1924] Swarth: Birds and Mammals of the SkecTia Biver Region 379 



Ondatra zibethica spatulata (Osgood). Northwestern Muskrat 



Fairly common in Kispiox Valley, where three adults and eight 

 young (nos. 32688-32698) were collected in August and September. 

 These specimens are decidedly dark colored, compared with Alaskan 

 skins, and are probably intermediate toward osoyoosensis. In external 

 measurements also they are similarly intermediate according to the 

 figures given by HoUister (1911, pp. 22, 25). 



Zapus saltator Allen. Stikine Jumping Mouse 



Twenty specimens collected near Hazelton, three in Kispiox Valley, 

 and one on Nine-mile Mountain (nos. 32706-32728, 32731). All are 

 adult. Our latest lowland capture of Zapits was on July 13, and up 

 to that time apparently no young were yet born. No nursing females 

 were caught, and only two that were pregnant, one taken on June 14 

 containing five small embryos, one on June 16, containing six. The 

 one specimen from Nine-mile Mountain (adult female, July 27) was 

 caught in a thick growth of veratrum just above timber line, at about 

 4500 feet altitude. It is small, compared with lowland specimens, but 

 d^es not otherwise depart from the characters of saltator, and this 

 small size may indicate nothing more than an extreme of variation in 

 the species. 



This series of Zapus saltator from the Skeena Valley, compared 

 with a somewhat larger series from the upper Stikine Valley, presents 

 no obvious points of difference. In each lot there is considerable 

 variation in color, a number of specimens being noticeably grayish, as 

 compared with a larger proportion of reddish-colored ones. 



Zapus hudsonius hudsonius (Zimmermann). 



Hudson Bay Jumping Mouse 



Two specimens taken near Hazelton, an adult male on June 15, an 

 adult female on June 18 (nos. 32729, 32730). These were caught in 

 the same trap line with the more numerous Zapus saltator. They were 

 submitted for identification to Mr. Edward A. Preble, of the United 

 States Biological Survey, who remarks that he ' ' cannot separate them 

 from typical hudsonius. ' ' In this connection it is of interest to recall 

 the capture by the present writer of a jumping mouse of the Zapus 

 hudsonms group (tentatively identified as Z. h. alascensis), on Eevil- 

 lagigedo Island, Alaska (see Swarth, 1911, p. 135), which island is 



