460 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxxii. 



MICROTUS AUSTERUS (Le Conte). 

 PRAIRIE MEADOW MOUSE. 



I (lid not take this s})ecies, })ut specimens collected by Mr. C. M. 

 Barber at I^aporte are in the collections of the Field Columbian 

 Aluseum in Chicago." 



FIBER ZIBETHICUS (Linnseus). 

 MUSKRAT. 



The muskrat was formerly extremely abundant in this region. 

 Rev. T. PI. Ball ^ says that during the period from 1834 to 1884 from 

 20,000 to 40,000 muskrats were trapped annually in Lake County 

 alone. Since the work of draining the land has begun, the area suited 

 to the habitat of these animals has diminished and consequently the 

 number of the animals themselves is diminishing. However, they 

 are still abundant and form an important source of revenue to many 

 of the inhabitants. One trapper told me that he secured from 700 

 to 1,200 skins annually. Another man trapped 300 muslo-ats within 

 a month during the autumn of 1904. 



SYNAPTOMYS COOPERI STONEI (Rhoads). 



STONE LEMMING MOUSE. 



The genus Syna2)to7n,ys has received considerable attention from 

 mammalogists in recent years, but there is still lack of agreement 

 concerning the status of some of the forms. Without attempting to 

 settle all the points at issue, the facts, in so far as they relate to the 

 identity of the Indiana form, are as follows : Synaptomys cooperi was 

 described by Baird in 1857 from a specimen supposed to have come 

 from northern New Jersey, the exact locality being unknown. In 

 1893 Rhoads '^ described Synaptomys stonei from May's Landing, 

 Atlantic County, New Jersey. In 1896 Merriam ^ revised the genus, 

 decribing Synaptomys helaletes from the Dismal Swamp, Virginia, 

 and S. li. gossi from Neosho Falls, Kansas, and placing S. stonei in 

 s3rnonomy with S. cooperi. In 1897 Rhoads * again discussed the 

 status of these forms, recognizing stonei as a subspecies of cooperi, 

 and making helaletes a synonym of the former. 



The following characters are said to distinguish stonei from typical 

 cooperi: "Larger with much larger and more massive skull and 



o Special effort was made to secure specimens of the red-backed mouse, Evotomys, 

 but without success. It may occur in the Kankakee Valley, but it seems to be rare 

 everywhere in Indiana. 



6 History of Lake County and the Ball Family, p. 181. 



cAmer. Nat., XVII, p. 63. 



dProc. Biol. Soc. Washington, X, pp. 55-64. 



eProc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1897, p. 305. 



