364 Recent Literature. [June, 
mouse of North America, are referred no less than eighteen specific 
names of former authors, while two other species ( Townsendii and xan- 
thognathus) are only provisionally regarded as distinct from this. The 
other three species of the old genus Arvicola have each also several 
synonyms, the A. curlatus of Cope (from California) being regarded as 
a variety of austerus, and a new variety of pinetorum is added, from 
Southeastern Mexico, a region where the genus was long supposed to be 
eiS The subgenus Synaptomys Baird is raised to generic 
embraces the single species Cooperi, formerly referred to 
Myod es. 
The lemmings of America are reduced to two species, which are re- 
ferred to two genera — Myodes as restricted and Coniculus Wagler. 
The one (M. obensis) is confined to the western portions of arctic 
America, while the other (0. huelsonius) is found throughout the Arctic 
regions generally, and includes several nominal species. The muskrat 
(Fiber zibthicus) closes the list of the North American Muride. 
In no group of North American mammals have such extensive 
changes been as yet made as Dr. Coues has here found it necessary to 
adopt; few groups, too, have so much needed careful revision, or present 
a more difficult field of inquiry. The vast amount of material Dr. 
Coues has had as a basis for his work, and the evident care he has ex- 
ercised in its elaboration, lead us to look forward with great interest to 
the appearance of the promised fuller exposition of the grou 
Almost simultaneously with the appearance of this synopsis in its 
original place of publication, it was also reissued, with additions, as one 
of the publications of the Northern Boundary Commission, as the “ first 
of a series of preliminary zodlogical reports which may appear from time 
to time, during the elaboration of the material secured by the Boundary 
Commission.”? The additions appear to consist mainly of a list of ten 
species collected during the survey, with notes on their distribution. 
As previously noticed, Dr. Coues, in his definition of the amily 
Muride, excluded from it the genus Jaculus. This genus he has since 
raised to the rank of a distinct family,? to which he has given the name 
Zapodide. The results of his investigation of this species he sum- 
marizes as follows: (1.) That there is at a e one known 
_ 
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mR 
Qu 
. 8 
Major 
Engineers, Chief Astronomer. Natural History. 
Exviorr Coues, United States Army, Surgeon and Naturalist of the Commission. 
Reissued, with additions, from the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences 
of Philadelphia, 1874. Philadelphia. Collins, printer. 1874. 
ome Account, Critical, Descriptive, and Historical, of Zapus Huds J p 
ErLrorr Coves, United Sta rmy. tin of the United States Geological a 
Geographical Survey of the Territories. Second Series, No. 5, pp. 253-262, January 
8, 1875. Itwas also reissued separately by ia dathiod: the separate copies bearing date 
75: 
