404 



BULLETIN 56, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



tail long, nearly naked in summer, not distinctly bioolor; ears large 

 and nearly naked; feet whitish, with soles hairy to the tubercles. 

 Length 190 mm.; tail vertebrae, 95; ear from crown, 14; length of 

 hind foot, 21. Skull, 26 by 13.7. 



Fig. 80. — Peromyscus mearnsii. Skull, a, dorsal view; 6, ventral view; c, lateral view. 



The young, when quite small, are slate-gray above, and grayish 

 white below, with a black patch occupying the anterior third of the 

 convex surface of the ear. 



Cranial and dental characters. — The skull and teeth of Peromyscus 

 mearnsii (figs. 80 and 81) indicate a species allied to, but probably 

 specifically distinct from, P. leucopus. The skuUis 

 smaller than that of P. texanus, from which it also 

 differs in shape. 



RemarTcs. — This mouse differs from P. texanus, its 

 next neighbor on the west, in being more scantily 

 coated throughout, especially as to its tail, which is 

 much longer than that of P texanus, and differs 

 further in not being sharply bicolor. In full winter 

 pelage it is not so strikingly different, but the fur 

 is shorter at all seasons. 



Fig. 81.— Peromyscus 

 mearnsii. Crowns 

 OF molar teeth, o, 

 lower series; b, up- 

 per SERIES. 



PEROMYSCUS TEXANUS ( Woodhouse ) . 

 TEXAS GRAY WOOD MOTJSE. 



Besperomys texana Woodhouse, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., VI, No. VII, Feb., 1853, p. 



242 (original description) ; Report of an Expedition down the Zuni and Colorado 



Rivers, by Capt. L. Sitgreaves, 1853, pp. 48, 49, pi. ii. 

 Armcola {Hesperomys) texana, Avdvboh and BACHMAN,Quad.N. Am., Ill, 1854, p. 319. 

 Besperomys texanus, Baird, Mam. N. Am., 1857, p. 464 (in part). 

 Peromyscus canus Mearns, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XVIII, 1896, p. 445 (p. 3 of 



advance sheet issued March 25, 1896). — Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 



VIII, Art. V, April 22, 1896, pp. 64, 65.— Miller and Rehn, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. 



Hist., XXX, No. 1, Dec. 27, 1901, p. 71 (Syst. Results Study N. Am. Mam", to 



close of 1900). 

 [Peromyscus] canus, Elliot, Field Col. Mus., Zool. Ser., II, 1901, p. 132 (Synop. Mam. 

 N. Am.). 



