1903.] Allen, Mammals from Northeast Siberia. 15 J 



"Russian local name, Mysh. This species is not as com- 

 mon as the Red-backed Mouse and is more partial to the 

 houses. The majority of the specimens in the collection were 

 taken about cabins. The others were taken in the same place 

 as the Red-backed Mice. It is also active about the houses 

 during the winter, but continuous trapping on the tundra 

 during the winter revealed none there. It is possible that the 

 grass cuttings and droppings in grassy places are done by this 

 species. They also accumulate large stores of provision, and 

 their habits and distribution, so far as I observed, are prac- 

 tically the same as those of the Red-backed." N. G. B. 



1 6. Dicrostonyx torquatus (Pallas). 

 PIED LEMMING. 



A single specimen of Dicrostonyx was collected by Mr. Bux- 

 ton near Gichiga, June 23, 1901. It closely resembles in 

 coloration June specimens of D. nelsoni Merriam from Point 

 Barrow, Alaska. The skull is broken, only the lower jaw 

 and rostral portion being present. In the absence of speci- 

 mens of D. torquatus for comparison, it is provisionally re- 

 ferred to that species. Mr. Buxton refers to this specimen 

 in his field notes which here follow, and to which he has added 

 some very interesting and hitherto unpublished notes on the 

 two species of Lemming observed by him at Point Barrow, 

 Alaska. 



"No. 840, male, 6-23-'oi. This specimen was brought to 

 me by a Tungus who caught it near their summer encamp- 

 ment at Chevitka, 10 miles down the mainland coast from 

 Kooshka. He said that this was the only one that he had 

 ever seen there, but far inland they were common. I showed 

 it to the captain of the Cossacks, S. I. Pahderin, a man 54 

 years of age who had lived here all his life, and he said that 

 during April and May, 1900, there were hundreds of them on 

 the tundra about Gichiga. The dogs hunted them day and 

 night at that time and required no other food. The people 

 here had never seen one previous to that time and were 

 greatly puzzled to know from where they had come and 

 whither they had gone. They have no distinct name for it 



