1905 | ZOOLoey. 69 
ZOOLOGY. 
THE BANDED POCKET-MOUSE. 
( Perognathus fasciatus. ) 
A good specimen of a small rodent, which Dr. C. H. Merriam 
has identified with this species, has recently been presented to the 
Museum of the Geological Survey of Canada by Mr. Norman 
Criddle, who caught it at Aweme, Manitoba, in June, 1904. 
The pocket-mice are not very dissimilar to the common house 
mice, in size and shape ; but the former, as their name implies, 
are provided with cheek pouches, which open externally, and their 
fur also is very distinctive both in its coloration and texture. 
Beddard places the pocket-mice next to the kangaroo rats, in the 
family Heteromyide ; but Lyddeker says that they can be distin- 
guished therefrom ‘‘by the presence of roots to their molar teeth,”’ 
and adds that most of the pocket-mice are ‘‘ brownish above and 
white beneath, with a tawny stripe on the flanks, dividing the 
dark from the Jight area.” Their hind limbs are described as 
‘* scarcely saltatorial,”’ and their fur as ‘‘ coarse and bristly.” 
The type of the genus Perognathus (pera, pouch; and gnathos, 
jaw) is P. fasciatus; both the genus and its genotype were first 
described by Maximilian, Prince of Wied, in 18309. 
Audubon and Bachman’s brief and altogether unsatistactory 
Latin diagnosis of the specific characters of P. fasciatus, published 
in 1856, when freely translated, reads—yellowish gray, white be- 
low, with a pale yellow lateral stripe. Baird’s definition of its 
specific characters, published in 1857, is as follows: ‘‘ Consider- 
ably larger than the house mouse. Tail as long as body without 
the head. Antitragus’’ (the inner lobe of the ear, opposite the 
tragus) ‘‘conspicuously lobed. Soles naked. Above reddish 
yellow closely lined with black ; fore legs all round, feet and — 
under parts white; a pale reddish yellow immaculate band on 
each side.” 
P. fasciatus is said to occur in Mexico, Dakota, Kansas and 
Manitoba, At least six species of this genus are now known, 
most of which are inhabitants of the western parts of North 
America. 
Ottawa, April 26, 1905. J. F. WHITEAVESs. 
