No. 378.| REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 435 
capture, from their supposed rarity or obscure habits, can now be 
had in any desired numbers with a certainty and ease not dreamed 
of in earlier days. To this change in resources is due the recent 
great advance in our knowledge of North American mammals, of 
which Mr. Bangs’s report on Floridian mammals may be taken as a 
fair index. 
Among the more notable recent additions to the known mammalian 
fauna of Florida may be mentioned the large water vole, described by 
Mr. True in 1884 as Neofiber alleni, it being then considered as the type 
of a new genus, but now referred as a subgenus to Microtus (formerly 
Arvicola). Although known for several years from only two or three 
specimens, it was taken in considerable numbers in eastern Florida 
in 1889 by Mr. Chapman, who was the first to make known its inter- 
esting life history, and to whose paper Mr. Bangs fails to make 
reference in his extended comment on the species. In view of its 
present known wide distribution in eastern and interior Florida, its 
comparatively large size and easily recognized presence, the late 
discovery of this species, as remarked by Mr. Bangs, is one of the 
strangest facts in the history of American zoology. 
Another almost equally interesting discovery is that of the big- 
eared Florida deer-mouse (Peromyscus floridanus), described in 1889 by 
Mr. Chapman from a single immature specimen, and redescribed in 
1890 from an adult individual by Dr. Merriam. This is the largest 
and biggest-eared deer-mouse of Eastern North America, and though 
known for some years from only two or three specimens, it has since 
been found to be a common species over a considerable area, and is 
now well represented in collections of Florida mammals. 
Almost equally interesting is the white-bellied Florida deer-mouse 
(Peromyscus niveiventris), described also by Mr. Chapman in 1889, 
this being as much smaller than previously known deer-mice from 
Eastern North America as the big-eared species just mentioned was 
larger. It is also otherwise peculiar, and proves to belong to a group 
restricted to Florida, of which three species and two additional sub- 
species are now recognized by Mr. Bangs, one of them being insular 
(P. phasma Bangs, Anastasia Island). 
There are numerous other forms worthy of note, but space will 
suffice only to say that to the 35 species known from this area prior 
to 1884, 38 species and subspecies have been added since that date, 
30 of which have been described as new, all but two within the last 
ten years, including 16 described by Mr. Bangs in the present paper. 
1 Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. ii, June, 1889, pp. 120-122. 
