UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 



IN 



ZOOLOGY 



Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 125-129 January 31, 1912 



A NEW CONY FROM THE VICINITY OF 

 MOUNT WHITNEY 



BY 



JOSEPH GBINNELL 

 (Contribution from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University of California) 



The expedition of the Museum t < > the Mount Whitney region 

 of California in the summer of 1911 produced, among other 

 things of special interest, a small series of a species of cony. 

 During the summer of the previous year field work by Annie 

 M. Alexander and Louise Kellogg in the central Sierra Nevada 

 provided a practically topotypic series of the Lagomys (=Ocho- 

 tona) schisticeps of C. H. Merriam (1889, p. 11). It is thus 

 possible to make direct comparison of the Mount Whitney 

 material with specimens in corresponding seasonal pelage from 

 the type locality of the most nearly situated species. The results 

 of such comparison show the southern animal to be a well marked 

 new form. 



Ochotona albatus, new species 

 Mount Whitney Cony 



Type: Female adult; no. 16223, Mus. Vert. Zool. ; near 

 Cottonwood Lakes. 11,000 feet, Sierra Nevada Mountains, Inyo 

 County, California; September 3, 1911 ; collected by J. Grinned ; 

 orig. no. 1741. 



Diagnostic Features; Differs from Ochotona schisticeps, 

 of the central Sierra Nevada, in larger ears and much paler 

 coloration throughout, creamy whitish above instead of brown 

 and slate. 



Description op Type: General coloration, all over dorsal 



