1915. ] 



THOMOMYS FUSCUS GROUP. 



129 



THOMOMYS FUSCUS LORINGI Bailey. 

 Alberta Pocket Gopher. 



(PI. VIII, fig. 9.) 



Thomomys fuscus loringi Bailey, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, XXVII, 118, July 10, 

 1914. 



Type. — Collected at South Edmonton, Alberta (exact locality not 

 given), by J. Alden Loring, September 23, 1894. Type specimen in 

 U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey collection. 



Distribution. — Known only from Edmonton and Moose Mountain, 

 Alberta (fig. 5). 



Characters. — Similar to fuscus, but slightly larger and duller colored, 

 with relatively heavier dentition, and small, circular interparietal; 

 ears small and pointed. 



Color. — Winter pelage (September 23): Upperparts dull russet- 

 brown, becoming rich buff on sides; nose slaty gray; small ear patch 

 black; underparts rich buffy over plumbeous; chin and small spot 

 on breast white; feet soiled whitish; tail pale buffy. Summer 

 pelage (in two July 2 specimens from Moose Mountains) : Similar but 

 slightly brighter russet. 



Slcull. — Long and slender, with narrow braincase and small, nearly 

 quadrate zygomatic arches, and almost circular interparietal; incisors 

 less abruptly decurved than in fuscus; molars heavier; bullae about the 

 same; basioccipital somewhat triangular; nasals narrow and trun- 

 cate at posterior tips. 



Measurements. — Type ad.): Total length, 199; tail vertebrae, 

 47; hind foot, 26.5. Slcull (of type): Basal length, 34; nasals, 12.8; 

 zygomatic breadth, 20.5; mastoid breadth, 18; interorbital breadth, 

 6; alveolar length of upper molar series, 8. 



RemarTcs. — Although represented by only one specimen from the type 

 locality, which is well out on the plains, this is evidently a form of the 

 mountain s^Qcies fuscus from farther south and west. Two skins in 

 the Victoria Memorial Museum from Moose Mountain are apparently 

 the same, while specimens from St. Marys Lake, Glacier Park, Mont., 

 show a slight tendency toward the characters represented by this 

 form, but are much nearer typical /itsctts. Specimens from Shuswap, 

 British Columbia, much farther west, show none of the characters of 

 this form. There are no specimens of gophers available from the 

 mountains of western Alberta, between Moose Mountain and the 

 Montana line, but in this strip of country no collections have been 

 made, and probably gophers occur along the eastern slope of the 

 mountains from the United States boundary north to the Edmonton 

 region. 



Loring collected specimens of talpoides about Edmonton, but these 

 large, dark-colored, large-footed gophers are quite distinct from the 



98121°— 15 9 



