I-; 



90 



MONOGUAPH8 OF NORTH AMERICAN RODENTIA. 



I' ( 





tore le^'s to the liiiiidti Tiie iiiidor parts are pure white, as usual, with pretty 

 distiiiei line of dciimrkation almig the s\(\vs. The tail, along its dorsal aspect, 

 is inueh paler thai. .;;ual, agreeably with the general hue of! the upper parts; 

 hut, on the conlrary, it is so much darker than usual uiulerneath that it appears 

 nearly unicolor, and, at any rate, there is no deliiiite line of separation of the 

 two shades of color. 



'i'lic soles of the feet present the extreme condition of nakedness as yet 

 ohscrvnl in ajiy North American species of the genus. There is a light hairy 

 tringe all along tlie sides ; but at least a central median space, perfectly denuded, 

 may be traced to the very heel. But this character, at first sight apparently 

 so distinctive, is, as just intimated, merely the extreme of an insensible grada- 

 tion from the dense hairiness of specimens from northern cold regions, and is 

 strictly agreeabh? to a well-known law. 



The ear will mrragc a little longer than in leucopux, and corresponds 

 with the feet in its scantier hairiness. The tail, likewise, is scant-haired, 

 revealing the annuli very plainly. In length, this member will average con- 

 siderably over ll'.e average of leucopus; l)ut still it falls short of Ihc extreme 

 of the latter, as witnessed in Vermont "myoides" and Washington Territory 

 "boylii"; and in the six specimens before us it varies in length about an inch ; 

 thus, it i.s, in No. loSl, nine-tenths of an inch longer than the head and body, 

 and, in 11)36, it is two-tenths of an inch shorter than the head and body. 



Since the foregoing remarks upon //. eremicus were penned, we have 

 handled an interesting and highly instructive series of skins from Camp Grant, 

 sixty miles east of Tucson, Ariz., collected by Dr. Palmer. This series con- 

 firms our views by furnishing the stepping-stones before lacking, and proves 

 that eremicus slides insensibly into the ordinary western form, of which it is, 

 therefore, a geographical differentiation. 



Of the twenty -two specimens in the series now lying before us, twelve 

 are referable to eremicus ; these are measured in the foregoing table. Of 

 tln'se twelve, ciglit or nine are, pure typical eremicus, agreeing in having per- 

 fectly naked soles, very large, leafy, nearly naked ears, the scant-haired indis- 

 tinctly bicolor tail about equal to the head and body (or, if anything, rather 

 longer than shorter), and the coloration of the peculiar pinkish or ochrey- 

 fiilvoiis mixed on tiie back with quite black hairs; thus being identical witli 

 the original types »[' eremicus. The individual variations in these eight or nine 

 specimens are quite as usual in any species or variety of the genus. In two 



