1918] Taylor: Revision of the Rodent Genus Aplodontia 437 
Rafinesque, who characterized ‘‘ Anisonyx? rufa’’ in 1817 (p. 45) on 
the basis of Lewis and Clark’s account of the sewellel as observed in 
the neighborhood of the Columbia River. In 1829 Richardson (1829a, 
pp. 333-837) deseribed Aplodontia leporina on the basis of specimens 
collected by David Douglas from within the range of what is now 
regarded as Aplodontia rufa rufa. For thirty-six years no further 
new names appeared. In 1865 (pp. 177-179) Peters named Haplodon 
leporinus var. Californicus from a specimen received at the Berlin 
Museum, said to have come ‘‘aus den Gebirgen Californien.’’ It is the 
opinion of the writer that this name is tenable for the aplodontia of 
the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, which was described by 
Dr. C. Hart Merriam in 1886 (p. 316) under the name Aplodontia 
major. Four forms of Aplodontia were deseribed by Dr. Merriam 
in 1899a (pp. 19-21), as follows: Aplodontia pacifica, type locality, 
Newport, Oregon; Aplodontia phaca, type locality, Point Reyes, Cali- 
fornia; Aplodontia olympica, type locality, Quiniault Lake, Washing- 
ton; and Aplodontia major rainiert, type locality, Paradise Creek, 
Mount Rainier, Washington. 
In 1914 two additional forms were described from California: 
Aplodontia chryseola (here referred to rufa), from Jackson Lake, 
Siskiyou County, by Kellogg (p. 295), and Aplodontia mgra, from 
Point Arena, by the present writer (p. 297). Two years later three 
more forms were characterized by the writer: Aplodontia californica 
columbiana, from Roab’s Ranch, near Hope, British Columbia (Tay- 
lor, 1916c, p. 499) ; Aplodontia rufa grisea (1916c, p. 497, here refer- 
red to rufa), from the vicinity of Seattle, Washington; and Aplo- 
dontia humboldtiana (1916a, pp. 21-24), from the Humboldt Bay 
region, California. 
2. MATERIAL AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
The work here reported upon was begun while the writer was a 
staff-member at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of 
California, and finished after his appointment to the staff of the 
Bureau of Biological Survey, Washington, D. C. Exclusive of fossil 
material the present study is based on the examination of 369 speci- 
mens, for the most part skins with skulls contained in the collections 
of the two institutions named. 
Through the courtesy of Professor John C. Merriam the writer 
has had access to the University of California Collections in Vertebrate 
