Mammals taken Along the Alaska HighwayBaker, Rollin H. (Rollin Harold)
Science
Mammals taken Along the Alaska Highway
Baker, Rollin H. (Rollin Harold)
Mammals -- North America
_Remarks._--The single adult male, obtained by Alcorn, has been
compared by Dr. Henry W. Setzer with specimens of _Microtus muriei_
Nelson, _M. miurus miurus_ Osgood, and _M. m. oreas_ Osgood in the
United States National Museum. He reports that the specimen is related
most closely to _M. miurus_ but exhibits characters by which it is, at
least, subspecifically distinct from these two forms of this species.
Three specimens of _M. andersoni_ Rand and one of _M. cantator_
Anderson, borrowed from the National Museum of Canada are less mature
than the specimen in question. Even so, the male from Fish Creek is
less gray than _M. andersoni_ and as seen from measurements of the
type, an adult male (Rand, 1945:42), is larger with longer tail and
has a shorter and narrower skull and is judged to be taxonomically
separable. _M. cantator_ was named from two specimens; both the
paratype (seen by me) and seemingly the type are too young to show
clearly subspecific characters. Alcorn's specimen is tentatively
referred to _M. cantator_ until some adult topotypes can be obtained.
Measurements of the male, No. 21539, from Fish Creek, are: Total
length, 152; length of tail, 30; hind foot, 22; condylobasal length,
28.0; basal length, 26.6; length of nasals, 7.1; zygomatic breadth,
13.8; breadth across auditory bullae, 11.5; least interorbital
breadth, 3.3; alveolar length of upper molariform tooth-row, 6.2.
Alcorn took this specimen in an area above timberline where a low
growth of willow was the dominant vegetation. Traps were set where he
had seen a mouse go into a small burrow. The next morning, August 18,
1947, he found this specimen and two _Microtus oeconomus macfarlani_
in his traps.
Microtines of the subgenus _Stenocranius_ from continental areas of
Alaska and Northwestern Canada are represented in collections by a few
specimens from widely separated localities. Lacking material from
intermediate localities, describers have given specific recognition to
several of these isolated populations. Future collecting will be
necessary to disclose whether the North American mice of this subgenus
belong to one or to more than one species and may disclose whether or
not there has been more than one invasion of the North American
continent by members of this Asiatic group.
Microtus longicaudus vellerosus J. A. Allen
Long-tailed Meadow Mouse
_Microtus vellerosus_ J. A. Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.,
12:7, March 4, 1899. (Type from upper Liard River, British Columbia,
Canada.)
_Microtus longicaudus vellerosus_ Anderson and Rand, Canadian
Field-Nat., 58:20, April 1, 1944.
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