1896. } SKELETAL REMAINS OF THE NORWAY LEMMING. 305 
Kola Peninsula, it does not seem to habitually appear so far east- 
ward as Archangel. Thus the present southern range of the 
animal does not extend below about 584° North latitude. We 
know, however, that in recent geological times it had a much 
more southern distribution, extending at least as far as the south 
of England and Saxony, since its remains have been found in the 
Somersetshire caves, six lower jaws from which, now in the 
Taunton Museum, were identified by Sandford’. These bones 
are said to be slightly smaller and to have the condyles more 
slender than those of recent specimens, but to agree very closely 
with them, especially with the skulls of young animals*. The 
only other locality where, so far as I am aware, the bones of this 
species have been found is at Quedlinburg, in Saxony, where 
Hensel* found it, together with MV. torquatus, in 1855, among fossils 
from the diluvium. The present discovery will therefore show 
that the range of the Norway Lemming extended formerly to at 
least nearly the south of the Iberian Peninsula, and that, too, 
judging from the fresh appearance of the remains, in quite recent 
geological times. 
The present skulls resemble those of recent Lemmings very 
closely indeed, but, like the specimens found in the Somersetshire 
caves, they are smaller than those of large adult recent animals, 
I cannot, however, find any characters sufficiently important to 
enable me to separate the two specifically. 
In conclusion, I should like to draw attention to the following 
statement, which is to be found on pages 147 and 148 of Messrs. 
Abel Chapman and W. J. Buck’s work on ‘ Wild Spain’ (chapter 
xii.). Writing of Ibex-shooting in the Sierra de Grédos of Old 
Castile, these authors remark :—‘ One day, close to the snow- 
line, we came across a fat, blue-grey, little beastie, apparently of 
the Dormouse tribe (Ziron, in Spanish), but he got to earth, or 
rather rock, ere we could capture him.” This description is too 
vague to enable me to do more than to make a suggestion, and 
the suggestion that Lemmings exist in Spain at the present 
day is too startling to be lightly brought forward; but I should 
like to point out that the description would apply very well to 
Mypodes schisticolor—a species which (if it really be a good species) 
is, I believe, only distinguishable from M. lemmus by its bluish- 
grey colour. 
At all events, in view of Dr. Gadow’s remarkable discovery of 
fresh-looking Lemming bones on comparatively low ground, it 
would be interesting to know what is the true nature of the 
“fat, blue-grey, little beastie”; and I venture to express a hope 
that this animal will be found to be a Lemming or a Vole, and 
1 W. A. Sandford, in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe. vol. xxvi. (1870), p. 125, 
pl. viii. fig. 3; and Dove, Somerset. Nat. Hist. Soc. vol. xv. (1870), p. 55. 
2 H. P. Blackmore and E. R. Aston, in P. Z. 8. 1874, pp. 460-471. 
8 Zeitschr. deutsch. geol. Gesell. vii. (1855), pp. 458-501; also at Wolfen- 
biittel, A. Nehring in Zeitschr. fiir ges, Naturwis. Bd. xlv. p. 1 (1875), and in 
Kent, E. T. Newton, Geol. Mag. 1890, p. 452, and Quart. Journ, Geol. Soc. 
yol. 1. p. 188 (1894). 
Proc. Zoot. Soc.—1896, No. XX. 20 
