184 MONOGRAPHS OF NORTH AMERICAN RODENTIA. 
Bachman claims some attention on account of the very singular characters 
upon which it rested. It is stated to be “larger than Arvicola pennsylvanica ; 
tail shorter than the head; legs small and slender; nose sharper than in 
Arvicole generally; length 54; head 1%; tail 12; heel to poimt of nail 3”. It 
is based upon a specimen from Boston, Mass., and others are cited from New 
York and Michigan. As will be seen from the foregoing tables, we have 
several specimens ranging from five to nearly six inches—three from Massa- 
chusetts, six from Pennsylvania, and five others, and their tails range from 
1.50 to 1.80. But there is nothing like the shortness of the feet, as stated. 
This is certainly an error. Even the diminutive A. oregonus has the feet 
considerably over half an inch; and this length, for an animal nearly six 
inches long, does not, we are confident, obtain in this genus. There are other 
3) 
indications of error in the account, and we are satisfied that no such char- 
acter as unusual sharpness of the nose occurs in any of the many specimens 
we have examined, although several of them are labeled “nasutus”. The 
authors evidently had before them some very large, overgrown specimen of 
riparius, like those old individuals above enumerated from Williamsport, Pa., 
and committed some error, typographical or otherwise, in their measurements. 
The Arvicola “oneida” of DelKay is certainly based upon a young 
example of riparius. The only other animal it could possibly be is the A. 
pinetorum; but the measurements given preclude this reference. Audubon 
and Bachman refer “oneida” in one place (ii, 219) to pimetorum, and in 
another (iii, 287) te their own fudvus or dekayi, which latter, however, is 
Evotomys gapperi. The Arvicola rufescens of DeWKay is certainly riparius 
also. Some of the expressions point toward Lvotomys gapperi; but the 
statement ‘ 
‘upper molars with nine external angles” is only applicable to 
the section of the genus to which riparius belongs, while the dimensions 
given (‘head and bedy 3 inches; tail 2”) apply to no species of Arvicola 
with which we are acquainted. 
The two specimens above enumerated (557, 559) from Prairie Mer 
Rouge, La., are the first ever quoted from the Gulf States, and are in fact 
the only Gulf specimens we have ever seen except pinetorum, and one 
example (No. 737, Calcasieu, La.) referred, with a shade of doubt, by 
Professor Baird to Pedomys austerus. They are both unusually rufescent, 
and one of them has the minimum length of tail (1.10 inches) we have 
seen in adults of this section of the genus; the skulls, however, show them 
: 
