The Recent Voles of the Microtns nivalis Group. 97 



XII I. — The Recent Voles of the Microtus nivalis Group. 

 By Gerrit S. Miller. 



Although probably once more generally distributed, the 

 voles of the Microtus nivalis group are at the present day 

 rather strictly confined to the mountains of the ]\[editer- 

 ranean-Black Sea region. They are known to occur in the 

 Pyrenees, Alps, Apennines, Carpathians, and Caucasus*, as 

 well as at considerable altitudes in Asia Minor and Palestine ; 

 while at only a single locality in Southern France has a 

 living species been found in the plains. The supposed 

 occurrence of a member of the group in Kashmir t is the 

 result of a misdetermination of generic characters J ; and 

 there seems to be no sufficient reason to regard Microtus 

 strelzoivi, Kashstchenko §, from Central Altai, as anything 

 but a somewhat aberrant Alticola. The seven forms repre- 

 sented in the collection of the British Museum show that 

 the group is sufficiently extensive and well-defined to be 

 recognized as a distinct subgenus : — 



Chionomys, subgen. nov. 



1858. Paludicola, Blasius, Saugethiere Deutsclilands, p. 334 (part.). 



Not of Wagler, 1830. 

 1847. Pratieola, Fatio, Les Campagnols du Bassin du L^man, p. 34 



(part.). Not of Swainson, 1837. 

 1896. Microtus, Miller, North Amer. Fauna, no. 12, p. 62 (part.) 



(July 23, 1890). 



Type species. — Arvicola nivalis, Martins. 



Characters. — Like the subgenus Microtus, but third upper 

 molar with only two re-entrant angles on each side, as in 

 Arvicola and some forms of Pitymys; skull with broad, 

 rather flat, smooth brain-case and wide interorbital region, 

 the temporal ridges low and inconspicuous ; posterior ter- 

 mination of palate essentially as in Microtus, but with the 

 elements usually less well defined. 



« Satunin, Zool. Jabrb. ix. p. 302 (1896). Dagestan. 



t Microtus imitator, JJonhote, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 7th ser. .\v. 

 p. 197 (February I90o). 



\ The structure of the palate shows that the animal is an Alticola. 

 The teeth are peculiar in their somewhat generalized form, as com- 

 pared with those of the previously known members of the genus. 



§ Results of the Altai zoological e.vpeditiou of 1898, p. 50 (Russian 

 text), pi. ii. hgs. 2 & 3 (1899) ; Annuaire du Mus. Zool. de I'Acad. Imp. 

 des Sci. de St. P^tersbourg, iv. p. 37 (Uussian text), ligs. 2 b Si, '3 b. See 

 especially figure of molar teeth in original description, and side view 

 of skull in later account (where the species is made type of the new 

 subgenus* Plnfycraniuf). 



Ann. d' Mag. A'. Hist. Ser. 8. VoJ.'u 7 



