aACCOMYID^.— PEROONATniDIX^E— p. PENICILLATUS. 



505 



Habitat.— The Basin of the Colorado River. (The very few specimens 

 at present known to naturalists have all come from Arizona and the adjoining 

 border of Southern California.) 



(Description from Wood house's type, which is mounted, and several 

 more recent specimens, dry and alcoholic.) In all the other species of Pero- 

 gnathus given on these page.*, the tail, whether longer than the body or decid- 

 edly shorter, is simply haired,, with the terminal hairs no longer than those 

 surrounding the tail. Tiie present species is tiierefore remarkably distin- 

 guished by the comb or crest of long hairs on the terminal third or more of 

 the ineml)er, produced by a gradual lengthening until those at the end are 

 half an inch or more in length, producing a penicillate brush proportionally 

 as long as that of some species of Tamias or even Sciurus. With this singu- 

 lar character others of equal tangibility are coordinated. The description to 

 be given will include some points common to the genus, as, with one excep- 

 tion, the present is the only species of Perognathus of which I have speci- 

 mens in the flesh. 



The head is about one-third of the total length of head and body; broad 

 and full across the temporal and orbital regions, thence tapering ropiliy to 

 the produced but rather blunt snout. The muzzle is entirely and densely 

 pilous excepting a small nasal pad, with a median furrow ; tiie nostrils are 

 very small and irregular in contour. The long upper lip is heavily clothed 

 with stitfish hairs, forming a fringe which droops over and iiides the incisors. 

 The whiskers are numerous and very fine; besides the labial set, the longest 

 of which much exceed the head in length, there are others about the eye and 

 ear. The eye is of moderate size, and situated much nearer to the ear than 

 to the nose. The ear shows very conspicuously the prominent lobe of the 

 antitragus, which is the chief external peculiarity of tliis genus as compared 

 with Cricetodipus ; and opposite to it, on the other side of the notch, there is 

 a similar and smaller, but still very evident, tubercle just within the border 

 of the ear. Those two i)rominences together cause the notch of the ear to 

 be very strongly defined; and the margin of the external ear is altogether 

 excluded from the notch. The contour of the ear is broadly rounded. The 

 slit of the cheek-pouch is about half an inch long, beginning on the side of 

 the upper li|) and curving around with a free border to near the angle of tlie 

 jaw, there being but narrowly separated from its fellow. 



The details of the palms and soles, as clearly made out from the material 



