New Species of Aphdontia. 315 



and carry to their burrows. The} 7 eat the stem part and throw 

 away the broad leaf, whicli is twelve inches in diameter, heart- 

 shaped, and grows to the height of twenty inches or more. The 

 reason I said that these animals resemble the muskiat is because 

 they live about the water all the time ; their burro ws are always 

 on a low hill-side in the canons or gulches where the ground is 

 springy or boggy, the wetter the better. In fact, the spring wa- 

 ter can be seen running down through most of the holes, and 

 nearly all the animals secured were caught in traps set in the 

 water. They cannot be found away from water in the Sierras. 

 They are not very particular as to what they eat. I saw willows, 

 red osiers, small fir trees, wild lilies, manzanita bushes, and va- 

 rious other plants cut by them. I found small fir trees four feet 

 high with every limb cut off to the top ; also small willows and 

 manzanita bushes pruned of their limbs as high as three and four 

 feet. These limbs and other vegetable substances they carry to 

 the mouths of their holes and drag just inside of the entrance to 

 eat in safety under cover. That they can and do climb small 

 trees and bushes, which have plenty of limbs, I am well assured. 

 They can grasp and hold anything in their feet as well as a mon- 

 key. One that was in a trap took hold of a limb of a small wil- 

 low tree, and I had to pull very hard to tear it away."* 



Comparison of the eight specimens sent me by Mr. Allen, from 

 the Sierra Nevada Mouutains of Central California, with a still 

 larger series from Oregon and Washington, reveals many points 

 of difference. These differences are shown in absolute size, size 

 of fore and hind feet, size of ear, character and color of pelage, 

 color of whiskers, and in cranial and skeletal characters. 



The above-mentioned differences are marked and constant, 

 and no animals in any way intermediate are known to exist. 

 Hence I have no hesitation in describing the newly-discovered 

 California animal as a distinct species, designating it as follows : 



* For remarks on the habits of A. rufa, the reader is referred to the writ- 

 ings of Suckley, Newberry, Gibbs, and Cooper, in the twelfth volume of 

 the Pacific R. R. reports ; to an interesting chapter by John Keast Lord in 

 his " Naturalist iu Vancouver Island and British Columbia " ivol. I, 1866, 

 pp. 346-358) ; and to articles by Matteson and Lum in the American Natu- 

 ralist, vol. XI, 1877, pp. 434-435, and vol. XII, 1878, pp. 10-13. 



