Vol. X, pp. 169-174 December '29, 1896 



PROCEEDINGS 



or THE / 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



\?- 



ROMEROLAGUS NELSONI, A NEW GENUS AND SPECIES 

 OF RABBIT FROM MT. POPOCATEPETL, MEXICO. 



BY DR. C. HART MERRIAM. 



Among the many new and interesting mammals collected by 

 Mr. E. W. Nelson in Mexico during the past five years, one of 

 the most remarkable is a small, short-eared, tailless rabbit dis- 

 covered high up on Mt. Popocatepetl, at and above an alti- 

 tude of 3,000 meters (approximately 10,000 feet). This singular 

 animal has exceedingly short hind legs, and instead of moving 

 by a series of leaps like ordinary rabbits, runs along on all fours, 

 and lives in runways in the grass like the meadow mice. 



Mr. Nelson has prepared, at my request, the following account 

 of his experience Avith this extraordinary animal. He says : 

 " On m}'^ first visit to Mt. Popocatepetl in the spring of 1893, 

 I learned that these little rabbits were found there, and on 

 my return to the city of Mexico I prepared for an expedition to 

 secure them. On Januar}'- 5, 1894, my assistant, Mr. E. A. Gold- 

 man, and I made our camp on the side of a canon at an altitude 

 of about 3,350 meters (11,000 feet) on the northwest slope of the 

 mountain. We were accompanied by three Indian hunters and 

 our packer. Among the firs and alders at this altitude the north- 

 erly slopes of the hills and canons are covered with a luxuriant 

 growth of saccaton grass in huge bunches, from three to six feet 

 across, and often reaching a height of 6 or 8 feet, which covers 

 the ground so that the only open spaces are small spots scattered 

 irregularly here and there. A search under the overhanging 

 masses of long grass blades showed a perfect network of large 

 arvicola-like runways tunneling through the bases of the tus- 



30— Bior,. Soc. Wash., Vol. X, 1896 (169) 



