1896.] Zoology. 1051 
A summary of the stomach contents for the whole year. shows that 
nearly three-fourths of the food of the meadow lark for the year, includ- 
ing the winter mouths, consists of insects. 
The oriole has a similarly good record. The food for the whole 
season consisted of 83.4 per cent. of animal matter and 16.6 per cent. 
of vegetable matter. 
These statistics show the importance of according these birds the 
protection they so well deserve. (Year book Dept. Agri. for 1895. 
Washington, 1896. 
Preliminary Description of a New Vole from Labrador. 
—In the summer of 1895, Mr. C. H. Goldthwaite made a trip to Ham- 
ilton Inlet, Labrador, to collect mammals for the Bangs Collection. 
The material he got is of much interest, but as I am obliged to delay 
publishing a full account of it for the present, I take this opportunity 
of making known saiieaien the only new species he took—a rather 
remarkable vole. 
MICROTUS ENIXUS 8 
“etd specimens, all pe in the immediate vicinity of Hamilton 
Inlet 
Ty ype from Hamilton Inlet, Labrador. 
No. 3973, @, old adult ; collection of E. A. and O. Bangs; collected 
July 15, 1895, by C. H. Goldthwaite. Total length, 210; tail verte- 
bree, °67 ; hind-foot, 22°5. 
General characters: Size medium (about that of M. pennsylvanicus) ; 
tail long; hind-foot large and strong; colors dark with a sooty brown 
east to upper parts; skull differing in many minor particulars from 
that of any eastern vole; molar teeth extremely small and weak, the 
tooth row very short ; incisor teeth long and projecting. 
Color: Upper parts a dark burnt umber brown, with many black- 
tipped hairs intermixed, and a general sooty cast; nose patch the 
same. Underparts dark gray (some specimens in fresh pelage slightly 
washed with buffy). Feet and hands dusky. Tail indistinctly bicol- 
ored, black above, dark gray beneath. 
Cranial characters: Skull rather small (smaller than the skulls of 
examples of M. pennsylvanicus, the external measurements being sub- 
stantially) the same; rostrum slender and straight; audital bulls of 
moderate size, very round ; palate without so pronounced a “step” as 
that of pennsylvanicus. Incisor teeth, both upper and under, long, 
slender and projecting outward at a decided angle. Molar teeth very 
weak and small, the tooth row averaging 1 m. shorter than in skulls of 
