RODENT1A MURINAE HESPEROMYS NUTTALLI. 



467 



List of specimens. 



HESPEROMYS NUTTALLI. 



Red Mouse. 



Arvkola nuttalli, HARLAN, Monthly American Journal, April, 1832, 446. IB. Med. & Phys. Res. 1835, 55 ; plate. 

 Mm (Calvmys) aureolus, AHD. & BACH. J. A. N. Sc. Phila. VIII, n, 1842, 302. IB. N. Am. Quad. II, 1851, 303 ; 



pi. xcv. 

 Hesperomys aureolus, WAGNEK, Wiegmann's Archiv, 1843, 11, 51. 



SP. CH. Size and proportion of H. leucopit-s. General color bright'yellowish cinnamon ; darker on the lower part of the 

 back. Ears cinnamon. Feet and under portion of the tail white ; on the latter, however, not sharply denned ; belly reddish 

 white, tinged with cinnamon, the line of demarcation quite indistinct ; the outside of fore leg colored to the wrist. 



This species is about the size of the H. leucopus, which it otherwise resembles very closely. 

 The head, however, appears shorter and considerably broader. The feet are short, the tubercles 

 large and much crowded together ; more so than in H. leucopus; the tubercles themselves consid 

 erably larger, the toes shorter. The soles are densely covered with very short hairs, shorter 

 and more velvety than in H. leucopus. The tail is cylindrical and about as long as the head 

 and body ; it is covered closely with short hairs. 



The upper parts and sides of this species are of a bright reddish yellow, a light yellowish 

 cinnamon will perhaps best express the tint ; or in some cases yellowish rusty ; the lower part 

 of the back and rump darkened by black tips to the hairs, but without forming a distinct dorsal 

 stripe. The color is brightest on the sides of the shoulders, and extends all the way to the 

 wrist ; the cheeks are only less bright than the shoulders. The ears are cinnamon ; both 

 membrane and hairs being of this color. The feet are white above, as is the inferior half of 

 the tail ; the under parts generally are of a yellowish white, strongly tinged in places with 

 cinnamon. Ther.e is nothing of the sharp line of division of the colors of the belly and sides 

 seen in H. leucopus. The cheeks are cinnamon almost to the edge of the upper lip, involving 

 appreciably more of the face than in H. leucopus. 



