48 Bangs — Mammdh fro)ii Lake Edward, (Quebec. 



Mcasiirciiu'tits of nine Spechiwns of 8. faiuas. 



This strange little animal was common abont Lake Edward and inliab- 

 ited every variety of country— the sphagnum bogs, the deep spruce forest, 

 and the banks of little streams. It lived everywhere in the deep moss. 

 It was hard to trap and seemed not to care for any kind of bait, but blun- 

 dered into the traps that happened to be in its way. We caught thirteen 

 examples of S. fafims, four of which were so badly eaten by shrews or 

 mice as to be worthless. 



Microtus fontigenus * sp. nov. Forest Meadow Mouse. 8 specimens. 



Ti/pe No. 3837, coll. of E. A. and O. Bangs, female adult from Lake 

 Edward, Quebec, September 28, 1895. Total length, 151; tail. 41.25; 

 hind foot, 21. E. A. and 0. Bangs, collectors. 



General characters. — Size small ; colors dark, with no rufous sliades; 

 rostrum very slender; audital bullre very large and round. 



Color. — Upper parts dark sepia brown, with a slight admixture of black- 

 tipi^ed hairs ; under parts olive gray to smoke gray ; tail si)arsely haired 

 and bicolor, black above, gray beneath. 



Skull. — Tlie skull is small, with very slender rostrum, and differs from 

 that of any ^^in■nill■'^ I am familiar with in having very large and round 

 audital bnlhc, about as in the genus Evotomys. The basioccipital is nar- 

 row and (loos not have a distinct median keel. 



Teeth.— IhG pattern of enamel folding of the molar teeth is substantially 

 as in M. pennsylvanicu^. 



Size.— No. 3837, female adult (type) : total length, 151 ; tail, 41.5; hind 

 foot,'21. No. 3840, male adult : total length, 150 ; tail vertebra?, 45 ; hind 

 foot, 21. 



This Microtus was not common. We found it usually along the banks 

 of the little spring brooks in the deep forest and in small sphagnum bogs, 

 where it lived under old logs or in holes in the moss, after the manner of an 

 Evotomys. Nowhere did it make runways like those of M. ]>ennsyh'unkns, 



* Fontigena = born beside springs or fountain heads ; a poetical term 

 applied to the Muses, and therefore appearing in literature only in the 

 feminine. 



