﻿MAMMALS OF NORTHERN COLOMBIA — HERSHKOVITZ 341 



15.5); least length of palatal bridge, 6.6 (5.1-7.5); greatest distance 

 between outer sides of maxillary plates of tooth rows, 21.8 (21.3-22.6) ; 

 alveolar length of molar row, 14.4 (14.0-14.9). Means and extremes 

 of 23 specimens from Villanueva: Total length, 431 (392-463); tail, 

 42 (31-57); hind foot, 89 (85-94); ear, dry from notch, 55.5 (52-60); 

 condylobasal length, 69.9 (68.2-73.3); zygomatic breadth, 36.1 (34.2- 

 38.5); length of nasals, 35.3 (33.2-37.4); greatest combined width of 

 nasals across premaxillary sutm*es, 16.6 (14.3-18.2); least length of 

 palatal bridge, 6.5 (5.7-8.1); gi-eatest distance between outer sides of 

 maxillary plates of tooth rows, 23.0 (21.9-24.7); alveolar length of 

 molar row, 14.5 (14.1-15.0). 



Remarks. — Available topotypes, part of the original scries collected 

 by Smith, show practically the full range of variation within the sub- 

 species. A female from El Salado, on the eastern slope of the Sierra 

 Nevada de Santa Alarta, is indistinguishable from the typical series. 

 The large number of specimens collected in the Rio Cesar Valley, in- 

 cluding Villanueva, affords opportunities for study of individual and 

 local variation but reveals nothing exceptional. The series from the 

 Cienaga de Gudjaro, west of Barranquilla, is nearly topotypical of 

 boylei and averages slightly warmer in coloration than the Bonda 

 series. A subadult from the Sierra Negra, in the Sierra de Perijd 

 above Villanueva, taken at an altitude of approximately 1,000 meters 

 above sea level, the highest recorded for the species in South America, 

 is thickly furred, with more black on back and soles of hind feet than 

 in the Villanueva rabbits. It is also smaller in size than comparable 

 individuals from elsewhere. 



With exceptions noted below, all cottontails collected by the writer 

 in northern Colombia were taken at night with the aid of an electric 

 lantern. Specimens from Sierra Nevada and Sierra de Perija were 

 flashed near roads in deforested sections that opened into savannas 

 and scrublands of the valley below. Cottontails from the Rio Cesar- 

 Rlo Guaimaral region were seen only in pastures, palmales (mixed 

 savanna and palm), tunales (mixed savanna and thorny slirubs), and 

 rastrojo (thickly overgrown land formerly tilled). These sites were 

 reached from the writer's camps on the banks of the Guaimaral and 

 the Cesar by passing through several kilometers of primary and 

 reestablished forest. Significantly, of leporids only tapitis (S. brasili- 

 ensis) were encountered in the forest traversed and only cottontails 

 were found in deforested sites beyond. These locales bordering the 

 belt of forest on the right bank of the Cesar are designated on labels 

 of the specimens collected as "Palmarito," "Aguas Blancas," "Aguas 

 Verdes," and "El Tunal." Three lactating cottontails, the only ones 

 seen in daylight, were taken in the last locality. No doubt an over- 

 flow from the rising Rio Cesar flushed these females from cover. 

 Cottontails labeled as being from "Guacamayo" are from pastures 



