1903.] Allen, Miuninals from Northern British Columbia. 553 



Muskrats are not uncommon in many of the small lakes so 

 numerous along the Teslin trail, and more specimens would 

 certainly have been secured had we carried a shotgun on our 

 trip to Level Mountain. . . . On the morning of October 

 9 I observed a muskrat in a small pond just back of our camp, 

 on Raspberry Creek. I had no means of securing him." 



23. Phenacomys constable! Allen. CONSTABLE VOLE. 



J'henacomys constablei ALLEN, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XII, 1899, 

 4. March 4, 1899. Telegraph Creek, B. C. 



Represented by n specimens, of which 8 were taken at 

 Telegraph Creek, July 14 to August 13; and i each on the 

 Cheonnee Mountains (July 21), Shesley River (September i), 

 and Level Mountain (September n). All are females except 

 two, and five of them appear to have suckled young, but only 

 four had attained fully adult size. The five adults measure 

 as follows: Total length, 143.5 ( I 39~ I 48); tail vertebrae, 33 

 (31-41); hind foot, 17.7 (17-19); ear, 13.6 (13-14). 



Phenacomys constablei was based on two specimens col- 

 lected by Mr. A. J. Stone on Telegraph Creek, August 24, 1897, 

 so that eight of the present series are topotypes. Both of the 

 original specimens were females, one of which was quite 

 young, while the other (the type) had evidently nursed young 

 and was described as adult. The present series, however, 

 shows it was much below the average size of full-grown adults, 

 the total length being only 124 mm., and the tail 31 mm., as 

 against 144 and 33 in fully adult females of the present series. 

 In other respects the original description requires no emenda- 

 tion. 



This species must be very rare or of local distribution, as out 

 of over 350 specimens of mice of various species taken at Tele- 

 graph Creek only 8 were Phenacomys, and only two Phenaco- 

 mys were taken elsewhere, although very large numbers of 

 mice were collected on Level Mountain and at other points. . 



This species has a close external resemblance to faded sum- 

 mer specimens of Microtus drummondi, not only in coloration 

 but in size and proportions, so close, indeed, that it is quite 

 difficult to distinguish the two species by skins alone. The 



