376 



University of California PuMicaiions in Zoology [yoL. 24 



arrive at an understanding of conditions. Osgood (1909, pp. 50, 52, 

 59) has commented upon the situation and pointed out some of the 

 difficulties. If, as he asserts, there are places where two subspecies 

 occur together, each in typical form, the problem is even more involved 

 thanr appears from my own material. I did not find this to be the 

 case in the critical regions worked on the Skeena Eiver or on the 

 Stikine River (see Swarth, 1922, p. 164). 



TABLE 2 



Measurements in Millimeters (Average, Minimum, and Maximum) or 

 Adult Peromyscus 



Neotoma cinerea saxamans Osgood. Northern Bushy -tailed Wood Rat 



Seven specimens collected fnos. 32609-32705) : three adults and 

 two .juveniles on Nine-mile Mountain; one adult and one juvenile in 

 Kispiox Valley. They are indistinguishable from specimens from the 

 Stikine River and all are apparently typical of the subspecies 

 saxamans. 



The local distribution of the bushy-tailed wood rat in this region 

 presents some puzzling features. The animals are abundant in the 

 mountains, where they are preeminently rock dwellers, and it is an 

 easy matter to find sign of their presence in such surroundings. The 

 valleys generally are covered with forest, with dense underbrush 

 beneath the trees, and there are vast areas where no rock formation 

 of any sort is to be seen. Tn such Avoods I was never able to find wood 

 rat sign. In many places in these poplar-covered lowlands, however, 

 ranching has been attempted, ground has been cleared and cabins 



