DIAGNOSES OF SOME Ui^ DESCRIBED WOOD EATS (GENUS 

 NEOTOMA) IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



By Frederick W. True, 



Curator of the Department of Mammals. 



The following diagnoses were drawn up in connection with a 

 study of the Wood Rats of the United States, in the National Museum, 

 which I have recently completed. It is my intention to publish further 

 descriptions of these forms, together with notes on other species which 

 inhabit the United States, in a subsequent paper. 



NEOTOMA SPLENDENS, new species. 



Size of i\r. fuscipes; tail as long as the head and body. Ears large, 

 moderately clothed with long hairs. 



Upper surfaces tawny, shaded with black, especially along the spine. 

 Sides clearer tawny-brown. Head more or less grayisb. Throat, breast 

 and space between the hind legs white, the hairs being of this color 

 throughout. A line on the lower sides of the cheeks, the sides of the 

 breast, and the whole beUy more or less bright tawny-buft", which color 

 is continued on the flanks. Tail unicolor, black throughout, as m N. 

 fuscipes. Fore feet -.yhite; hind feet dusky to the toes. Ears dusky 



Skull (No. 24231, U.S.N.M.), with the nasal processes of iuter- 

 maxillfB not extending greatly beyond the nasals posteriorly (about 2 

 mm.). Incisive foramina long, reaching to the line of the anterior 

 molar. Palate ending posteriorly in two small capsules, with an emar- 

 gination between them. Anterior palatal spine straight. In terparietal 

 narrowly pentagonal, without an angle behind. 



Dimensions of type (No. 19093, U.S.N.M., male).*— Total length, 

 438 mm.; tail, 215 mm. 



Dimensions of sl-ull (No. 24230, U.S.N.M.).— Total length, 47 mm.; 

 basilar length (Hensel), 38; zygomatic breadth, 24.2; length of nasals, 

 17.6; length of incisive foramina, 10. 



Type.— No. 19G93, U.S.N.M., male, Marin County, Cal. Collected 

 November 25, 1887. 



* Collector's measurements. 



Proceedings of the TJ. S. Natioual Museum, Vol. XVII, No. 1006. 



[Advance sheets of this paper were published June "7, 1894.] 



353 



Proc. N. M. 94- 



