﻿July, 1896.] 



NOMENCLATURE. 



11 



The 5'Ouiig are boru iu uests made of soft vegetable libers. The nests 

 are usually placed iu a burrow or beneath shelter of some kind and 

 vary with the size of the animals, but are usually about 200 mm. in 

 diameter. The species of Fibe)' make nests containiDg- several bushels 

 of material. These are conspicuous objects iu the marshes where the 

 animals live. Under conditions the nature of which is not understood 

 the rate of increase in certain species is occasionally so enormously 

 accelerated that an area becomes overcrowded and the animals wander 

 into the surrounding country in search of food. So far as known, such 

 'lemming migrations' and 'vole plagues' are phenomena peculiar to the 

 Old World.i 



NOMENCLATURE. 



Before considering the characters of the genera and subgenera of 

 Microtinw it is necessary to examine a considerable part of the mass of 

 technical literature to whicli, during the past hundred and forty years, 

 the animals in question have given rise. Since Linnaeus published the 

 tenth edition of the Systema ^aturse more than fifty names have been 

 used for the less than two dozen namable superspecific groups recog- 

 nizable in the subfamily. In considering their claims to recognition 

 the names may be best taken up chronologically. 



Mus Linnaeus, 1758 (Syst. Kat., Ed. 10, }>. 59), contained the following 

 species: Forcellus, leporinus^ lemmns, marmota, monax, cricetus, terres- 

 triSj amphibius, rattus^ musciilus, aveJlanarlus, sylvatictis, striatus, lon- 

 gipes^ jacidus^ volans. Since two- of these [lemmus and terrestris) are 



'An account of the migrations of Lemmus lemmus in Norway is given by Prof. R. 

 CoUett in Chrisfciania Videnskabs-Selskabs Forhandlinger, 1895, Xo. 3. 



For description of a A'ole plague in Scotland, see Report of the Departmental 

 Committee appointed by the Board of Agriculture to inc|uire into a Plague of Field 

 Voles in Scotland. London, 1893. 



^Apparently three, but terrestris and amjyhihius are, as Lataste has already shown, 

 the same animal. The Mus amjyhibius of Linntvus is nothing more than a hgment of 

 the imagination based on Ray's misconception that there is a large aquatic vole with 

 webbed feet. 



Since the matter is of importance as determining the validity of the current name 

 of one of the most common European mammals, I quote Linnseus's descriptions in full : 



'■[Mus] terrestris, 7. M. cauda mediocri subpilosa, palmis subtetradactylis, 

 plantis xjentadactylis, auriculis vellere brevioribus. 



''Mus Cauda lougissima pilosa, auribus subrotundis vellere brevioribus. Fu. svec. 

 29. Syst. Nat., 10, n. 5. 



"Mus agrestis, capite grandi, brachiuros. Raj. quadr. 218. 



"Habitat in Europie terra et aqua. 



"Corpus fuscum subtus pallidum, at non albicans. Caput crassius, ore gibbo. 

 Cauda magis pilosa, cjuani in Ratto, sed corpore dimido brevior, a pedibus fere longior. 



" Hortos TalpiB instar misere effodit palmis licet parvis ; natat in fossis et urinatur 

 plantis licet fissis ; Radices arborum decorticat, plantarum consumit s. aufert ; Pullos 

 anatum in piscinis occidit. 



" [Mus] amphibius, 8. M. cauda elongata pilosa, plantis palmatis. 



"Mus major aquaticus s. Rattus aquations. Raj. quadr. 217. 



"Mus aquaticus. Bell, aquat. 35. t. 36. 



