200 NORTH AMEEICAN FAUNA [No. 55 



with black hairs; lower parts washed with buff; feet and lower half of tail 



Measurements. An adult male : Total length, 168 mm ; tail, 62 ; foot, 19 ; ear 

 (dry), 10. 



Distribution and habitat. These rare mice are known only from 

 a few adult specimens the type from Arcata, another specimen 

 from Orick, and 7 from Trinidad, Calif. Others were taken in 

 Oregon by Stanley G. Jewett and Alex Walker; 1 at Vida on the 

 Mclvenzie River, 3 at Netarts on the coast near Tillamook, 2 at 

 Elaine in Tillamook County, and 1 at Gardiner, Douglas County. 

 All were taken in densely forested areas and all on or near the 

 ground. The type was taken in a trap set on an old rotten log beside 

 a redwood tree near Humboldt Bay, and the 7 Trinidad specimens 

 at the edge of a little forest stream. The Vida specimen was caught 

 among rocks under the bank of a small stream flowing through a 

 dense forest of spruce and fir with an undergrowth of salmonberry 

 and sword ferns. Those from Netarts were in a thicket of salmon- 

 berry bushes among the Sitka spruces, and the Gardiner specimen 

 on the brushy bank of a small stream. All were taken in small traps 

 baited with rolled oats. Evidently they are ground dwellers of the 

 dense coastal forests, either very scarce in numbers and scattered in 

 distribution or, more probably, of peculiar habits that are not yet 

 sufficiently known to enable collectors to locate their homes or hunt 

 for specimens with any certainty of success. 



General habits. The first real clue to habits of these little ani- 

 mals was obtained by A. B. Howell from the specimens collected 

 at Trinidad, Calif., in July 1926. Of the seven specimens collected 

 in a densely shaded gulch under the redwoods, bay, and maples, 

 and back about half a mile from the sea, three full stomachs were 

 saved and the contents examined by C. C. Sperry, of the Biological 

 Survey. The stomach contents showed entirely the finely masticated 

 pulp from underground roots of some unidentified herbaceous plant. 

 This food preference may well explain the difficulty in securing 

 specimens and their rarity in collections, and when the plant they 

 feed upon is known they may be found to be a common and wide- 

 ranging species. 



PHENACOMYS INTBRMEDIUS INTERMEDIUS MEBBIAM 

 MOUNTAIN PHENACOMYS 



Plienacomys intermedius Merriam, North Amer. Fauna No. 2, p. 32, 1889. 

 Phenacomys orophilus Merriam, North Amer. Fauna No. 5, p. 65, 1891. From 

 Salmon River Mountains, Idaho. 



Type. Collected 20 miles north-northwest of Kamloops, British Columbia, 

 by Geo. M. Dawson, October 2, 1888. 



General characters. Small; tail short and slender, with little taper, thinly 

 haired ; toes short ; nails not much curved, of the digging type ; ears conspicuous 

 above fur; fur long and soft but not so fine as in lonfficaudus; side glands of 

 males large and elongated, in front of hips; skull relatively short and wide; 

 upper parts and top of tail buffy gray, lower parts washed with whitish ; feet 

 and lower half of tail whitish. 



Measurements. Average of several adults : Total length, 152 mm ; tail, 34 ; 

 hind foot, 18. 



Distribution and habitat. These obscure little mice have a wide 

 range over the Rocky Mountain region from northern British Colum- 



