80 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. uo 



11, and in the Lakeview area, Mont., from July 4 to August 24. 

 The Bonaparte Lake, Wash., record is based on a male taken on 

 July 14 at an altitude of 4,000 feet. Three males and one female 

 from Hackamore, Calif., were taken July 17. The Hackamore area 

 is characterized by swampy places in which wildlife refuges have 

 been established, but there is no record of the habitat from which the 

 specimens were taken. Specimens taken by Rehn and Hebard in the 

 Tushar Mountains, Utah, were at altitudes varying from 8,200 to 

 9,000 feet, whUe on the Markagunt Plateau at Cedar Breaks, Utah, 

 captures occurred at 10,400 feet. Dates of these Utah captures by 

 Rehn and Hebard ranged from August 20 to August 31. 



Because of the scanty information about the environment in most 

 of the localities where palaceus has been collected, a brief description 

 of the Lakeview area, Mont., is appropriate. For these notes we are 

 indebted primarily to Frank T. Cowan, who loaned an unpublished 

 manuscript prepared by the late H. M. Jennison, when, as a member 

 of a research team under the direction of J. R. Parker in the early 

 1930's, he studied the vegetation of the Centennial Valley. Lakeview 

 is a small vUlage in the Centennial Valley, in extreme southeastern 

 Beaverhead County, This high mountain valley is 40 to 45 miles long 

 and 3 to 8 mUes wide, and is bounded on the south by the Centennial 

 Mountains. The lowest level of the valley floor, through which the 

 Red Rock River flows westward, is about 6,400 feet, and Red Rock 

 Pass, at the east end of the valley, is about 7,000 feet. In the spring, 

 run-off from melting snow in the mountains provides many wet areas 

 in the meadows of wild hay, and it also supports several shallow lakes. 

 Specimens of palaceus are noted in the Bozeman laboratory records as 

 having been taken in two environments, one dominated by wiregrass 

 and the other by bluegrass. 



Wiregrass (Juncus halticus) is dominant in extensive swales, or areas 

 of low marshy gi-ound. In an average year the swales are wet with 

 slowly moving water until July, and some arms remain wet until late 

 July or early August. The bluegrass areas include two or more species 

 of Poa, as well as species of Hordeum and Puccinella. Greasewood 

 (Scarcobatus) also occurs. These bluegrass areas are much drier than 

 the wiregrass swales, but often are adjacent to the latter or appear as 

 islands in their midst. They are green and succulent in spring and 

 early summer, but by mid-July the grasses usually have matured and 

 are light straw-colored or almost white. Both these environments are 

 considered steps in the development of the grassland climax, as con- 

 trasted with the sagebrush climax in other parts of the valley. 



