Article XVI. NEW RODENTS FROM COLOMBIA AND 

 VENEZUELA. 



By J. A. ALLEN. 



Through the liberality of Mr. Morris K. Jesup, President of 

 the American Museum of Natural History, the Museum has been 

 placed in possession of one of the most extensive and best prepared 

 collections of mammals that has probably ever been brought 

 together from a single limited locality in South America. This 

 collection has been made mainly in the vicinity of Santa Marta, 

 Colombia, in the coast region below an altitude of 500 feet ; a 

 part, however, was collected in the lower portion of the Sierra re- 

 gion, at altitudes varying from 4000 to 6000 feet. The collection 

 was made under the direction of Mr. Herbert H. Smith, the well- 

 known natural history explorer who has done so much excellent 

 work, under various auspices, in Southern Brazil, in the West 

 Indies, and in Mexico, by his wife, equally well known as an ex- 

 pert zoological collector, aided by a corps of assistants. Through 

 the aid of Mr. Jesup, the Museum has purchased all except the 

 duplicates of this collection, which latter, however, are still at 

 the Museum, and, with Mr. Smith's generous consent, will be 

 used as the basis of a later report on the mammals of the Santa 

 Marta district. In the present paper only the Rodents receive 

 treatment, and these only so far as to make known the forms that 

 appear to be new. Mr. Jesup has also purchased for the Museum 

 Mr. Smith's collection of birds thus far made in the same region, 

 numbering upward of 3000 specimens. 



The Venezuelan forms here described are from a small collec- 

 tion of mammals made by Mr. F. W. Urich, in the mountainous 

 district situated about ninety miles from Cumana. This collec- 

 tion, numbering only about 75 specimens, proved of special inter- 

 est, as, though not numerous in species, it contained several not 

 previously described, as did also a small collection of birds made 

 by Mr. Urich at the same localities and received with the 

 mammals. 1 



The external measurements given, when not otherwise stated, 

 are those made by the collector from the fresh specimens. 



1 See antea, pp. 153-156. 

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