MURIDM—ARVICOLINE—SYNAPTOMYS COOPERI. 235 
and very long. The whiskers are numerous, of moderate length, exceedingly 
fine, almost invisible without a good light. The fur on the back is half or 
three-quarters of an inch long; that of the tail and all the feet is very fine 
and rather scant, so that in alcoholic specimens these members show quite 
light-colored. The tail has a very scanty terminal pencil; the muffle is 
entirely hairy, except the little nasal pads, and extremely obtuse; the head 
short, thick; the eyes are very minute, situate about half-way from nose to 
ear; the whole form is stout and compact. 
In the mouth of this aniinal may be observed, in addition to the tufts 
of hair that turn inward and nearly meet behind the upper incisors, a tuft 
growing inside the edge of the lip, and another hairy patch extending back- 
ward from the angle of the mouth. 
This is undoubtedly one of the most perfect connecting links yet discoy- 
ered between different genera of Arvicolina, if not of the whole family Muride. 
‘The habitat, too, of this false lemming is highly interesting, being quite out 
of the range of Myodes. Baird’s types came from some unknown place, 
believed however to be somewhere in the United States, and now the animal 
turns up from Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Kansas, Oregon, and Alaska. 
The Kansas locality, Neosho Falls, where Mr. Goss has collected with such 
valuable results, seems peculiar in its fauna. There occur such southern 
types as Oryzomys, Sigmodon, and Ochetodon, in connection with the pecul- 
iar Onychomys and with the Synaptomys—which latter ought, according to 
its zoological characters, to be a highly boreal animal. 
SYNAPTOMYS COOPERI, Baird. 
Myodes (Synaptomys) cooperi, Barrp, Cat. in M. N. A. 1857, p. xliv. 
Synaptomys cooperi, Barrp, M. N. A. 1857, 558, in text (United States ?)—Covrs, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. 
Phila. 1874, 194. 
Arvicola (Synaptomys) gossii, Barrp, MSS. (on labels of the Kansas specimens, in anticipation of their 
proving different from the original cooper). 
Dracnosis.—S. facie Arvicole riparii, sed cauda breviore, artubus exil- 
oribus, rostro obtusiore, vellere ampliore; murino-brunneus, plus minusve griseus, 
subtus ex albido griseo-plumbeus. Long. tot. 4, caude subpoll., pedis }, auri- 
cule %. 
Hasrrar—Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Oregon, and Alaska. 
Our notice of the genus has proved so fully illustrative of its single 
species that there is little to add. The original specimens of cooperi, as far 
