THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY 



[SBVEXTII SERIES.] 

 No. 52. APRIL 1902. 



XL. — On Mammals collected at Cruz del Eje, Central Cordova^ 

 hy Mr. P. 0. Simons*. By Oldfield Thomas. 



After his successful collecting work on the Bolivian Plateau 

 ]Mr. Perry O. Simons travelletlby rail to Antot'agasta, by sea 

 to Valparaiso, and then over the Andes through Mendoza to 

 Central Cordova, where at Cruz del Eje, in thesalina district 

 of that country, he made, in ten days only, the collection now 

 described. 



Apart from the co-types of Dolichotis salinicola, few 

 mammals have ever been recorded from this salina country, 

 and the present collection is therefore proportionally valuable. 



The most interesting things in the collection are undoubtedly 

 the specimens of Dolichotis, showing as they do that a form 

 of the Greater Mara {D. magellanicus') lives side by side with 

 the small D. snlinicola. This fact, hitherto unrecognized, is 

 probably partly the cause of the confusion into which the 

 ]iroper relationship of the smaller to the larger species has 

 fallen. 



'^riie new skunk {Conepatus proteus) is also surprisingly 

 different from the ordinary Argentine C. svffocans. 



1. Vespertilio sp. 



cT . 27th November, 1901. 



• While this paper is in the press news lias been received that 

 Mr. Simons, the most suocessCul niiiniinal colleotur that I Iiave ever liad 

 to deal with, has fallen a victim to hi- intrepidity, and has been murdered 

 by a guide when crossing the Andes alone witli him. Jirave to a fault 

 cheery and enthusiastic, fond of a wild life, successful as a trapper, pain.-*- 

 taldiig, systematic, and extraordinarily rapid in his work, .Mr. Simons was 

 tlie perfection of a collector, and we .shall not easily find his like airain. 

 I shall hope to publish later a summary of his Andean j.)urnev3 and their 

 .-scientific results. 



Ann. it Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 7. Vol. ix. 17 



