DESCIMPTIOX OF A NEW SPECIES OF COTTON KAT (SIG- 

 MODON MINIMA) FROM NEW MEXICO. 



By Edgar A. Mearns, M. D., 



Sunjcon, United States Army. 



Among the small miimiiuils collected by Mr. F. X. llulzner and myself 

 on tlie Mexican border, in connection with the operations of the Inter- 

 national Bonudary Commission, are two specimens of a species of cot- 

 ton rat, which, in my opinion, is distinct from any heretofore described. 



In the grassy hollows and flats between the most southern spurs of 

 the Apache Mountains, in an arid, treeless region, having an altitude 

 of 1,500 metres (exactly 1,49() at the monument), it was a surprise to 

 find any species of Suimodon. Many of their old runways were seen, 

 however, in the dry and dusty grass; but nearly all of the holes were 

 abandoned. Industrious trai)ping, persisted in for several weeks, 

 resulted in the capture of but two adult male specimens. Mexican 

 miners in the vicinity told us that only a few months before the species 

 had been abundant, but seemed to have died off; indeed, we frequently 

 saw their remains in tbe grass and picked up parts of skeletons and 

 one or two additional skulls. 



This new species has many i)oints in common with /Si(jmodou fid- 

 viventcr, recently described by Dr. J. A. Allen, from Zacatecas, Mex- 

 ico.* It is still smaller than that species, being about the size of De 

 Saussure's '■' Hesperomys toltecnis^^ { = Sigmodon Mspidus toltecus)A On 

 capturing these specimens I was at once struck by their resemblance to 

 S. fulviventer^ the type of which I had clo.sely examined in the American 

 Museum of Natural History in New York, the lesemblance consisting 

 not only in the fulvous tone of coloring, especially of the under parts, 

 but in the distinctly bristly character of the hairy coat and the dense 

 hairiness of the ears and tail, in all of which j)articulars it differs 



* Bull. Amer, Mus. Nat. Hist., ii, No. 3, p. 180, October 21, 1889. 

 t Allen. L. c, in, 1891, p. 207. 



* Proceedings National Museinn, Vol. XVII — No. 994. 



129 



Proc. N. M. 04 



