312 New Species of Aplodontia. 



XVI. — Description of a New Species of Aplodontia, from 

 California. 



BY C. HAKT MEERIAM. 

 Read March 15, 1886. 



Up to the present time but a single representative of the 

 somewhat remarkable family Haplodontidce of Lilljeborg has 

 been recognized by naturalists. This is the Sewellel of Lewis 

 and Clark (1814), upon whose description Rafinesque's Anisonyx 

 rufa (1817) was wholly based. Subsequently (in 1829) Richard- 

 son correctly characterized the animal and gave it the name 

 Aplodontia leporina, by which it has been designated by most 

 American writers. Rafinesque's generic term Anisonyx has been 

 rejected because it had already been applied to a species of Cyno- 

 mys by the same author,* but his specific name rufa, as sug- 

 gested by Baird and adopted by Coues, must be accepted as the 

 proper specific name of the species. 



This singular animal, which has come down to us as a relic of 



* Rafinesque characterized the genera Cynomys and Anisonyx on the same 

 page, the former name occurring first. The genus Cynomys was framed for 

 the reception of the " Barking Squirrel " of Lewis and Clark, now com- 

 monly known as the "Prairie Dog" — the Cynomus ludovicianus of recent 

 writers. The genus Anisonyx was framed for the reception of the "Burrow- 

 ing Squirrel " of Lewis and Clark, since ascertained to be another species of 

 Prairie Dog — the Cynomys columbianus of recent writers — and hence becomes 

 a synonym. To this genus was referred, though not without hesitation, the 

 Sewellel of Lewis and Clark. Following is the whole of Rafinesque's 

 account of it : " Anisonyx ? rufa. Raf. Fur long, silky, entirely reddish 

 brown, ears short, pointed with short hair. — Obs. This animal called 

 Sewellel by Capts. Lewis and Clark, is of a doubtful genus, since they only 

 saw the fur of it ; it burrows and runs on trees like the ground squirrels ; 

 length eighteen inches, found in neighborhood of the Columbia River. " — 

 American Monthly Magazine, Vol. II, 1817, p. 45. 



