ALLEN: mammalia: murid^. 57 



" I have long realized that the animal commonly known as ' Phyllotis ' 

 griseofiavHs has so different a skull from that of the typical species of 

 Phyllotis, that it could not be considered as really congeneric with them. 

 But, on the other hand, its cranial characters are by no means so different 

 from those of the long-tailed species of Eligmodontia ; and rather than 

 make a new generic term for it I refer it to that genus, in which it bears 

 to the other species about the same relative proportion in size as Miis 

 ratttis does to M. mnscuhis.'' 



The enamel pattern of the teeth, however, is quite different from that of 

 the typical species of Eligmodontia, and the teeth themselves are more 

 hypsodont, as in Phyllotis. Externally and in the large size there is also 

 a close agreement with Phyllotis. 



Mr. Durnford gives the following account [cf. Thomas, /. r.) of the 

 habits of this species as observed by him near the mouth of the Rio Chubut : 



"This Rat is only found close to the Colony [Chubut] in the summer, 

 but at that season it overruns many of the houses and is extremely 

 destructive, eating boots, calico, etc., and is especially fond of gnawing 

 the metal spouts of teapots. What becomes of it in the winter I do not 

 know, but I believe it lies dormant under the scrub and brushwood. It 

 never burrows in the ground, but lives under old logs, bushes, etc., and 

 the female makes a nest, generally in the centre of a thick bush of bark 

 stripped into fine shreds and any soft material it can find. It can jump 

 and climb with great agility." 



The Eligmodontia {sett Phyllotis) griseojlava group ranges northward 

 from southern Patagonia over the chaco and pampa regions of Argentina, 

 Paraguay, and Bolivia, and includes E. gnseoflava domoruni Thomas from 

 Tapacari, E. g. centralis Thomas from central Cordova, Phyllotis chacoensis 

 Allen from the chaco boreal of Paraguay, and P. cachinus Allen from the 

 upper Cachi River, Argentina. These are all closely related and may be 

 merely local forms or subspecies of griseojlava, as considered by Mr. 

 Thomas.^ 



Genus PHYLLOTIS Waterhouse. 



Phyllotis Waterhouse, P. Z. S., 1837 (Nov. 21, 1837), 28 (as a subgenus 



of Mus). No type designated. 

 Phyllotis Fitzinger, Sitzungsb. Math.-Nat. CI. K. Akad. Wiss. Wien, LVI, 



1867, 83 (as a full genus). 



'Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (7), IX, April, 1902, p. 241. 



