1893.] Zoology. 831 
Tampa Bay, Gulf of Mexico, Beufort, N. C. 
B. cultellum: Australia. 
B. bassanum: Australia. 
B. beleheri: Australia. 
B. elongatum: Peru. 
B. californiense : California. 
Asymmetron lucayanum : Bahamas. 
Besides these, specimens have been reported from Japan, Ceylon, and 
the Bermudas. It is possible that the B. cultellum of the above list 
may prove to be a species of Asymmetron. Peters genus Epigonich- 
thys is apparently regarded as synonymous with Branchiostoma. 
Descriptions of Four New Rodents from California.—Dur- 
ing the past year I have received among other mammals a considerable 
series of Californian rodents of the genera Sitomys, Reithrodontomys 
and Onychomys. In the identification of these it was found necessary 
to determine, if possibile, the status of certain Californian forms de- 
scribed by Professor Baird in 1857, more especially of his Hesperomys 
eremicus, H. boylii, H. gambelii and H. austerus. The results of this 
study were necessarily incomplete, and, though far from satisfactory, 
some points of importance seemed sufficiently proven to warrant publi- 
cation, and a paper was in preparation and nearly ready for the printer 
when Dr. J. A. Allen's Article on a collection of mammals from the San 
Pedro Martir region of Lower California came out in the Bulletin of 
the American Museum of Natural History. 
This covered so exactly much of the same ground gone over by my 
own investigations in so much more exhaustive a manner and with 
such similar results, the original scope of this paper has been materi- 
ally changed. 
Among the series lately received by me from collectors in southern 
California there are four forms apparently undescribed. In determin- 
ing the status of these I am greatly indebted to Dr. J. A. Allen for the 
loan of specimens from the New York Museum of Natural History, 
and for the critical examination of some of my own, forming the basis 
of this paper. 
For the loan of the type specimen of Onychomys torridus and a 
large series of rodents from southern California, thanks are due to Mr. 
F. W. True of the National Museum, and Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, Jr., of 
Peterboro, New York. 
1. Sitomys major Sp. nov. (Type No. 1202, 3; Col. of S. N. Rhoads, 
Squirrel Inn, San Bernardino Co., July 1, 1893; col. by R. B. Her- 
ron). 
