BANGS: LAND MAMMALS OF FLORIDA AND GEORGIA. 191 
locality (New Berlin and Burnside Beacli, Florida) agree very well 
among themselves, and are perfect intergrades between the brown 
form and jS. littoralis of southeastern Florida. The fine series 
of thirty-five specimens collected by Mr. Brown at New Berlin 
and Burnside Beach, that may be considered topotypes, is of great 
interest. Skins can be picked out that will exactly match extremes 
of either race, but the general trend of the series is so perfectly 
intermediate between the two extreme races that it would be 
impossible to decide which form should best receive subspecific 
separation. Specimens from central Florida (Gainesville, etc.) are 
nearer the brown northern form, but begin to approach subspecies 
jS. spadicipygus. 
The cotton rat is the most abundant small mammal of the region 
it occupies, and lives everywhere except in the denser swamps and 
hummocks, though preferring open country. It often occurs in 
enormous numbers in the more favorable places. In the fields and 
patches of blackberry vines around the big wet prairie near Gaines¬ 
ville, Florida, cotton rats were as numerous as I ever saw any other 
small mammal. 
The cotton rat is subject to a considerable range of color variation 
locally, the difference being much the same as seen in Microtus 
pennsylvanicus in the north. On Ossabaw Island there is a very 
pallid race, with a tendency to have pale buff or cinnamon under 
parts. On Cumberland Island the rats have a tendency to very 
dark-colored under parts, and so on. When I was trapping sub¬ 
species S. littoralis at the type locality, I could always distinguish 
examples taken along the upper beach from those I caught in the 
savannahs. 1 Mr. Brown and I found the cotton rat at all places we 
have, either of us, visited, except St. Catherine’s Island and Skidda- 
way Island where the species is unknown. 
I have specimens as follows: Georgia: Hursman’s Lake, thirty- 
one; Pinetucky, twelve; Ossabaw Island, forty-eight; Montgomery, 
sixty; Barrington, eight; Sterling, one; Cumberland Island, 
eighteen; St. Mary’s, six. Florida: New Berlin, thirty-two; Burn¬ 
side Beach, three (those from the last four places are intermediate 
between hispidus and littoralis) ; Gainesville, fourteen; Crystal 
River, Citrus County, two (those from last two places approach 
subspecies spadicipygus, though much nearer hispidus). 
iMr. Cliapman says he could separate the two series he caught on Corpus Cliristi 
Island, one on the marshes, the other in the chapparel. 
