Vol. X, pp. 135-138 December 28, 1896 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF- THr. 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



jijj '^ 



SOME NEW MAMMALS FROM INDIAN TERRITORY 

 AND MISSOURI. 



BY OUTRAM BANGS. 



In the summer of 1896 Mr. Thaddeiis Surber undertook a col- 

 lecting trip to Indian Territory in the interests of the Bangs 

 collection. After spending a short time in Missouri he went to 

 Stilwell, in the Cherokee Nation, at the northwest part of the 

 Boston Mountains. The country was suffering from an un- 

 precedented drought and all mammals were extremely hard to 

 find. Mr. Surber was also handicapped by the unfriendliness of 

 the Indians, who absolutely refused to help him in any way. 

 He had collected but a few. days wdien he was taken ill with an 

 extremely malignant form of malaria, which compelled him to 

 abandon the work. 



The Boston Mountains about Stilwell rise to a height of 2,500 

 feet (estimated), and are closed in by ranges of low lying hills, 

 some 250 or 300 feet higher than the intervening narrow valleys 

 of ricli land. Beyond the hills west of Stilwell stretches a barren 

 prairie that is said to have been formerly forest-covered. On 

 the sides of the mountains are found black walnut, white oak, 

 red oak, black jack, etc., but no pines. The mountains all top 

 off" in cliff's from five to fifty feet high, composed of sandstone 

 or bastard limestone, in which there are many caves. 



The material collected at Stilwell, while small in number of 

 specimens, is of great interest. Besides tlie new forms here de- 

 scribed, Mr. Surber got only three species of mammals — tlie 

 raccoon, Procijoii lotor ; the southern gray squirrel, Sciurus caro- 

 Imensis, and the plains wood rat, Neotoina baileijl. 



25-Hioi,. Soc. Wash.. Vol. X, 1896 (135) 



