478 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [voL. 48 
‘ 
Boreal Europe.” He suggests finally that “we may yet find 
amongst the Welsh Mountains further colonies of these Boreal 
Voles,’ and I might add that I would not be surprised if they also 
were to be found in the northern highland of Scotland. 
The invasion of the ancestor of Evotomys norvegicus into Norway 
from the west is thus a distinct zoogeographical probability. 
Were the various forms of the common field vole (Microtus 
agrestis) to be worked up with as ample material and painstaking 
skill as the red-backed mice, it is probable that parallel and equally 
suggestive results would be obtained, since there are enough indica- 
tions pointing in that direction. But much collecting must be done 
in many places before anything reliable can be accomplished. 
There are some points in the distribution of two of the mammals 
already mentioned to which I would call special attention, viz., the 
lemming (Lemmus lemmus) and the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus). 
They are now chiefly inhabitants of the mountain plateau of the 
Scandinavian peninsula, the former extending from southwestern 
Norway to Russian Lappland but not reaching east beyond the 
White Sea, the latter at the present time chiefly confined to the 
Norwegian fjells south of Trondhjemsfjord, while a small herd of 
wild reindeer is still found in West Finmark. Both animals show 
a decided western distribution in the southern part of the peninsula. 
The range of Lemmus lemmus is such that there is no probability 
of a multiple origin. The fact that it is not found east of the 
White Sea precludes its having come into Scandinavia from the 
northeast. Its fossil history, on the other hand, speaks against it 
having entered from the south.t./ Furthermore, it has been found 
fossil at the base of the Alps and in British pleistocene deposits, and 
remains of lemmings of the Norwegian type have recently been 
found by Dr. Gadow in a cave in Portugal. The latter find shows 
pretty conclusively that this species belongs to the “ first Siberian ” 
invasion. 
The wild reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), on the other hand, has 
almost certainly come into Scandinavia by several different routes. 
One form entered from the south and is now found fossil only in 
*Winge has recently shown (Vidensk. Meddel. Naturh. For. Kjébenhavn, 
1904, p. 223) that the record of lemming from late glacial deposits in Den- 
mark is erroneous. It is interesting to note that the ermine, or stoat (Putorius 
ermineus), another of the “Arctic” animals, is likewise absent in these 
deposits. Professor N. O. Holst, in a recent letter (January 22, 1907), in- 
forms me that these species have not been found fossil in Scania either. I 
may add that the polar fox (Canis lagopus) also appears to be absent. 
