1903.] Allen, Mammals from Northeast Siberia. 



area and the border of the tail. The amount of fading shown 

 by May, June, and early July specimens, which still retain the 

 left-over winter pelage, also varies, some specimens having 

 the shoulders and sides of the neck whitish gray, with scarcely 

 a trace of fulvous, while in others a distinctly fulvous tone 

 infuses the gray. 



Citellus buxtoni finds its nearest relative in Citellus bar- 

 rowensis (Merriam) from Point Barrow, Alaska, from which,, 

 however, it differs in smaller size and relatively as well as 

 absolutely shorter tail, the average measurements of 7 adults 

 from Point Barrow, collected on the Mcllhenny Expedition, 

 being as follows: Total length, 421 (382-470); tail vertebrae, 

 145 (130-178); hind foot, 60.4 (57-65). The general style of 

 coloration is the same, but the Point Barrow animal has the 

 dorsal area a darker brown, and the fulvous suffusion of the 

 sides and underparts is very much paler. The difference in 

 size is especially striking on comparison of the skulls, an aver- 

 age adult skull of barrowensis giving a total length of 61 mm. 

 as against 58 in buxtoni, while the dentition in the former is. 

 much heavier, the length of the upper toothrow being 15 

 mm. as against 12 in buxtoni. Among other cranial differ- 

 ences may be noted the form of the posterior narial opening ,. 

 which is not only narrower in buxtoni, but the pterygoid pro- 

 cesses curve more strongly inward. 



The other American forms of the parryi * group differ, as 



1 In adopting, some years since, the name empetra (Mus empetra Pallas) for the 

 group of Parry Spermophiles (see N. Am. Rodentia, 1877, pp. 842-844, and Bull. Am. 

 Mus. Nat. Hist., X, 1898, p. 454) I was influenced largely by Schreber's plate of Arc- 

 tomys empetra (Sauget., pi. ccx), which Schreber says (op. cit., IV, 1785, p. 744) was 

 transmitted to him by Pallas. This plate clearly does not represent any known species 

 of Arctomys, while it does fairly well represent the large rufous-headed spermophile of 

 northern North America, later known as Spermophilus parryi. Pallas's brief descrip- 

 tion, paraphrased by Schreber, is unsatisfactory, corresponding better perhaps with a 

 half -grown specimen of the northern form of the common woodchuck (Arctomys monax 

 auct.) than with the Parry Spermophile, the top of the head and feet being described as 

 brownish black instead of rufous ; but the ventral surface is said to be " ruf o-f erruginea/ ' 

 and the size is given as between that of a marmot and the small spotted spermophile of 

 Europe (Mus citellus Linn.). 



Pallas cites (Nov. Spec. Quad. Glir. Ord., 1778, p. 75) both Pennant's and Forster's 

 Quebec Marmot,' the latter being the Parry Marmot and the former, in all probability, 

 a young woodchuck, so that Pallas's Mus empetra was in any case composite. Sabine, 

 in 1822 (Trans. Linn. Soc. London, XIII, 1822, p. 584), used Pallas's name empetra for 

 the northern form of the woodchuck, describing under this name specimens received 

 from the Hudson Bay Company. This may be taken as definitely fixing the name 

 empetra upon the northern woodchuck, leaving the name parryi Richardson as available 

 for the spermophile (Citellus parryiex. Richardson), with Lyon Inlet, Melville Peninsula, 

 as its type locality. Thus, in order to clear up a vexatious case of nomenclature (see 

 Osgood, N. Am. Fauna, No. 22, Oct. 1902, p. 47), it seems best to ignore the alleged 

 figure of Pallas's Mus empetra, since it was not published by Pallas, and clearly dis- 

 agrees with his previously published description. 



