40 



]SrOETH AMEEICAiSr t^AUNA. 



LNo. 37, 



20.9 (20.1). Adult female:^ Condylo-basal length, 82-87 (84.2); 

 palatal length, 45.8-48.7 (47.6); postpalatal length, 30.6-34.5 (34.1); 

 length of nasals, 34.5-37.2 (35.9); zygomatic breadth, 54.4-58.4 

 (55.9); breadth across mastoids, 38.5-40.7 (39.8); least interorbital 

 breadth, 17.3-19.3 (18.5); breadth of rostrum, 17.8-21.4 (19.8); 

 maxillary tooth row, 19.5-22.1 (20.5). 



Remarks. — This species was described in 1841 and the name has 

 been in use ever since in a broad sense for the marmots of the Sierra- 

 Cascade range and, by most authors, for the Rocky Mountain forms 

 as well. The original describers' statement as to the source of the 

 type specimen — mountains between Texas . and California" — ^is 

 not only too indefinite to be of use, but the evidence points to 

 its being incorrect. The type specimen, as stated by Audubon 

 and Bachman, was obtained by David Douglass and (the skin 

 only) is still in a fair state of preservation in the .British Museum, 

 but unfortunately is unaccompanied by data to show where it was 

 collected. Douglass's journal has been pubnshed,^ and from it we 

 learn that he spent a considerable time at Fort Vancouver near the 

 mouth of the Columbia River, whence he made journeys up the Co- 

 lumbia ■ and Willamette Y alleys and through eastern Washington 

 and southern British Columbia. He spent some time, also, on the 

 coast of Cahfornia, below Monterey, but apparently never visited 

 either the Sierra or the Cascades proper. His journal does not men- 

 tion the capture of any marmots.^ He might easily have secured the 

 type specimen on his journey through eastern Washington, in which 

 case it would be the form now known as avara, or he might have 

 obtained it from Indians or travelers who had visited Mount Hood — 

 a comparatively short distance from his headquarters — ^in which case 

 it would be referable to the form which now bears the name Jlavi- 

 ventris. In order to settle the question a specimen from Mount 

 Hood and one from Okanogan, British Columbia, were submitted to 

 Oldfield Thomas, who compared them with the type in the British 

 Museum. He states as follows: 



The underside of forearms [in the type] are about as rufous and its rump as brown 

 and finely speckled as the Oregon specimen, but it has got distinctly the broadly buffy 

 mantle on the fore back so marked in the British Columbia specimen. The t^^e is 

 a good adult skin which has borne remaking very well. The skull, unfortunately, 

 is not in existence. 



The buffy mantle of which Mr. Thomas speaks is not a diagnostic 

 character, since it appears in both the British Columbia and Cascade 

 forms. The rufous color of the fore legs, however, is diagnostic, 



1 Seven specimens from Crater Lake, Greg., and northern parts of Sierra Nevada, Cal. 



2 Hooker, W. J. Companion to Botanical Mag., II, 1836, pp. 79-182. 



3 The statement [p. 92] that a curious species oiArctomys was secured and other references to "Arctomys 

 brachyurus" [pp. 101-115) doubtless refer to species of either CUellus or Aplodontia. 



