A proportion are much darker, clove brown 

 or dark sepia, and usually larger than the average. Others are 

 redder, tawny, cinnamon or russet, and smaller than the average. 

 The skull is small, light and comparatively smooth ; rostrum broad 

 and rather short; nasals long and narrow, projecting as far 

 forward as the incisors ; interparietal rectangular or pentagonal ; 

 temporal ridges small and wide apart except in aged animals; 

 zygomata widest anteriorly in fully adult animals ; groove near 

 inner edge of upper incisor small but usually distinct. 



Length about 200 mm. (7.87 inches); tail vertebrae 66 

 (2.60) ; hind foot 27 (1.06) ; ear from crown 6 (.24). Weight 

 three to five ounces. 



Type locality, Witch Creek, San Diego County, Califorina. 



Abundant in the mountains and foothills of southern Calif- 

 ornia. Less common in the mesas and vallevs. 



Thomomys monticolus Allen. (Mountain — inhabiting.) 



MOUNTAIN POCKET-GOPHER. 



Pelage long and soft; ears long; above fawn color or mars 

 brown with a silvery gloss; sides and lower parts buff, the 

 plumbeous bases of the hairs showing through ; feet and tail pale 

 buff; skull similar to that of fiilvus nigricans, but with nasals 

 shorter and wider anteriorly ; zygomata widest posteriorly ; in- 

 terparietal broadly petagonal. 



Length about 195 mm. (7.70 inches) ; tail vertebrae 66 

 ( 2.70) ; hind foot 26 ( i .03 ) . 

 Type locality. Mount Tallac, Eldorado County, California. 



Common in the northern Sierra Nevada and throughout the 

 northeastern part of California, from about 4,000 feet altitude 

 nearly to timberline. 



