204 Field Museum or Natural History — Zoology, Vol. XL 



have found nests of this species suspended on a branch of interlaced 

 marsh grass, (l. c, p. 215.) According to Howell the species is par- 

 ticularly abundant in the marshes on the coast of Alabama. The 

 young generally number from four to five and the majority are born 

 in April. 



Subfamily NEOTOMINi^. 



This is a small subfamily confined to North America. The molars 

 are not tuberculate but the crowns have irregular enamel loops. 



Genus NEOTOMA Say & Ord. 



Neotoma Say & Ord., Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., IV, Pt. 2, 1825, p. 



345. Type Mus floridanus Ord. 



Crowns of grinding teeth (molars) with irregular loops; first and 

 second upper molars with middle enamel loops undivided (for illustra- 

 tion see p. 173.); third lower molar with two transverse enamel loops 

 bullae oblique and tapering anteriorly; eyes and ears large; tail covered 

 with hair; size large for the family. Three subgenera are recognized, 

 but only one of them, represented by a single species, occurs within 

 our limits. 



Dental formula: I. - — ^, C. °— °- M. ^-^= 16. 

 i-i 0-0 T,-i 



Subgenus NEOTOMA Say & Ord. 



Tail covered with hair but not bushy; ''maxillary toothrow much 

 narrower posteriorly than anteriorly; middle lobe of last upper molar 

 not divided by inner re-entrant angle ' ' (Goldman) . 



Neotoma fioridana illinoensis Howell. 

 Illinois Wood Rat. 



Neotoma fioridana illinoensis Howell, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XXIII, 1910, p. 28 

 (Union Co., southern IlHnois). Goldman, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 31, 1910, p. 

 23 (southern lUinois to northeastern Kansas). 



Type locality — Wolf Lake, Union County, southern Illinois. 

 Distribution — Southern Illinois to northeastern Arkansas ; limits of 



range not definitely known. 

 Special characters — Cranial characters resembling fioridana, but with 



zygomata more abruptly spreading and with posterior border of 



palate emarginate ; approaches N. f. ruhida in size but general color 



grayer and tail more distinctly bicolor. 



