64 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[ NO. 39. 



SlcuU. — Compared with that of hottse the skull is light and slender, 

 without conspicuous ridges or angles in old age; the incisors are 

 decurved; interorbital region wide and flat; interparietal quadrate; 

 auditory meatus smaller ; zygomatic arches less spreading ; and nasals 

 conspicuously widened anteriorly. From that of fulvus the skull 

 differs less in size and proportions, but has relatively heavier dentition; 

 smaller bullae; narrower basioccipital ; larger, more quadrate inter- 

 parietal; and narrower posterior part of nasals. 



Measurements. — Average of 5 topotypes ( c? ad.) : Total length, 

 222; tail vertebrae, 61; hind foot, 30.3. Average of 5 topotypes 

 (9 ad.): 222, 63, 30. SluU (of type, J ad.): Basal length, 36; 

 nasals, 14; zygomatic breadth, 25; mastoid breadth, 19; interorbital 

 breadth, 6.6; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8. 



Remarks. — Typical alpinus seems not readily to fall into any of 

 the larger groups of species. From fulvus it differs more than from 

 hottse, and from the little slender-skulled monticola still more widely, 

 except in the large ears. From the perpallidus group it differs in 

 long, narrow skull, large molars, and in so many other details as to in- 

 dicate no close connection. From nigricans it differs less in -either 

 color or cranial characters than from hottse but shows larger molars, 

 more spreading nasals, greatest width of zygomata posterior instead 

 of anterior to middle, and other distinctions. For the present it 

 may well be retained as the center of a group to which awaJinee and 

 neglectus -belong, and possibly also jacinteus and martirensis. 

 Specimens examined. — Total number, 158, as follows: 

 California (southern High Sierra): Big Cottonwood Meadows (10,000 feet alti- 

 tude), 30; Cottonwood Creek (9,500 feet), 2; Cottonwood Lakes (11,000 feet), 

 25; Jackass Meadows (7,000 feet), 12; Jordan Hot Springs (6,700 feet), 8; 

 Menache Meadows (8,000 feet), 17; Olanche Peak (9,000-9,750 feet), 6; 

 Ramshaw Meadows, 3; Red Rock Meadows (9,000 feet), 2; Siretta Meadows 

 (9,000 feet), 1; Trout Creek (6,000 feet), 19; Whitney Meadows (9,000 feet), 33. 



THOMOMYS ALPINUS AWAHNEE Merriam. 

 YosEMiTE Pocket Gopher. 

 (PI. V, fig. 9.) 



Thomomys alpinus awahnee Merriam, Proc. BioL Soc. Washington, XXI, 146, June 9, 

 1908. 



Type. — Collected in Yosemite Valley, Mariposa County, Calif ornia^ 

 (at 4,000 feet altitude in bottom of valley, near the Sentinel Hotel), 

 by N. Hollister, June 14, 1904. Type specimen in U. S. Nat. Mus., 

 Biological Survey collection. 



Distribution. — Western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, Cal., from 

 Sequoia, Tuolumne County, south to Tehachapi Peak (fig. 6). 



Characters. — Size small; colors dull and dark; skull slender and nar- 

 row, with short rostrum and abruptly decurved incisors ; mammae in 

 4 pairs. 



