84 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS: ZOOLOGY. 



Thomas, the type locality of which is Monteith Bay, Straits of Magellan. 

 Not compared by me with the type. 



Mr. Peterson's notes state that both specimens, a pair, were caught 

 together "in heavy grass and brush, near a small brook." 



This species, if properly referable to Oxy^nycterus, is the smallest mem- 

 ber of the genus, so far as at present known, being considerably smaller 

 even than O. microtis. 



OXYMYCTERUS MICROTIS Allen. 

 (Plates IX, Fig. 4, Skull ; X, Fig. 7, Teeth.) 



Oxymycterus microtis Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XIX, 189, May 

 9, 1903. Pacific slope of Cordilleras, upper Rio Chico de Santa 

 Cruz, Patagonia. — Thomas, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (7), XII, Aug., 

 1903, 243 (in text, suggesting its reference to Nofiomys). 

 Adidt male (type), March. — Pelage thick, short, and fine, almost mole- 

 like in character. Pelage and general color almost exactly as in Oxy- 

 mycterus lanosits Thomas, but twice the size of that species, with tail one 

 half shorter and fore claws large, fossorial. Above dark yellowish brown ; 

 underparts whitish gray, the plumbeous underfur tinging the otherwise 

 whitish surface ; top and sides of nose dark grayish brown, without any 

 tinge of yellow or rufous ; ears very small, scarcely reaching the surface 

 of the short fur, concolorous with the enclosing fur ; tail very short, but 

 little exceeding the length of the hind foot, very thickly clothed, dark 

 brown, only slightly lighter below than above ; upper surface of feet gray- 

 ish brown, the toes lighter, yellowish white ; soles naked, dark flesh-color. 



A second specimen is exactly similar in coloration, except that the ven- 

 tral surface has a slight wash of buff, apparently due to staining. 



Measurements. — Total length (type), 138 mm.; tail vertebrae, 28 ; hind 

 foot, 2 1 ; longest fore claw, 6. Skull, total length, 27.6 ; basal length, 23.6 ; 

 zygomatic breadth, 12.5 ; width of brain case, 12 ; interorbital breadth, 5 ; 

 length of nasals, 10.5 ; palatal length, 10; palatal foramina, 5; diastema, 

 6.3 ; upper molar series, 3.5 ; length of lower jaw (inner base of incisors 

 to posterior border of condyle), 15 ; height at condyle, 5.5 ; lower molar 

 series, 3.4. 



Represented by two specimens — a skin and skull, and a skin and 

 skeleton — collected on the Pacific Slope of the Cordilleras, at the head of 

 the Rio Chico de Santa Cruz. 



