1915.] 



MARMOTA CALIGATA GROUP. 



57 



M. monax); posterior pads on sole of hind foot subcircular and situ- 

 ated near edges of sole (see PL III, fig. 1); mammae:^ P. f ; A. f; 

 I. ^=10; colors mainly black and white, shaded with cinnamon-buff 

 on hinder parts, or upperparts of solid colors — brownish drab, russet, 

 or Vandyke brown. 



Cranial characters. — Skull with superior outline nearly straight (as 

 in the other American groups); interorbital region and postorbital 

 processes much as in the Jlaviventris group ;2 nasals narrowed posteri- 

 orly, usually about same width at posterior end as premaxillae or 

 slightly narrower (wider in olympus) ; temporal ridges uniting in old 

 age to form a pronounced sagittal crest; anterior portion of floor of 

 basi-occipital nearly flat, bounded posteriorly by two low processes 

 which unite at about middle of basi-occipital, continuing as a pro- 

 nounced ridge to the foramen magnum; anterior portion often with two 

 rather pronounced depressions on either side of the median ridge; 

 palate beveled at posterior border (as m Jlaviventris group) ; interptery- 

 goid fossa relatively narrow (compared wdth monax) ; palatal foramina 

 variable in shape; molar teeth similar to those of monax; maxillary 

 tooth rows divergent anteriorly; anterior face of incisors ivory yellow 

 to orange-buff. 



Geographic distribution. — From the Endicott Range, Alaska — the 

 most northerly range in the Rocky Mountains — and the Alaska 

 Peninsula south to the Olympic Mountains and Mount Rainier, Wash., 

 and the Bitterroot and Salmon River Mountains in central Idaho; 

 also on Vancouver Island. Confined entirely to mountain sides at 

 and above timberline except in the north, where the animals live in 

 open meadows and descend to tide water. (See fig. 3.) 



RemarTcs. — The members of this group may readily be distinguished 

 by their greater size and their peculiar coloration — either mixed 

 black and white or solid brownish. All of the races of Marmota cali- 

 gata are colored much alike, differing mainly in relative proportions 

 of black and white and in skull characters. M. olympus, isolated on 

 the Oljrmplc Peninsula, has developed a brownish drab coloration 

 with relatively little black or white, and M. vancouverensis, dwelling 

 on Vancouver Island, has lost aU of the black and white coloi*s and 

 attained a dark seal brown pelage. 



MARMOTA CALIGATA (Eschscholtz). 

 [Synonymy under subspecies.] 



External characters. — (See under Marmota caligata group, excepting 

 color.) 



Cranial characters. — (See under Marmota caligata group.) 



Color. — ^Fore part of back mixed black and white in varying pro- 

 portions, sometimes with a buffy or brownish tinge; hinder back 

 similar, but usually strongly suffused mth cinnamon-buff or pinkish 



* As in M. flaviventra. 



2 Excepting M. olympus, which is relatively wider interorbitally. 



