1 12*5 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol.10 



surface, hoary white, with a tinge of cream-color on the head 

 and back. There are faint dusky tippings to the new hairs on 

 the anterior parts, hut otherwise the continuity of paleness is 

 only interrupted by the dark under-fur where it shows through. 

 This under-fur is Dearly slate-gray of Ridgway's Nomenclature 

 of Colors (1886), and not the blackish slate as in schisticeps. 

 The type-specimen of albatus is in process of molt, with a con- 

 spicuous V-shaped molt-line showing across the back behind the 

 shoulders. The hair behind this molt-line is much shorter, with 

 a scorched appearance, evidently due to wear. In front of the 

 line, the new hair is longer, in color clearer white, grizzled by 

 the dusky tippings. The large ears are much paler colored than 

 in schisticeps, due in part to the sepia, instead of black, "ground 

 color," and to the intermixture of very many more white hairs. 

 Beneath, the type-specimen of albatus is whitish, with a creamy 

 suffusion mid-ventrally and between the fore legs; there is also 

 an irregular patch on the throat of a raw umber tinge. The 

 color above, below, and laterally is very nearly uniform. The 

 front feet are white above and below, the hind feet white above, 

 and hair-brown on the soles, instead of blackish sepia as in 

 schisticeps. The naked balls of the toes of both front and hind 

 feet in the dried skin are slate-gray in albatus, instead of black 

 as in schistic* ps. 



General Remakks: The conspicuous peculiarity of albatus 

 is the entire lack of huffy or fulvous tints both above and below, 

 this rendering the conies of Mount Whitney unique among all 

 other North American species of Ochotona. The general pecu- 

 liarities of the type as described above are shared, with scarcely 

 any variation, by the other six examples in our collection from 

 the .Mount Whitney region. These specimens are listed in the 

 accompanying table, together with the collector's measurements. 

 The only appreciable difference in size between albatus and 

 schisticeps is found in measurements of the orbicular ears, the 

 southern series offering to the eye in mass effect a marked 

 superiority in this respect, much more than might be indicated by 

 the single measurement of the pinna given in the table. Judging 

 from descriptions, albatus appears to have no close relationships 

 with (>. cinnamomea (Allen. 1905, p. 121). from the Beaver 



