^^^^ 1 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924024782694 Cornell University Library QL 715.R47 Mammals of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. 3 1924 024 782 694 THE MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. A BIOGRAPHIC, HISTORIC AND DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT FURRED ANIMALS OF LAND AND SEA, BOTH LIVING AND EXTINCT, KNOWN TO HAVE EXISTED IN THESE STATES. DESIGNED AS BOTH A POPULAR AND SCIENTIFIC PRESENTATION OF A BRANCH OF NATURE-STUDY HITHERTO UNDULY NEGLECTED. BY SAMUEL N. RHOADS. " Who teacheth us tnore than the beasts of the earth f " — Job xxxv, 11. ILLUSTRATED WITH PLATES AND A FAUNAL MAP. PHILADELPHIA. PRIVATELY PUBLISHED. IQO-?. Copyrighted, 1903, BV SAMUEL N. RHOADS. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. BY SAMUEL N. RHOADS. INTRODUCTION. Job, the ancient divine and naturalist, asks, " Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth or maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven ? " Owing to the difficulty of making acquaintance with those "beasts of the earth" which we call Mammals, because of their nocturnal, subterranean or aquatic habits, the study of mammalogy has never been as popular as that of the " fowls of heaven." It is, however, no less an interesting and profitable study and even yet furnishes the investigator, in spite of the great activity of the past decade in that branch, a far richer field for original zoological study than does ornithology. To man, himself a mammal, the importance of this study, especially as regards his physical, mental and spiritual relation- ships to the beasts of the eartt, cannot, perhaps, be overestimated. One of the most noticeable developments in biological research at the present day is along the line of geographic distribution. It has resulted in the solution of many vexed problems which the last century biologist vainly pondered. In the prosecution of this line of research much is discovered of an incidental character relating to the life-history of created things which has hitherto been hidden away. These are some of the facts which induced me, eleven years ago, to begin the work which forms the subject of this paper. In these studies I have been aided to a limited extent by the all- too-meagre and often misleading faunal publications of previous authors. More substantial and valuable aid has been received by means of voluminous correspondence and personal interviews with naturalists, trappers, hunters, old pioneers and frontiersmen living in the regions named. The main source of information, however, has been personal field experience in nearly every county in the two states. The collections of Pennsylvania and New Jersey mammals, resulting from this work, and numbering about 2,000 speci- mens, have recently been acquired by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. For the use of the unrivalled literary and museum facilities of this institution and the continued courtesy of its officers I am glad to have this opportunity to express my thankfulness. 2 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. The scope of the work now completed, may be thus defined. It treats of both living and extinct, recent and fossil, land and sea mammals found in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the feral state. It includes not only those indigenous or native to the region but also those which have been intro- duced there either from native or foreign regions, whether by man's direct importation or by voluntary migration due to faunal and floral changes wrought by the deforesting and settling of the country since the beginnings of colonial history. After giving each native species and sub-species its most approved popular and scientific nomenclature with double literary references for the student, the " Type locality" " Faunal distribution," "Distribution in Pennsylvania and New jFersey" "Records" in the two states, "Habits and economic status," "Historic references" "Description of species" and enumeration of "Specimen sexamined," are also given more or less fully as each requires. The fossil species are more briefly considered and in a separate division. Reference has already been made to the importance of the study of faunal distribution. A map of the two states, giving the limitations of the Lower Canadian, Transition and Upper Austral life-zones represented in their limits, has been prepared and the distribution of each species given in the text is stated in terms of these. The results of my observations enable me to define these with greater exactness than was heretofore possible, and to alter, in some degree, the complexion of the zoogeographic map heretofore used as a standard by students. As near as possible this is made to conform to our knowledge of primeval conditions, a standard now difficult to reproduce, owing to the vital biological changes which have resulted solely from the deforestation of our country. Fire, axe, flood, summer sun and winter frost have made the famous hunting grounds and natural game preserves of the Pennsylvania AUeghanies a wilderness indeed. Where once the Canada Lynx, Wolverene, Fisher, Marten, Canada Deer-Mouse, Woodland Jumping Mouse, Northern Hare, and Marsh Shrew found a congenial home, the average mid-summer temperature may now be roughly said to have risen 20 degrees, drought and flood quickly succeed each other, winds become tem- pests and winter takes on an Arctic severity. Instead of white pines and hemlocks we have scrub oaks and briars ; instead of fern beds, sphagnum and moist shade we find bare rocks, glaring sun, and withered vegetation. The grinning opossum sneaks up the south slope as the last snowshoe hare hops down the northern one, and the lowland cotton-tail forthwith jumps her ancestral claim. While the rifle and the trap remained their greatest enemies, the beasts of the earth and the fowls of heaven had an even chance, but the era of axe and fire and commercialism has doomed them, unless the era of forestry soon rescues them from extinction. To explain more fully the use and intent of the accompanying map of the MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 3 faunae or life-zones of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, I will quote G. S. Miller, Jr.'s, lucid remarks thereon, given in his "Preliminary List of the Mammals of New York," " The importance of an acquaintance with the life-areas of a region, as a key to the geographic distribution of the animals and plants, is liardly to be over-estimated. SUch knowledge furnishes ready and exact means of defining the ranges of species without the tedious enumeration of isolated localities, and offers moreover an explanation of the principal factor governing those associations of species that constitute local faunae and florae. Briefly defined, a life-zone is a trans-continental area bounded by certain isothermal (average temperature) lines, and characterized by relative uniformity of fauna and flora. Together with the isotherms a life- zone normally extends in an approximately east and west direction, but both are subject to endless deviations. Elevations in the surface of the earth cause the life-zones to bend to the southward, often many hundreds of miles beyond their sea level position. Furthermore, a life-zone is not necessarily ■continuous. It often happens that isolated hills or mountains reach a suffi- cient height to have about their summits the climatic conditions char- acteristic of a more northerly zone than at their bases. Effects similar to those of elevation are produced by isolated swamps and cold rock slides." Illustrative of these remarks we find on looking at the map of Pennsylvania that the higher Alleghanian chain bearing the Canadian fauna on its crest, •cuts the eastern and western extension of the transition zone in half, while the valley of the upper eastern branch of the Susquehanna brings about a reversal of these conditions by bisecting the Canadian zone with an offset' of the Transition. In Fayette and Somerset Counties a most striking alterna- tion of Austral, Canadian and Transition zones occurs as we travel along the Maryland line, due to the intrusive parallel range of the Alleghany ridge. Laurel ridge, and Chestnut ridge, with their intervening valleys. In the upper Austral zone of south New Jersey the " boreal " or transition islands of cool, dense -shaded cedar swamp and bog are a striking illustration of local conditions, and a like instance is the typical Canadian fauna of certain tamarack and fir swamps set in the midst of otherwise doubtfully Canadian regions in the northern part of both states. In North America seven life zones are represented. These are (begin- ning at the north) the Arctic, Hudsonian, Canadian, Transition, Upper Austral, Lower Austral and Tropical. The temperatures limiting three life areas formed in our limits are tabulated as follows, by Merriara : — These are based on the two laws " ( i ) The northward distribution of animals and plants is determined by the total quantity of heat- — the sum of the effective tem- Jteraiures. (z) The southward distribution of Boreal, Transition zone and Upper Austral species is determined by the mean temperature of the hottest Jiart of the year." Southern limit of the Canadian zone is defined by the iso- 4 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANU AND NEW JERSEY. therm showing a normal mean temperature of six hottest consecutive weeks of 64.4 degrees; of the Transition zone, ditto, 71.6 degrees; of the Upper Austral, 78.8 degrees. The northern limits of the Transition and Upper Austral zones are defined by the sum of normal, mean daily temperatures for the year above 43 degrees, which is 10,000 degrees for the Transitioi* and 11,500 for the Upper Austral. In the case of rare or exterminated species a series of records of their historic or more recent occurrence in the various parts of the two states is given by counties. These have been condensed and summarized from an extended correspondence with observers, historians, scientific students, trap- pers, .furriers and sportsmen, some of whom, very old men, have since died, and their valuable knowledge of pioneer conditions in our limits would have largely gone with them had it not been thus recorded. The habits and economic relations of most of the species are touched upon ; those of greater interest, because so little known, as popularly mis- judged or now exterminated, are more fully treated. In this connection it may be stated that there is only one species of native mouse in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, namely, the mole mouse, underground' meadow mouse, or pine vole, M. pinetorum, whose food habits may be said to be so noxious as to make its extermination a desideratum. Moles, shrews and common meadow mice are greatly misunderstood even by ihose who profess to study them from an economic point of view. The status of the rapacious carnivora — skunks, weasels, minks, coons, bears, wild cats, foxes, etc. — which still forni a large part of the living population of our forests, deserves as thorough study as has been recently given by the United States Department of Agri- culture to rapacious birds. From the researches of Dr. Warren in Penn- sylvania along this line we may predict that the popular verdict on these vagabonds will in many cases be found faulty. The commercial importance of many so-calle4 "injurious" mammals, which yield either food or furs to man, is far greater than many realize. For instance the trade, and conse- quent profits, arising from the traipping of muskrats in the Delaware Valley alone amounts to many thousands of dollars annually, and offsets a hundred fold their destruction of dikes, dams, forage crops or grain. The bodies of these muskrats are rarely wasted, being so prized in Cumberland Go.,. New Jersey, as to have a standard market value of five to eight cents each. The Cetacea, or Whales and Dolphins, generally ignored in mammal" study because of the confusion so long existing as to their character, identity and habits, have been given special attention, forming as they do^ such a numerous representation in the waters of New Jersey. No less than eighteen species of these leviathans, ranging in length from '5 tb 8q feet, wander to or now exist off our shores, some of the "" largest entering tidewater as far inland as Trenton. Nine additional extinct whales roamed MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. S in the once tropical waters which covered southern New Jersey during the Miocene period. Whaling formed, at one time, an industrial feature of the New Jersey coasts, but has long been abandoned. Species now extinct in our limits, which formed an important role in the doirjestic economy of' our great-grandfathers are the Bison, Wapiti or Elk, Beaver, Cougar or " Panther " and Wolf. The bison, only a straggler east of the Susquehanna, and never abundant in Pennsylvania in the white man's memory, was last killed in Union Co., Pa., about 1800. The last Pennsylva- nia Elk or Wapiti was killed in Elk Co., in 1867 by Cornplanter Indians from the Cattaraugus Reservation. This animal was formerly abundant over the greater part of the state in the higher grounds, and was used as food. Though the native Beaver has been practically exterminated in our limits since 1875 there is a colony of wild beavers in Monroe Co., Pa., and several others in Sussex Co., N. J., all of which, there seems little doubt, are de- scendants of escaped imported beavers from Rutherford's game preserve near Allamuchy, Warren Co., N. J. They are increasing, and laws are being enacted for their preservation. The last Pennsylvania Cougars or "panthers" of which I have absolute proof of capture were a male and a female, killed in Clinton Co. by George Hastings in 1871. A Centre Co. specimen is recorded In the bounty records of that county for 1886, but I have been unable to verify its reliability. Others have been reported killed as late as 1893, but are of doubtful standing. Native Wolves apparently existed in Pennsylvania as late as 1890. All wolves killed since then seem to have been importations liberated by bounty thieves or escaped from traveling shows. Wolfish dogs are a perennial source of local Wolf stories. The Canada Lynx, never numerous here, probably lingers in solitary cases in the northern wilds of Pennsylvania. Bears, Wild Cats and Foxes are in- creasing in our extensive deforested districts. The list of fossil mammalia found in Pennsylvania and New Jersey greatly exceeds that of the rest of the United States east of the Mississippi river. This is due to the discovery of the numerous fossil-bearing limestone caves and fissures in the Delaware valley, and to the researches of Leidy, Marsh and Cope among these and in the marl beds of New Jersey. Of mammals strictly non-recent, our list of fossil mammalia embraces the following : Edentates or giant sloths, 5 species ; Sirenians or aquatic manatees and dugongs, 2 ; Cetaceans or whales and dolphins, 9 ; Ungulates, such as the elephant, rhinoceros, tapir, horse, peccaries, deer and wild oxen, 16 ; Rodents, such as pikas, giant beavers, rats and squirrels, 10; Pinnipeds, such as walrus and sea leopard, 3 ; Carnivores, such as sabre-tooth cats, cave bears, skunks and otters, 15, and Insectivores, such as shrews, x. In all there are 61 species of strictly fossil non-existent species recorded from our limits, the greater part of which were originally discovered in Pennsylvania 6 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. and New Jersey. If we add to these the 30 species found associated in the fossil state with the others, but which are identical with existing species, we have a list of 91 species of fossil mammalia recorded from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Comparing this with the list of species native to and recently existing in the two states and which numbers 71 species and 25 subspecies or geographic races, we have the rather extraordinary result of a known extinpt mammalian fauna of two eastern states exceeding their existing- mammal fauna. This is the more noteworthy in that nearly all of the terrestrial extinct species have been found in pleistocene, drift or terrace periods, which are supposed to so closely antedate the present age. In contrast with this I may mention that the known extinct mammalian fauna of New York, as given recently by Miller, only numbers 5 species. Another interesting fact, shown by our list, is the former existence in Pennsylvania, and New Jersey of living species now confined to the Arctic and sub-Arctic faunae of Canada. Of these I may mention the caribou, musk ox, moose,, wolverene and walrus. Of the southern or tropical fossil genera, once very abundant in the Delaware Valley, none of the characteristic Sirenians. giant sloths, shark-toothed dolphins, tapirs, peccaries, mastodons, rhinoceros, or sabre-tooth cats now exist anywhere in the earth. These are two of the many interesting proofs of the Arctic source of Postpliocene extinction. It will naturally be asked, " What previous publications have been made regarding the mammalogy of Pennsylvania and New Jersey? " The most pretentioas, and in fact the only work relating to the entire state of Pennsylvania is found in much scattered form in Dr. B. H. War- ren's part of the book entitled '•' Diseases and Enemies of Poultry," pub- lished in 1897 by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. In this many mammals are treated at length from the economic standpoint, and incidentally a large amount of valuable information, secured from residents of the state, has been recorded regarding .other species. As a book of general reference, however, or as a list of species of Pennsylvania mammals, the book makes no pretensions. A few local Pennsylvania county lists, almost worse than useless because misleading, "have been inserted in older histories."' The same may be said of the local county literature relating to New Jersey. Dr. C. C. Abbot's list of mammals, published in the appendix to the " Geology of New Jersey" in 1868, is the only one relating to the recent mammalia of that state worthy of mention. It enumerates forty-seven species, about one-half of the number now known. Prof. E. D. Cope's list of extinct New Jersey mammals in the same book includes only twenty species,, nearly all of which were based on specimens from the marl beds. This number, in the light of subsequent discoveries, is nearly doubled. Since the studies just summarized were begun, twelve existing species, not previously known to occur in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, have been there MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 7 discovered. Of these, four, a small weasel, a native cave rat larger than the Norway rat, a red-backed wood mouse or vole, and a lemming-vole, the former two from Pennsylvania, the latter from New Jersey, have been de- scribed as new to science. The specific synonymy used in the present paper is strictly confined to a double literary reference ; first, to the earliest use of the name accompanied by an original description of the species ; secondly, to the first use of the bi- nomial or trinomial which I have considered applicable to it in the light of present knowledge. The unpublished quotations from correspondents are suc- ceeded by their last names only, and a list of these with their addresses given in full at the end of the paper. Published quotations are accompanied by references. No bibliographic list has been prepared owing to the very lim- ited number of references of importance relating to our mammals except those published in Philadelphia Journals of the Academy of Natural Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and in the American Naturalist. The measurements given are in millimeters, their equivalents in inches being given in brackets following. It may be explained that the " Type Locality " is the place or region where the specimen orspecimens forming the original description of the species, binomially named, was a native. The excellence of the illustrations is largely due to the skillful reproductive photography of Mr. H. Parker Rolf e, of Philadelphia. Space fails me to here express more particularly the kind assistance rendered by the many correspondents whose names are given in the appendix. They have my grateful thanks. Audubon, N. J., April ii, 1903. LIST OF RECENT MAMMALS INDIGENOUS TO PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. Class MAMMALIA. Order Marsupalia ; Marsiipials. i Family Didelphid^e ; OposSums. Genus Didelphis Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, 1758, Vol. I., p. 54. Northeastern or Virginia Opossum. Didelphis virginiana Kerr. 1792. Didelphis virginianus Kerr, Animal Kingdom, Vol. i. Systematic catalog inserted between pages 32 and 33 ; description on another page. Type locality. — Virginia (Colonial). Faunal distribution. — New York to Florida, west to Mississippi valley. Formerly confined to austral zones ; now invading the transition zone. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Variably abundant in middle and southern counties in all situations except in the mountain summits ; extending north- ward in lessening numbers along river valleys to and into New York state from Lake Erie to the Hudson River. With the deforesting of the mountains in- vading large areas of the AUeghanian regions previously unknown to them. Equally " at home " in the lumber piles and hen roosts of the town as among the untrodden haunts of the wilderness. Records in Pa. (extralimital only given) : Armstrong and Butler Cos. — " I have examined specimens from the Buf- falo Creek region of these two counties." — Todd, 1902. Cameron C(7.— "Last winter (1895) two were brought to Emporium." — Larrabee. Centre Co. — Rare, and at lower levels only. One killed at State College in 1895. — Fernald. Clinton Co. — Specimen in Pierce's collection taken near Renovo. I saw tracks of one, Nov., 1898, along the Sinnemahoning at Round Island. — (8) MAMMALS ] K^ "VV- Viryiwio.. 2^ WM Ca.nali'vnZife. %one.. " Uff^^l N. J., RHOADS. I a H,%.-* a^)ma ••r^ i ' S,U5QUEHAmS ■^\ ,% H ^ M ^^*nw«*villc. '>^^/ Bl"^"?,.' ••^-w / ■■■ '^'' •Jk* ^'f(' i°7 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 9 Rhoads. Catch one in 5 or 6 years in bottom land ; also caught one in bear trap on top of mountain (1800 ft.) near Round Island. — Nelson, 1896. Columbia Co. — More plenty last four years (1896 to 1900) ; once very rare at Fishing Creek. — Buckalew. Erie Co. — "A skull was picked up on the peninsula at Erie, spring of 1900."— Todd. Lycoming Co. — ^Coming in rarely at Eaglesmere in last six years (1890-96). — Bennett. Monroe and Pike Cos. — Rare on Pocono plateau, coming up to 1500 feet. Specimens taken at Porter's Lake. Less rare at Dingman's Ferry. — Rhoads,. 1895. Somerset Co. — " Becoming numerous near New Lexington in the last few years. I killed one on my hen roost two months ago (Nov., 1900). Ten or fifteen years ago none here." — Moore. Sullivan Co., Lopez. — They reach the top of our mountains. I saw the trail of one in a new fall of snow in January, 1901, near our camp. We caught one in (March?) 1901 near Lopez. — Behr. Tioga Co. — Several caught in 1898 in vicinity of Canton. — Cleveland. Union Co. — Increasing at Mifflinburg.— Chambers, 1901. Wyoming Co. — G. F. Smith records one in 1896 as a very rare occurrence, — Warren. Records in N. J. (extralimital only given). — The opossum probably was never absent from any part of New Jersey as it once was in the more boreal parts of Pennsylvania. — Rhoads. Bergen Co. — Found sparingly along the Palisades. — Rhoads, 1902. Hudson Co. — Audubon states (Quad. N. Amer., Vol. 2, p. 124) opossums were sometimes found within five or ten miles of New York City in New Jersey. Passaic Co. — Two were captured in 1895 and 1896 by hunters near Greenwood Lake ; considered rare at that place. Occasional on the Bearfoot Mountains (700 to 1400 feet). Rhoads, fide Leonard Wright. Habits, etc. — Spending the day in hollow trees, logs, deserted burrows, drains, sewers, rail and brush piles, ricks and outbuildings ; prowling at night for fruit, nuts, mammals, eggs, birds, reptiles, mollusks, insects and Crustacea. In extremity a cannibal and e,ater of carrion. Owing its urban existence to non-resistance, fecundity, omnivorous diet and a prehensile tail. Producing sometimes as many as sixteen young, which at birth are three-fourths inch long, naked and with rudimentary hind limbs ; each securely attached to a teat within the abdpminal pouch, from which they emerge when of the size of small rats and cling by tail and feet to the body of the parent. Stated to have three litters in a year. Its habit of eating wild birds, their eggs and young, and its fondness for poultry offset in some degree its usefulness as a 10 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. scavenger, an eater of injurious animals, a producer of furs and food for man. It may be safely classed as a useful animal whose overabundance in populous ■districts may be easily checked by the trapper's arts. Order Cetacea; Whales and Dolphins. Family BalaenidjE ; Whalebone or Baleen Whales. Genus Balaena Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, 1758, Vol. I, p. 75. Black Right Whale. Balmna gladalis Bonnaterre. 1789. Balana glacialis Bonnaterre, Tableau Encycl. and Method, des Trois Regnes de la Nature, Cetologie, p. 3. • Type locality. — Near the coasts of Norway and Iceland. Faunal distribution. — North Atlantic Ocean. Distribution in Pa. and N.J. — Rare along the New Jersey coast in winter ; sometimes ascending Delaware and New York Bays. Habits, etc. — Once abundant in the north Atlantic and nearing extinction, "but now increasing in numbers. — Holder, 1883. The baleen or sieve-like bristles within the mouth separate the minute crustaceans and pteropods which swarm in immense shoals where it feeds. To secure these it takes a mouthful of water and in the act of closing it and ejecting the water the taleen project from the palate automatically and close together in front of the ejected water, straining out and retaining any food which it contains. True says (Cat. Aquat. Mam. U. S. N. M., Ind. Fish Exhib., 1884, p. 13^) that this species " is believed to have been the object of very considerable fishery in early colonial times, but has disappeared entirely for many years." Records in Pa. and N. J.: "They were formerly abundant about the mouth of the Delaware river. A letter of William Penn dated 1683 states that eleven were taken that year about the Capes. Five specimens are stated to have been seen in tiie Dela- ware river since that time, and two of great size are recorded to have been seen on the coast of Maryland." — Cope, Proc. A. N. Sci., Phila., 1865, p. 168. The type specimen of Cope's Balaena cisarctica^noyi considered a synonym oi B. glacialis, was taken in 1862 in the river opposite Philadelphia. Its skeleton is now mounted in the museum of the Academy of Natural Sci- ences of Philadelphia. See Proceeeings of the Academy above cited. — Rhoads, 1902. New York Bay. — "Some are known to enter New York Harbor." — Cope, 1. c. A specimen, apparently of this species, is in the Rutgers College Museum, MAMMELS PA. AND N. J., RHOADS, PLATE 1. I.,Prt«l"VYftVAaIe. Oi-fftrtioioT^ Xillei-WActle. (Oreinufl). WHALES AND DOLPHINS {Cetaceans). MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. II taken from the Raritan River, near Sayreville, N. J., May, 1874, by Capt. E. G. Roberts. It is 42 feet long. — Rhoads. One of this species " was captured off the New Jersey coast by a crew of experienced Egg Harbor whalers by the usual method of harpooning. It was exhibited during several weeks of the spring of 1882 " after being brought to New York City. It was not preserved. See Holder, Bull. Amer. Mus. N. Hist., vol. i, p. 106. This is probably the species recorded by Ord in 1 815 in Guthrie's Geog- raphy, p. 292, as follows : " A young whale of this species \_Balaena mysticeiur of his list] was taken in the Delaware in the vicinity of the [Trenton] Falls^ in the latter part of the year 1814 ; and exhibited at Philadelphia." " Balaena mysticetus. — Has been twice known to occur within the limits of Delaware County." — Cassin, in History of Del. Co., Pa., 1862. Genus Balaenoptera Lacepede, Histoire Naturelle des Cetacees, 1803-4, p. xxxvi, in Tableau des Ordres. Little Piked Whale; Least Rorqual or Fin Back. Balamptera acuto-rostrata Lacepede. 1803-4. Bdlanoptera acuto-rostrata Lacepede, Histoire Naturelle des Cetacees, p. xxxvi. Tableau des Ordres, pp. 134, 141. Faunal distribution. — Atlantic Ocean, from Davis Straits to the Mediterra- nean Sea and New Jersey. Distribution in Pa. and N. y. — Very rare on the New Jersey coast. A doubtful specimen recorded from Pennsylvania waters. Habits, etc. — ^This smallest of the fin-backs, rarely exceeds 30 feet in length. It associates with the large rorquals and feeds largely on fish, though its- baleen undoubtedly enables it to net Crustacea, etc. It is distinguished from other whales by its white under parts, including the under side of tail and. flippers, and by the broad white band which crosses the outer side of the latter. The sharp, piked snout gives it its name. R&cords in Pa. and N. "jf. — " A pike-headed whale was caught some years since in the Delaware, near Reedy Island and shown in Philadelphia and New York." — Ord, Guthrie's Geography, 2d Amer. ed., 1815, p. 292. As this specimen was subjected to examination, the peculiarity of its head, as- indicated in the specific name given by Ord, would lend- color to the correct- ness of the identification. It may, however, have been a Megaptera, as Ord previously names it M. boops. Mr. True sends me the following record of a capture : " Long Beach, N. J.,, fall, 1866." This probably refers to the specimen recorded by Cope, Proc. A. N. Sci., Phila., p. 221, cast ashore opposite Westecujik on thie outer side- 12 MAMMAI^ OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. of Little Egg Harbpr near the residence of Wm. A. Crane. Cope^ makes it the type of a new genus (pp. 223-24) Agaphelus, and names it Agaphelus gibbosus. — Rhoads, 1902. General notes on baleen whales of Pa. and N. y. — ^The following relate chiefly to whalebone whales in our limits of the Rorqual and Right Whale species in this list : " In 1688 Phineas Pemberton of Pennsbury records one up as far as Trenton Falls [Delaware River]." In 1733 " two whales were ■chased in the Delaware, opposite Philadelphia, but escaped. — Watson's Annals." In 1693 Thomas Leaming settled at Cape May, N. J., and that winter went whaling, killing 8 whales, "5 of which they drove to the Hoarkills." In 169 1 the whaling industry of Cape May was so profitable that the business of a •cooper for oil barrels "made the demand and pay for casks certain." — See quotations from MSS. notes of T. Leaming in Geology of Cape May Co., N. J., 1857, pp. 17s, 176. Master Evelyn's Letter in Plantaganets' "New Albion," 1648, says : " There is much variety of . . . fish, whales and grampus," etc., jeferring by implication to the southernmost section of New Jersey. In the ^'Historical Collections of New Jersey," Barber and Howe, 1865, p. 369, there is a quotation from the manuscript of J. F. Watson, under date of July, 1833, which states : "I was surprised to learn from old Stephen Inman, one of the twelve islanders of Long Beach, himself aged 75 years, that he and his family had never ceased to be whale catchers along this coast. They de- vote themselves to it in February and March. Generally catch two or three of a season .... Whalebones of large size are seen bleaching on the sand." On page 41 of the Historical Collections, just cited, we read that whales were " numerous in winter on the coast and in the bay, where they frequently grounded ; '' also, that on the isth of February, 1668, a commis- sion was granted to a Company in Elizabethtown [Elizabeth], N, J., to take whales for 3 years. During that period a whale was cast ashore at Navesink and delivered to the Company. Vanderdonck in his Description of the New Netherlands says : " Whales are numerous in winter on the coast and in the "bay, where they frequently ground on the shoals and bars.'' A whale 40 feet long, of a whalebone or baleen species, was taken in June, 1874, at South Amboy, N. J. — See Forest and Stream, vol. 2, p. 267. This is ■probably the one in the Rutgers College Museum, previously recorded under Balaena glacialis. — Rhoads, 1902. Mr. H. W. Hand wiites me that a few of the large whales are seen an- nually off Cape May, usually in the early winter. — Rhoads, 1902. Great Finback ; Rorqual. Balxnoptera physalus (Linnaeus). 1758. Balmna physalus Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, p. 75. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 1 3 1897. Balanopiera physalus True, Proceedings U. S. National Museum, No. 1 163, p. 633, Type locality. — ^Spitzbergen (Marten's " Finfisch "). Faurial distribution. — The common large whale of the Atlantic Ocean and the one most frequently stranded upon our coasts. Distribution in Pa. and N.J. — Occasional along the coast of N. J., some- times entering bays. Habits, etc. — Dr. True writes me that this is " a migratory animal and the specimens stranded are probably from passing schools." No doubt these stranded animals on our New Jersey coast have been often crippled far at sea by collision with passing vessels. The food of this species is chiefly fish, herring and smelts being a favorite sort. It grows 60 to 70 feet long. Species of Balmnoptera are said to be able to stay under water 8 to 1 2 hours. They are inoffensive when attacked. No doubt some of the stranded speci- mens have been lured into shallow water on the New Jersey coast by the schools of " moss bunkers." Records in Pa. and N.J. — A jaw, apparently of this species, was found by -me on the beach near Beach Haven, N. J., about 1885. — Rhoads. Mr. True informs me that a specimen from Delaware Bay was stranded near Fenwick's Island Life Saving Station, Delaware, May 2, 1896. Great Blue Whale. BalcBnoptera musculus (Linnaeus). 1758. Balcena musculus Linnseus, Systema Naturae, p. 76. 1898. Balcenoptera musculus True, Proceedings United States National Museum, No. 1163, p. 633. Type locality. — Firth of Forth, Scotland (Sibbald's spec). Faunal distribution. — North Atlantic Ocean southward to shores of Eng- land and New Jersey \ a larger and more northerly ranging species than the -common Finback. Distribution in Pa. and N.J. — Occasionally noted on the N. J. coast. Habits, etc. — This, said to be the greatest of all animals living or extinct, is much larger than any other species of whale. The " sulphur- bottom " form -found in the Pacific has been taken nearly 100 feet long. They can swim at the rate of 1 2 miles an hour. Their food is mainly derived from schools of the smaller-Sized fish. Records in N. J. — Cape May Co., Ocean City. A large specimen was stranded October i, 1891. Its skeleton (No. 5316, A. N. S. Catalog.) is in the museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. It was measured in the flesh by Messrs. J. E. Ives and F. W. True, and found to be 67 feet long. Prof. E. D. Cope describes it at length in Proc. A. N. Sci., 1891, p. 474. 14 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. Genus Megaptera Gray, Zoology Voyage Erebus and Terror; 1846, p. 16. New England Humpback Whale. Megaptera nodosa (Bonnaterre). 1 789. Balcena nodosa Bonnaterre, Tableau Encycl. et Methodique ; Trois Regnes de la Nature ; Cetologie, p. 5. 1898. Megaptera nodosa True, Proc. U. S. National Museum, Nov. 4, Vol. 21, p. 635. Type locality. — Shores of New England (Dudley in Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, Lond.). Faunal distribution. — The East Atlantic form of the M. boops of authors is numerous on the entire Atlantic coast of the United States. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Occurring off the New Jersey coast ; speci- mens having been taken on the coast of Maine, Massachusetts and Virginia, and described by Cope (Proc. A. N. S., Phila., 1865, 1866) as M. osphyia. Habits, etc. — Owing to the poor quality of this whale it is avoided by whalers. It is distinguished from the rorqual by the great length and size of its fins. The hump-like form of the dorsal fin gives it the common name. They are extremely variable in color, black, white and gray being variously combined. The Megapteras are the only baleen whales which "breach" or leap clear of the water. They are very playful, striking each other resounding whacks with the immense flippers and thrashing about in and out of the water so as to be heard miles away in favorable weather. They have been known to spout twenty feet high in calm weather. The young number one to two. They feed on crustaceans and fish. Records in Pa. and N.J. — It is possible that the record of a "pike-headed whale" given by Ord (see under Baltenoptera acutorostrata above) as taken in the Delaware river, may have referred to this species. I know of no records of the stranding of this whale on our shores. — Rhoads, 1902. Family PhyseteriD/E ; Sperm or Toothed Whales. Genus Physeter Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, vol. i, 1758, p. 76. Sperm Whale ; Cachalot. Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus. 1758. Physeter macrocephalus Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, Vol. i, p. 76. Type locality. — Seas of Europe. Faunal distribution. — Temperate and tropical seas of the world. Rarely reaching arctic seas. Distribution in Pa. and N. jf. — Rarely washed ashore on the New Jersey coast. Not frequenting sandy seacoasts or shallow waters as do the rorquals.. Habits, etc. — This huge animal, the most desirable from an economic MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 1 5 Standpoint on account of its " sperm oil," subsists principally on the giant squids and cuttle fish and larger species of true fish which it quickly crushes in its toothed jaws. The color is black above, shading to gray. Its enormous head, shaped above like a rounded box, is nearly one-third the entire length of the animal. The flippers are small and it has only one blow-hole instead of two, as in the toothless baleen whales. These whales sometimes attack boats and even ships, crushing or staving them in. Records in N. J. — Mr. True kindly furnishes me with the following data : Cape May, N. J., Aug., 1882, a scapula, radius and ulna in U. S. National Museum, No. 20,872. — Young, i8'-6" long. Brigantine Beach, N. J., May 4, 1900. Young male. Genus Kogia Gray, Zoology Voyage Erebus and Terror, Vol. r, 1846, p. 22. Pigmy Sperm Whale. Kogia breviceps (De Blainville). 1838. Physeter breviceps De Blainville, Annals Anat. & Physiol, vol. 1, P- 337- 1846. Kogia. breviceps Gray, Zoology of Voy. Erebus and Terror, Vol. I, p. 22. Type locality. — Cape of Good Hope. Faunal distribution. — Temperate and tropical seas of the world. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Stranded at various points on the New Jersey coast. Habits, etc. — This seems to be the smallest of our whales. Its extremely short nose and head distinguish it from the dolphins with which it has resemblance because of small size. Their habits have not been put on record. The color of a New Jersey specimen, as given by True, is dark above, light beneath, the line of separation being straight along the middle of the side above the flippers. Records in N.J., Atlantic Co. — Barnegat City, N. J., Oct. 24, 1885, female. — Cat. No. 15,222, U. S. National Museum. Loveladie's Id., N. J., Oct. 25, 1885, male. — Cat. No. 15,223, U. S. National Museum. Atlantic City, N. J., Apr., 1888, Male. — Cat. No. 22,893, U. S. National Museum. Cape May Co. — Corson's Inlet, Sea Isle City, Feb. 18, 1894, a male, 10 feet long ; stranded on the beach, considerably mutilated. In Wistar Insti- tute Museum, University of Pennsylvania. Ocean City, Nov. 2, 1899, a male, ri feet long, weighing about .700 pounds. No. 3,700, catalogue of the Wistar Institute. This fine specimen was driven into a small cove by fisher- men and killed. Monmouth Co. — Spring Lake, April r7, 1883; stranded on shore. Cat. No. 13,738, U. S. National Museum, Wash'n. Figured in Hist. Aquat. Amin., U. S. Fish Com., 1884, pi. 2. 1 6 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. Family Ziphiidae ; Bottle-nosed or Beaked Whales. Genus Ziphius Cuvier, Ossemens Fossiles, 1823, Vol. V, p. 352. Ouvier's Beaked Whale. Ziphius cavirostris Cuvier. 1823. Ziphius cavirostris Cuvier, Ossemens Fossiles, Vol. V, p. 352. Type locality. — Mediterranean coast of France. Faunal distribution. — Temperate and tropical seas of the world. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — A rare straggler to the coast of New Jersey. Habits, etc. — Not known ; at least undescribed with certainty. It was originally named from a fossil skull fragment and subsequently found to be also an existing species. The skull is much hollowed frontally, the pre- maxillae and nasals rising high to the vertex of the cranium and projecting forward Over the nares. There are no functional teeth, except two small ones in the apex of the lower jaw. Length about twenty feet. Record in N. J., Atlantic Co. — At Barnegat City an adult female 19 ft. 4 in. long, was cast ashore Oct. 3, 1883. Its color was "light stone-gray, darkest on the belly," an unusual color pattern. This is the first and only record of the genus in the northwestern Atlantic. — See True, Science, Vol. II, ' 1883, p. 540. Genus Hyperoodon Lacepede, Histoire Naturelle des Cetacees, 1803-4; Tableaux des Ordres, p. xliv. Bottlenose Whale ; Fug-Head Whale. Hyperoodon ampullatus (Forster). 1770. Balaena ampullatus Forster, Linnaean Travels, Kalm, Vol. I, p. 18, foot-note. 1902. Hyperoodon ampullatus Rhoads, Science, N. York, Vol. 15, p. 756. Type locality. — Coast of Scotland. , Faunal distribution. — North Atlantic Ocean ; straggling southward to Rhode Island and Scotland. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Likely to again occur off the coast of New Jersey, one specimen having been taken in New York Bay, another at New- port, Rhode Island. Habits, etc. — This whale is common is the far north. It is small (20 to 30 feet), and the male has a square, high forehead suddenly rising from the beaked snout. They go in small herds among the ice and are very tame, leaping far into the air and diving head first like a fish. They go to great depths to feed on a species of cuttle fish about 6 inches long. They migrate southward in winter, rarely reaching the New England coast. This species MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. l^ has a beak like the dolphin's, only shorter. No teeth are visible above the gums, two at the apex of the lower jaw are the largest, but non- functional. Records in N. J. — New York £ay.—De Kay records a specimen taken in the "lower" bay in 1822 ; said to be a female. — Zool. N. York, Vol. I, 1842, p. 131. Kalm says it was common during his voyage to America almost all the way across the Atlantic to the shores of the United States. Genus Mesoplodon Gervais, Annal. Scien. Nature, series 3, 1850, vol. 14, p. 16. Sowerby's Whale, Cowfish. Mesoplodon bidets (Sowerby). 1806. Physeter b'idens Sowerby, British Miscellany, p. i. 1877. Mesoplodon bidens Flower, Proceedings Zoological Society, London, p. 684. Type locality. — Near Brodie House, Elginshire, Scotland. Faunal distribution. — Not determined. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Recorded once from the N. J. coast. Habits, etc. — Not described by authors. Known from the other Ziphoids Tjy generally having the two, solitary, mandibular teeth set nearly half way back from the apex of the jaw, and sometimes these are of great size,- actually meeting over the rostrum. In bidens they are less exaggerated. Record in N.J., Atlantic Co. — A male, i2j^ feet long, was stranded at Atlantic City, March 28, 1889, and was secured for the U. S. National Mu- seum at Washington, by Mr. F. W. True. Cat. No. Ifllf .— See Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc, Edinb., vol. 10, p. 13. • Family DELPHiNiDiE ; Dolphins and Porpoises. Genus Tursiops Gervais, Histoire Natur. des Mammiferes, 1855, vol. 2, p. 323. Bottlenose Dolphin, Common Porpoise. Tursiops tursio (Fabricius). 1 780. Delphinus tursio Fabricius, Fauna Groenland., p. 49. 1864. Tursiops tursio Gervais, Comptes Rendus, p. 876. Type locality. — Coast of Greenland. Faunal distribution. — Atlantic Ocean, from Greenland to France and the West Indies. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — The commonest species of Delphinidce on the coast of N. J. Rarely entering bays and rivers. Habits, etc. — "A company, called the Porpoise Fishing Co., was incorpor- ated under the laws of New Jersey, Feb. i, 1894, and undertook the capture 1 8 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. of this species on a large scale at Cape May. Though numbers were taken the enterprise did not prove a success." — True, MSS. note, 1902. ' They are most abundant in spring, rare in December and January, apd decrease greatly by July, They associate in large schools, as many as 66 being taken in the nets at one haul during the spring migration. At this time the females are suckling young of various sizes, some of which had been born the previous winter and fall. The number of sexes is about equal. The average length is 9 feet. The largest taken at Cape Hatteras was 1 2 feet long, and yielded 24 gallons of oil. The color is purplish lead-gray above, the belly white, indistinctly separated by a line joining the base of the tail and angle of the mouth. The lower jaw projects beyond the upper. Their food is small fish. The oil is of superior quality, and the skin makes an ex- ceedingly strong leather. The number taken at the Hatteras fishery in season of 1884-85 was 1,268. Records in N. /., Cape May Co. — "Caught in numbers at Cape May." — Jordan, Man. of Vert. U. S., 1899, p. 333. A specimen from Cape May, taken Sept. i, 1884, is in the U. S. Nat. Mu- seum. Another, taken at Turkey Gut, near Cape May, Oct. 8, 1883, is also in the National Museum. It is a skeleton of a female, No. 20,962. — True, 1902. ^ The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia " has been presented, with a skeleton of a very old individual by Dr. Howell of this city, who ob- tained the animal some years since from a fisherman's seine at Red Bank, below opposite this city." — Cope, Proc. A. N. Sci., Philada., 1865, p. 281. This specimen was here described, and named Delphinus erebennus. I am told that it is yet in the Academy's collection. It is considered by cetolo- gists to be the same as T. iursio. — Rhoads, 1902. Genus Delphinus Linnseus, Systema Naturae, 1758, Vol. I, p. 77. Common Dolphin ; Ring-Eyed Porpoise. Delphinus delphis Linnaeus. 1758. Delphinus delphis Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, Vol. ,1, p. 79. Type locality. — Co.ast of Europe. Faunal distribution. — Temperate and tropical waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, generally avoiding harbors and bays. Distribution in Pa. and N.J. — Not certainly found in the limits of Penna. Living off the shores of N. J. Occasionally entering New York and (?) Delaware Bays. Jordan says it is scarce on the coasts of North America. Godman says they were abundant in 1827 in the bays and harbors of the Middle States. Habits, etc. — ^The habits and popular names of the dolphins and porpoises on our coast are greatly confused, owing to their similarity in size and actions. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 1 9 ■ and the concealment of their watery surroundings. The common dolphin may be known from the bottle-nosed animal by its long snout and peculiar striped markings of the sides of body and head. It is a much slenderer ani- mal than the harbor porpoise or herring hog which frequents our bays and rivers, the latter resembling in color and shape of head more closely the bottlenose. The latter, however, is not nearly as stout and round-finned as the harbor porpoise and has a " beak " wholly lacking in the latter species. This is "The Dolphin" of the ancients, mythology and fable. Its variegated colors, swiftness, sociability and abundance in the Meditteranean make it the most familiar of the Cetaceans. At the same time it has been so confused with other species as to make most accounts of it unreliable. Records in N.J. — True records 2 specimens from New York Harbor and Bay. — Bull. Nat. Museum, 1889, pp. 56, 57. Cape May Co., Ocean City. — A female containing foetus was presented to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in 1894. The skeleton of the adult is No. 5360, Coll. A. N. S., Phila. Genus Prodelphinus Gervais, Osteographie des Cetaces, 1880, p. 604. Spotted Dolphin. Prodelphinus plagiodon (Cope). 1866. Delphinus plagiodon Cope, Proceedings Academy Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, p. 296. 1889. Prodelphinus plagiodon True, Bulletin U. S. National Museum, No. 36, p. 66. Type locality. — Unknown. Type is " No. 3,884 Mus. Smithsonian " Insti- tution, Washington. — Cope. Probably from the east coast of United States. Faunal distribution. — Abundant in the Gulf of Mexico and on the coast of the United States as far north as Cape Hatteras. — True, 1884. Stated by Jordan to reach the coast of N. J. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — The only mention that I discover referring this species to our fauna, is by Jordan in the 1899 edition of his Manual of the Vertebrates of Northern United States, page 333, in which he gives the habitat as " North Atlantic, south to N. J." He probably meant South Atlantic, north to N. J. As Mr. True is stated by Jordan in the preface to have "revised " his " Cetaceans," I conclude that "N. J." is considered by that gentleman within its range. Cope, in the Proc. A. N. S., 1865, p. 201, under " D. clymene Gray," records a "specimen in the Museum of the Academy from off New Jersey, presented by John Krider." This I have just examined and it appears to be Prodelphinus plagiodon. If so it is the only N. J. record known to me. Dr. True, who recently examined it, finds this skull to be identical with Gray's figure of P. euphtosyne. In this opinion I concur. 20 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. Remarks on habits, characters, etc. — In the second reference made at the head of this article True concludes this species is distinct from P. doris (Gray.) The specimens he describes were taken, one in 1884, at Pensacola, Fla., the other at Cape Hatteras, later. Both were males, and he considers them the " most beautiful cetacean he ever examined," distinguished from D. delphis by the spotted gray body and the less falcate dorsal fin. The schools seen were very numerous at both localities. The organs of the Florida specimen showed that May and June was the rutting season. The length is 6 feet, the height of dorsal fin pj^ mches. The form of head and body is like D. delphis. Genus Phoccena Cuvier, Regne Animal, Vol. I, 181 7, p. 279. Harbor Porpoise ; Herringf Hog; Phoccena phoccena (Linnaeus). 1758. Delphinus phoccena Linnseus, Systema Naturae, vol. i, p. 77. 1888. Phoccena phoccena Jordan, Manual Vert. Animals of Nor. U. States, P- 331- Type locality. — Coast of Europe. Faunal distribution. — North Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean from Baffin's Bay to France and Maryland; ascending bays and rivers, sometimes far above tidewater limits. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Abundant on the seaboard, and in the bays and inlets of N. J., coming within the limits of Penna. in Delaware-Bay and River as far up as Trenton Falls. Sometimes ascends the Raritan and Passaic Rivers and is a frequent visitor in New York Bay and the Hudson River beyond the Northern border of N. J. Habits, etc. — This is pre-eminently a shore and river species, delighting in the surf of sandy beaches and following the shoals of herring and other fish from the bays into rivers and freshwater shoals scarcely deep enough to give them cover. It is known from other porpoises and dolphins by the clumsy rounded head (lacking a- "beak"), and by the stout form and uniform dusky coloration. It is a small animal, averaging about 5 feet in length. Dr. God- man, who gives a most ample and graphic account of the dolphin in our har- bors, says he has not seen the porpoise. Either he was mistaken in his identification or else the relative abundance of the two has since then be- come reversed. Records in Pa. and N. J., Delaware River. — " Occasionally ascends the Del. R. to within the hmits of [Delaware] Co." — J. Cassin, List of Quad, in "Hist. Del. Co., Pa.," 1862, Appx. See Cope's Phoccena lineata. ? Type taken in N. Y. harbor in 1876, and descr. by Cope from spec, now in U. S. National Museum, Cat. No. 1 2,481 > MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 21 P. phoccena, See Proc. A. N. S., 1876, p. 134. See True, Mon. Delph. ad 9 Cape May, No. 13,359, rec'd Dec. 27, 1881. The type specimen of Phocana lineata Cope,' which True considers the same as communis was taken in our Hmits, in New York harboir in 1876. True records two from Cape May in the National Museum. — Nos. 16,610, (a female), and 13,359. "They have been seen in the Delaware as high up as Trenton and are common in the Hudson north of the New Jersey State line." — Abbott, in Geol. N. J., p. 760. Genus Grampus Gray, Spiciiegia Zoologia, 1828, p. 2. Grampus; Cow Fish. Grampus griseus (Cuvier). 181 2. Delphinus griseus Cuvier, Annals, de Museum, Vol. 19, p. 14, pi. i, fig. I. 1889. Grampus griseus True, Bulletin U. S. National Museum, No. 36, p. 125. Type locality. — Bay St. Brieux, France (English Channel). Faunal distribution. — North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Mediterranean. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Known only from the coast of N. J. Habits, etc. — This species associates with the black-fish and is rare in N. England waters and more so on the N. J. coast, while the black-fish {Globicephala brackypteta) is abundant. It is 12 to 15 feet long, has no upper teeth, about 10 in the lower jaw, the head high, short and rounded ; the color bluish-black, variegated with irregular gray streaks and cloudings, beneath white. They can only mash and swallow their food, owing to absence of functional teeth. Records in N.J. — Atlantic Co. — (i) Atlantic City, stranded Feb. 2, 1887. —True, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 36, 1889, p. 183.— (2) Brigantine Beach, Mch. 31, 1895, female, Photo, in U. S. N. M. — True. Genus Globicephala Lesson (Oeuvres Compl. de Buffon, 1828, Vol. i, fide Agassiz), Noveau Tableau du Regne Animal, 1842, p. 200. Nortbern Blackfish; Pilot Whale. Globicephala melas (Traill). 1809. Delphinus melas Traill, Nicholson's Journal, Vol. 22, p. 81. 1842. Globicephalus melas De Kay, Zoology of N. York, Mammalia, p. 132. Type locality. — Coast of England. Faunal distribution. — North Atlantic Ocean ; south-west to Long Island, and the N. J. coast ; south-eastward along the coasts of the British Isles. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Occasionally reaching the coasts of N. J. in their wanderings southward. 2 2 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. Habits, etc. — One of the most abundant and valuable of the small whales of the northeast coast of N. Ameica. They average about 15 feet long, some- times reaching over 20 feet, weighing about 1,000 lbs., and yielding 3 to 5 barrels of oil. The " porpoise jaw oil " from this whale is of fine quality for delicate machinery. The flesh is good food and much used for bait. They do not play like the porpoise, but often rise to blow and move leisurely along unless they are pursued by "Killers" (Orcina) or whalers, when they may be driven in great numbers on the beach and are generally thus captured. They feed on menhaden, herring, mackerel and squids, and give birth to their young in August. At birth these are 5 to 7 feet long. In winter they are absent from our shores, returning in June. The color is black without spots, a short narrow white area on belly. The head is short, rounded, and the forehead very high, rising at right angles from the end of snout. The lateral fins are remarkably shaped, like a long, curved cutlass blade. The teeth number 8 to 1 2 in each jaw, and are small, becoming lost in old age. Records in N. J. — " Atlantic coast of N. America to N. Jersey." — True, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 36, 1889, p. 184. Ocean Co. — A skull of this species, No. 3,014, from Long Beach, is in the Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. — Rhoads, 1902. Southern Blackfish. GloMcephala brachyptera Cope. 1876. Globiocephalus brachypterus Cope, Proceedings of Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, p. 129. lype locality. — Delaware Bay, Maurice River Cove, N. J. Faunal distribution. — Southeastern Atlantic Ocean, from N. J. to the West Indies. Distribution in Pa. and N.J. — Delaware Bay; along the southern N. J. coast, northward, possibly to Sandy Hook, where it would overlap the southern range of G. melas. Habits, etc. — So far as known, the southern blackfish behaves like its north- ern kinsman. It is distinguished by the relatively broader, shorter skull, resembling G. scammoni of the Pacific seas. The dorsal fin is much nearer the head than in scammoni. The pectoral fins are shorter and the teeth fewer, while the preraaxillar bones are wider and the animal is without any white markings, being solid black. The length is 15 to 18 feet. Records in Pa. and N. J., Cape May Co. — Hereford Inlet, recorded July, 1 89 1. — True, 1902. Cumberland Co. — " A female of this genus was taken by fishermen in February of the present year [1876] at the mouth of Maurice River, and was sent to this city [Philadelphia] where it fell under my observation." — Cope, sup. cit. A previous specimen, a skull, from the west shore of Delaware Bay (in Delaware) was recorded by Cope in 1866. — See P. A. N. S., 1866, p. 7. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 23 Genus Orcinus Fitzinger, Wissen. — Populate Naturgeschichte. Sau- gethiere, i860, vol. 6, pp. 204-217. White-bellied Killer. Orcinus orca (Linnaeus). 1758. Delphinus orca Linnaeus Systema Naturae, vol. i, p. 77. 1899. Orcinus orca Palmer, Proceedings Biological Society, Washington, vol. 13, p. 24. Type locality. — Coast of Europe. Faunal distribution. — Found in all seas. Probably most abundant in sub- arctic and temperate waters. Distribution in Pa. and N.J. — Along the New Jersey coast. Habits, etc. — The notorious killer whale, the only cannibal of its order, combines enormous strength and ferocity with a comparatively small size as contrasted with that of the 100 foot whales which they hunt and destroy like packs of wolves. Their length is about 20 feet, though often longer ; their jaws are wide and set with about 24 very large, stout teeth with conical recurved crowns and large roots, very unlike those of the rest of the Delphi- nidcB. The back-fin is like a sharp-pointed dagger, of great length, and set almost at right angles to the body. It has erroneously been thought by some a weapon of offense and destruction in " ripping " whales. Scammon calls them "wolves of the ocean " in their manner of worrying the largest whales, in packs. They also seize dead whales which are being towed ashore by whalemen and quickly descend with them into the deep beyond recovery. They are the only whales which eat mammalia, not only devouring the largest fish, but seals and all other dolphins, porpoises, and large whales are the main objects of their gluttonous rapine. Though the old walrus is safe from them, the young are greedily eaten. When they seek safety on the parent's back, the killer dives and rams its nose against the dam, throwing off the calf and seizing it in a twinkling. From the maw of one of these killers Eschricht states that 13 porpoises and 14 seals were extracted. This was an Atlantic Orcinus only 16 feet long. They are the terror of all dolphins, driving whole schools of these and of fish upon the sand of our bays. The color is black above, white beneath, a patch of white behind eye and on back near fin. Records in N. J. — While often found off the N. J. coast there seem to be no records of its stranding or being captured. I have seen them in packs of 4 or 6 slowly trailing near the surface with the high dorsal fin standing straight out of the water a distance of nearly 2 feet. This on the coast near Beach Haven, N. J., and also near Atlantic City. It is thought by bathers to be a shark. I have not heard of their being man-eaters. — Rhoads, 1902. 24 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. Order Ungulata ; Hoofed Mammals. Family Cervid.e — Deer. Genus Odocoileus Rafinesque, Atlantic Journal, 1832, vol. i, p. 109. Virginia Deer. OdocoUeus amerkanus (Erxleben). I777- \_Cervus damd] amerkanus Erxleben, Systema Regni. Animal, vol. I, p. 312. 1899. Odocoileus amerkanus Miller, Bulletin N. York State Museum, voL 6, p. 299. Type locality. — Eastern Virginia. Faunal distribution. — Lowlands, east of the Mississippi, from southern New York and Michigan to South Carolina and Louisiana. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Originally abounding in all situations com- prised in the lower Transition and Upper Austral life zones, now confined in its typical form to limited areas in southern N. J. ; the deer yet found in Pennsylvania being practically restricted to the Canadian form, Odocoileus americanus borealis. Records in Pa. — As above stated, the typical Virginia deer once found in the valleys and lowlands of the Susquehanna, Allegheny, Monongahela and Delaware river regions is exterminated. The nearest approach to this type of deer in Pa. may yet be found in the Pocono and South Mounta!in regions, for records of which see under O. a. borealis. Records in N. J., Atlantic Co. — " I was born in Atlantic County and lived there more than zo years. The southern part of Atlantic County and the northern part of Cape May Co. are still famous places for deer. I have known of three or four being killed there every year that the law permits. As far as I have been able to judge from my travels through the southern part of the state, the Virginia deer is practically confined to those 2 counties. It seems most abundant along the Great Egg Harbor River, in the neighbor- hood of Tuckahoe, Estelville, May's Landing and English Creek. Hunters from all other parts of south Jersey come there to hunt for deer." — Prof. Gifford in letter dated Feb. 4, 1901.' A doe with 2 fawns was chased into the village of Mary's Landing in the summer of 1893 and killed herself by being impaled on an iron fence. — Gifford. Regularly hunted and killed in Atlantic Co. Rarely driven north of the W. Jersey and Seashore R. R. — Price. About 18 or 20 deer were killed this season [Fall 1901J, mostly between " Head of Tuckahoe Riv. and Milmay and Egg Harbor City. They are hunted with dogs exclusively. Weather being dry many were started and lost. The 3 years close season was a great benefit." — Hand. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 25 Burlington Co. — "Zebulon Collins used to trap deer on 'The Plains.' About as late as 1873 to 1875 deer were plenty on the east and west ' Plains ' in the lower part of. Burl. Co. Half Way and Cedar Bridge were head- quarters for hunts. The old hunters with me were Judge Burr, of Vincen- town, Miller Howard and Theodore Creamer, old residents of ' The Plains,' also Zeb. Collins, Jos. Adams and Nick. Levy, all dead before this." — Coffin (extract from letters written in 1893 to Rhoads). " I saw a drove of 12, two full antlered bucks among them, in 1878, at White Oak Cripple in Cumb. Co. and this year I hunted for 2 days with John Pim for a guide and did not find a trace or track. The woodchoppers . . . kill deer in June. No law can restrict them. I saw two heads bought by a peddler in August, sold to and mounted by a Trenton dealer. I saw no deer that had been killed [this season] and heard of but three. I regard the story of 14 shot in Atlantic Co. as a tavern keeper's yarn. I don't believe there are 50 deer in the counties of Cumberland and Cape May."— -James Levy, of Phila. (extracts from an interview published in the Phila. Times, Dec, 1894). Cape May Co. — "The big pines around Tuckahoe used to be a sure find, but I have not heard of one being seen there this year." — Levy, supra. (1894.) " Attempts were made to [preserve] the deer and one of the last parks to remain was that of Daniel Ludlam, of Dennisville, which was main- tained until well into the present century." — Lee, historic account. Monmouth Co. — " Charles O'Hogen killed a buck deer, the first deer that has been killed in Monmouth Co. in many years. The buck was tracked early this morning (Nov. 10, i8g6) on the outskirts of the Oceanville roads and was shot at twice by gunners who sighted it in the Oceanville swamps. The shots frightened the deer and he crossed the Solomon Maps pond and ran to Oakhurst." O'Hogen shot the buck as it came running down the main street of Oakhurst, passing within 10 feet of where he chanced to be standing with a shot-gun in his hand. See Phila. Times, Nov. 11, i8g6. Southern N.J. in general. — Deer range over lower half of Ocean and upper portion of Atlantic Cos. — Pharo. Some remain in Burlington, Atlantic, Cape May and Ocean Cos. Two only known to be killed in Burl, and Ocean Cos. in rSgS out of 22 killed in South Jersey. Season closed from 1898 to 1 90 1. — Van Note. Still found in upper Cape May Co. Also in Cumberland and Atlantic Cos. Between 20 and 25 were killed in the fall of 1898. — Hand. In Monmouth, Burhngton, Cumberland and Cape May Counties (these then included Ocean and Atlantic Cos.) "multitudes are killed. Ten or twelve are sometimes started in a single drive." — See Doughty's Cabinet of N. History, 1832. Several were killed in the Tuckahoe region in fall of 1901. — Rhoads. Historical notes furnished by F. B. Lee. — In Samuel Smith's Hist. Novo Caesarea, 1765, p. 502 et seq., deer are recorded as very plentiful, generally 26 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. bringing forth 2 fawns at a time, and " great numbers are destroyed by traps and hunting, by panthers, wild cats and sometimes wolves." Smith dep- recates the use of the " enormous iron trap " for deer, their " enormous wide jaws of destruction being abhorrent to the common principles of humanity." Laws were ineffectually directed against these and also against " the practice of setting sharp stakes and loaded guns . . . common nuisances to man- kind." In 1758, Cape May Co., though sparsely populated, was stated in Jacob Spicer's diary to have a trade in deer skins and venison hams worth 120 pounds sterling. The early colonists, unable to secure cattle, endeavored to domesticate deer for a supply of milk, but without success. In 1771 deer were becoming scarce enough to claim the attention of the lawmakers. An act was passed Dec. 21st providing that if any one " shall kill destroy or take any Roe Buck, Fawn or any sorts of Deere " between January i and Septem- ber I, he was to pay 40 shillings. Hunting on the Colony's unimproved land was limited to voters for Representatives in the General Assembly or their sons being 18 years of age. Traps were limited in size to those set for foxes. Penalties were named for the setting of a loaded gun and for watch- ing for deer at night near a road. In 1772 an act was passed specially pre- serving the deer of Morris County, particularly those remaining in Great Swamp. Habits, description of species, etc. — See next species. Northern Virginia Deer. OdocoiUus americanus borealis Miller. 1900. Odocoikus americanus borealis Miller, Bulletin N. York State Mu- seum, Vol. 8, p. 83. Type locality. — Bucksport, Maine. Faunal distribution. — Canadian zone of eastern N. America. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Once abounding, but now sparsely scattered or locally exterminated, in the upper Transition and lower Cana- dian life zones. Now found, if ever, in New Jersey, as a straggler only. Probably most numerous in the Pocono and South Mountain regions. Records in Pa. — Adams Co. — "In fall and winter of 1892,32 deer were killed legitimately within a radius of 10 miles among the Adams and Frank- lin Co. Mountains. In 1895 over 50 were taken, and probably as many more by pot-hunters and dogs out of season. In the fall of 1896 fifteen were killed between Graefensburg, Buchanan's Valley and Pine Grove in Cumber- land Co., in the South Mountain region." — Strealy. Cambria Co. — "A few remain." — Shields, 1901. Carbon Co. — Stray into Wilkesbarre Mtn., Luzerne Co., from Pine Swamp, Kidder Twp., and headwaters of Lehigh in Coolbaugh and Tobyhanna Twps., Monroe Co. ; 28 killed in 1898. — Stocker. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 27 Centre Co. — i'airly abundant in Centre Co. — Femald, 1 900. Clinton Co. — " Increasing here. I have heard of 20 being killed this fall (1900) in this Co." — Pfoutz. Gradually decreasing in numbers, but by their tracks in the mountains north of Round Island would estimate that 10 or 15 range over three square miles in that vicinity. An adult buck and doe and two yearlings were seen separately in various tramps covering a period of one week in the range in the fall of 1898. — Rhoads. I killed 23 deer in the fall season of 1873 (in the vicinity of Round Island). — Nelson. Columbia Co. — A few killed yearly north of Fishing Creek in the North Mountain. — Buckalew, 1900. Crawford Co. — Exterminated in this Co., save possibly in Sparta Twp. None killed in 1898. — Kirkpatrick. Cumberland Co. — See under Adams Co., 1. c. Elk Co. — Not over 24 captured in 1898. Much scattered. — Luhr. Forest Co. — Numerous. Ten killed near Tionesta in November, 1898. — Zendle. Fifty killed in Forest Co. in winter of i898-'9. — Haslet. Heard of 20 killed in the Co. in the winter of 1898-9. From 500 to 600 were com- monly killed yearly between 1868 and 1878. — Irwin. Franklin Co. — See above, under Adams Co. Fulton Co. — Licking Creek township was considered one of the best hunt- ing grounds for deer by the hunters of Fulton, Huntingdon and Bedford Counties in 1896. — IngersoU, 1896. Huntingdon Co. — Found near Mt. Union in 1896. — IngersoU. Lackawanna Co. — About exterminated. — Friant, 1900. Lancaster Co. — One was captured in the borough (now city) of Columbia in 1831. — See Doughty's Cab. Nat. Hist., 1832, vol. i, p. 285. Luzerne Co. — Five brought to Pittston in fall of 1899. Most often found in the North Mountain region. — Campbell. — See also under Carbon Co. Lycoming Co. — Have increased in the last 3 years (1896 to 1898) in the Loyalsock Creek grounds. — Parker, 1899. McKean Co. — I know of only 4 being killed during the winter of i9oo-'oi near Colegrove. — Dickeson. Mifflin Co. — I hunted in Mifflin Co. the winter of 1898 and knew of 8 killed there. — Cleveland. Monroe Co. — Present range in N. W. Twps. of our Co.; 4 killed in 1898. — Bisbing. See also under Carbon Co. Pike Co. — Numerous in Pike Co. About 30 killed there in 1898. — Friant. The Co. (Milford) newspaper published a list of the deer killed in 1893 numbering 140. — See Rhoads in Proc. A. N. Sci., 1894, p. 388. Pike Co. harbors most of the deer of northeastern Pa. From 25 to 40 killed there in the fall of 1898. — Stevens. Potter Co. — Some -remain; very few killed in 1898. — Austin. 28 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. Somerset Co. — Scaice. No knowledge of any killed in Co. last season, 1898. — Moore. Sullivan Co. — Range all over this Co., but quite rare now (1900). Heard of 6 or 8 killed in this and Wyoming Cos. this season; 15 would probably include all taken. A buck was sent to the Academy of Natural Sciences from here, shot 2 miles east of Ricketts' near Wyoming Co. line in 1891. — Behr, 1902. Tioga Co. — ^Very few left in Tioga Co. — Babcock. Hunters killed three in the Canton region in 1898. — Cleveland. Union Co. — Increasing in the Allegheny Mts. of the northwest border. Several killed in 1898. — Chambers. Venango Co. — "As many here in 1900 as there were 15 years ago. Many more than 7 years ago. Twenty- seven killed in 1897. Hounding not tolerated." — Dorworth, 1900. Wayne Co. — Very . scarce. A few remain along the Delaware River. — Kellew. Almost extinct. — Day. Westmoreland Co. — Practically exterminated. None killed for several years. — Rhoads, 1899. Wyoming Co. — A few left ; only 2 killed in fall 1900. — Robinson. Range in S. W. part of Co. — Behr. Mehoopany Creek is their haunt. — Campbell. See above under Sullivan Co. Records in N. y. — Sussex Co. — Long since exterminated in northern N. J., but occasionally driven across the Delaware into Sussex Co. from Pike Co. by dogs and hunters. I know of no recent records of this, however. — Rhoads, See Proc. A. N. Sci., 1897, p. 25. Warren Co. — " Occasionally seen in the mountains near the Water Gap." — Davison, 1902. Some deer straggle into the mountains and rarely shot. — Strickland, 1902. Habits, etc. — The following brief notes regarding the northern deer as seen in Clinton Co., Pa., were given by Seth Nelson of Round Island. The largest number of points ever known to him on one buck's horn was II, 21 in all. The heaviest bucks weigh 200 lbs. dressed, their offal weighing SO lbs., the average buck weighing 125 lbs. dressed, and the average doe 80 lbs. Does have fawns in May, rut about October ist. Some velvet may re- main on buck-horns in October. The does oftener have 2 than i fawn sometimes 3. They go to a thick windfall to drop young. Fawns are weaned in 4 months or before the rutting season. They stay hid where calved 2 or 3 weeks. Twin fawns stay together all their first winter. More does than buck$ are born. In the rutting season i buck may control 5 does, mostly 3. He shot one doe with spike horns 2 inches long. In spring deer feed on wintergreen, tree mosses, partridge berry, buds of trees and bushes, MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. ZQ " red root," a broad-leaved grass and tender lichen and ferns. In the fall, buckberry, chestnuts, acorns, beech-nuts and rhododendron form the bulk of their food. In winter, on dead oak leaves, buds, sweet fern. When the snow crusts they gather in herds and make paths in high laurel and thick hemlock timber. Description of species. — The northeastern deer is a larger animal than the Virginia deer, with heavier, coarser horns and teeth, and showing a great contrast between the "red" summer and "gray" winter coats. In the southern deer the summer and winter coats are not so contrasted, always re- taining the reddish cast. No measurements are now available that would give a proper idea of the average differences in size. Genus Cervus Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, 1758, voll i, p. 66. Eastern Wapiti, or " Elk." Cervus canadensis (Erxleben). 1777. \_Cervus elaphus"] canadensis Erxleben, Syst. Regn. Anim., Vol. i, P- 305- 1822. Cervus canadensis Desmarest, Mammalogie, Vol. 2, p. 433. Type locality. — Eastern Canada. Faunal distribution. — Canadian and Transition zones, sometimes descend- ing into the Upper Austral. Distribution in Pa. and N. y. — Numerous up to the beginning of the 19th century in the entire Pa. AUeghenian mountain system east of the Allegheny River ; rare in the Blue Ridge and Cumberland ranges ; once numerous on the Pocono plateau. Driven occasionally by stress of weather, beasts of prey and man into the lowlands of the southern Allegheny, Susque- hanna and Delaware River valleys, and the highlands of northern New Jersey, "where, in early historic times, it may have voluntarily made its habitat at cer- tain seasons. Now extinct in our limit^. Numerous localities in Pennsylva- nia bearing the name of " Elk " in various combinations, indicate that it was formerly known either as an abundant resident or as a straggler in nearly -every part of the state. Its remains show that it was formerly found in the Delaware Valley as far south as Bucks Co.* in Penna., and Mercer Co. in N. J., during the existence there of aboriginal man. (See list of fossil species.) Habits, etc. — The favorite haunts of the AUeghenian wapiti in Pennsylvania -were the forest-covered mountain elevations where open glades or savannas and old beaver meadows were surrounded by the primeval forest. Where these features were combined in the vicinity of a " lick " or saline spring the * The Durham Cave, Riegelsville, Bucks Co. remains are probably recent, but may have .belonged more properly to Postpliocene age. 30 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. greatest numbers of these animals congregated, and it was in such localities that the last representatives of this noble deer vainly sought to escape their final destruction. From accounts received from numerous correspondents it appears that the " Flag Swamp," situated in the eastern part of Elk Co., near the Cameron Co. line, and forming one of the headwaters of Bennett's Branch of the Susquehanna on the east and of a branch of the Clarion River on the west, was the last refuge of the wapiti in Pennsylvania. A few are recorded as Hving there in 1850 in a History of Elk County of that date. Between the dates of i860 and 1867 I have secured records of the capture of two or three which are each claimed to be the last taken m the state. To one of these undoubtedly that distinction belongs, so far as can be discovered. The one recorded by Roosevelt for 1869 is the same as the one stated by Capt. Clay to have been killed in 1866 (see records). It is probably the same as the one stated in the Utica Globe article to have been killed by an Indian in 1867, and in the History of Elk Co. the same date is given for its extinction in that county, reference no doubt being made to the same individual. This "Flag Swamp Elk," taken in November, 1867, in Elk Co., by an Indian of the Cattaraugus reservation named Jim Jacobs, appears to have been the last of its race in the Allegheny Mountains, unless it shall be proved that some existed later in the mountain wilds of West Virginia. In the northeastern AUeghenies of Sullivan, Luzerne and Wyoming counties they seem to have totally disappeared in the second decade of the 19th century, although a few remained in a favorite haunt called "Elk Forest" in the Pocono range of Wayne Co. until exterminated between 1 830 and '40. In Tioga, Lycoming and Potter counties they haunted the headwaters of Pine Creek and the Black Forest until 1862, when the last was killed. The veteran pioneer, Mr. Austin, saw their tracks as late as 1857 in Potter Co., and near the same time a party of hunters captured 3 alive in Tioga Co. In Somerset and Bedford counties, where the mountain glades and saline or sulphur springs were sought out by numerous bands of wapiti and buffalo in early colonial times, their exter- mination must have been of very early date, as records of them in these locaK- ties seem to rest upon place-names and tradition. (See note under Somerset Co.) Even more obscure is the evidence of their former occurrence in the southwestern counties of Pennsylvania, and in the parts of New Jersey per- taining to the valley of the upper Delaware. Elk View, Elk Mills and Elk Creek in Chester Co., and Elk River in Maryland, are names whose origin I have not satisfactorily traced, but indicate the former presence of this animal nearer the Atlantic seaboard than anywhere else in the United States. From our knowledge of the partiality of the wapiti to mountain districts it is very unlikely that it ever resided permanently in Chester Co. Kalm and one or two historians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries record them in southeastern Penna., and Kalm relates how the "stags" (as distinguished MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 3 1 from the common deer) were driven down from the mountains into the vici-^ nity of Philadelphia and killed in great numbers because of a great snow. Such lowland invasions probably account for the place-names we have men- tioned as well as for the remains of this animal in camp and village sites of the aborigines on both sides of the Delaware as far south as Trenton. Not only would the rigors of winter drive them from their mountain fastnesses, but the increased persecutions from the starving wolves and of the Indians, and the freezing of the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers, would induce the stricken creatures to scatter over areas hitherto unknown to them. It is likely that at no time during man's existence in New Jersey was the wapiti a voluntary resi- dent of that state even in the Kittatinny range, which is the natural continu- ation of their ancient haunts in the Blue Ridge and in its northern section was in easy reach of a hunted wapiti from the Pocono region seeking to throw its pursuers off the scent in the waters of the Delaware. Only as a straggler, therefore, can the wapiti be considered a member of the historic fauna of New Jersey. It should be borne in mind, however, that the accounts of earliest historians, coupled with our knowledge of the wapiti in the far west, indicate that this species may have roamed at will in pre-Columbian times over almost the entire region included in this paper. Regarding the habits and food of the wapiti it may be stated that they are similar to those of the Virginia deer in most respects. They are, however, more addicted to keeping in companies throughout the year and, like the moose, "yard up" during the season of deep winter snows. The males cast their horns in February and March and by the month of August they are again renewed in all their perfection. They make a loud whistling snort when alarmed, and during the rutting season the bucks utter a loud note of defiance which Godman says resembles both the neighing of a stallion and the bellowing of a bull. Caton says it sounds like the whistle of a locomotive. The young females give birth in May or June to one fawn, the older ones generally two, and rarely three. When wounded, the wapiti is more ready to turn on its pursuers than a deer. In flight they pursue a straight course and will sometimes outstrip the chase of the most enduring hunter and hounds for two or three successive days. When deprived of their usual winter browse of elk grass and brake by deep snow they subsist for months on the buds and branches of such trees as they would not touch in summer, and when a crusted snow prevents them from going outside their yards for water they do without it for a long period. Among the favorite trees which they seek to eat in summer is one called by hunters the elkwood.* This they attack, not only devouring the leaves * Also called the moose tree. It is the Acer spicatum, a dwarf species of maple growing about fifteen feet high in the forests. 32 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. and twigs but denuding it of bark. By this means their whereabouts are easily detected, the- peeled saplings forming a conspicuous " sign " for the hunter. Basswood is also much sought after, but very few deciduous trees come amiss at any season, the elk being a most omnivorous and hearty feeder. Audubon in the book " Quadrupeds of North America," thus speaks of a pair which he had in captivity (Vol. 2, 1851, p. 90) : "The pair from which the figures on our plkte were taken we purchased at Philadelphia. They had been caught when young in the western part of Pennsylvania. The male was supposed to be four or five years old and the female also was full grown. They often whistled -(as the hunters call this remarkable noise) which in calm weather can be heard nearly a mile. This shrill sound appears to be produced by an almost spasmodic effort, during which the animal throws its head upwards and then backwards." Audubon further speaks of their grega- rious habits, congregating to the number of 50 to 100 in a herd under one master buck, whose movements are closely followed by the whole band, whether in flight or on the watch ; easily domesticated and living to a great age, even 25 or 30 years in captivity ; lying down in midday and feeding be- fore sunrise and after sunset, Caton, who had a large number in captivity, and hunted them in the west, gives an account of them in his book on Amer- ican Deer, from which the following points may be summarized : The fawn is spotted as in the common deer : in Wild, undisturbed country not a nocturnal feeder; more polygamous than any other deer except the Red deer of Europe ;' master deer of the herd nearly always dangerous in captivity, a per- fect tyrant during the rutting season, and at all times supremely selfish and abusive ; does more courageous than bucks against a wild enemy, giving chase in a body and striking with forefeet, the bucks following at a distance ; better adapted to domestication than any other deer ; more healthy and hearty feeders, eating fodder a cow or horse will reject ; young feign death, when picked up, lying limp ; follow dam in 2 days after birth, unusually precocious in this respect as compared with other deer ; wallowing in summer like the bison ; natural gait a trot, very rapid and continued when pursued ; when closely pressed into a run soon become exhausted ; in their natural freedom inhabiting all kinds of country contiguous to woodland or forested, whether mountain or plain, ranging from above timberline 10,000 to 12,000 it. to the sea level, but preferring mountainous regions, frpm which they never stray a great distance unless from hunger or enemies ; not as tenacious of life as deer, an ordinary shot soon disabling or killing them ; hide of little economic value, being soft and pliable as in other deer similarly tanned, but of little strength and durability ; meat much esteemed ; horns used by the Indians as bows ; canine or fang teeth of males used as a valued ornament or charm. The following notes by my valued correspondent, Mr. E, O. Austin, of Potter Co., Pa., regarding the habits of the wapiti in that county are of much MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 33 interest. Under date of March 4th, 1901, he writes: "I settled at my present residence, now in the borough, of Austin, in 1856, then a perfect wilderness. When I came into this region, a young man, I could not be surfeited with the stories told by old settlers and hunters as to what they had seen. On the First Fork of the Sinnemahoning near Prouty Run [Potter Go.] was the ' Great Elk Lick ' of this region. About 1835 or '36 the first settlers came into this region. The Elk with other wild creatures then reigned here in their glory. Clifford Haskins, Gharles Wykoff, the Jordans, and John Glasspy, with others, were among the prominent men of the time. They were all settled within three or four miles of this lick. They all told me that they would go to the Elk-lick to get a deer as often as they wanted one in the summer time. Here sometimes 50 or more could be seen at a time, with the fawns playing around like young lambs. Cliff. Hoskins said he went there once to get a deer when he saw several Elk in the lick and more in the clearing around it. It being the first time he had seen Elk there he gazed in wonder, when more came in until 40 or 50 had congregated. He watched their grim play for some time and then shot one. The rest started back, then stamped around their fallen comrade gazing in a bewildered way, and stam- peded with the noise of thunder when Hoskins approached. Aunt Eleanor Wyckoff lived a mile and a half from Elk Lick. She told me she thought her brother, Mr. Jordan, was telling one of his big yarns when he told her of a similar view of Elks, but one day after, when the men found they were around again, she went with her husband to see them. She said 'First some came, then more, until the clearing seemed full of them and the men said there were about 50 there.' Regarding the clearing above mentioned — where the elk frequented a big lick they rubbed their horns against the trees, sometimes in play or to rub off the velvet or skin from the new horns. This process soon kills all the trees except some big old ones, so that a clearing of 2, 3 or 4 acres is made around the lick. A few thorn trees [ Crattsgus] come up on it which grow so low and stout as to defy them, when it is called a ' Thorn Bottom.' The elk are gregarious, living in small herds if unmolested, likely in families, but they congregate at the licks in summer in considerable heads. " I have no account of their ' yarding ' in this county. Their food in sum- mer was nettles [^Laportia], elk or cow cabbage, elk grass [a wide-bladed bunch-grass common to the woods], and the tender growing twigs of most deciduous trees ; and in the winter this elk grass, which keeps green all winter, the edible brake or cow brake [Fteris aquilina] or fern, and browse of deci- duous trees. They migrate in families from section to section of the country, much like deer, but farther away. " John Glasspy told me of taking a contract to catch elk alive for some fancier. They find and single out their elk, when two men with a small dog, and each a coil of rope and well filled knapsack of grub, start on the chase^ 34 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. and a long chase it is. But after three or four days the creature halts to see what is following him. They then let loose the little dog. The elk seems to wonder if he has been frightened by that little whiffet. The men have chosen their time and place not far from some rocky ridge or large rock, accessible to the elk. The dog attacks him with a great noise, and not much else. The beast runs for a rock as the best fort of defense from the attack. While his attention is absorbled by the antics of the little dog, it is easy to put a rope over his horn with a long pole, or by throwing it noosed, and with two ropes on his horns and two strong men, wide apart, to hold him, he soon becomes tired and docile enough to be led out and home. This was not an un- frequent occurrence in those times." The following article was published in the " New York Times " and repro- duced in the " Pittsburg Post " of April 19th, 1896 : — " When I started in to amuse and profit myself by following the chase in northern Pennsylvania," said Colonel Parker, of Gardeau, Pa., " elks were running in these woods in herds. I have killed elk a-plenty in the Rocky Mountain country and other regions since, but I never ran across any that were as big as those of old-time Pennsylvania elk. I have killed elk on the Sinnemahoning and Pine creek waters, and down on the Clarion river and West branch, that were as big as horses. A looo-pound elk was nothing un- common in that country, and I killed one once that weighed 1200 pounds^ These were bulls. The cows would weigh anywhere from 600 to 800 pounds. "The Pennsylvania elk's eyes were small, but sparkled like jewels. I have often seen a score or more pairs of these bright eyes shining in the dark recesses of the pine forest, when the shadows might have otherwise obscured the presence there of the owners of those tell-tale orbs. An infuriated bull elk's eye was about as fearful a thing to look at as anything well imaginable,, but so quickly changeable was the nature of these huge beasts that two hours after having captured with ropes, one that had, from the vantage ground of his rock, gored and trampled the life out of a half dozen of dogs, and well- nigh overcome the attacking hunters, submitted to being harnessed to an im- provised sled and unresistingly hauled a load of venison upon it six miles through the woods to my cabin, and took its place among the cattle with as docile an air as if it had been born and brought up among them. " The elk that Sterling Devins had mistaken for a mule, he and Ezra Prich- ard followed all the next day, but lost its trail. Some Pine Creek hunters got on its trail, drove it to its rock, and roped it. When Devins and Prichard got back at night they found the Pine Creek hunters there and the elk in the barn eating hay and entirely at home. That elk had quite an interesting subsequent history. Ezra Prichard had, previous to the capture of this one secured a pair of elks, broke them, and for a long time drove them to farm work like a yoke of oxen. Sterling Devins was eager for a yoke of elk, and MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 35 he offered the Pine Creek hunters $ioo for the one they had captured. They refused the offer, but afterwards got into a dispute about its ownership, and it was sold to Bill Stowdl and John Sloanmaker, of Jersey Shore. These men took the elk about the country, exhibiting it, and made quite a sum of money. Next fall, although the elk was a cow, it became very ugly and attacked its keeper, nearly killing him before he could get away. No one could go near her, and her owners ordered her shot. The carcass was bought by a man who had a fine pair of elk horns. He was a skillful taxidermist, and he man- aged to fasten the horns to the head of the cow elk in such a manner that no one was ever able to tell that they hadn't grown there. This made of the head an apparently magnificent head of a bull elk, and it was purchased for ^100 on that belief, by a future governor of Pennsylvania. " That cow elk was one of the last family of elk in the Pine creek country [Potter Co.J. She and the bull and calf had been discovered some time be- fore Sterling Devins ran across the cow, by Leroy Lyman, on Tomer's run, near the Ole Bull settlement [Abbot township]. Lyman got a shot at the bull, but the whole three escaped. The same party of hunters that captured the cow killed the bull afterward in the woods on Kettle creek. The calf the dogs ran into Stowell's mill pond, and there it was killed. "A set of elk antlers of five feet spread and weighing from forty to fifty pounds, was not an infrequent trophy. George Rae, who was one of the great hunters of northern Pennsylvania in his day — and he is one of the greatest in the Rocky Mountains even to this day, in spite of his eighty-five years — ^lived along the Allegheny at Portville. He had in his house and in his barn, the walls almost covered with the antlers of elk he had killed, on the peak of his roof, at one end, being one that measured nearly six feet between the extremities. When George moved West forty years ago he left the horns on the buildings, and only a few years ago many of them were still there, as reminders of what game once roamed our woods. " It required more skill to hunt the elk than it did to trail the deer, as they were much more cautious and alert. For all that, an elk, when started from his bed, did not instantly dash away, like the deer, but invariably looked to see what had aroused him. Then, if he thought the cause boded him no good, away he went, not leaping over the brush, like tbe deer, but, with his head thrown back, and his great horns almost covering his body, plunging through the thickets, his big hoofs clattering together like castanets as he went. The elk did not go at a galloping gait, but traveled at a swinging trot that carried him along at amazing speed. He never stopped until he had crossed water, when his instinct seemed to tell him that the scent of his trail was broken before the pursuing dogs. " At the rutting season the elk, both male and female, were fearless and fierce, and it behooved the hunter to be watchful. An elk surprised at this 36 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. season did not wait for any overt act on the part of an enemy, but was instantly aggressive. One blow from an elk's foot would kill a wolf or a dog, and I have more than once been forced to elude an elk by running around trees, jumping from one to another before the bulky beast, unable to make the turns quick enough, could recover himself and follow me too closely to prevent it, thus making my way by degrees to a safe refuge. I was once treed by a bull elk not half a mile from home and kept there from noon until night began to fall. I haven't the least doubt but he would have kept me there all night if another bull hadn't bugled a challenge from a neighboring hill and my bull hurried away in answer to it. " The whistle of the bull elk, as the hunters call it, wasn't a whistle, although there were changes in it that gave it something of a flute-like sound. The sound was more like the notes of a bugle. In making it the bull threw back his head, swelled his throat and neck to enormous size, and with that as a bellows he blew from his open mouth the sound that made at once his chal- lenge or call for a mate. The sound was far-reaching, and heard at a dis- tance was weird and uncanny, yet not unmusical. Near-by, it was rasping and harsh, with the whistling notes prominent. " The Pennsylvania elk was never much scattered. When I first came to the Sinnemahoning country, nearly seventy years ago, the salt marsh that lay in the wilderness where my residence now is [Gardeau, in the extreme S. E. corner of McKean Co., almost on Potter Co. line], was trampled over by herds of elk and deer that came there to lick the salt from the ground as if a drove of cattle had been there. I have seen seventy-five elk huddled at that marsh. That was the ' Big Elk Lick ' of legend which the reservation [Corn- planter] Indians had often talked to me about when I lived in Allegheny county. New York, as a boy, and it was to find that lick that my father and I, following the rather indefinite directions of one Johnnyhocks, an old Shongo Indian, entered the Pennsylvania wilderness in 1826. The marsh is now the site of a big hotel, it having been found that the depth of the swamp con- cealed waters [Parker's Springs] of rare medical value. "To follow an elk forty miles before running it down was considered nothing remarkable. I have done it many a time. Leroy Lyman, Jack Lyman and A. H. Goodsell once started on an elk hunt from Roulette, Potter county, struck the trail at the head of West creek in McKean county, thirty miles from Roulette, followed it through Elk, Clarion and Clearfield counties, and finally drove it to its rock eighty or ninety miles from where the trail was first struck. They had followed the elk many days, and finally the quarry was found, an enormous bull with a spread of horns like a young maple tree. The horns were the only trophy that the hunters got from the long and tedious chase [meat being unfit to eat], and that trophy was well worth it. It was the largest and next to the finest pair of antlers ever carried by an elk in the Pennsylvania forests, so far as there is any record. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 37 "There are scattered through the woods, generally high on the hills, from the Allegheny river down to the West branch and Clarion river, huge rocks, some detached boulders and others projections of ledges. These are known as elk rocks, and every one of them has been, in its day, the last resort of some elk brought to bay after a long and hard chase. It was the habit of the hunted elk, when it had in vain sought to throw the hunter and hound from the trail to make its stand at one of these rocks. Mounting it, and facing its foes, it fiercely fought off the assaults of the dogs by blows of his fore feet or tremendous kicks from its hind feet, until the hunter came up and ended the fight with his rifle. It would be strange if one or more of the dogs were not stretched dead at the foot of the rock by the time the hunter arrived on the scene. I have more than once found dead wolves lying about one of these elk rocks, telling mutely, but eloquently, the tragic story of the pursuit of the elk by the wolves, his coming to bay on the rock, the battle and the elk's victory. The elk was not always victor, though, in such battles with wolves, and I have frequently found the stripped skeleton of one lying among the skeletons of wolves he had killed before being himself vanquished by their savage and hungry fellows. " In the winter time the elks would gather in large herds and their range would be exceedingly limited. Sonpetimes they would migrate to other regions, and would not be seen for months in their haunts, but suddenly they would return and be as plentiful as ever. They had their regular paths or runways, through the woods, and these invariably led to salt licks, of which there were many natural ones in northern Pennsylvania. One of the most frequented of these elk paths started in a dense forest, where the town of Ridgway, the county seat of Elk county, now stands, led to the great lick on the Sinnemahoning portage, and thence through the forest to another big lick, which to-day is covered by Washington Park, in the city of Bradford [McKean Co.]. I have followed that elk path its whole length, when the only sign of civilization was now and then a hunter's cabin, from the head- waters of the Clarion river to the Allegheny, in McKean county. Hundreds of elk were killed annually at the licks or while traveling to and from them, along their well-marked runways. " The biggest set of elk antlers ever captured in the Pennsylvania woods was secured in the Kettle creek country by Major Isaac Lyman, Philip Tome, George Ayres, L. D. Spoffard and William Wattles. Philip Tome was a great hunter, and the famous interpreter for Cornplanter and Blacksnake, the great Indian chiefs. He came over from Warren county to help Major Lyman capture an elk alive, and the party started in on the first snow, with plenty of ropes and things. They camped, but the elk were in such big herds that they couldn't get a chance at a single bull for more than a week. Then they got the biggest one they ever saw and gave chase to him. They started him 38 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. from his bed on Yocum hill. The dogs took him down Little Kettle creek to Big Kettle, and up that two or three miles. There the elk came to bay on a rock. He kept the dogs at a distance until the hunters came up, when he left the rock and started away again. Tome, knowing the nature of elk, said that all they had to do was to wait and the elk would return to the rock. They dropped poles and fitted up nooses. They waited nearly half a day> and then they heard the bull coming crashing through the woods, down the mountain sides, the dogs in full cry. He mounted his rock again. The hunters he did not seem to mind, but the dogs he fought fiercely. While he was doing that the hunters got the nooses over his immense horns and anchored him to surrounding trees. They got the elk alive to the Allegheny river, and floated him on a raft to Olean Point. From there they traveled with him through New York State to Albany, exhibiting him with much profit, and at Albany he was sold for ;?5oo. That elk stood sixteen hands high and had antlers six feet long, and eleven points on each side, the usual number of points being nine on a side. " The last elk in Pennsylvania is supposed to have been killed in the winter of 1867, by an Indian named Jim Jacobs, from the Cattaraugus reser- vation. Jacobs followed the elk from Flagg Swamp, in Elk county, to the wilds of Clarion county, through a hard snowstorm, where it came to bay on a rock, and the Indian shot it. It was a bull elk and none had been seen or heard in the region for several years before that." I wrote Mr. E. O. Austin, of Austin, Potter Co., distant 7 miles from Gardeau as to his view of the narrative of Capt. Parker above quoted. He writes me that he knew Parker, Lyman, Pritchard, and others named, nearly all of whom, including Parker, are now dead. Sterling Devins still lives in Homer township. Potter Co. They all told substantially the same stories of elk habits as given by Parker, who was an old veteran, not only in age and hunting exploits, but in his latter days as a story teller. Mr. Austin writes : " What Col. Parker says of the habits of elk and other wild animals is very correct, but he was in the habit of making a good story of his exploits." A failing, I might add, which is common to so many " great, old men," that the world knows how to make allowance for it. — Rhoads, 1902. Records in Pa. — Eastern Pa. — Kalm relates (Travels, 1781 ed., p. 199, vol. z) that the "Stags" [wapiti] came down from the mountains [of Penna. and N. J.?] in 1705, and were killed in great numbers on account of a great snow. Gabriel Thomas (History of Pennsylvania and West New Jersey, (1698, p. 15), in the part devoted to Penna. speaks of the "red deer," " vulgarly called stags," one of which he bought for two gills of gun- powder. Farther on he states " there are vast numbers of other wild creatures [in Penna.J, as elks, buffalos," etc. Regarding the name " Stag," McKay, in his Zoology of New York uses this as the common name for the wapiti. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 39 Ord, in Guthrie's Geography CAmer. ed., 1815, p. 306), uses the same name for it. Godman uses both this name and " red deer " in his syn-. onymy (Nat. Hist., vol. 2, p. 294). "Red deer" was used by the back- ■woodsmen to distinguish it from the Virginia or " wild deer," as G. Thomas •calls them. The use of the term " Elks," by Thomas, seems to show that it was also used at that time to designate the wapiti. " Red deer " was pro- bably given by the English to the wapiti on account of its resemblance to the ■deer of England Cervus elaphas. The name was also Kterally applicable to it on account of its color, as contrasted with that of the Virginia deer. Dr. B. S. Barton (Med. and Phys. Journal, 1806, p. 46), writes : "In the memory of many persons now living, the droves of elks which used to frequent the salines near the river Susquehanna in Pennsylvania [probably referring to eastern.and central Penna.] were so great that for 5 or 6 miles leading to the licks the paths of these animals were as large as many of the great public roads of our country. Eighty elks have sometimes been seen in one herd upon their march to the salines." Northwestern Pa. — I remember seeing 2 bull elk a man had captured alive in one of our northern (Penna.) counties, but have forgotten which one it was." " Regarding those two elk, I was a boy at a county fair in the early '70's, in Blairsville, Indiana Co. The man who owned the elk was there with them, and said he had walked them down in the deep snow when they were young. They were both bulls, and he drove them around the track in a buggy. . . . As I remember they were small-sized [specimens] . I was on ■a hunting trip in the west last fall, and saw hundreds of wild elk, so I am sure these were the genuine article." Shields, Jan. 11, 1901. " Atpresent [1851J there is only a narrow range on the Allegheny mountains where the elk still •exists [in Penna], . . . and these would undoubtedly migrate elsewhere were they not restricted by the extensive settlements on the west and south." — Aud. Bachm., Quad. N. Amer., vol. 2, p. 92. Audubon further states that Mr. Peale, of Philadelphia, told him about 1846 that the only place he could secure wapiti in the Atlantic States was on some barren mountains in northwestern Pennsylvania, where he had hunted them. The specimens figured in plate II. represent two Pennsylvania Elk which Audubon had in captivity in New York. Allegheny Co. — Place-name Elkhom, in southernmost township. Cameron Co. — " Two of the old settlers who first settled on the Driftwood River, above Emporium, told me that during the thirties [1830 to 1840] they counted in one drove at one time seventy elk in and around the Big Lick, on the Driftwood. In 1839 my father killed one on the Driftwood about a mile from Big Elk Lick." — C. W. Dickinson. " Favorite places for them were Hick's Run and Driftwood River, this county." — Larrabee. See also notes under Elk Cq. 40 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. Centre Co. — " The elk have all been exterminated in the vicinity of Pine Glen." They were here 30 years ago [1864?]. — G. K. Boak. See Rep. Pa., Dept. Agric, 1896, p. 328. Chester Co. — The following paragraph was written by a Ufelong resident of Colora, Cecil Co., Maryland, in answer to my inquiries regarding the origin of the place names of Elk River, Elk Creek and Elkton in Md., with their repetition in Chester Co., Pa., as Elk township. Big and Little Elk Creek, Elk View and Elk Mills. It indicates how completely even the traditional origin of names given in the earliest settlement of the country has ceased to be handed down. Published local histories seem to be silent on the subject. As we have Kalm's evidence of the former appearance of elk in the vicinity of Philadelphia, and the record of their existence in the Susquehanna valley as far south as York (see York Co.), there is every reason to predict that, as historic evidence accumulates, we will not find it necessary to account for these .place- names in Cecil and Chester Co. to the fancied resemblance of Elk River and its tributaries to the skull and antlers of an elk. The extract referred to reads .- " After living here 60 years I have never heard of the elk-deer being found ia these regions. I have always had the idea that our creek obtained that pre- fix from the circumstance of coming together in a common • estuary as the horns of an elk to his skull. The creeks being thus named, the tidewater part, the bay, was called Elk River. Hence also the name of the town and railroad station." — Lloyd Balderston, 4-10-1901. I have recently made per- sonal inquiry among the old residents of this region, and while there is no- absolute proof of the former existence of elk there now known to them, it is the general opinion that such was the case. Certain old salt and sulphur springs are mentioned as forming a likely attraction. — Rhoads, 1902. Clarion Co. — See place-name of Elk township and Elk City in the north- western part of Co. Clearfield Co. — " An elk was killed near the present site of Coalport by Mr. James Turner in 1837." — Abraham Neverling, see Rep. Pa. Dept. Agri- culture, 1896, p. 328. Clinton Co. — Between 1831 and 1837 I used to hunt them in this and ad- joining counties. — Seth. I. Nelson. Columbia Co. — Place-name of Elk Grove on extreme northern border. Crawford Co. — A. Huidekoper includes the "elk" in the animal list in his " Sketch of Crawf. Co." (Mem. Penna. Hist. Soc, 1846). In a History of Crawf. Co. (1885, p. 260), we read, "Elk were rarely seen west of the Allegheny river," in that county. — Rhoads. Elk Co. — " At the head of Bennett's Branch is a marsh, called Flag Swamp, remarkable as probably the only one in the state where the Beaver may be found [in 1850] ; . . .in the same region a few Elk remain." ..." Elk were found in Flag Swamp as late as 1850, and the last elk killed in Pennsyl- MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 4 1 vania was taken in 1867 on Bennett's Branch." — See Hist. Elk Co. (Chicago), 1890, pp. 573 and 578. "Colonel Cecil Clay informs me that an Indian whom he knew killed one in Pennsylvania in 1869." — Theodore Roosevelt, in Forum, Aug., 1893. "The last Elk that I know about was killed on Crooked Creek in this [Elk] county about 33 years ago [1866] by Corn- planter Indians from the N. York reservation." " These Indians killed one elk and took out the other alive (a buck) in the winter of 1866 or early in the spring of 1867. They captured the elk with muzzled dogs and by use of snow shoes. Crooked Creek rises at the foot of the ridge in Elk Co. that divides the waters of the Susquehanna and Clarion Rivers." — Cap. Clay. " Mr. Seth Nelson stated to me that one of the last elk known to have been killed in that region was secured on Bennett's Branch, Elk county, by a. party of Cornplanter Indians about 1865. A hunter, Wilson Morrison, brought the carcass of an elk about that time to Lock Haven [in a boat] claiming that he killed it, but it was afterward understood that he paid I25 to the Indians for it." — See Rhoads Proc. A. N. Sci., 1897, p. 208. In regard to the Utica Globe article (see foot-note, supra cit.), Nelson has since informed me that the dates are very misleading. His father and Parmenter did not hunt this elk in 1867 as there stated but about 1835 or '36. The story of how the Indian, Jim Jacobs, outwitted them is correct. The elk was killed upon or near the site of the town of St. Mary's, then on "West," now Elk, Creek. When the railroad was graded through this region Flag Pond and Swamp were drained off. It consisted of " one acre of water surrounded widely by flags and willows." Possibly it was a salt or licking pond. This is almost cer- tainly the same locality mentioned as being at the head of Bennett's Branch in. the History of Elk Co., its waters flowing on one side into Trout Run of that Branch of the Susquehanna and on the other into Elk Creek, a tributary of the Clarion River. Nelson states this 1835 elk was started in Potter Co. and that it was by no means the " Last Elk of the Sinnemahoning," as stated in the newspaper, for while tracking it his father saw signs of several others. "The last elk supposed to have been killed in Penna. was killed by Geo. Gaylord of Tioga Co., I think about 30 years ago." — W. C. Babcock, Oct., 1899. " I do not know the exact time that brother George [Gaylord] killed the elk, but it was soon after the Civil war. He sent the horns to a man in Philadelphia., He said that the horns had five prongs." — Mrs. J. H. Harmon, Wellsboro, Pa., Oct., 1899. A five-prong buck elk was killed by Geo. W. Gaylord of Farrandsville and James David of Beech Creek on Hick's Run of Bennett's Branch of the Sinnemahoning River, 25 miles from Drift- wood, near the line between Elk and Cameron counties. It was boated down to Farrandsville, Clinton Co. Weight over 500 lbs. This was in the year 1862. — C. C. Pfoutz (in his first letter). In a later letter giving more exact information, Mr. Pfoutz reiterates the identity of the men, Gaylord and 42 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. David, says he often talked with Gaylord about this hunt and long knew him as a great hunter and, what is more rare, a truthful man ! A friend of Gay- lord's, George Dewey by name, lumbering in Elk Co. came to Farrandsville and told Gaylord of the elk. So Gaylord got his old hunting companion, David, to bring his dogs. This was " after the big spring or summer flood of 1862, as they had to walk all the way up the river to the mouth of Hick's Run of Bennett's Branch [owing to the absence of bridges and washing of roads preventing use of horses]." They staid all night at " cracker " Hick's cabin, who set them on the elk trail. They hunted all day and camped one night. The next day at 2 o'clock they started the elk, and in a few minutes it stood at bay and began fighting the dogs, when Gaylord came up and killed it. They hired a team and got it down to the creek, where they built a boat and brought it to Farrandsville by water. Pfoutz says he lived with or near ■Gaylord 16 years; thinks it was in November, 1862, that the hunt occurred, as he was in the Civil war at the time. He strongly denies the story that this elk was procured from Indians, as implied by Nelson in the following com- munication : " James David and Wilson Morrison were said to have killed an €lk in Elk Co. in 1865. It was brought down the river in a boat. They did not kill it, but bought it of 3 Indians." Cap. Clay thinks it possible this was the Cornplanter elk of 1866. The dates nearly coincide, and the Susquehanna was its natural portage to market. David may have been in both hunts. — Rhoads. " The last elk killed in northwestern Pennsylvania was killed on Hick's run in the southwestern comer of Cameron Co.[?], in November, 1861. A party of old hunters, accompanied by a boy about twenty years old, went in pursuit of elk [namely], William Pepper, Ben. Sweezy, Enoch Sweezy, Hamilton Sweezy (the boy) and Frank Lewis. They found the trail of an elk on Hick's Run, and Hamilton Sweezy having strayed away from the rest, was about to to shout to his comrades when he heard the baying of hounds. He stood still and soon saw an elk coming toward him. It passed within four rods, and as it did so he shot it, the elk running about 10 rods and falling dead, leaving Hamilton Sweezy the^honor [ ?] of killing the last elk in northwestern Pennsylvania, or perhaps the last one in this state." — Dickinson. " Once very plentiful all through the Allegheny range of mountains. Last killed in winter of 1861-62, on Hick's Run, Cameron Co., by Pepper and Sweezy." — W. Dickeson. [Not Dickinson, supra.'\ I was told by the hunters in our engineering camp, about 40 years ago that one had been killed [?] a yeai or two before that [1857?] near where we ■were camped on one of the branches of Elk Creek, in Elk county, in this state."— Prof. J. E. Rothrock, Oct. 1899. Forest Co. — "There were elk here until, say 1835." — Hazlet. " Early set- tlers saw and killed them up to 1830, I understand from good authority." — Irwin. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 43 Erie O;.— Place-names, Elk Creek, E. C. Twp., and E. C. P. Office in southwestern part of county. See under Erie Co. in the notes on American Bison, by Ashe, next article. Jefferson Co. — Place-names, Elk River in the north, and Little E. River in the south of Co. Luzerne Co. — In " Bartram's Observations" (London, 1751, p. 27), it is recorded that fresh tracks of elk were seen above " Cayuga Branch, near Tohiccon," on the Susquehanna River, and later (p. 68), he states under date of Aug. 10, 1742, "Just above the junction of the east and west branches of the Susquehanna River, where was a lick, one of the Indians shot and wounded an elk." On that day they made an observation and found the lat- itude to be 4iJ^°. Lycoming and Tioga Cos. — The wapiti is " now almost extinct in most parts of Pennsylvania. * * * I found their horns repeatedly in the woods, mossy and gnawed by mice or wolves. A pair of elks were shot on Pine Creek in the spring [1835], ^-nd a herd of 13 was killed by a couple of hunt- ers in February of last year f 1834], near the headwaters of Pine Creek." — R. C. Taylor in Loudon's Magaz. N. Hist., vol. 8, 1835, pp. 536, 539... McKean Co. — " In 1835 my father, Edward Dickinson, who was a green hunter at that time, killed two large buck elk on Colegrove Brook in Norwich Township, McKean county." — C. W. Dickinson. The specimen of male elk in the museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, was not killed in Potter county, as often stated, but in McKean county. — W. W. Larrabee's statement to S. N. Rhoads in 1896. " In the forepart of the 19th century elk were very plenty in this part [south part] of the state."— C. W. Dickinson. Mercer Co. — B. S. Stokley, in Memoirs of the Histor. Soc. Penna. (Vol. 4, 1846, p. 77), writes : ''One Buffalo horn and two Elk horns were found in 1795 and 1797 [in Mercer Co.]." "A few Elk were seen and one killed near the western boundry of the county since 1 794." Monroe and Pike Cos. — " The Elk was probably never as numerous in this [Pocono] region as in the central Allegheny mountains, those individuals taken in lormer days being considered by the [present] natives as stragglers from the main body. The last capture in Pike county was probably not later than 1840 or 1845." See Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1894, p. 389. Northampton Co. — This Co. was included in the area alluded to by Penn in his letter to the Free Traders in 1683 as containing "the elk as big as a small ox." Then part of Bucks Co. — Rhoads. Philadelphia Co. — Peter Kalm in his "Travels" (Vol. i, p. 336), says that an Indian living in 1 748 had killed many " Stags " on the spot where Phila- delphia now stands. See also (antea) for references to eastern Penna. There is much reason for believing this seemingly extraordinary statements 44 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. The Virginia deer was not intended by it, that animal still being found in Phila. Co. during Kalm's stay. It should be remembered that the occur- rence probably happened in the latter part of the 1 7th century, before Penn's arrival in America. Potter Co. — "About 1870 one was brought through our town [Canton, Bradford Co.] which was killed in Potter Co., Pa. The first settlers found them all through Northern Pa." — Dr. J. E. Cleveland (first letter of Oct. 30, 1899). " I was living in Union [township] at the time I saw the elk in ques- tion. They [the 2, hunters] passed through Canton as there was no other way leading to Bradford Co. I call to mind the barn where they fed their team and other circumstances, that fix the date as being in the fall of 1862 or '63. I saw the hunters when they were on their way to Potter Co., a father and son. They had two deer hounds with them. The old man told me that he had formerly killed a number of elk, and that he had been in- formed that signs of elk had been seen, where he had formerly hunted, in Potter Co. In about two weeks they returned with a dead bull elk in their sleigh. If I learned their names at the time, I have forgotten them." "J. M. Whitcomb of Union [township] says that he visited a hunter's lodge in [the Black Forest] Potter county owned by two brothers named Wilcox from Bradford county. They had a dead elk in camp. This was in the early sixties." — Dr. J. E. Cleveland (second letter of Feb. 8, 1901). "I am glad to be able to produce a witness to corroborate my previous statements re- garding the elk I saw brought through Union, Pa. Alonzo Thomas, aged 77 years, whose Post office address is Alba, Bradford Co., Pa., informs me that Shefiield Wilcox, late of Albany, Brad. Co., Pa., told him that the last bull elk heard of on his hunting ground he [Wilcox] killed in Potter county. Pa., in 1862 or '63. Mr. Thomas says that the direct route from the ' Black Forest ' of Potter Co. to Mr. Wilcox's home in Albany would be through Liberty, Union and Canton. Mr. Thomas has probably killed more game than any other man now living in this vicinity. He hunted for elk in Potter Co. with Mr. Wilcox sixty years ago. Mr. Thomas lives about five miles from Canton, is a well-to-do farmer and highly respected. In looking over the history of Bradford Co. I find that Sheffield Wilcox, Sr., with a large family, located in Albany Twp. in 1801. Sheffield Wilcox, Jr., was the hunter." — Dr. J. E. Cleveland (3d letter of Feb. 19, 1901). " The last Elk taken in this county was killed on the head waters of the West Branch of Pine Creek, somewhere about 1845 or '46. In 1852 I was in a camp for some time, occupied by Mr. John Jordan, on a branch of the First Fork of the Sinnemahoning. Mr. Jordan described graphically the hunt. There were several engaged in it, but the exact date, if told, I do not remeraT ber. They had practically disappeared at that time, and the discovery of this one raised a furor amongst the hunters, of whom Mr. Jordan was one. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 45 This was in Potter Co. In the spring of 1857, we saw tracks of many wild beasts in wet places in the bottoms near Austin, where I had settled the pre- ceding year. One morning my 2 boys saw some tracks and said that some- body's cow had got lost in the woods. Now no stray cow could have been in that place at that season. I saw the tracks ; they were strange to me, but Mr. John Glassby, and Cliff Haskins, old hunters, pronounced them Elk ■tracks, and said they were probably some strays passing from Pine Creek {Potter Co.J to Elk and Forest counties, and would take the route through the deer licks up the creek (Freeman's Run) to the Salt Spring in Portage Twp., this county. This they did as known by their tracks ; I myself seeing them for three miles on their route, and hearing of them to beyond the big Salt Lick. No, others were ever seen to my knowledge after these." — E. O. Austin. Somerset Co. — " Exterminated. Last seen in this section [Elk Lick] about 45 years ago." — Mier, 1902. Sullivan Co. — "The last one killed was in the early part of the 19th cen- tury, in the western part of the county." — Behr. "New Albany, Bradford Co., Pa., March 26, 1901. " The information I can give you in regard to the elk in what is now Sulli- -van Co. is very meagre indeed. I am sorry I cannot give you something more •definite, but to fix dates definitely after lapse of many years where there are no records, is almost impossible. Elkland township, now a moderately sized township in Sullivan Co., adjoining Bradford Co. on the north, was erected as a part of Lycoming in 1804, and contained at that time a large territory, larger than all of Sullivan Co. now. It was so named on account of its terri- tory being a great range for elk long before the township was erected : it was known as " The Elklands." A small lake in this township bears the name Elk Lake. Joel McCarty, one of the early settlers, saw at one time seventeen ■elk in this lake. He shot some, I cannot say. how many. This was about ninety or ninety-five years ago. Wm. J. Eldred, Esq., who died in 1888, .aged 82 years, and was bom here, often told me of seeing a drove of four- teen elk as he was traveling along the " Old Gennessee " road which leads • over the 'mountain from here to what is now Towanda. As near as I can tell, this was eighty years ago. Chas. Mullen killed at least one elk in this township. The last elk killed in this region (Sullivan, Bradford and Lycoming Cos.), was killed near Ringdale, Sullivan Co. [on the south branch of Loyalsock Creek], about 1830, by Messrs. Wilcox and Northrop (presumably Sheff. WiP cox) . They started him near New Albany, Bradford Co., and chased him, 'the snow being deep, they wearing snow shoes. " I know of no specimens left here. When a boy one of, my uncles had 46 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. a pair of antlers. These were the only pair I ever saw that came off elk that ranged the hills ot Sullivan. i " Yours very truly, Ulysses Bird" Susquehanna Co. — Place-names, two Elk Lakes in southwestern part of Co. and Elk Mt. in southeastern part. " Now and then an elk was seen in Ararat Twp." (p. 480). Near Harmony (northeastern Twp.) in 1820 John Wrighter " has seen from 30 to 40 elk at one time near his home, with horns so large they appeared like immense chairs on their heads " (p. 484). Clif- ford township " was long known as the ' Elkwood's Settlement,' the township as well as the mountain being the home of the elk in great numbers." — E. Blackman, Hist. Susq. Co., 1873. Tioga Co. — " Samuel Wedge of Miles Valley was one of a party which in 1858 or '59 caught 3 elks alive in Tioga Co., and brought them to Wells- boro." — Mrs. J. H. Harmon of Wellsboro. See also ('antea) under Lycom- ing Co. Venango Co. — " I can find no record that the elk or wapiti have been seen or killed [in Venango Co?] in the last 30 years." — H. C. Dorworth, 1901. Wayne Co. — It is stated in Goodrich's History of Wayne Co. (Bethany,. 1880) that the wapiti was never very numerous in that county. Their favorite haunt lay in a tract of 1 1,526 acres in the township of Canaan, called Elk Forest. Asa Stanton of Waymart is said to have (in 1880) the horns of one killed in Canaan township. The last one heard of was in 1830. The last one killed in Wayne Co. was taken "about 60 years ago " [1839 or '40]. — Elijah Teeple (letter of Nov., 1899). York Co. — Several foot bones and the head of a femur of the wapiti were taken from surface excavations made by Atreus Wanner on an Indian village site at York several years ago. I examined these specimens in the Museum of Science and Art, University of Penna., Phila. They were identified by- Prof. E. D. Cope, and undoubtedly had been the accompaniment of an In- dian feast in comparatively recent times. — S. N. Rhoads, 1902. For other records see list of " fossil species." Records in N. J. — Bergen and Hudson Cos. — In Vanderdonck's New Neth- erlands, buffaloes and elk are enumerated as being found on the western shores (or territory) of New York Bay, when discovered by Hudson.— Rhoads, {Burlington Co.l) — " There are great numbers of wild deer [-Virginia deer} and red deer [-wapiti] also, and these wild creatures are free and common [property] for any to take and kill." See Gabriel Thomas' Hist, of West N. J., 1698, p. 23. See also (antea) Kalm's evidence, under eastern Penna. records. {Cape May Col.), — In Plantagenet's New Albion (1648) is quoted a letter of "Master Evelyn," who says in connection with a description of the shores of Delaware Bay in Cape May Co. : "There is much variety of . . . fish. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JEMEV. 47 whales and grampus, elks, deere that bring three young at a time." See Geology of Cape May Co. — Cook, 1857. Mercer Co, — "Various bones of elk from aboriginal refuse heaps near Trenton are in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology at Cambridge, Massa- chusetts."— Dr. C. C. Abbott. Sussex and Warren Cos. — " A hunter near Delaware Gap, N. J., declared that-his grandfather, who ' killed the last elk shot in Pike county,' Pennsylva- nia, stated that sometimes the hounds would drive both elk and deer across the Delaware River onto Kittanning Mountain."— See Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1897, p. 25. Family Bovid^e ; Oxen, Sheep and Goats. Genus Bison Hamilton Smith. American Bison or Buffalo. Bison bison (Linnaeus). 1758. \Bos'\ bison Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, vol. i, p, 72. 1888. B\ison'\ bison Jordan, Manual Vertebrate Animals, p. 337. Type locality. — Mountains of S. E. United States. Faunal distribution. — Lowlands from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Great Lakes and Saskatchewan to the Gulf of Mexico near lat. 25° occasionally wandering from these into the foothills and passes of the Rocky and AUeghenian mountains. Distribution in Pa. and N. y. — No record of the existence of the bison in New Jersey in recent times, save the one given by Vanderdonck (1. c), has been found. Its sub-fossil remains have been found near Trenton, as also in the Delaware valley near the Water Gap in Penna., indicating the ancient proximity of its eastern wanderings to New Jersey soil and the possi- bility of its fortuitous presence in that state during the age of the Red Man. In Pennsylvania once normally found in the valleys and mountain glades of the Ohio, Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers, whence it passed sparingly eastward across the Allegheny passes into the tributary valleys of the Susque- hanna, thence reaching the Delaware Valley as a straggler only. For a fuller discussion of this, see Rhoads, Proc. Acad. N. Sci., Phila., 1895, pp. 244- 248; also 1897, p. 207. Records in Pa. — Armstrong Co. — ^Two townships in the southwestern corner and a creek flowing through them into the Allegheny River are named Buffalo. Bedford Co. — A creek, a mountain and a mill-village near each other in the west-central part of Co. have this name. Butler Co. — The southeastern corner of this Co. is named Buffalo town- 48 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. ship. It adjoins the township of the same name in Armstrong Co., and a bend of Buffalo Creek intersects it. Centre Co. — Buffalo Run flows north along the Bald Eagle range in the central part of this county. — 'Rhoads. Clearfield Co. — ^The region of Clearfield Creek was so named (and from it the county) because " the buffaloes formerly cleared large tracts of under- growth so as to give the appearance of cleared fields." — See Rev. John Ett- wein's " Notes of Travel from the north branch of the Susquehanna to Beaver, Pa." in 1772, in the Pa. Mag. Hist, for 1901, published by the His- torical Society of Pa. — Jordan. Crawford and Erie Cos. — In a History of this Co. (1885, p. 260), a quotation is given from a French memoir written in 17 14 stating, "Buffalos are found on the south shores of Lake Erie, but not on the north shore." — Kirkpatrick. " Buffalos ranged south from Buffalo, N. York through Erie, Crawford, Venango and Mercer Cos. French Creek, draining this region in Pa., was called by the French before the revolution ' La Bouffe River ' be- cause of the buffaloes found there." — Irwin. A township in southern Erie Co. where French Creek (Le Boeuf Creek) in part has its rise is still named Le Boeuf; also a village in the same township and the most northern affluent of the same creek in Green Twp. — Rhoads. "The Onondargo [Lake, N. York] which has a portage communication with [the sources of the Allegheny] River, is a fine lake of brackish water, surrounded by springs, from two to five hundred gallons of the water of which make a bushel of salt. * * All the [domestic] animals of those parts have a great fondness for salt. The native animals of the country, too, as the buffalo, elk, deer, etc., are well known to pay periodical visits to the saline springs and lakes, bathing and washing in them, and bathing in the water till they are hardly able to remove from their vicinity. The best roads to the Onondargo from all parts are the buffalo tracks, so called from having been observed to be made by the buffaloes in their annual visitations to the lake from their pasture grounds ; and though this is a distance of above two hun- dred miles, the best surveyors could not have chosen a more direct course or firmer or better ground. I have often traveled these tracks with safety and admiration. * * An old man, one of the first settlers in this country [Northeastern Pa., presumably Erie Co.], built his log-house on the immedi- ate borders of a salt spring. He informed me that for the first several seasons the buffaloes paid him their visits with the utmost regularity ; they traveled, in single files always following each other at equal distances, forming droves on their arrival, of about three hundred each. The first and second years, so unacquainted were these poor brutes with this man's house or with his nature, that in a few hours they rubied the house completely down, taking deHght in turning the logs of wood off with their horns, while he had some difficulty to MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 49 escape from being trampled under their feet or crushed to death in his own ruins. At that period he supposed there could not have been less than ten thousand in the neighborhood of the spring. They sought for no manner of food but only bathed and drank three or four times a day and rolled in the earth, or reposed, with their flanks distended, in the adjacent shades, and on the fifth and sixth days separated into distinct droves, bathed, drank, and de- parted in single files, according to the exact order of their arrival. They all rolled successively in the same hole and each thus carried away a coat of mud to preserve the moisture on their skin, and which when hardened and baked by the sun, would resist the stings of millions of insects that otherwise would persecute these peaceful travelers to madness or even death. " In the first and second years this old man with some companions killed from six to seven hundred of these noble creatures,- merely for the sake of the skins, which to them were worth only two shillings each, and after this ' work of death ' they were obliged to leave the place till the following season, or till the wolves, bears, panthers, eagles, rooks, ravens, etc., had devoured the car- casses, and abandoned the place for other prey. In the two following years, the same persons killed great numbers out of the first droves that arrived, skinned them, and left the bodies exposed to the sun and air ; but they soon had reason to repent of this ; for the remaining droves, as they came up in succes- sion, stopped, gazed on the mangled and putrid bodies, sorrowfully moaned or furiously lowed aloud, and returned instantly to the wilderness in an unusual run, withput tasting their favorite spring or licking the impregnated earth. Which was also once their most agreeable occupation ; nor did they, or any of their race, ever revisit the neighborhood." — Ashe, Travels in America in 1806. N. York, 1811, pp. 47, 48. Cumberland Co. — Prof. Baird records finding bones of bison in caves near Carlisle in the Patent Office Reports of 1851, but on inquiry from Dr. J. A. Allen stated he could not be sure that these were of B. bison without re-ex- amination. — See Rhoads, Proc. A. N. Sci., Phila., 1895, P- 244. Elk Co. — " Running from the southeast corner of Warren Co. through Mc- Kean Co.'s southwest comer and as far as Daguscahonda [central Elk Co.], was the old Buffalo Swamp." — See Hist. Elk Co., Chicago, 1890, p. 573. This tract was at the headwaters of the Clarion and Allegheny Rivers, form- ing an elevated and extensive meeting place for the herds passing from one water shed to another in their circuit of the northwestern corner of the state. It would also form a northern rendezvous from which occasional herds or individuals may have strayed into the valley of the Susquehanna. Owing, however, to the absence of any record of them in Cameron, Clinton, and Potter Cos., this, if ever, was a rare occurrence, the buffaloes of Centre, Union and Perry Cos. coming east by way of Clearfield Co., or northeast by way of the Juniata via the Bedford and Somerset Co. passes from the Youghiogheny and Conemaugh. — Rhoads. 50 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. Luzerne Co. — The first and third lower molars of a bison mounted together on a card are in the collection of the Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila. These are labeled by Dr. J. Leidy as coming " With the fossil teeth [of horse, musk ox^ etc.] from [Pittston] Luzerne Co., but apparently more recent Bison ameri- canus.'" I have compared these with teeth of recent bison and find them specifically identical. — See Rhoads, Proc. Acad. N. Sci., Phila., 1895, pp. 245, 246. MeKean Co. — See above, under Elk Co. Mercer Co. — A bison horn was found in this Co. in i 795, according to B. S. Stokley in Memoirs Histor. Soc. Penna., vol. 4, p. 77. This indicates that the bison had been exterminated in its former haunts in northwestern Pa^ long before the last one was killed in Union Co. in the central part of the state. Undoubtedly the last isolated remnants of this species lingered many years in the fastnesses of the Allegheny wilderness, cut off completely from the haunts of their western ancestors by the early colonizing of the Ohio Val- ley. — Rhoads. See also under Crawford and Erie Cos. Monroe Co. — A fragment of the mandible of a bison about four inches long,, containing the alveoli of two missing molars and the last lower molar intact, was found in Hartman's Cave near Stroudsburg, about 3 miles from the famous G^p of the Delaware River. Leidy figured this in the Report of the Pa. Geolog. Survey for 1887, identifying it as belonging to the "bison, B, americanus " [= B. bison']. "The crown of the tooth has apparently been charred and crumbled by fire in the same manner as other bones from this, cave which surrounded and lay within the site of an ancient fire place in the superficial layers of the cave floor." The ramus itself " is unburnt and is apparently of the same recent (unfossilized) age as the remains of the fox, wolf and deer associated therewith. I have no hesitation in considering Leidy's identification correct, and from the character of the ethnological re- mains found in the same cave and the appearance of the bone itself, would judge it had formed part of the feast of a Delaware Indian [or some wild beast] in comparatively recent times." — See Rhoads, Proc. Acad. N. Sci.,. Phila., 189s, p. 246. Ferry Co. — The following place names indicate the most authentic south- ern range of the buffalo on the Susquehanna (see antea under Cumberland Co.). They are all located in the eastern part of the Co., near the junction, of the Juniata River with the Susquehanna. Owing to their number and the topographical features of their location it is obvious that buffaloes were a characteristic feature of this spot, probably crossing the Susquehanna here by way of Haldeman's Island into the mountains of Dauphin Co., on their easterly migrations from the Ohio watershed. The names are Buffalo Town- ship, B. Bridge, B. Creek and New Buffalo. — Rhoads. Somerset Co. — A B. Bridge on B. Creek is located in the south central part. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 5 1 in Brother's Valley Twp. B. Creek is a tributary of Castleman's River near where it reaches the great divide of the Allegheny Mts. opposite the sources of the Juniata. There is a noted Elk Lick here near the Maryland boundary to which the buffaloes undoubtedly resorted, passing thence over the divide eastward toward Buffalo Mountain in Bedford Co, They may have also used the more northerly pass by which the B. & O. railroad reaches Castleman's River, going west. — Rhoads. " I am sure of one thing, the buffalo disap- peared from the Co. before the Indian was driven westward. I suppose it is approximately true that the buffalo must have left the Co. some time preced- ing Braddock's defeat in 1755." — R. Smith in a letter to Dr. H. D. Moore. Union Co. — " Dr. J. A. Allen, whose excellent Memoir on the American Bisons,* furnishes the best data on this subject, has conclusively proved its existence up to the beginning of the 19th Century, as far east as Buffalo Val- ley, near Lewisburg, in Union Co. The last buffalo killed in that region was shot by Col. John Kelly, 'about 1790 or 1800,' on the McClister farm ad- joining his own, and situate in Kelly Twp., about 5 miles from Lewisburg. Col. Kelly stated that an old Indian named Logan informed him of the for- mer abundance of buffaloes in this valley." — See Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1895, p. 244. Buffalo Valley occupies an extensive area of east central Union Co., surrounding Lewisburg and fronting on the Susquehanna for many miles, reaching back to B. Mountain by way of B. Creek and Little B. Creek, through three townships. East B., West B., and Buffalo. A place named B. Cross-roads is located in the same region. In Scull's noted map of Pa. published in 1750, a " Buffalow Creek " is practically the only geog- raphical name given in what is now Union Co. This is significant as show- ing the ancient origin of the present name, indicating it as the principal route by which the buffaloes crossed from the three main branches of the Susquehanna valley to and from the mountain wilderness of Union and Centre Cos. — Rhoads. Venango Co. — See antea, under Erie Co. Washington Co. — In the west-central part of this Co. is a B. township,»in which lies the source of a B. Creek flowing into the Ohio River. — Rhoads. Records in N. 'y. — Bergen and Hudson Cos. — In Vanderdonck's " New Netherlands," both the buffalo and elk are stated to have been inhabitants of the parts of New Jersey opposite New York when Hudson discovered that region. — Rhoads. Mercer Co. — A scapula and pelvis of recent bison (so identified by Prof. E. D. Cope) were discovered in Indian refuse heaps near Trenton by Dr. C. C. Abbott. They are now in the Peabody Archeological Museum, Cam- bridge, Mass. — Abbott, 1900. * Mem. Mus. Compar. Zo51., Cambridge, Mass., 1876. 52 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. Order Glires ; Rodents or Gnawers. Family Sciurid^e : Squirrels. Genus Scuirus Linnaeus, Systemae Naturse, 1758, vol, i, p. 63. Cail'Olma Gray Squirrel. Sciurus carolinensis Gmelin. 1788. \Sciurus\ carolinensis Gmelin, Systema Naturse, vol. i, p. 148. Type locality.—" Carolina." Faunal distribution. — Upper and lower Austral zones, from New York Bay and the Ohio Valley to the northern part of the Gulf States. Distribution in Pa. and N.J. — ^The more typical southern form of caro- linensis is only found in southermost N. J., where it is quite rare and very local in its occurrence. In other parts of the upper Austral regions of the two states it is evenly distributed, but nowhere abundant as in former days. In the mountain foothills it merges into the Canadian sub-species leucotis. bpedmens from the mountains of northern N. J. belong more properly to that form. Description aud habits of species. — This animal is so well known as to need no further comment, except to call attention to its differences of color and size from the northern race. These are given under the next species. The " black phase " of pelage, so common to leucotis is of only accidental occur- rence in carolinensis. I have heard of the following records of this phase : Lancaster Co., Fa. — See Rathvon's History of the Co., 1869, p. 501. Chester Co., Pa. — One was seen by my schoolmate, Henry Zook, previous to the year 1876. — Rhoads. Mercer Co., N.J. — Dr. C.C.Abbott has known of them being taken many years ago near Trenfon. I never saw nor heard of the black squirrel in my travels in northern N. J. — Rhoads, 1902. Northern Gray or Black Squirrel. Sciurus carolinensis leucotis (Gapper). 1830. Sciurus leucotis Gapper, Zoological Journal, vol. 5, p. 206. 1877. Sciurus carolinensis var. leucotis Allen, Monograph N. American Rodentia, p. 701. Type locality. — Region between York and Lake Simcoe, Ontario, Canada. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Transition and Canadian life zones ; abundant in nut-bearing forests, but avoiding areas monopolized by coni- ferous trees. Owing to the almost universal destruction of conifers and their replacement by deciduous growth this species is now found in extensive Canadian areas once dominated exclusively by the Red or Pine Squirrel. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 53 Records in Pa. — The following records have been secured chiefly with the view of determining the numerical proportions of the normal "gray " and the melanistic (abnormal?) " Hack " phases of color in this species, and how the ratio of " blacks " increase as we approach the Canadian life zone. Cameron Co.— Grays and black equally divided in 1896. — Larrabee. Black as numerous as gray in 1899. — Hays. Cambria Co. — Blacks never as plenty as grays. — Shields. Centre Co. — Blacks occasional in this Co. in 1899. — Rothrock. Black are rare but gray abundant in 1900. — Fernald. Clearfield Co. — Blacks as numerous a gray in 1899. — Hays. Clinton Co. — Blacks as numerous as gray in 1899. — Hays. Black phase rare south. of Elk and" Clinton Cos. — Todd. Blacks less numerous than the gray in 1901. — Pfoutz. Sometimes black outnumber grays 3 to i, and some- times grays seem more numerous. — Nelson. During two trips into the region north of Round Island, covering about 5 weeks' hunting, I saw about half a dozen squirrels of this species, one of which was intense black, another smoky gray ; the rest normal gray. They are rare on the mountain tops and were not abundant anywhere in the spring of 1896 and fall of 1898. — Rhoads. Columbia Co. — Rare of late years (1899) ; about i black to 100 gray. — Buckalew. Crawford Co. — Blacks numerous near Titusville in 1900.— Price. A few seen every year but less common now than gray (in 1900). In the History of Crawford Co. it is stated that the black squirrels were so common as to be a pest, the gray squirrel not appearing till the country was settled.-^Kirk- patrick. Elk C0tit I in every 12 is black. — Behr, 1900. '^Susquehanna Co. — I had 2 blacks taken there in Nov., 1898. — Campbell. Tioga Co. — Still plenty, but fewer than the gray in 1899. — Babcock. Numerous, but less so than gray in 1899. — Cleveland. Union Co. — No blacks killed (to his knowledge) in the Co. for 12 years. Chambers, 1900. Venango C^.^^^Blacks plentiful in northeastern part of Co. "I hunted squirrels [there] with father 40 years and blacks always exceeded grays in number." — Dorworth, 1900. Washington Co. — See a black occasionally. — Linton, 1900. Wayne Co. — Rather rarely see a black. Never as common as gray here. — Goodnough, 1900. Have had several blacks to mount from Wayne Co. — Stocker, 1900. Very few here. — Kellew, 1900. Some left here. — Teeple, 1900. Very rare; have seen none for years, — Day, 1900. Occasional and decreasing. Ratio in 1900, i black to 75 grays; 30 years ago ratios nearly equal.— Stevens. Wyoming Co. — "I killed two last fall (1899) against 30 or 40 grays." — Robinson. Records in N. J. — Passaic Co. — "Very rarely met with [in N. J.]. Have seen but two specimens, both taken in Passaic Co. in December, i860." — Abbott, in Geol. of N. J., 1868, p. 756. Remarks. — While a study of the foregoing data gives little light on the cause of melanism in these squirrels, it is worthy of remark that there seems to be a diminution of the relative number of blacks as the country becomes deforested and settled upon. This may be the result ( i) of a change in clima- tological conditions unfavorable to melanism or (2) of the inability of a black squirrel to escape the increasing number of hunters so easily as a gray squirrel, owing to its conspicuous color. In regard to the first suggestion it MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 55 may be added that the midday summer temperature of these deforested subcanadian areas where the blacks were once so numerous is greatly in- creased above that of primeaval conditions and may have been the cause of mortality among them, the greater exposure to the sum being much more detrimental to a black animal than a gray one. In regard to the second theory it may be also said that the natural enemies of the black squirrel would derive the same peculiar advantage in its capture through deforestation and consequent exposure as would man himself. In a word, the original status of the black gray squirrel is dependent on an environment combining the climate and flora of the Upper Transition and Lower Canadian life zones, in which coniferous and nut-bearing trees were normally in the proportion of about ten to one. As these conditions through human agency revert to those of the Lower Transition and Upper Austral zones, with a corresponding increase in population, the ratio of blacks to grays decreases. Historic references. — " Squirrels came down [into the lowlands] from the higher countries into [eastern] Pennsylvania at certain seasons. The inhabi- tants attribute this to the coming of a rigorous winter." — Kalm's Travels, p. 316. Kalm does not share this opinion, as the year he was in Pa. (autumn of 1749) when such a migration took place, it was a mild winter. He thinks it caused by the scarcity of nuts in one place and their abundance in another. On page 320 he says that from January, 1749, to January, 1750, Pennsylvania paid bounties to lessen the squirrel pest at the rate of 3 pence a head ; 8,000 being so paid ! The bounty was then reduced one-half. See also, Watson's Annals, in which both gray and black squirrels are mentioned. In Ord's Zoology (Guthrie's Geography, 2nd Amer. Ed., 1815, p. 292) he names the black phase of Gray Squirrel as " Small Black Squirrel, Sciurus pennsylvanica" and in a foot note he says, "This has always been confounded with the fore- going [gray squirrel] , but it is a different species. It abounds in those parts of Pennsylvania which lie to the westward of the Allegheny ridge."* This is of interest as showing that in the early part of the nineteenth century the black squirrel was, as now, more typical of northwestern Pa. than of any other part of the state. On the same page Ord describes and names the " New Jersey Squirrel Sciurus hiemalis" from Tuckerton, as being distinguished by its " bearded ears." This name is a synonym of carolinensis. Description of Species. — From the common tawny colored gray squirrel of the south Atlantic lowlands, the northern form leucotis is distinguished by greater size and a purer gray or silvery color at all seasons, not intermixed or tipped above with reddish or tawny as in carolinensis. Largest individuals often approach the fox squirrel in size, being 2 to 3 inches longer than full * Ord's name being earlier than leucotis would have held good for the northern gray squirrel had he given a description of it. Lacking this, it has no place in nomenclature. 56 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. grown carolinensis from southern New Jersey. (See under " Historic refer- ences," antea, for Ord's names and descriptions of both forms.) The black phase may be jet-black, reddish-black and grayish-black, intergrading in a large series into typical grays. " Black and gray young are found in the same nest, and black and gray adults pair promiscously so far as observed."- — Nelson. Measurements {carolinensis). — Total length, 455 mm. (18 in.) ; tail vert., 205 (8) ; hindfbot, 60 (2^) ; {leucotis) 500 (19^) ; 220 (8>^) ; 70 (2^). Canadian Chickaree or Pine Squirrel. Sciurus hudsonicus gymnicus Bangs. 1899. Sciurus hudsonicus gymnicus Bangs, Proceedings N. England Zoolog- ical Club, vol. I, p. 28. Type locality. — Near Moosehead Lake, Maine. Faunal distribution. — Canadian life zone, west from Newfoundland to Michigan and Minnesota. Distribution in Pa. — Only found in the "boreal islands" of the northern tier of counties in Pa. Not present in N. J. Miller and Bangs * limit the distribution ol gymnicus southward to northern New York. I am induced to give it a place in the fauna of Pa., because of a tendency in several specimens from the denser coniferous forests of Sullivan, Luzerne, Clinton, Cambria and Somerset Cos. to assume the character of gymnicus, as contrasted with loquax of southern N. J. Description of Species. — As now defined, the typical form, hudsonicus, is confined to Labrador. Sub-species gymnicus differs from it in having the color darker and richer and the border of tail reddish instead of yellowish or grayish. The underparts of hudsonicus and gymnicus are gray in winter pelage, while in our next sub-species, loquax, the lower parts are pure white in winter. The hind foot in gymnicus averages 3 millimeters less than in the other two forms. In the Pa. specimens of gymnicus there is a decided de- parture in the greater depth of color of upper parts, the grayish tinge of the belly in winter and the undefined character of the so-called dorsal band, from loquax of the lower Delaware Valley. On these accounts it would better correlate with actual conditions if the southern range of gymnicus was ex- tended to the Transition border of the Canadian Life Zone. The more this question is examined the more am I convinced that the eastern Chickaree does not merit sub-division into more than two geographic races — hudsonicus inhabiting the Hudsonian and Canadian Zones with gray underparts in winter, and loquax the Transition and Upper Austral with underparts always white. The evident inabiUty of logically or geographically defining ^»»«/V«j is patent in literature. As in the case of the black squirrel there has been * See Bull. N. York S. Mus., 1899, vol. 6, No. 29. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 57 such a change in forest conditions where gymnicus was once found in Pa. that it may soon become difficult to secure anything but loqtutx in those regions. Measurements (^gymnicus). — Total length, 290 mm. (11)^ in.); tail vert., 120 (4^); hind foot, 44 (i?<)j {loquax) iit, (i2>^) ; 130 (5>^) ; 47 Southeastern Chickaree or Red Squirrel. Sciurus hudsonicus loquax Bangs. Sciurus hudsonicus loquax Bangs, Proceedings Biolog. Society, Washing- ton, vol. 10, p. 161. Type locality. — Liberty Hill, New London Co., Connecticut. Faunal distribution. — " Deciduous forests of the Transition and Upper Austral zones of the eastern United States" (fide Miller). See foot-note under S. h. gynmicus. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Abounding everywhere below the Canadian zone, where forests, groves or private grounds afford necessary shelter and food. Semi-domesticated in some towns and villages and becoming a pest on account of its robbery of birds' nests. Ever persecuting, and said to de- stroy, the Gray Squirrel. By no means confined to deciduous forests but rather preferring pine lands, where they are most numerous in southern and eastern N. J. In this last particular I must take exception to Miller's re- striction of their habitat, as above quoted. Description of species. — See antea, under S. h. gymnicus. Western Fox Squirrel. Sciurus rufiventer E. Geoffroy. 1803. Sciurus rufiventer E. Geoffroy, Catalog. Museum d' Histoire Natur- elle, p. 176. Type locality. — New Orleans, Louisiana. Faunal distribution. — Upper Austral and Lower Transition zones from the Allegheny Mountains (western base) to the Mississippi Valley. Distribution in Fa. — Having examined no specimens from Pa. west of the AUeghanies,* I cannot verify the probable presence of this form in extreme southwestern Pa. as implied by Miller in his Key to Mammals of N. East N. America, p. 87, where he says it occupies the Transition and Upper Austral zones of " the region immediately west of the AUeghanies." That the fox squirrel was found in this region is well established, as the succeed- ing records will show. It is probably extinct there now, though there is a possibility of some old mounted specimen being found in a condition which would enable us to decide whether typical rufiventer belongs in this list. * See however under list of American species introduced into Pa. and N. J. 58 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. Records in Pa. — Beaver Co. — Said to have been taken several times in B. Co. in recent years. — Todd, 1901. Washington Co. — One killed near the capital of W. Co. about 1870. Once numerous; now about extinct.-^Nease, 1900. Seen occasionally in this Co. — Linton, 1899. Description of species. — Size not much greater than the northern gray squirrel {S. c. leucotis), much smaller than the southern fox squirrel (5. niger). Ears and nose never white. Colors variable, but much deeper and more ferruginous than in the next sub-species (5. rufiventer ?ieglectus) ; sometimes wholly black, or black-bellied with reddish gray upper parts, others again are orange beneath. In S. r. negkctus the size is larger than in rufiventer, the belly usually white. Wholly black individuals of neglectus are rare, accord- ing to Bangs. Measurements (rufiventer). — ^Total lenth, 541 mm. (aij^ in.); tail ver- tebrae, 252 (10) ; hind foot, 73.7 (2^) ; {neglectus) 590 (231^) ; 270 (io>^); 73 i^n)- Northeastern Fox Squirrel. Sciurus rufiventer neglectus (Gray). 1867. Macroxus neglectus Gray. Annals and Magazine N. History, 3rd series, vol. 20, p. 425. 1902. Sciurus rufiventer neglectus, Allen, Bulletin Amer. Museum Nat. History, vol. 16, p. 167. Type locality. — Wilmington, Delaware, Faunal distribution. — " The northeastern fox squirrel is an inhabitant of the Upper Austral zone but occasionally wanders into the Transition zone." — Miller. Now rarely found in Pa. except in the Lower Transition zone. Distribution in Pa. and N.J. — Once found over all parts of the two states except in the Canadian and Upper Transition areas of the mountains. Prob- ably always rarer in Chester and Delaware Cos. and in southern N. J. than in south central Pa. and northern N. J. Now exterminated in N. J. but found occasionally in the Pa. counties bordering the lower SusquehaSllia, also yet recorded from the northwestern part of Pa. Destined to extermination in our entire limits unless large areas of country in middle Pa. revert to a wilderness condition or become game reservations under state protection. Records in Pa. — Adams Co. — Warren, Poultry Book, p. 507. Cameron Co. — Very rare ; none seen for years in Cameron Co. — Larrabee. This record has not much significance, as it is not likely that the fox squirrel was ever found, except as a rare straggler after the coniferous forests became destroyed in the counties of Pa. which lie almost wholly within the Upper Transition and Canadian life zones. See negative records under Clinton, Forest, McKean, Lycoming, Potter, Sullivan, Tioga and Venango Cos. — Rhoads. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 59 Clinton Co. — Nelson's record of 3 killed in 1894 (Proc. Acad. N. Sci., Phila. 1879, p. 216) is wrong. The "fox squirrels'' subsequently sent me by Nelson were only very large gray squirrels with an unusual amount of rusty on feet, sides, neck and mouth. — Rhoads. None ever found in these parts (Mill Hall, Clinton Co.). — Pfoutz. Listed by Warren in Poultry book, p. 507, probably on my authority as above corrected. — Rhoads. Crawford Co. — Rare. Two specimens from Huidecoper's Hill, Vernon Twp., near Meadville, were taken respecrively in October of 1898 and 1899. " The last one is in my collection." — Kirkpatrick. Cumberland Co. — I mounted 3 killed in Cumberland Co. in 1893. — Friant. Listed by Warren in Diseas. Poultry, 1897, p. 507. " One reported seen near Pine Grove Furnace in 1892." Nearly exterminated. — Rhoads, 1897, Proc. Acad. N. Sci., Phila., p. 216. "Dr. B. H. Warren writes me that the norti'iern fox squirrel is practically extinct in Pennsylvania except in the counties of Dauphin and Cumberland." — Bangs, Proc. Biolog. Soc, Washn., 1896, p. 150, foot note. A specimen from Carlisle, probably from the National Museum collection and collected by Baird, is listed by Bangs as having been examined. — Ibid, p. 153. Chester Co. — Listed by Michener in Hist. Ches. Co. as "rare," but this list is not reliable. — Rhoads. Dauphin Co. — See above, under Cumberland Co. Delaware Co. — Listed as " rare " by Cassin in Appx. to Hist. Del. Co., 1862. Elk Co. — The last one was killed in 1889 in Elk Co. — Hays. I am doubtful of this record. — Rhoads. Fayette Co. — ^Two specimens ■ from Rothrock are listed by Bangs as com- ing under his notice in Proc. Biol. Soc. Washn., 1896, p. 153. Forest Co. — Not found in Co. — Haslet. Franklin Co. — Two specimens in my collection. One taken Sept. 24, 1896, by J. H. Light near Williamson, .the other shot Oct. 16, 1897, by C. M. Deatrich near St. Thomas. Secured through Drs. M. W. Strealy and W. B. Crawford, of Chambersburg. — Rhoads. A black fox squirrel was shot about 1880 in northwest Franklin Co. in South Mountain. Several remain in the South Mountains. One shot by Dr. W. B. Crawford in 1896. — Strealy. Listed by Warren in "Poultry" book, p. 507. Fulton Co. — Listed by Warren in Diseas. Poultry, 1897, p. 507. Huntingdon Co. — Listed by Warren, 1. c. Juniata Co. — Listed by Warren, 1. c. Lancaster Co. — Cat or fox squirrel is given by Rathvon in his animal list in Hist. Lane. Co., 1861, p. 501. Lycoming Co. — Not seen in this Co. — Parker, 1900. McKean Co. — Unknown here. — Dickeson, 1.900. ■6o MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. Montgomery Co. — "Rare," as listed by Buck in Hist. Montg. Co., 1884, p. 436. Mifflin Co.— A few killed recently (1899) in the Co.— Rothrock. Listed in Warren's "Poultry" book, p. 507. Northumberland Co. — "We have seen it near Easton." — Audubon and Bachman, Quad. N. Amer., vol. i. Perry Co. — Listed in Warren's " Poultry " book, p. 507. Sullivan Co. — "Rare (reddish), not on top of mountains, near Eagles- mere." — Bennett. From other sources I am led to question the existence of this species in Sullivan Co. Probably Bennett refers to the large rusty- colored gray squirrels which are sometimes taken on the foothills. — Rhoads. Tioga Co. — None in Tioga Co. or this part of Pa. — Babcock. Never heard of one in Tioga Co. or northern Pa. — Cleveland. Venango Co. — Never saw one in Venango or other northern Cos., though a hunter of squirrels 20 consecutive years. No records known to him. — Dorworth. Wayne Co. — I shot one or two many years ago. Always rare in Wayne Co. — Goodnough, 1900. Never had any in Wayne Co. — Stevens. Wyoming Co. — " The only place I know of its being found is in Wyoming Co." — Stocker. I never heard of one here in Wyoming Co. — Robinson. York Co. — "We have seen it near York." — Audubon and Bachm., Quad. N. Amer., vol. i. Listed in Warren's "Poultry" book, 1. c, p. 507. General Records. — " Shot at rare intervals in some of the northern coun- ties " of the western border of Pa. — Todd. Specimens of the light gray phase of Pa. fox squirrel presented to the Academy of Nat. Sci., Phila., long ago by Drs. Heerman and Woodhouse have no definite locality, but probably •came from localities east of the Susquehanna River. Mr. IngersoU was un- able to get any reliable notes of this species in his journey through Juniata, Huntingdon, Blair, Cambria, Somerset and Bedford Cos. in 1896. Old hunters with whom he conversed had- only known of them in the distant past. — Rhoads. "This species is generally known in southeastern Pennsylvania, where it chiefly abounds, as the fox squirrel." — Baird, Mam. N. Amer., 1857, p. 250. Records in N. 'jF. — Mercer Co. — " Specimens of this squirrel have been •quite frequently met with in the past three years. They seem to prefer a clump of large shell-bark hickories with open ground about them." — Abbott, Geolog. Surv. of N. J., 1868, p. 756. Escaped from cages and increased for a time. Now exterminated. — Abbott, 1900. Southeast N. J. — " The southeastern portion of N. Jersey seems to be well suited to them." — Audubon and Bachman, Quad. N. Amer., 1849, Vol. r. ■" Not abundant." — Beesley, Geol. Surv. C. May Co., 1857, p. 135. MAMMALS or PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 6 1 Northern N.J. — "Even the former existence of the fox squirrel in north- ern N. J. rests on such unreliable evidence that I am unwilling to include it." — Rhoads, Proc. Acad. N. Sci., Phila., 1897, p. 30. " I can get no informa- tion of any having been taken lately in New Jersey." — Bangs, Proc. Biol. Soc, Washn., 1896, p. 156. Description and Habits. — For the characters of this race see above under S. rufivenler. So far as I have read there is nothing to distinguish the habits and habitat of this specie? from those of the gray squirrel living in the same regions. It is more terrestrial, less agile and perhaps more partial to swampy ground than the gray squirrel and is much persecuted by the latter. Genus Tamias lUiger, Prodromus Systema Mammal, et Avium, 181 1, p. 83. Southeastern Chipmunk; Striped or Ground Squirrel. Tamias striatus (Linnaeus). 1758. Sciurus striatus Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, vol. i, p. 164. 1857. Tamias striatus Baird, nth Smithsonian Report (Washington, D.C., U.S.A.), p. 55. Type locality. — Southeastern United States. Faunal distribution. — Upper austral and lower transition zones ; Atlantic Ocean to Indian Territory. Distribution in Pa. and N. y. — Found abundant in the Austral and Trans- ition regions of both states except in southern, and more especially south- eastern, N. J., where it is rarely met with, though not absent from any county- As it nears the Transition areas it becomes exceedingly abundant and grad- ually assumes a lighter color which, in the " boreal islands " of the Pa. moun- tain tops, merits classification with T. s. lysteri, the form next to be considered. For further discussion of habits, economic status and specific characters the reader is referred to subspecies lysteri. i Northeastern Chipmunk. Tamias striatus lysteri (Richsudson). 1829. Sciurus (Tamias) lysteri Richardson, Fauna Boreali-Americana, vol. I, p. 182. 1886. Tamias striatus lysteri, Merriam, American Naturalist, vol. 20, p. 242. Type locality. — Penetanguishene, Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada. Faunal distribution. — Upper Transition and Lower Canadian zones ; Maine to Lake Superior. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — See under striatus, above. Not found in N. J. Records in Pa. — Specimens most nearly approaching typical lysteri in my 6Z MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. collection from the mountains of Pa. are almost as near to N. J. striatus in their coloration as to lysteri from Maine. On the basis of palest specimens those in the collection coming from Eaglesmere, Sullivan Co., and from the mountain tops of Clinton, McKean and Cambria Cos, are nearest lysteri. Specimens from the Pocono plateau are also quite pale, as well as those from Summit Mills in southern Somerset Co. A large series from the southern end of Greenwood Lake, Passaic Co., N. J., the most boreal locality in that state, show that lysteri has no place in her fauna. Habits, etc. — Some peculiarities of this species are worthy of note. They hibernate, as is generally supposed, at the approach of frosty weather and come out again in spring ; say about the first of April. At Greenwood Lake they were amazingly abundant, and during the whole time spent there, the last week in October, though the temperature descended to 20° there was no sunshiny day that did not bring them out by 9 or 10 o'clock. Of forty specimens secured there, no really fat one was found among them, though the acorns, which they were busily harvesting and storing away, were abundant. This is contrary to the usual condition of hibernating animals at that season. I have been told by Seth Nelson of Clinton Co., and Otto Behr of Sullivan Co. that sometime in February tracks in the snow show that chipmunks emerge from their homes and caper about. Nelson thinks this is their rutting season and that the females do not again come out of their burrows until the _,young are quite large, and much later than the males in spring. I cannot vouch for this idea, but if true it has its exceptions, as I have shot in late October young chipmunks about two-thirds grown, which could not have been born much earlier than late July. Nevertheless, I have never, at any season, secured a gravid female, but suckling ones have been sometimes taken, in an advanced stage towards weaning. It is not unlikely that the female chipmunk during parturition and for some time after the birth of her young does not leave the burrow, but either lives on the food she has stored there, or is fed by her male partner. While autumn is the time of greatest excite- ment among chipmunks, I have been unable to certainly discover that this is the rutting season. That late autumn or early winter is the rutting season for the tree squirrels, including the flying squirrel, there seems no doubt, as their young may be found in the nest in February and March. That many chipmunks enter and appear to be at home in the same burrow in the late fall is evidenced by my having trapped at the mouth of a single burrow, be- tween the 15th and 25th of October, on the mountain 3 miles above Round Island, Clinton Co., Pa., seven full-grown chipmunks, of which i was an adult female, one an adult male, one a young female and four young males. Three of the young males and the young female were so nearly alike in size that I think them the offspring of the old pair, and that it was likely they all were. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 63 expecting to hibernate, with the exception of the fourth young male, in this retreat. Of course this is only circumstantial evidence, but it is probable, as the four young were hardly able to hew out among those rocky fastnesses a retreat for themselves that year. In this same locality, though snow and hard freezing weather intervened, the chipmunks would respond to a th&.wing, sunshiny day as late as the loth of November, about the time we returned to Pittsburgh. That the chipmunk varies its vegetable diet of nuts, seeds, grain, buds and fruit with entrees of animal food is noteworthy. They not only eat insects, snakes, mice, birds, eggs and various species of shelled snails, but have been known to devour each other when wounded or caught in a trap. As they are exceedingly abundant in many parts of the Transition zone, and very fond of grain, those fields of wheat, oats and maize, etc., bordering upon woodland suffer not a little from their thefts, but as their main food supply is taken from nature's spontaneous gifts their economic status is not a serious ■problem. On the other hand, they are by far the most numerous, entertain- ing, confiding and innocent of the very few diurnal mammals which continue to exist in our populated districts. Description of species. — It will be sufficient to merely note the differences distinguishing true striatus from its more northern representative lysteri. The latter is rather longer tailed, has a longer hind foot but does not seem so heavily built ; more slender bodied. In fact the differences in measure- ments are so slight in averaging a large series of each that I think the hind foot the only reliable test. In color lysteri is lighter (grayer) above, the crown being yellowish rusty instead of rusty brown and the back clear ash gray lacking the dark chestnut rump of striatus. The back stripes are also less clearly contrasted and the under surface of tail buffy instead of dark hazel. Measurements {striatus). — Total length, 235 mm. {0% in.) ; tail vertebrae, 88 (3t^f) ; hind foot, 33 (i,^) : {lysteri) 235 {^%) ; 90 {i%) ; 35 (i^). Genus Arcotomys Schreber, Saugthiere, vol. 4, plates 207 to 211. Southeastern Woodchuck or Ground Hog. Arctomys monax (Lin- naeus). 1758. [Mus'] monax Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, vol. i, p. 60. 1780* Arctomys monax Schreber, Saugthiere, vol. 4, plate 208. Type locality. — Maryland. Faunal distribution. — Upper Austral and Transition zones ; Massachusetts to Georgia ; west almost to the plains. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — More or less abundant in all localities from tide water to mountain top in Pa. within the limits of the Upper Austral and Transition zones, being replaced in the Canadian zone by subspecies 64 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. canadensis, next considered. In New Jersey numerous everywhere north of a line joining Lambertville and Perth Amboy ; thence rapidly decreasing in numbers especially eastward in the pine barrens region, where they are almost unknown. In the vicinity of Trenton and Princeton they are rare, and in Camden Co. of fortuitous occurrence. Thence southward their presence is occasionally recorded in most isolated neighborhoods, seeming to set at naught the common rules of geographical and faunal distribution. The same peculiarity is noticeable in regions where they are generally abundant, certain parts of which, exactly similar in character of soil, topography, climate and flora, have been avoided by them apparently ever since the country was settled upon by white men. Records in Fa. (Peculiar distribution.) — Bucks Co. — Never seen around Fallsington. — James Moon and Geo. M. Comfort. Never known in southern part of Bucks Co. — D. Ray. Montgomery Co. — Supposedly common in eastern Pa., its distribution in Bucks and Montgomery Cos. is remarkable. The following is taken from the History of Montgomery Co., 1884, W. J. Buck, pp. 435, 436 : "After most extensive inquiry among the descendants of our earliest families, the ground hog seems never to have been known in Horsham, Moreland, Abington, Cheltenham or Upper Dublin townships. Near Flourtown, Springfield twp., one was discovered about 1868 and regarded as a great curiosity. In Lower Salford they disappeared a quarter of a century ago. A few are still found in Upper Hanover and Upper and Lower Providence, but strange to say they are common around Red Hill and Eastburn's Hill in Upper Merion. Records in N. J. (chiefly extralimital.) — Atlantic Co. — Two were reported captured near Egg Harbor and there exhibited about 1880. — Rhoads. Burlington Co.— "Very rare near Medford. About the year 1874 one was killed on the south branch of Rancocas Creek near my farm." — Geo. Haines. Joseph S. Evans in answer to a letter to William B. Evans of Moorestown writes : "I remember in the summer of 1898 we cought one in a rail pile and I think I remember hearing of one being caught in Edw. Darnell's potato patch last summer [1901] near Mount Laurel, Father says he only remem- bers seeing 3 or 4 in his lifetime [near Marlton]." Camden Co. — One was killed near Haddonfield, April, 1890, in a burrow along the road to Chew's Landing. It was mounted for, and is now in the possession of John Hutchison. This is the only record known to me for Camden Co. during a residence there of nearly forty years. — Rhoads, 1901. An adult specimen was taken alive in July, I902, on a farm near Ashland and seen by me in Haddonfield. — Rhoads. Cape May Co. — " A few are found at the head of Cedar Swamp Creek, Upper township." — Hand, 1901. Cumberland Co. — Saw one near Greenwich about 50 years ago. The only one. — Williams, 1902. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 65 Mercer Co. — " Not common around Princeton ; even on the Rocky Hill range it is scarce. I have several skins from this locality, but have not seen more than a half dozen in the last ten years." — Phillips, 1901. Occasional in vicinity of Princeton. — Scott. Not uncommon in this Co., but more abundant in adjoining Cos. — Abbott, 1900. "In the last five years have col- lected six adult specimens from Mt. Lucas. It is supposed to be rare, as traces of it are seldom seen." — Silvester, 1901. None seen around Lawrence Sta. — McGuigan, 1901. One taken alive near Lawrence and taken to Tren- ton as a curiosity. — D. Ray, 1901. Morris Co. — Several are found on farms near Gillette, in 1901. — Rhoads. Ocean Co. — One found in burrow on McCoy farm near Tuckerton (about 1880?). — Jillson. One shot by Horace Pharo on Pharo farm at Tuckerton about 1894. — Rhoads. One killed near Tuckerton in summer of 1897 and another in 1898, so Jillson says, — Price, 1901. Salem Co. — "About 30 years ago [1872] there was a burrow of the Ground hog along the hill sides of Mannington Creek." — Caspar W. Thomp- son. " Our country [Salem Co.J was' the home of but one species of Mar- mot, familiarly known as Woodchuck. They lived in communities and bur- rowed in wooded hillsides." — W. Patterson in "Extinct Fauna of Salem Co.," read before the Salem Co. Histor. Soc, Mar. 10, 1896. Union Co. — "One seen (by me) south of First Mountain, near Plainfield, Aug. 14, 1898. Another seen on Second Mountain, near Plainfield, April 23, 1899. Never seen south or east of Plainfield." — Miller. Habits, economic status, etc. — In nearly all the country covered by this paper the habits of the ground hog are too well known. In the mountainous districts where rocks abound and afford it greater security in its underground retreats, it has become a pest to the tiller of the soil because of its great abundance. There are sometimes twenty of their families on an area of 150 acres in Warren Co., N. J., where the farms reach up the sides of the Kitta- tinny Mountain. Most of the northern counties of the state can mourn over similar conditions. So bad are the Warren Co. ground hogs, there is a special bounty put upon their scalps in Frelinghuysen Twp. of 10 cents each, and in consequence thousands are slaughtered. The woodchuck is pre- eminently a grass eater, and clover pleases him all too well. The following extract from a letter by A. C. Sisson of La Plume, will illustrate how they re- gard him in Lackawanna Co. in northern Pa. I take it from Dr. Warren's "Poultry" book: "The ground hog is fast becoming one of the farmer's and gardener's most destructive enemies. I would most earnestly recom- mend legislative aid in suppressing this intolerable nuisance. There should be a bounty of at least twenty-five cents on every one killed. I have looked in vain for one redeeming trait in this sneaking, groveling curse to the agri- 66 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. culture of our State. He is a gross feeder, devouring nearly as much clover as a full-grown sheep ; he eats to give him strength to dig holes, and then he digs holes to give him an appetite for more clover. He takes supreme de- light in tearing the bark from young fruit trees, and will wipe out entirely a good-sized bean patch in a day." No bounties appear to have been paid on this animal in Pa., though I make bold to assert it annually steals incalculably more value in agricultural products than the combined value of poultry, live stock, etc., which are destroyed by beasts and birds of prey coming under the ban of law. The fur of the wood chuck has no value, and very few are used for food, so that there is almost nothing "in his hide" to compensate for such thievishness as in the fox, mink, skunk, wildcat, and opossum. Description of species and measurements. — See under subspecies canadensis, next considered. Northeastern Woodchuck or Ground Hog. Arctomys monax cana- densis (Erxleben). 1777. \_Glis'\ canadensis Erxleben, Systema Regni Animal, vol. i, p. 363. 1898. Arctomys monax canadensis Allen, Bulletin American Museum N. History, vol. 10, p. 456. Type locality. — Hudson Bay. Faunal distribution. — Canadian and Hudsonian life zones ; Newfoundland ; west to Rocky Mts. ? Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Not found in N. J. The woodchuck of the hmited Canadian areas of the northern Alleghenies may more properly be classed with the dark race of the southern Hudson Bay region than with the Maryland animal. This form is confined to the mountain tops of the northern tier of counties. It is more essentially an inhabitant of the forested lands, as contrasted with the habitat of monax. It is abundant. Habits, etc. — See above, under monax. Description of species. — As no specimens of typical canadensis have been described according to modern methods, I will take Bangs' description of Arctomys ignavus from Labrador as a basis for comparison with monax, it being probable that ignavus may properly become a synonym of canadensis. This granted, the northeastern woodchuck is larger than monax and of a dark grizzly gray, little varied with yellow or reddish tints, as in the latter species. The difference in size is not great, amounting in the length of hind foot to only ^ of an inch. Genus Sciuropterus F. Cuvier, Dents du Mammiferfes, 1825, p. 255. Virginia Flying Squirrel. Sciuropterus volans (Linnseus). MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 67 • 1758. [jJ/«f] volans Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, vol. i, p. 63. 1890. S'[ciuropierus\ volans Jordan, Manual Vertebrate Animals, Northern U. States, p. 321. Type locality. — Virginia. Faunal distribution. — Austral and transition zones; Maine to Georgia, west to the plains. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Found in uniform abundance in all locaU- ties, so far as known. Whether it is replaced in any of the restricted Cana- dian areas by the large northern species, Sciuropterus sabrinus macrotis Mearns, has not been determined. All the flying squirrels so far examined by me from these localities have been the small species, S. volans. As there is a possibility of the larger species being found, the following distinctions between them may be given : Description of species. — The Virginia species is drab on the upper parts, slightly shaded with russet, not distinctly different in winter and summer fur. The under parts a[re pure white to the extreme roots of the hairs. The total length is 230 mm. (9 in.) ; tail vertebrae 100 (4) ; and hind foot 30 {}■%). In the northern species these measurements are respectively : 280 (11) ; 125 (S) ; 38 (i>^) ; and the upper parts are glossy wood brown mixed with cinnamon in winter and in summer sooty drab, the under parts being dirty white, the hairs sooty at their roots. Family Castorid^, Beavers. Genus Castor Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, 1758, vol. i, p. 58. Northeastern or Canada Beaver. Castor canadensis Kuhl, 1820. Castor canadensis Kuhl, Beitrage Zur. Zool. u. Vergl. Anat., p. 64. Type locality. — Hudson Bay. Faunal distribution. — Hudsonian and Canadian life zones; Atlantic Ocean to Cascade .Mts. and Behring Sea. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — The typical form was never found in N. J. In Pa. this northern animal was at one time numerous in the higher mountain lakes and headwaters of the Allegheny and Susquehanna rivers. It is in- cluded in this paper solely on our knowledge of the presence of other animal forms belonging to the Canadian fauna (Lynx, Wolverene, Bonaparte's Weasel, Cope's Shrew, etc.) in the regions named. No specimens of native beaver from Pa. or N. J. being known to exist, I have been compelled to in- clude both the northeastern {cq.nadensis') and the southeastern {carolinensis) in this list on purely zoogeographic grounds. I have no hesitation in believ- ing that this course would be proven correct on a basis of comparison be- 68 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. • tween specimens of the original beaver stock of southern N. J. and those of the Canadian regions of Pa. It has been many years since beavers were sup- posed to have been exterminated in the Pa. wilderness. Whether the records of recent captures and observations of beavers in the State of Pa. are based on survivors of the native race or are strays from captivity we are not always able to discover, but in some cases, such as those mentioned under the next subspecies, they were evidently from imported stock. Records in Pa. — Cambria Co. — ^The following record of a Cambria Co. beaver, coming as it does from a person of so much intelligencp and fully appreciating the need of accuracy in an identification of this kind, induces me to insert it as probably, correct. From the nature of its surroundings and the absence of any evidence that a game preserve was ever located in the neighborhood, it is not impossible that this beaver is one of the last if not the last representative of the old beaver stock to be found in the Middle States, unless there be some remaining in the Adirondacks, a fact not proved in Miller's recent List of New York Mammals : " I saw a beaver on a branch of South Fork of Little Conemaugh [Portage twp.J Sept. 1 6th, 1899. This branch is marked on old maps 'Beaver Dam Branch,' though I do not know where or how long ago dams existed. Prior to flood of 1889, this country was almost untouched. A lumber road now runs through bed of old South Fork dam and up main fork, but much of the timber on this ' Beaver Dam Branch ' is intact. Hemlocks, 3 ft. through are in great numbers. Many years ago there was a small saw-mill at about the point marked with a red dot on sketch map [near Blair Co. line] ; and where the stream re-enters the forest is a big pile of rotting slabs and butts, with slack water above. The beaver was just below this and came splashing down stream toward us, plunging into a pool not ten feet away just as he saw us, apparently ; for he turned under water and ran up stream, disappearing under the pile of slabs. I was uncertain as to its identity until it turned and we had a good look at close range. The valley for four miles below this point is vir- gin forest and only disturbed by trout fishers. In a few years, however, it will be all cut over, as the hemlock is very valuable and the mills, but five or six miles down stream." Signed W. C. McHenry, Oct., 1899. In answer to my further inquiries regarding this record, Mr. McHenry wrote as follows : " Johnstown, Pa., Dec. i8th, 00. "Dear Sir: Replying to your note of 17th, relative to the Cambria County Beaver, would say that I have been unable to make another trip to the locality for additional evi- dence. The only doubts I had, however, were removed last winter, when, in company with the young man [Frank Phillips] who was with me on the South Fork trip, I visited the col- lection of mammals at the Field Museum in Chicago and carefully inspected specimens of the Beaver as well as animals with which it would be at all possible to confound it. This confirmed us both beyond doubt that the animal we saw in good daylight and so close we MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 69 could have easily shot it with a pistol, and both in and out of water, first coming directly towards us and then retreating, giving a good view of its hinder parts and tail, was a Beaver. My first impression, as the animal came towards us and plunged into the pool, was that it was an otter; this before I had a good look at it. Even when I saw the tail I could scarcely credit my senses, as I supposed the Beaver was wholly extinct, and was glad to have my friend's positive confirmation that the tail ytssjlat and naked. It was not until after return- ing and on tracing our rambles on the map that I found we were on the ' Beaver Dam Branch ' of the South Fork. " If possible, I will make a trip to the spot this winter and try to confirm the record by other evidence. It may be, however, that lumbering operations have been pushed that far up stream." Centre Co. — "According to Mr. George K. Boak, Pine Glen, Pa., the beaver was found in Centre Co. about 30 years ago." — Warren in Poultry book, 1897, p. 494. Clarion Co. — Last killed on Sandy Creek in northern Clarion Co., near the Venango Co. line, in 1864. — Zendle. Cleat field Co. — " Mr. Abraham Neveling, of Coalport, Pa., says, " The last beaver was trapped in Clearfield Co. in 1837." — See Warren, Poultry book, 1897, p. 494. A very large beaver meadow lies near Dubois. — Rhoads. Clinton Co. — An old beaver dam on Fishing Creek. — Hays. Seth I. Nel- son, who hunted in the thirties in Potter [and Tioga] Cos. when those coun- ties were largely covered with virgin forest, and the elk, wolf and pekan were still numerous, never met with living beaver. In contrast with this we have the following statement from his son, Seth Nelson (Jr.) : "The last [beaver] taken in this state was killed on Pine Creek nine years ago [1884]. A part of Pine Creek is in Clinton Co.,* part in Potter Co. and part in Tioga Co., but the beaver was started in Potter Co. and followed down through Tioga Co., and killed in Clinton Co." — See Rhoads, Proc. Acad. N. Sci., Phila., 1897, p. 2X0. Crawford Co. — Formerly in Pyraatuning and Conneaut marshes. — See local beaver names in that region. — Kirkpatrick, 1900. Elk Co. — None known to exist in Elk Co. during my experience of 50 years. — Luhr, 1900. "At head of Bennett's Branch [near St. Mary's] is a marsh called Flag Swamp, remarkable as probably the only one in the state in which the beaver may be found [about 1850]." — See Hist. Elk Co., 1890, P- 473- Forest Co. — There was a colony on Salmon Creek, Central Forest Co. 70 years ago. — Haslet, 1901. The Beaver Meadows in Jenks Twp. covered 2000 acres. Beavers were numerous in 1833 when Cyrus Blood settled in Jenks, but soon exterminated. — Irwin. jFefferson Co. — Late in " the thirties " George Pelton brought beaver pelts to Brookville. — See McKnight's Hist. Jeff. Co., 1898, p. 89. These pelts * It forms part of the southeastern boundary of the Co. 70 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. were probably taken on Beaver river, a few miles south of Brookville. — Rhoads. McKean Co. — "About 70 years ago there was a nice beaver dam and meadow with a fine lot of beaver on the Kinzua Creek in the southwestern part of this county. This Beaver Meadow, as it was and is yet called, is about two miles above the Kinzua Viaduct. At or near this meadow is where the last beaver was caught in this county. Jerod Robison caught two or three there in 1839. ^ 1^*^^ heard it stated that beaver have been caught near these old meadows as late as the sixties, but could never hear what the man's name was who captured them." — Dickinson, 1901. Monroe and Pike Cos. — "The older residents concur in the opinion that the beaver was exterminated nearly fifty years ago in northwestern Pa. Their dams and meadows are still pointed out in numerous places along Bushkill and Dingman creeks." — See Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1894, P-.390- The following notice of living beavers in Monroe Co. was published in the Sunday North American, Dec. 15, 1901 : "The animal population of Pennsylvania hag lately been augmented by the arrival of a score of beavers. Where they came from, and how they reached the Keystone State, no one knows, but that they are here cannot be denied, for their newly-built home has just been discovered on the farm of Judge Edinger, near Stroudsburg, in Monroe county. " It is a genuine beaver dam, one of those marvels of ingenious construc- tion now seldom found anywhere save in the most inaccessible parts of Canada and other northern countries. " The presence of this dam and its builders in Pennsylvania, scarcely a hundred miles from Philadelphia, is a problem that naturalists will find hard to solve. " All the known habits of the beaver increase the mystery. He is one of the most secretive of animals, and has but rarely been seen by human eyes, so carefully does he shun mankind. Moreover, beavers have been so per- sistently hunted in this country that they are likely to become extinct, and are now rare even in the remote parts of Canada. "The discovery of the dam came through accident. John Storm, a resi- dent of Snydersville, stumbled on to it while following a rabbit in the hills near his home. But for this chance, it might have remained hidden for years, for its cunning builders had cleverly concealed it with a protecting shield of twigs and branches. "Visitors by the hundred, from city and countryside, have flocked to the scene, and marveled at the skill with which the little animal engineers had fashioned their strange abode. "To all appearances, the beavers had been there for months, for the dam MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 7 1 was finished to the last straw, and, moreover, was abandoned, the fickle- minded beavers having already started another dam some distance away. The frost king evidently had interrupted the beavers before they had time to finish the new structure, for found it was, frozen, in an incomplete state. " All around the stream, for a distance of half a mile on either bank, were evidences of the busy beavers' work. In one spot no less than seven trees had been felled into the stream, which flows toward the new dam, in such a way that the current would carry the supply of timber down to the builders. " It was particularly interesting to note how cleverly the beavers selected the trees to be felled. In every case, the trees cut had been growing close to the bank in ■ such a sloping position that the tree was sure to tumble into the water as it fell. The keen teeth had attacked the tree always on the side further from the water, so that the weight would assist the operation of felling, and send it in the direction favorable to transportation. " Some of the trees felled were of such a size that it would seem to have been an impossibility for a beaver to haul it to the water ; but with the stream as an ally, and the law of gravitation to help carry the tree to the stream, all was easy. " It is not likely that Judge Edinger will fail to take the necessary precau- tions. " ' I had one fellow,' indignantly remarked the Judge to the writer, ' ask me if he could not go over there and shoot a beaver. Why, I'd almost as soon he'd shoot me. I'm going to protect the beavers, and hope they'll thrive until they are common sights along the river. One man told me I'd regret it because of the damage to the timber. Well, they're welcome to all the trees they can cut down. What are the few trees compared to a beaver dam on one's own property ? ' " No one has been fortunate enough to see a member of the new colony so far. Nor is any one likely to during the winter, for when the cold weather begins the beavers retire to their winter quarters. " Judging by the work done, the colony must number at least a score ; most of the young trees growing along the stream are probably doomed, for, although work has of necessity been suspended, it evidently has not been abandoned, for newly-cut trees are lying on the ice ready for resumption of operations when the cold days give place to dam-building weather." In confirmation of this story, Mr. Edinger writes me, from Stroudsburg, under date of Jan. 25, 1902 : " Your letter received in due course, and in reply would say that the ac- count of the beavers on my farm, as published in the North American of Sunday, Dec. 15th, 1901, is correct. From the cutting of the timber done by them on my farm, I imagine they have been there for about two years, but were only discovered last fall. They have built a temporary dam about one 72 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. hundred feet in length in a swamp about one hundred yards from the stream of McMichael's creek. They are now on the bank of that stream on my property, as is seen by their late cutting of the timber. There are at least one hundred trees that have been cut by them, some quite large ones, and some cut as late as last week." In a letter of later date Mr. Edinger gives further particulars as follows : "Your letter of January 30th received, and in reply relative to the beaver would say that we do not know where they came from and do not know how many there are. From the cutting done by them I would imagine there may be six or eight. I have been informed there is a Park in N. J. about forty miles from N. Y. City in which there are some beavers ; it may be possible these may have escaped from there. McMichael's creek, on which these beavers have located, rises in Tunkhannock township this county, flows through Chestnuthill, Hamilton, and Stroud township, through the borough of Stroudsburg and empties into Brodhead's creek. The latter empties in the Del. River at the Water Gap, three miles from this town. We have not seen any of the beavers but have tracked them by the late snow, and have located them in under the bank of the stream (McMichael's creek) ; they have quite a lot of wood for food at the mouth of their home, the bank is from four to six feet higher than the creek. I have put notices on the prem- ises forbidding trespassing under full penalty of the law. I don't think that anybody will disturb them. The water in McMichael's creek at my farm and where the beavers are is about fifty feet wide and from three to five feet in depth. My farm is about two miles north of Stormsville, one mile east of Kellersville, and about one mile southeast of Snydersville. Most of the timber cut by them is swamp beech, white ash, and quaking asp. They use mostly the bark of the white ash for food." I can see no other explanation of the presence of these beavers in Mc- Michael's creek than the one given by Mr. Edinger. The natural waterway connection between the AUamuchy preserve and Stroudsburg would be down the Peques river to the Delaware and up that to Brodhead's creek. But this would entail almost certain destruction. A somewhat safer course would be across to the head of the Paulin's Kill and thence to the Delaware. An- other route would be across the southwest border of Sussex Co. by Swarts- wood Lake across the Kittatinny lakes region to the Delaware, overland. Their dispersion over a similar hill and lake region in Sussex Co. northward makes this not only the safer but the most natural route. Potter Co. — See notes under Clinton Co. Sullivan Ce. — "Jared Robinson caught 2 in the beaver dam, now called 'hay marsh,' 4 miles above Lopez between 1818 and 1820." — Behr, 1901. Query : can this be the " Jerod Robison" who "caught two or three" in the Kinzua creek region (see under McKean Co.) in 1839? It is not unlikely MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 75 that said Jared or Jerod is the guilty trapper by whose infamous pertinacity the "last beavers " of Pennsylvania were gathered to their fathers ! Sullivan and Tioga Cos. — "Nearly extinct [1834] in the Allegheny Mts." Traces of their cuttings reported seen at headwaters of Pine, Lycoming, or Loyalsock creeks. — See Taylor, London's Magazine Nat. History, 1835, vol. 8> PP- 536 to 539- "None captured or seen in Tioga Co. in my recollection of 50 yes rs." — Cleveland, 1900. Venango Co. — None seen or heard of in last 25 years. — Dorworth, 1900. Wayne Co. — Beavers especially haunted the headwaters of the Lehigh and Lackawaxen. Willows, birch and poplars were their favorite building material. "The last one killed was near Honesdale. The last I ever saw was caught in a trap by Edmund Nicholson, of Salem [township]." (No dates given.) — See Goodrich, Hist. Wayne Co., 1880. Summary of foregoing records. — It is evident that this interesting animal was practically exterminated in the eastern half of its Canadian habitat in Pa. about 1830 ; that some remained in the headwaters of the west branch of the Susquehanna till about 1840, and that almost the last stragglers of their race were killed in Elk, Clarion, and Centre Cos., between the years 1850 and 1865. By what means the two specimens, one said to have been killed in Clinton Co. in 1884, and the other reported seen in Cambria Co. in 1899,, succeeded in evading their deadly foes, both man and beast, for the remain- ing third of a century we are at a loss to say, unless they were escaped im- portations from some part of the country. Description of species. — It will suffice to merely indicate the racial difTer- ences between the northern and southern beavers of eastern North America. The northern animal {canadensis) is rather smaller and with a shorter bind foot than the southern (carolinensis), and the scaly portion of the tail is twice as long as its width, while in the latter the relative width is considerably greater. The upper winter fur of canadensis is blackish brown, the hairs tipped with chestnut, rump and thighs dark chestnut. In carolinensis the upper colors are hazel brown and the rump and thighs cinnamon rufous, the under parts broccoli brown, making it a miich duller and paler colored animal than the Canadian beaver. The fur of the latter is long, full and soft while that of the former is much shorter and relatively harsher and thinner at the same season of year. Measurements. — {Canadensis) total length, iioo mm. (35 in.) ; tail verte- brae, 410 (16^); hind foot, 175 (6 5^). {Carolinensis) total length, 1100 (35) ; hind foot, 184 (7j^) ; scaly part of tail, 279x158 (iix6j^). Southeastern Beaver. Castor canadensis carolinensis Rhoads. 1898. Castor canadensis carolinensis Rhoads, Transactions American Philosoph. Society, Phila., vol. 19, p. 420. 74 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. Type locality. — Dan River, near Danbury, Stokes Co., N. Carolina. Faunal distribution. — Austral and transition zones ; Massachusetts to Florida, west to the Coast Range. Distribution in Pa. and N.J. — This subspecies was formerly a native of all the extensive regions included in the upper austral and transition zones of the two states, supposedly intergrading into canadensis in the regions named above under that species. Records in Pa. — Owing to the earlier settling up of the country inhabited by this race of beaver in Pa., I am not able to give any dates of its disap- pearance in that state. As one of the chief items of barter with the aborigines was beaver skins, this animal speedily was exterminated in the more accessible regions, leaving behind it only the name of creek, or river, lake, or meadow, or township, yea, even a county to perpetuate its memory. Probably Penn's- colony had not been settled twenty years on the Delaware before most of the beavers of the lower Delaware, Schuylkill and Susquehanna valleys had been shipped as pelts to England. This was the condition about the year 1700. By the time of the American Revolution, 76 years more of colonization had practically wiped out the lowland beaver from all the great river valleys of the ■state except the northern tributaries of the Ohio. On this account, practic- ally all contemporary history of that period was too much engrossed in the ■"winning of the west " to record observations on natural history, and we have hardly so much as a tradition of when and where the last valley beaver trod incautiously upon a steel trap. Records in N.J. — Owing to the inaccessible and unproductive character of the lands of southern New Jersey, the beaver continued to exist in some of the most retired swamps of Atlantic and Cape May counties long after its brethren of the Pa. lowlands were exterminated. On this account, a few records have been found indicating its approximate disappearance. All "beaver records given below dating later than 1820, we may safely include ■under the class of species introduced by man into our limits. — Rhoads. Atlantic Co. — " I never saw one dead or alive " [very significant of their ■absence since 1830, as he was a most noted hunter in Atlantic Co. for nearly 50 years]. About 1818, a friend of his saw them swim across Great Egg Harbor River. Six old dams known to him in Atlantic Co. — 2 at Hammon- ton, I three miles south of Egg Harbor City, i between May's Landing and Weymouth and i south of Doughty's Tavern. — Coffin. " In the northern part of the county, between Atsion and Batsto, the water from the main branch of the Machesautuxen was carried to the eastward through the high grounds by means of ditches or canals, into a smaller stream called Sleepy Creek, where dams were erected and where the beavers had their dwellings. . . . Higher up the same stream a series of dams were erected, flooding the whole valley for several miles and so destroying the timber that but little has grown upon MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 75 the soil, leaving it, however, a valuable pasturage for cattle during most of the year." — J. Clement, in Proceedings of the Surveyors' Association of N. J., 1880, p. 405. An examination of the map shows that this tract lies in Ham- monton township at the head of the Nescochaque (Sleepy Creek?) branch of MuUica River, about midway between Hammonton and Atsion. It is named the Great Swamp. Probably the canal referred to was merely to secure access to the Machesautuxen regions rather than a source of water supply, as the tributaries of the Nescochaque reached far beyond the Great Swamp to Winslow and Cedarbrook and must have afforded abundance of water. This is probably the region of the Hammonton beaver dams, mentioned above by CofiSn. — Rhoads. Burlington Co. — " Saw lately an old dam on Wading River. Another, dose by, is mentioned in an old deed to my grandfather, dated 1848. Other dams can be found on Wading River and its branches." — Price. See also under " historical notes," beyond. Camden Co. — Exterminated in Camden Co. before 1820, one of their latest haunts in that Co. being Beaver Branch of Big Timber Creek. — Chew. Some of the beaver dams mentioned above by Clement as being built in the head- waters of the Machchesautuxen must have extended the operations of beavers into the southeastern end of Camden Co, — Rhoads. Cape May Co. — A well-defined beaver dam may yet be traced at head of Sluice Creek, ^ mile from South Dennis Station, Atlantic City R. R. — Hand. The last one seen near Dennisville was about 75 years (1814?) ago, but they remained near Tom's River (Ocean Co.) much later. — Miss H. L. Townsend —fide Lee. " It was found in Cape May Co. 25 years ago, occasionally." — Abbott, Geol. N. J., 1868, p. 757. Mercer Co. — Dams in Crosswicks Creek yet traceable. "Was formerly very abundant, especially along the Assanpink Creek."<^Abbott in GeoL N. J., 1868, p. 757, and in letter to Rhoads. Ocean C«».— See above, under Cape May Co. Tuckerton mill dam was originally built by beavers just at high tide limit of Tuckerton Creek. It formed in the early history of that region the foundation for the first highway across the creek. A comparatively recent washout in this dam exposed the original beaver-gnawed material of its foundation. — Rhoads,^rfif Pharo. Salem Co. — An old dam, 5 miles from Mickleton, bearing the name of Beaver Pond, is cut off from Raccoon Creek. The ancient site of the dam breast, cutting off a swampy section from the creek, is yet traceable, being held in place by the roots of many willows growing upon it. — Rhoads, 1898. Sussex Co. — An article published in " Forest and Stream," in August, 1900,. gave a detailed account of the existence of beavers in the wilds of Sussex Co by Mr. J. von Lengerke. The locality was not stated. In answer to my inquiries, under address and date of New York, February 24, 1902, 1 received, the following interesting letter regarding these N. J. beavers : 76 mammals of pennsylvania and new jersey. ^' Samuel N. Rhoads, Esq. : "Dear Sir: I learn from trustworthy sources that beavers are to be found in different localities, especially in Sussex county, N. J. To my knowledge, there are three or four distinctly different waters which harbor them, but as to their numbers, of course, I cannot speak. In looking over the grounds •where they seemed to live last year, I found but little fresh signs ; it seems that the animals have worked down stream, as a mile or two below their last year's haunt lots of new fresh signs are noticeable, including a dam built under a bridge on a public country road. The water is dammed up several feet on one side of the bridge and the dam seems very effective. This road, of course, is not traveled much and there is many a day when not a single ■wagon crosses the bridge. " I have not had a chance to look after the details and follow the matter up further, but expect to do so this spring and summer. There is a bill before the Legislature in New Jersey, with a view to protecting the beaver in the State, and as this is likely to pass and become a law, there would be no ob- jection to naming the localities where the beaver are to be found. The place I refer to is near Roseville, Sussex Co., N. J. Another pond where I know beavers are to be found is Losee Pond, near Two Bridges. There are also beavers near Waterloo, N. J., and " Forest and Stream " gave a description of a solitary beaver in the Musconnetcong River. "There are several other ponds which harbor beaver, but I have no per- sonal knowledge thereof. Sussex county it seems harbors nearly all the animals in the State, although a few may have gotten into Morris county. Whether these animals are escaped stock I cannot say. If they are, they have done extremely well, as no beavers were introduced anywhere in that part of the State more than eight or ten years ago. " I understand that the Messrs. Rutherford planted a few beavers in their private pond at Tranquility Farm, near AUamuchy, N. J. At any rate, beaver may be considered as belonging to the fauna of New Jersey again, and I have no doubt that, with the protection which seems now to be assured, they will •do well in future. " Yours very truly, J. Von Lengerke. "P. S. My waters, 'Stag Lake,' is above Roseville, and while I have no resident beavers there, I know they visited there last winter, 1900-1901." See notes under Warren Co. Warren Co. — " I have not seen anything of beaver in N. J. except those ■which have escaped from Rutherford Stuyvesant's game preserve at AUa- muchy. On his reserve I noticed large trees which had been felled by these animals. They may be found along the stream [Pequest] which leads from his property." — Gifford, Feb. 4, 1901. There is little doubt that the original stock of beavers which are now spread over the southern part of Sussex Co., MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 77 as narrated by Mr. Lengerke above, escaped from the Rutherford preserve. — Rhoads, 1902. Historical notes, etc. — Dr. Abbott in Geology of N. J., 1868, says in general of the beaver of North N. J. : "Probably no longer found in the state, but may possibly exist in very limited numbers about the northern boundary line." This supposition, so far as it related to native or unprotected stock was prob- ably unwarranted at that date. — Rhoads. "To the beaver-hat trade with Portugal and the West Indies, N. Jersey contributed a noteworthy share ; but as the years of colonial existence drew to a close the making of beaver hats dwindled into comparative insignificance. Every effort was made to revive the beaver hat industry, but to no avail, and the commerce in this article [beaver pelts] virtually died out in pre-revolutionary times." — Lee. Description of species. — See preceding species. Family Murid^e, Mice and Rats. Genus Peromyscus Gloger, Gemeinn. Hand. u. Hilfsbuch d. Naturge- schischte, vol. i, p. 95. IVIiller's Deer Mouse. Peromyscus canadensis (Miller). 1893. Sitomys americanus canadensis Miller, Proceedings Biological So- ciety, Washington, vol. 8, p. 55. 1896. Peromyscus canadensis Bangs, Proc. Biol. Soc, Washn., vol. 10, p. 49. Type locality. — Peterboro, Madison Co., N. York. Faunal distribution.— Q.z.-az.6Ssi-D. and upper transition zones of eastern Canada and the United "States. Distribution in Pa. and N.J. — Not yet found in N. J., but may be dis- covered on High Knob, Sussex Co., or in the isolated mountain cedar swamps west of Greenwood Lake, near Passaic Co. In Pa. confined to the denser hemlock, tamarack and white pine forests of the Canadian fauna, in- tergrading southward along the higher Allegheny ridges of Cambria and Somerset Cos. into the small, longtailed race (?) found originally on Roan Mountain in the southern Alleghanies. See next species. Records in Pa. — This large, forest-haunting species has been taken in its most t)rpical form in the following localities : CUnton Co., High Mts. above Round Island, 2 ; Sullivan Co., Eaglesmere, 5 ; Lake Ganoga, 4. Habits, etc. — Among the deep, damp, moss-covered tangle of the ever- green forests, especially where the mountain stream is darkly hid by rhodo- dendron. Miller's deer mouse loves to dwell. He is by no means the hermit that a rambler in these solitudes might imagine, as he spies him peering out 78 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. from among the hemlock roots. Stealing about among these fallen logs and ' beds of moss and fern, in a perfect labyrinth of passageways, are scores of his fellows, playing the tag and hide and seek of life and death with friends and enemies. These long-eared, great-eyed and bewhiskered fellows must share as best they may, the same by-ways and tunnels that form the hunting grounds of many another sort of hidden creature whose doings have so long been as a sealed book to men. Stump-tailed wood mice with rusty backs {Evotomys) , strong- scented shrews, some fat and blood-thirsty, some so slender there's room for two to pass, a Brewer's mole or two and now and then a flash of Zapus fleeting by. Life is indeed not lonely here, even in the quiet day- time, but crowded, strenuous and only half suppressed. Ask the trout fisher- man or the still hunter. They have some secrets yet unrevealed in books. Except in the company he keeps there is but little difference in color and habits between the deer , mouse of the AUeghanian forests and his more plebeian counterpart of the valleys. Indeed they both meet on common ground along the lower edges of the Canadian zone, daring to venture a little into each other's pecuhar domain, yet never, so far as is known, interbreed- ing, but ever maintaining their specific characters. Deer mice are a wonderfully large family all over this North American continent, having more species by far than any other genus of American mammals, yet they all have kept within a very narrow range of variation in size, color and habits. What I have said, therefore, of Miller's deer mouse will apply largely to all of them. In a few words, they were in measure to colonial Americans what the house mouse of the Old World now is to the super-civilized citizens of the New World, only far more beautiful and enter- taining. In the lumberman's camp and settler's cabin they supply the full measure of man's need of a domestic mouse to steal his victuals, nibble his papers, nest in his boots and dance high carnival in the sheltering eaves. A word as to that cloud-dweller which we next consider, the dusky, long- tailed sprite of the balsam woods, on the foggy peaks of the Great Smoky Mountains. Of all dark ways, his are the darkest among eastern deer mice. In consequence, all we know of him is that his looks do not belie his call- ing, and when we place him alongside his Adirondack ancestors, he looks as smoky as his native mountains and, strange contradiction, about a third smaller- bodied with a long, slender tail. Such, in an intermediate degree, is his half- way brother of the hemlocks at Summit Mills, in Somerset Co., near the Maryland state line. — Rhoads. "At Summit Mills, a region altogether higher than Krings in Cambria Co., canadensis seemed to replace leucopus entirely, and there I took them everywhere, in stone. walls along fields, in oak and hemlock woods and one in a trap set on the mountain for cliff rats. Traps set in low, damp ground for Evotomys also often caught them." — IngersoU. Description of species. — {^Canadensis) tail equal to or longer than head MAMMALS PA, AND N. J., RHOADS. PLATE 3. ALL FIGURES NATURAL SIZE. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 79 and body, heavily haired, with well-defined tuft at tip. Body above, dull, yellowish-brown, in adults ; beneath, white ; tail colors to correspond ; feet white. In nubiterra, the Cloudland race, the size is not only much smaller, but the color above is a sort of smoky brown in adults and the underparts less pure white. Measurements. — (^Canadensis) total length, 190 mm. (7J^ in.;; tail verte- brae, 100 (3|-|); hind foot, 21.5 (f|). (nubiterra) , Somerset Co., average of 13 adults, 176 (7); 89 (3^4)"; 2iJ^ (l|). Cloudland Deer Mouse. Peromyscus canadensis nubiterra (Rhoads). 1896. Peromyscus leucopus nubiterrce Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., p. 187. 1897. Peromyscus canadensis nubiterrce Rhoads, Ibid., p. 213. Type locality. — Summit of Roan Mt., Mitchell Co., North Carolina. Alti- tude, 6370 ft. Faunal distribution. — Canadian or balsam forest belts of the higher south- ern Alleghanies, insensibly grading into canadensis along the middle Alle- ghany ridge, from southern Pa. to southern West Virginia. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Not found in N. J. The most closely allied examples of Pa. nubiterrae that I have seen were taken in southern Somerset Co. They are more characteristic of the subspecies than of the typical form. Habits, description of species, etc. — See under preceding species. Specimens examined. — Cambria Co., Krings, 9 ; Cresson and Summit, 6. Somerset Co., Summit Mills, 20. Rafinesque's Deer Mouse. Peromyscus leucopus (Rafinesque). 181 8. Musculus leucopus Rafinesque, American Monthly Magazine, vol. 3, p. 446. 1895. Peromyscus leucopus Thomas, Annals and Magazine, N. History, 6th series, vol. 16, p. 192. Type locality. — Pine Barrens of Kentucky. Faunal distribution. — Upper austral zone, grading into the subspecies next considered {noveboracensis) , in the transition zone. These two include practically all of the common lowland deer or white-footed mice ordinarily met with in the New England and Middle States and the Ohio Valley. Two other species somewhat overlap its range in the edge of the upper austral zone, the Golden mouse {P. nuttalli'),* a very distinct species, and the Cotton * A supposed specimen of nuttalli was recorded by Baird in his Mammals of N. America, vol. 8 of the Pacific R. R. Reports, 1857, p. 468, as coming from the Falls of Schuylkill, Pa. I agree with Coues that this must be a wrong identification. Baird also included a Carlisle, Pa. skull under this species, but there is enough variation in leucopus to account for a re- semblance in this to one of nuttalli. Baird lists it after a question mark. 8o MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. mouse {P. gossypinus) , similar in appearance to Rafinesque's mouse but quite distinct in other characters, being larger. The latter does not come nearer our limits than eastern Virginia (possibly southeastern Maryland and south- ern Delaware), but the former has been taken in Maryland and may occasion- ally straggle along the eastern foothills of the Alleghany Mts. across the Pa. border. Distribution in Pa. and N.J. — Upper austral regions of both states in uni- versal abundance, except in southern N. J., in the pine barren and coast region, where it may be said to be rare but not absent from any place con- tiguous to woods or thickets. Found in its most typical form in southern N. J. merging into subspecies noveboracensis at elevations of about looo to 1500 ft. Habits, etc. — Essentially the same as those above given for Miller's Deer Mouse. Often nesting in deserted birds' nests among thickets and briars in- stead of in hollow trees and logs as do the more northern forms. This animal does some damage to grain crops near woodland, carrying away and storing large quantities for so small an animal in a short time. As this is done chiefly in winter where crops have been neglected or unhoused, the fault lies less with them than with the farmer. Their chief diet is nuts, buds, bark, seeds and tuberous roots of woodland growth so that they are not to be ac- counted among "noxious" animals. Although so abundant they seem to rarely fall a prey to hawks and owls as compared with the meadow mice or even the shrews. This may be determined by the ratio of their skulls in the pellets regurgitated by rapacious birds. Owing to their exquisite perception of danger in all its forms and their great agility in leaping and climbing, it is probable that they likewise escape being made a very large part of the diet of weasels, foxes, skunks, etc., as compared with the more subterranean mice and shrews. Description of species. — P. leucopus and its northern ally P. /. noveboracensis may be distinguished from the P. canadensis group by the relative shortness of their tails, that member being considerably less than half the entire length of the animal. In canadensis the tail is longer than the head and body and the prevailing color is a dull or light brownish gray, in fact very little real color about it, but in the leucopus group the bright and dark russet or /awn shades are a striking feature, so resembling those of a deer as to suggest the name, deer mouse. A comparison of deer mice from the lower Delaware valley with those found in the upper transition areas of Pennsylvania shows that noveboracensis is of a duller grayish russet on the back and sides, the richness of color observable in leucopus being dimmed by the greater amount of gray and black-tipped hairs. The darkly contrasting median dorsal area of blackish is more defined in leucopus, and the fur of under parts is purer white, showing less the plumbeous bases of hairs. The difference in size is MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 8 1 ■surprisingly small, in fact not appreciable in comparing ten adults from Cum- berland Co., N. J., with a like series from Cambria Co., Pa., all measured by the same collector. Measurements. — Total length, 1 68 mm. (6^) ; tail vertebrae, 75 (2^|-;) hind foot, 21 (-jf) ; height of ear from crown, 15 (x%)- Specimens examined. — Pa., 50. N. J., 125. Fischer's Deer Mouse. Peromyscus leucopus noveboracensis (Fischer) . 1829. \_Mus sylvaiicus'] noveboracensis Fischer, Synopsis Mammalium, p. 318- 1897. Peromyscus leucopus noveboracensis Miller, Proceedings Boston So- ciety N. History, vol. 28, p. 22. Type locality. — New York. Faunal distribution. — Transition zones and lower border of Canadian; New England to ( ?) Minnesota. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Abundant in the transition limits of both states ; meeting Miller's deer mouse and the Cloudland deer mouse on the confines of the primeval coniferous forests at a height of about 2000 feet, losing its racial distinctions from Rafinesque's deer mouse at about 1000 feet ■elevation. Records in Pa. and N. j. — See under distribution. Habits, description of species, etc. — See under preceding species of Pero- myscus. Specimens examined. — Pa., 138. N. J., 81. Genus Oryzomys Baird, Mammals of N. America, 1857, p. 458. Northern Rice Rat or Marsh Rat. Oryzomys palustris (Harlan). 1837. Mus palustris Harlan, SiUiman's Amer. Journal Science and Arts, -vol. 31, p. 386. 1857. Oryzomys palustris Baird, Mammals of North America, p. 459. Type locality. — '"Fast Land,' in the vicinity of Salem," N. J. Faunal distribution. — Brackish and salt water tide marshes of the lower and middle austral zones ; Delaware Bay to Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Not foand in Pa. Recorded originally from the marshes near Salem, N. J. Stated by trappers to be still found there. Also reported to live in the marshes of Cohansey creek near Green- wich, Cumberland. Co., and recently rediscovered by Henry Warrington in the salt marshes of Cedar creek near Cedarville. The author has searched in vain for it at Salem, at the mouth of the Maurice River, at Tuckahoe and 82 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. at Tuckerton. Failure at these places may have been due to the fact that the more inaccessible tide marshes where Warrington found his specimens, were not visited. It seems best for the present to limit its N. J. range to the tidewater lands of Delaware Bay. It is found near Greenwich, Bay Side and Newtown. Records in N. J. — Cumberland Co. — Two specimens were captured by Henry W. Warrington, Nov. 21, 1898, and presented by him to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. He " states that the specimens were procured on the marshes bordering Delaware Bay about midway between Port Norris and Salem, and that they were inhabiting old muskrat houses, in which they had made their nests." — Stone, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sciences, Phila., 1898, pp. 480, 48r. Specimens have been secured in January the present winter and one sent to me from near Greenwich. In March, 1902, 1 caught several in muskrat houses on the brackish marshes of Cohansey creek, about 2 miles from the bay. I was informed that they were found at Bay Side in similar places and up Nantuxent creek as far as Newtown. No doubt the tide marshes of the entire county are tenanted by them. — Rhoads. Salem Co. — The following is extracted from Dr. Harlan's original descrip- tion of this rat : " Habitat — Found in the fresh water swamps of New Jersey and South Carolina. The present specimen was taken near ' Fast Land ' ia the vicinity of Salem. A similar specimen was sent to me by Dr. Bachman, of Charleston, S. C— Cab. of A. N. S., Phila."— Harlan, Amer. Journal Sci. and Arts, vol. 31, 1837, p. 386. In my field efforts to secure topotypes of this animal I have been unsuc- cessful, though informed by several muskrat trappers that they are found in the marshes of Salem creek. No doubt this is true, though the animal is by them confused with the young Norway rats found in the dikes, as evidenced by a specimen of the latter sent me for an Oryzomys. A letter from Josiah Wistar, an old resident of Salem, in answer to inquiry as to the meaning of "Fast Land," states "The term 'Fast Land' used by Dr. Harlan in 1836 was probably intended to distinguish what we here call upland as tillable land from marsh, or the land that has been reclaimed from the tides j so that no particular or exact locality was intended to be specified." This explanation, in view of the absence of" this species in this region from upland, as con- clusively proved by myself and others, leaves us as much in the dark as ever. Historical references. — " The type of the genus Oryzomys was discovered by Bachraan in 18 16 in the marshes of South Carolina. Twenty years later he sent a specimen to Drs. Pickering and Harlan of the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia. Bachman [provisionally] named this new rodent Arvicola oryzivora and requested that a comparison be made between his specimen and the Arvicola ripa'ria of Ord, with which he was not familiar. The comparison was made by Dr. Harlan, who incidentally found a specimen MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 83 of Bachman's new species in the Academy collection. This specimen was labeled as being taken near Fastland, near Salem, New Jersey, and Dr. Har- lan, who was apparently unable to withstand the temptation of affixing his name to a new species, pigeon-holed Bachman's manuscript and himself de- scribed the New Jersey specimen, under the name Mus palustris. ... In commenting on this obviously unfair treatment, Bachman states [Quadrupeds of N. America, vol. 3, 1853, p. 216] that Dr. Harlan made use of the head of the South Carolina specimen for an examination of the teeth. Harlan, how- ever, makes no mention of Bachman's specimen beyond the brief remark just quoted [see antea, under Salem Co. records], and the type locality of Ory- somys palustris is, therefore. New Jersey. It is true that the type is the only specimen known to have been taken in the state, but in view of the recent discovery by Messrs. Rhoads and Stone of Synaptomys and Evotomys in southern New Jersey, we may conclude our knowledge of the mammalogy of the region may receive still further additions." — Chapman, Bulletin Amer. Mus. Nat. History, N. York, vol. 5, 1893, pp. 43, 44. See also Stone (Proc. A. N. S., sup. cit.), who goes over the same historical ground, adding remarks on the failure of Rhoads, up to that time, in rediscovering the rat in N. J. and that for various reasons the identity of the Academy specimen was be- coming more doubtful and with it the right of Oryzomys to a place in the N. J. fauna. It should be stated that I made a careful search in 1892 for the type specimen referred to without either finding it or any entry of it in the catalogue. Harlan may have mislaid or lost the specimen, or disposed of it in a manner no less questionable than his treatment of Bachman. — Rhoads. " The specimen in the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences which Harlan used, was evidently without a skull and was supposed to have come from Fastland, near Salem, New Jersey. If this locality was correct, the specimen in question was probably not an Oryzomys at all. Anyway, Harlan used the skull of Dr. Bachman's South Carolina specimen (as positively stated by Bachman himself) in drawing up his description, and as the skull was of course the important factor in determining the new species, it seems that South Carolina must unquestionably be regarded as the type locality of Ory- zomys palustris." — Bangs, Proceedings Boston Soc. Nat. History, vol. 28, 1898, p. 188, foot-note. Mr. Bangs' endeavor to transfer the type locality of this species to South Carolina, in the light of the Warrington and Rhoads captures, now loses its only possible claim to recognition. His remarks as to the use of the Carolina skull by Harlan in no way invalidate Harlan's right to make, as was his in- tention, the Salem specimen his type, no mention being made of the source of the dental characters given in his description. Mr. Bangs' supposition that the Salem type contained no skull is not provable, and Bachman's statement that Harlan used the skull of his Carolina type in drawing up the characters 84 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. of palustris was only based on circumstantial evidence, so far as appears in his account of the affair. — Rhoads. Habits, etc. — I have the following notes from a muskrat trapper near Greenwich who procured some of these water-rats for me on the tide marshes of Cohansey Creek : " Found on all tide marshes in this locality. Uses same runs as the muskrat and gets caught in the same traps. Perfect specimens, hard to get, as they devour each other when fast in traps. Have seen them in nests up among the reeds but believe the nests were built by marsh wrens- and confiscated by the rats. They live in holes in the big muskrat houses,, which are mounds of reed and mud on our salt marshes where the tide rises, and falls 5 feet. I have never seen them on the upland, but frequently found them on oyster boats tied to the banks. They will walk a line to get on board,, and once there, will gnaw holes in the sails and build a nest. I think they are principally vegetarians, but when hungry will eat meat or anything that comes handy. They do not live in colonies but are scattered over the- marshes. They swim like a duck but do not move about in daytime." Mr. Bangs says of the rice-field mouse of Georgia ( Oryzomys oryzivorut (Aud. and Bachm.)), "while perhaps preferring fresh and salt-water marshes as its abode, it is by no means confined to such places. I have caught it in. dry, old fields, heavy swamps and hummocks, and even on sand hills." Bachman says of it : " It burrows in the dykes or dams [of the Georgia,, rice fields] a few inches above the line of the usual rise of the water. Its burrow is seldom much beyond a foot in depth. It has a compact nest at the extremity, where it produces its young in April. There are usually 4 or S- A singular part of the history of the rice mouse is the fact that in the extensive salt marshes along the borders of Ashley and Cooper Rivers, this species is. frequently found a quarter of a mile from the dry ground. Its nest is sus- pended on a bunch of interlaced marsh grass. In this situation we observed one with five young. It has no disrelish to the small Crustacea and mollusks that remain on the mud at the rising of the tide. In an attempt at capturing some alive, they swam so actively and dived so far from us, that the majority escaped." In the latter part of March, 1902, I visited the Cohansey Creek marshes and secured several of this interesting species. They were only found in the tops of muskrat houses scattered over the salt marshes at the head of ordinary- high tide. These houses invariably had underground connection with a tide ditch by which not only the muskrat, but other tenants of the house, viz.,. Oryzomys, Microtus and Sorex, could escape when the house was attacked from without. The runways of the water-rat and meadow-mouse often com- pletely riddled the whole structure of the muskrat's house and descended into- the marsh itself, making connection with the waterway exit of their host. When it was torn to pieces, the nests of the smaller tenants of the muskrat. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 85 house were found to be placed just above tide level near the top of the house. They were globular and composed of fine grass, several being made in one house. All four species, musk-rat, water-rat, meadow-mouse and shrew, as- sociated in one house, how amica;bly I cannot say. Newly-born meadow- mice were found in two houses. The water-rats did not take preferably to water when exposed, but endeavored to hide among the reeds and debris. Only I out of 15 observed was seen to dive and swim away. It swam swiftly, like a muskrat, wholly under water. During high water they were most easily caught, being loth to leave their abodes. Some were found half a mile from upland on the marsh. None were found breeding. They are considered a nuisance by muskrat trappers, as during ebb tide they prowl about the run- ways and "leads" of the rats and frequently spring their traps, even when under water. They also gnaw the bodies of the dead rats and mutilate their skins. When ousted from their nests, they leap about like a rat, but do not show fight as does the meadow-mouse. Description of species.* — The series of N. J. specimens of Oryzomys recently secured, shows that the typical northern animal is shorter and heavier built, with shorter tail, ears and feet and, relatively, a much larger skull than those from Georgia, the type locality of Bachman's Oryzomys palustris ory- ziverus. In color, palustris is lighter and grayer, the brownish tints in oryziv- erus being replaced by pale tawny. Northern North Carolina specimens are almost exactly intermediate. I would class them with oryziverus, making the natural geographic limit of palustris typicus, the Chesapeake Bay and Poto- mac River. I am informed they are found in muskrat houses on the Mary- land peninsula. The colors of this rat are almost precisely like those of the Norway rat. The appearance of the tail is also similar, but the ears are less hairy. In adult size it equals, sometimes exceeding, a half-grown rat. Measurements. — (Series of 6 old adults from N. J.) Total length, 237 mm. ; tail vert., 108 ; hind foot, 29 ; ear from crown, 12. (Series of 3 from Georgia, Bangs' collection) : 255-118-30-15. The skull of the largest N. J. male, whose total tail and body length is 15 mm. less than that of the largest male from Georgia, has a skull i mm. longer and 2 mm.- broader than the latter. Genus Neotoma Say and Ord, Journal, Academy Natural Sciences, Philada., 1825, vol. 4, p. 345. Allegheny Gave Rat. Neotoma pennsylvanica Stone. (?) 1857. Neotoma magister Baird, Mammals of N. America, p. 498 (described from fossil specimens in Carlisle,. Pa., caves). ♦ See also Rhoads, American Naturalist, Aug., 1902, pp. 661-663. 86 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 1893. Neotoma pennsylvanica Stone, Proceedings Academy Natural Sciences, Philada., p. 16. Type locality. — Lewis's Cave Rocks, 6 m. from Pine Grove, Cumberland Co., Pennsylvania. Faunal distribution. — From border of lower Canadian through the transi- tion zone. Also in isolated caves of the upper austral zone. Eastern Massa- chusetts to Mississippi valley ; South in mountains to N. Carolina. Extremely local in its habitat, being absent from extensive regions faunally and topo- graphically connecting the eastern and western extremes of their distribution. Distribution in Pa. and N. y. — From records received, this native rat is found at the present day chiefly in the mountainous parts of Pa., but it occasionally descends to the cUffs and limestone caves of the great river val- leys. Most diligent inquiry and field work in Pa. east of Pine Creek and Williamsport in Lycoming and Tioga Cos., and in the entire country drained by the eastern and northern branches of the Susquehanna and all of the Delaware River drainage area, has failed to locate this rat's existence in recent times. The remains of a very closely allied fossil species (see JV. magister) have been found in Durham Cave, Bucks Co. and in Hartman's Cave, Monroe Co. in the Delaware Valley, but no living Neotoma now appears to exist in these places. West of the Susquehanna and Pine Creek, from York to Fayette Cos. and from the Laurel Hill range north to eastern Mc- Kean Co. and east to Tioga Co., there is a large section of middle Pa., in shape like a truncated triangle based on the Maryland line, where this species is quite uniformly distributed. No county included in this area is probably without them, but often so sparingly distributed and in such out-of-the-way places that many hunters and trappers have overlooked then! entirely. In N. J. the only locality yet known to be inhabited by them is the Bear- fort Mountain south of Greenwood Lake. They have been taken on the Hudson highlands both in New York and Massachusetts, but do not appear to exist in the Palisades of N. J. Records in Pa. — Adams Co. — " In rocky gorges in South Mountain near Graffenburg." — Strealy. Skins of two of these examined. — Rhoads. Bedford Co. — Four specimens taken by IngersoU at Cook's Mills. — Rhoads. Cambria Co. — Three specimens taken near Walsall, in 1896, by IngersoU. — Rhoads. " I have seen them in the Laurel Hill mountains near Johnstown among the rocky clefts." — Shields, 1900. Centre Co. — "I have seen the species in Centre Co." — Warren, Poultry Book, 1897, p. 515. Clinton Co. — ^Abundant in all parts of the Co. ; coming down the moun- tains in winter into the barns along the Sinnemahoning Valley. Frequenting rock piles in the high, flat woods and cliffs and caves on the mountain sides. About fifty specimens examined from this county, from Round Island, Renovo MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 87 and Drury's Run. — Rhoads. Abundant in the rocky woods around Mill Hall. — Pfoutz. Cumberland Co. — Lewis's Cave rocks, about 6 miles from Pine Grove fur- nace in South Mountain near the junction of the Adams, Franklin and Cum- berland Co. lines, was the spot from which Mr. Stone's type specimens of this species were taken. I visited this locality in 1893, soon after the type had been trapped, and found it characteristic of the haunts of this rat as found in Clinton Co. No specimens were secured, but a young one was seen in this place. Their nests and rubbish indicated a long possession of this retreat. Other such retreats were noted higher up the mountain sides in two direc- tions. — Rhoads. Specimens of the remains of a closely-allied species of cave rat from the caves near Carlisle in this Co. were made the types of Baird's Neotoma magister. No living representatives of Neotoma now inhabit these caves, or did not at the time of my visit there in 1893. As will be seen later on, I have heretofore contended that these fossil remains are of an animal specifically identical with the living species. — Rhoads. Franklin Co. — Two taken near Graflfenburg were sent me by Mr. Strealy for examination. — Rhoads. Huntingdon Co. — " I have seen the species in Huntingdon Co." — Warren, Poultry Book, 1897, p. 515, Juniata Co. — See Warren, ibid. McKean Co. — Not known near Colegrove. — W. C. Dickeson. " The cave or wood-rat iyas a native of the mountain district in the southeastern part of McKean Co. This range of mountains divide the waters of the Allegheny and Susquehanna. I have not heard of one of these rats being caught or seen for 15 or 20 years." — C. W. Dickinson, 1900. Monroe and Pike Cos. — "Remains of this animal \_Neotoma magister l"], both fossilized and those apparently quite recent, were taken in 1880 from Hartman's Cave, in Monroe Co., by T. D. Paret, of Stroudsburg. I have, as yet, been unable to determine whether this interesting animal is still living in that county or in Pike Co. The evidence of every sort is negative, and this after the most diligent inquiry [these remarks still hold good in 1902]. I personally explored several ledges, notably those of High Knob and the cUffs along the Delaware south of Milford without finding a trace of their existence. It is not impossible, however, that the recent habitat of this species may be traced, by isolated localities, along the Blue Ridge from South Mountain to the Hudson River Highlands." — Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1894, p. 390. Somerset Co. — Two specimens of "wood-rat," taken Jan. 2, 1900, near New Lexington, were presented to the Carnegie Museum by Dr. H. D. Moore. — Todd. D. G. Barclay trapped "mountain rats" 2}i miles south of Trent, and Jacob Philippi trapped them .4 miles south of Rockwood. — Moore. A specimen was taken at Summit Mills by J. C. Ingersoll in 1896. — Rhoads. 88 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. Sullivan, Lycoming, Wyoming, Lackawanna, Wayne, Luzerne, Carbon, Northampton and Lehigh Cos. — Numerous competent observers from the large area of country included by these counties agree that this rat is un- known in that region. The probability of the discovery of this rat in the Blue Ridge of Berks and Schuylkill Cos. is indicated by the following quota- tion from " Pennants' History of Quadrupeds," 1781, page 441, under caption of "Araarican Rat." "Mr. Bartram [in Kalm's Trav., 1771, pp. 47, 48] mentions the rat, but does not determine the species, which lives among the stones and caverns in the Blue Mountains, far from mankind ; comes out at night and makes a terrible noise, but in very severe weather keeps silent within its holes." Tioga Co. — " Have heard of them in Tioga Co." — Cleveland, 1900. Westmoreland Co. — I secured a specimen from Laurel Hill, about three miles above Laughlintown on the road to Jenner, in 1 898. — Rhoads. York Co. — Near York Furnace station, in the Wind Caves along the Sus- quehanna River, J. S. Witmer saw one alive in June, 1897. His unsolicited testimony as to the peculiar characters of this animal, contrasted with those of other rats, makes this identification reliable. — Stone. Prof. Justin Roddy of Millersville writes me he has specimens from the Wind Caves. — Rhoads, 1903. Records in N. J. — Passaic Co. — " Soon after my arrival at Greenwood Lake, I was told by a local sportsman that he had once caught a ' wood-rat ' on the nearby mountain in a dead-fall set for skunks. The summits of Green wood [Bearfort] mountain at the south end of the lake are made up exclu- sively of great masses of glaciated conglomerate and shale. Chestnut and scrub oaks and dwarfed pines and hemlocks sparingly cover the nakedness of this desolate but picturesque locality. . . . After nearly two days of climbing here, I stumbled upon an escarpment from which the rock masses had so fallen into the gorge as to form a roof. Beneath this, unmistakable signs of the rats were found, and in the two following days, three specimens were trapped." — Rhoads, Proc. Acad. N. Sci., Phila., 1897, p. 28. Warren Co. — "I was informed by a hunter at Delaware Gap that he knew of such an animal on the Kittatinny mountain in Warren Co. This statement I was unable to verify, owing to my short stay at that place." — Rhoads, Proc. Acad. N. Sci., Phila., 1897, p. 28. Habits, etc. — The following remarks relate to a visit made in the spring of 1 893 to the Lewis' Cave rocks from which Mr. J. G. Dillin secured the types of Mr. Witmer Stone's Neotoma pennsylvanica : "The rocks lie at the top of the mountain and form the culminating point of a rocky outcrop topping the ridge for a mile or more in this locality, and which at intervals assumes a very rugged and castellated outline. The cave rats live in the more inac- cessible fissures and clefts of these rocks, selecting for their dormitories those MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 89 which are most secure from the approach or entrance of the predaceous animals which abound in such situations. The entrances and passageways to these abodes are loosely barricaded with sticks, stones, leaves, feathers,, bones, horse and cow droppings, buttons, glass, tin, egg-shells, cartridge- cases, and other cast-away evidences of the sojourn of men and animals in- this spot. Many of the sticks are three to four feet long and an inch in diameter, and must have required the concerted strength of several rats to- move, and not a little ingenuity to convey up and over the precipitous clefts to their resting-place. The bones were those of deer, smaller carnivora, birds, and other animals brought thither by man and beast, or which had sought refuge among the clefts to die. I was unable, from the nature of their fastnesses, and lack of time and proper implements, to penetrate their dor- mitories, and owing to the pilfering foxes, lost the only specimens that got into my traps. One half-grown rat was seen running among the rocks. It was lighter gray than adult specimens. Quantities of gnawed acorn hulls strewed their hiding places, and were the chief evidences of the diet of this species. These acorns grow abundantly on the scrub oaks, Quercus banisteriy characteristic of these mountain tops. While its main food supply is vege- table, no doubt these rats are omnivorous, and take every opportunity to satisfy their carnivorous appetite. The gnawed condition of the bones of" recent mammalia found in Pennsylvania cave deposits, is to my mind almost solely due to the work of this quadruped, a critical examination of these marks showing not only their rodent origin, but that their size and character fit no tooth so well as that of magister. "I am informed by Mr. H. C. Mercer (whose recent explorations of Vir- ginia caves have been ably outlined in a Bulletin of the_ University of Penn- sylvania, dated July 4, 1894) that the Virginia cave rats build a sub-globular nest of grass, etc., on the cave floor, and that these are so well made inter- nally as to resist considerable kicking about. Prof. E. D. Cope, who secured the two specimens of magister tabulated above, from a cave in Wythe Co., Virginia, tells me that these nests are placed at or near the sides of the cave,, and are often large enough to fill a bushel basket." — Rhoads, Proc. Acad. N. Sci., 1894, pp. 2ig, 220. " My experience with the cave rat in Kentucky is confined to an unsuccess- ful attempt to capture them in Mammoth Cave during a visit there in April,. 189S, in company with Professor R. E. Call. At that time I examined their rendezvous and conversed with some of the guides concerning them. Sub- sequently I received alive an adult male specimen, and studied the habits of the animal in captivity for nearly a month before sacrificing its Ufe to science. The only place where I noted evidences of this animal in Mammoth Cave was about a quarter of a mile from the entrance, in the wide passageway- known, as The Main Cave. 90 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. Piles of loose stones line the sides of the cavern at this point, and along the foot of the arching walls are strewn the indescribable collection of materials with which this animal is sure to adorn and litter its by-ways. Among these were found the nuts and seeds of various trees and plants grow- ing around the mouth of the cave, showing unmistakably the chief source of their food supply, and that they by no means confine their wanderings to the cave itself. I was unable to find the nests or remains of the rats, but the numberless narrow passageways, stone heaps, and crevices undoubtedly con- cealed these from search as well as the live animals. Of their numbers it was impossible to get information. The guides rarely see them, and their haunts seem to be largely confined to the particular locality I have mentioned. No instance had come to their (the guides') notice of the rats building a nest openly on the floor of the cave, as has been stated to be the custom of the same species in the caves of Virginia. The rat from Mammoth Cave, which I kept alive, was so precisely a duplicate, both in appearance and actions, of one I had previously studied and which came from CKnton County, Pennsylvania, that the thought of their being different species or races could not be entertained, and the examina- tion of their anatomy confirms such a negative view. Any suspicion of blindness or deficient eyesight, such as is exemplified in some of the lower orders of animal life in the cave, cannot attach to this mammal. As in all the more strictly nocturnal rodents, the eyes of this species are greatly developed; nevertheless, they are able to make most intelligent use of them in broad daylight, if need be. My pet cave rat was very sleepy in the daytime, and if given the materials would quickly make a globular nest in which to hide. The favorite position of rest was on the side, ■coiled, with the nose resting on the abdomen and tail curled around the body. It frequently would ''sit on its head," as it were, by leaning forward and placing its nose near the root of the tail, that member acting as a sort of prop to prevent the animal from turning a somersault in its sleep. Some- times it would lie stretched out at full length on its side, the tail straight and the hind feet extended to their farthest limit. It invariably picked up objects Tvith its teeth, though its fore-feet were quite capable of the service, and the dexterity with which it would manipulate a nut with one or both paws was astonishing. In eating this kind of food it would quickly rasp a small hole, and, inserting the long lower incisors, clip off pieces of the kernel and extract them with great adroitness through an opening less than a quarter of an inch in diameter. All kinds of vegetable and animal food were acceptable to it, but it seemed to prefer nuts and grain to anything else, though cabbage and apples were a favorite dessert, and it greatly enjoyed sharpening its teeth on candy toys. It was a great drinker, lapping water like a dog. In defending itself it would stand on its hind legs and strike with great force with the fore MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. pi feet, at the same time laying hold on an object thrast toward it with great strength and forcing it toward a distant part of the cage. The odor of this animal, even under ordinary conditions of care, is almost suffocating, and far more mephitic than that of the Norway rat. When investigating an object, the coarse and prominent whiskers of this rat are vibrated with astonishing rapidity, forming a sort of halo about the face because of their incessant motion. The function of these organs must be highly specialized in this Neotoma, and undoubtedly has to do with its subterranean habits. On no occasion did any of my caged rats utter a cry, save a sort of grunting squeak when they yawned forcibly." — Rhoads, Journ. Cincinnati Soc. Nat.' Hist., vol. 19, 1897, pp. 54 to 56. A nest of this species found in a small cavern near the crest of the moun- tain at the sources of Cook's Run, Clinton Co., was set among loose boulders at the hinder end of the cavern and was composed externally of oak leaves, small branches, sticks and moss. Within this mass, which would nearly fill a half bushel measure, the nest proper was composed of grass and long strip- pings of inner bark of chestnut and hemlock in a spherical form, with a single entrance, so far as could be discovered, the nest being much damaged in extricating it. It is now on exhibition at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. Owing to its preference for uninhabited locaUties, this rat rarely enters into economic relations to men. It sometimes makes its home in the outbuildings or humble cabins of the wilderness settlers when they happen to locate near the hiding places of this animal. In such instances they are both mischievous and destructive, hiding away much more than they devour. Like the camp rat or pack rat of the Rocky Mountains, they are, to some extent, a nuisance to hunters, lumbermen and miners during their temporary sojourn in the wil- derness haunts of this species, but any permanent inroads of civilization into their territory result in their speedy extermination. They appear to defy the encroachments of the Old World rats, M. rattus and M. norvegicus, when they come in contact. Description of species^— Y or the benefit of those who are unable to look up the literature to which references have been made concerning the relations of N. pennsylvaniea and N. magister, it may be stated that Professor Baird's name of Neotoma magister for this rat was originally applied to what he con- sidered a fossil species, described from some lower maxillaries taken in a cave near Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Similar remains were afterward found in other caves, but it was not till 1893 that Mr. Witmer Stone announced the discovery of a living Neotoma in the South Mountain, not many miles distant from the Carlisle cavern which produced Baird's types. To this animal Mr. Stone gave the name Neotoma pennsylvaniea. Not long after, I made a comparison of the remains of the extinct ( ?) rat with Mr. Stone's types, and in "A Contribu- "92 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. tion to the Life History of the Allegheny Cave Rat " (1. c), endeavored to show that the living and so-caWed " iossU" Neo^omm were specifically the ^ame. In his Review of the Neotomyinm (1. c), Dr. Meftiam considers them distinct, but Dr. J. A. Allen, in a recent paper, inclines to the belief that they are identical. Dr. E. A. Mearns and G. S. Miller, Jr., now (Bull. Amer. Mus. JST. History, 1898, pp. 334, 335, and Bull. N. York State Mus., 1899, p. 318) agree that the fossil and recent species are distinct, having compared Baird's •types with skulls of pennsylvanica. The differences pointed out by Mearns consist in the relatively shorter, stouter mandible and dentition of magister. 1 have recently examined this scanty material with Mr. Stone, and find that, so far as it goes, Mearns' remarks are germane, though these differences amount to only i millimeter in mandibular length and breadth, the tooth row of magister being of the same length and about a hair's breadth wider. The general characters oi pennsylvanica resemble, in a degree, those of the •common, or Norway rat, Mus norvegicus {decumanus of authors), but dis- tinguished by greater size, much larger ears and eyes,, thicker, shorter and much more hairy bicolored tail, white feet and under parts, dark upper parts and the heavy whiskers. The skull is instantly recognized by its great size, long rostrum, lack of supraorbital ridges and the flat, prismatic-crowned molar teeth. The cave rat is distinguished from the southern wood-rat, Neotoma floridana, its nearest geographic ally, by greater size, more hairy and bicolored tail and grayer (less brown) color above ; also by the blackish areas around eyes and at bases of whiskers. The color oi pennsylvanica above is a uniform tawny or buffy-gray (in some a sort of iron-gray), lined plenti- fully with coarser and longer black-tipped hairs. Along sides, the buffy pre- dominates, becoming white on under parts and feet, but reaching nearly across the fore part of breast. Ears meeting when laid across top of head. Whiskers reaching to or behind shoulders. Tail with upper half darker than .back, lower half white, the hairs long and somewhat depressed along sides. •Greatest length of skull twice its greatest breadth. Measurements. — Total length (average of 5 adults from Somerset and Cambria Cos.), 421 mm. (i6y\ in.) ; tail vertebrae, 193 (7I) ; hind foot, 43 (i|^) ; ear, from crown of head, 28 ( i^). Skull : greatest length, 56 ''2^) ; •greatest breadth, 28 (i^). Genus Evotomys Coues, Proceedings Academy Natural Sciences, Phila., 1874, p. 186. Gapper's Wood Vole, or Bed-back Mouse. Evotomys gappen < Vigors). 1830. Arvicola gapperi Vigors Zoological Journal, vol. 5, p. 204. 1891. E-lvotomys"] gapperi Merriam, North American Fauna, No. 5, p. 119. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 93 Type locality. — Vicinity of Lake Simcoe, Ontario, Canada. Faunal distribution. — Typical gapperi is restricted to the forests of the Canadian and transition zt)nes from Quebec to central Pa., and from the Atlantic Ocean to Dakota. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Abundant in the upper transition and •Canadian regions of Pa., but becoming local and sparingly found in the lower transition areas. Grading toward E. g. carolinensis in mountains of southern Ta. In N. J. it is nowhere abundant, living only in isolated spots in the Kittatinny, Walkill, Bearfort and Ramapo mountains. In southern N. J. a ■darker race is found in the cedar swamos and wooded bogs which there abound. This has been named by my friend Mr. Stone, Evotomys g. rhoadsi. Records in Pa. — See list of specimens examined, below. Records in N. J. — Passaic Co. — I am convinced that the reason this spe- cies was not taken near Greenwood Lake was my neglect to set traps in the ■white cedar swamps, some of which were seen on the mountain top near Lake Waywayanda. They were found in less likely situations in the Walkill Val- ley. — Rhoads, i8g6. Sussex Co. — " Thirteen specimens were trapped in and about Bear Swamp, near Long Lake, and six more in a hemlock swamp in the bottoms of the Walkill, about 2 miles south of the N. York state Une." — Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1897, p. 27. Warren Co. — It is doubtful if this vole is found as far south as Warren Co., -even in the mountains, unless it be that an exploration of the Allamuchy region reveals it. I failed to secure it near Delaware Gap. — Rhoads, 1902. Habits, etc. — What I have written regarding the ways and haunts of Miller's deer mouse applies largely to this dusky, short-tailed dweller of the forests. He takes the place of the common meadow mouse in our cool forests and swamps, rerely venturing far out of the woodland shades to meet this larger kinsman on the skirts of swamps and meadows. In fact the meadow mouse makes nearly all the advances along this line, no doubt to the disgust of the wood mouse, whose cool runways he invades. Evotomys seems to prefer well-shaded, swampy, damp places, where he can often wet his feet in under- ground paths and dive through the hidden pools of water. He lives on the leaves and tender stems of many weeds and grasses and also enjoys the nuts and seeds of several species of trees, especially beechnuts, chestnuts, hazle- nuts and acorns, for which it frequently makes excursions into the dry upland forests and hill tops. It also seems to be fond of certain shelled snails, as Omphalina and smaller Polygyra, these being found in the retreats where the mice are trapped. They secure the snail by gnawing a hole into the apex of the shell and drawing the body out backward. In winter I have found that they live almost entirely on the leaves of the evergreen strawberry bush, .Euonymus americanus, which grows abundantly in the cedar swamps and 94 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. damp hemlock forests. As we approach the lower transition confines of its range, this vole is much more restricted in its wanderings, rarely leaving the sphagnum-covered bogs and stream banks which are most densely shaded by evergreens. In such places I have found their burrows forming such a per- fect network through the moss that scarce a foot of sphagnum could be found without one or more of them, rarely coming to the surface but mostly running along at or below the level of the hidden springs which feed the swamp. This mouse rarely enters dwellings of any sort and is one of the most inof- fensive of its genus, economically speaking. It forms a large part of the prey of some rapacious animals, especially the Bonaparte's Weasel, Putorius cicog- nani, seeming to be more unsuspicious than other forest-dwelling mice and less agile in escaping attack. It often runs about and searches food in open daylight, climbing up the stems of Euonymus to cut off a supply of leaves or peering out at a human intruder from the mouth of its burrow, or making a dash across the open hotly pursued by a voracious, short-tailed shrew or quarrelsome deer mouse. Description of species, etc. — See under next species. Specimens examined. — Pa. : Sullivan Co., 26 ; Clinton Co., 10 ; Westmore- land Co., 3 ; Monroe Co., 6 ; Somerset Co., 23 ; Potter Co. and McKean Co., several; Susquehanna Co., 2. N. J. : Sussex Co., 2 localities, 19. New Jersey Wood Vole, or Red-back Mouse. Evotomys gapperi rhoadsi Stone. 1893. Evotomys gapperi rhoadsi Stone, American Naturalist, vol. 27, p. 55. Type locality. — May's Landing, Atlantic County, N. J. Faunal distribution. — Transition islands of the upper austral zone in New Jersey. Probably also to be found in similar places in Maryland and Dela- ware. Distribution in Pa. and N.J. — Not found in Pa. So far as I have explored the typical white cedar swamps of New Jersey and done persistent trapping therein, I have found this vole. This work covers parts of Atlantic, Burling- ton, Camden, Cape May and Cumberland Cos. The most northerly point of finding it was in the edge of a bog near Medford, in Burlington Co., the most westerly and southerly, in swamps '3 miles west of Port Norris, Cumberland Co. There are a few small isolated swamps of white cedar ( Chamcecyparis) near the Delaware river, in Camden and Gloucester Cos., where I have briefly trapped for them without success but have no doubt, from the character of the regions and of the runways in these swamps, that Evotomys was there in small numbers. The taking of them near Medford is the first instance of any being found in the Delaware river drainage, north of Delaware Bay. From what we now know of the peculiar haunts and distribution of this race, it is M4MMAI^ OF PpjNSy)-V4tfIA AOT) NSW JERSEY, 9| re^spo^ble tP pxfend ^hejr habitat northward and f a?twa?(} in Nt ],> jn ppn? fprqaity to the distribmio^ pf Ck(fm0fy/ which was published in 18 15 in the second American edition of Guthrie's Geography. This work had become so nearly extinct in the next 50 years tnat authors b^d adopted Ord's subsequent name for the same species, Ann- cola riparius. Iij November, 1893, I discovered a copy of this long-lost edition of Guthrie's Geography and published a reprint of the part contrib- value of the meadow mouse, denies that it is anything but a pest, and states that its destittc- tion of trees in nurseries is alone su6ficient to condemn it. I have since corresponded witli two prominent Pennsylvania nurserymen, Mr. Thomas Meeban and the Wm. H. Moon Qo.r both of whom deny that they have suffered by this mouse to any extent. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. I0| uted by Ord. So far as is known, this copy of Guthrie's work is the only one extant. An author's separate is in the Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila. Description of species. — Wilson's meadow mouse varies slightly in size and coloration within our limits, speciniens from the salt marshes of southern N. J. being larger and grayer than those from; the mountain tops of. northern Pa.. Those iji the latter regiop' approach • somewhat the characters of the northern menAoy/ -voXt, M. p. fontigenus (Bangs), which is restricted to the Hudsonian zone. There seems to be no approach in our Pa. & N. J. speci- mens to the southeastern race^ M.p.nigrans Rhoads, found in the region of Dismal Swamp, Virgipia. In the mountains of central Pa.> Mr. Ingersoll found a peculiar phase of coloration in this species, many specimens being " of two shades of umber-brown over the whole of uPper parts, two from Tus- carora being almost a deep blackish-chestnut." The general color of this species, above, is a tawny gray-brown ; , beneath, light gray washed with buff; tail colors corresponding with those of body, feet dark gray. The young are much darker, plumbeous-gray. The upper incisors or cutting teeth are smooth-faced, not grooved. The tail is over ji the length of head and body. Ears not showing above body fur. . Measurements. — Total length, 138 mm. (5^^ in.); tail vertebrae, 38 (ij4); hind .foot, ^9 (%)• , ; Specimens examined. — ^Pa., 16 counties, 255 ; N. J., 13 counties, about 300. Northern Pine-woods Vole, or Mole Mouse. Microtus pinetorum scalopsoides (Audubon and Bachman.) 1 84 1. Arvicola scalopsoides Audubon and Bachman, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sciences, Phila., vol. i, p. 97. 1896. Microtus pinetorum -scalopsoides Batchelder, Proceedings Boston Society Nat. History, vol. 27, p.' 187. Type locality. — Long Island, New York. > ■ Jfaunal distribution.^— Ahouhding in sandy, loamy soils; both forested and deforiested, in the upper austral ione ; more sparingly found in the transition zone, up to the summits of the higher Pa. AUeghanies near the louver border of the Canadian zone. Connecticut to Illinois ; intergrading southeastwardly into the type form pinetorum of Leconte, and southwestwardly into M^ p. auricularis Bailey. - ■ Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Excessively abundant in light, dry soils of the southern lowlands of both States, nearly every square yard of the arable uplands beinjg pierced by one or more of their tunnels. In waste lands and forests they are ■ also frequent, especially ' in the sandy pine barrens, but swampy, clayey and rocky lands they dislike. As w€ rise from these localities into the mountains they become rafe, but not wholly absent until we closely approach a Canadian environment. i&i MAMMALS OF iiEfliNSYLVAftiA AMB *fEW JMfeSEV. Habits, ^A:*— ^What thd eotrittioh tn^adoW tflause does s6 largely above ground this streiitlous cdUsin Jietfoi'titiS betleath the stirfebe* Uilfortutiately ibt mABkiiid 4ttd foftUAateiy for hitiiself, the pine Vole is Otte &f the " hidden WOtks of darkness." Gut of si|ht is OUt of itiindj atid, ili liiOSt eaSes, <3lit df Knowledge. Thus it Was that the jjdjJuldr diid Still petsistlht etrqf afose 6f attribiitihg the mysterious Underground tobbefies which yearly spitit away thdUSartds of dollars' Worth of seeds, gifaihj tadical and tuberous-haoted Vege- tabiei, plant toots, bafk of frtiit and Shade ttees, bulbs and buried Wihtei- Stoi^es belonging to the fai-tnets of southern N. J; and Pa., to moles, shfeWs, WeadoW mice, insects, bifdsj in shoftj anything «vhich the vexed ingenuity of man coUld devise as a seape-goati On the tJ-act whete 1 now reside at Au- dlibott, Camden COi, N; J., thefe might be fOilttd in d nat-row belt dloJig the banks of a stream, and in the old unmowed fields Comptising about %o of the whole i25 aetes, certain spots where meadow Miee, M^ ptttnsyliiAnkUi, were tommoh. these would not aggregate joo specihiens, and if the ground had been mowed the number would be diminished mOte thah half. Ott the fe- Mainder ptactically nO meadoW mice exists But the entire soil of this ti:act of ground, regirdleSS of its cdttditloni whether sod, fallOWj orchard or Wood, is traversed mote or less intridfttely With the burroWS Of the pine Woods vole. In my garden of 2 acres they so abound that, after irrigatioflj their net-work of runways, eolldpsed by the Water, are mostly remodeled before it has Jiad time to reach the subsoil, and a spade- full of earth thrown out at random seldom fails to reveal one of their burrows or that of a mole, which both use promiscuously. In this garden not a meadow mouse cares to set foot in summer, yet these cousins of his destrojr at least 20 per centi of the seeds planted and 10 to 15 per cent, of the growing and perfected potatoes, beets, parsnips, celery, cabbages ahd Juta baga turnips^. They destroyed a whole planting of lima beans after growing in some cases to the height of eight inches, many replanted hills being eaten dff three times. In the orchard Where meadow mice could not e*ist, these burrowing rasdals have dompletely denuded the entire basal system of roots where they diverge underground from the parent trunk, in this way killing in 2 years apple trees 15 and 20 years old. It would make easy ealoulation, on the basis of the experience of any truck gardener in south Jersey (for my own experience is a fair sample, as I have known while working on other farms and frOm the complaints of my neigh- bors) to show that this mouse destroys many times more value than all the hoxiOus birds and mammals (the English sparrow excepted) put together. To make the identification of this Vole more certain, I will quote from a paper published by me in 1897 in a local weekly. This paper answers a southern correspondent Who had confounded the depredations done by this mouse in her garden with those of the short^tailed shrew or mole shrew, mAMMalS Of tfetoSYLVdWA Afe NE^ jBliStit. 103 JSkma bf-eidcdnda, foufld Iti the sattie burtows : "tTftdbtibttdly the greatet part, if tldt all, of the det)redaii6iis described tHtiSt b« laid At the dodf of ill atiitnai vefy disSiitlilar to the ShteW, Mnteljr thfe Pifie Vble {MUfotUs pim- iotitM). I siy disSiiliilaf, afid yet the short tail, seJUdt foffti, fdsserial fote (tti dfid Vefy sttiall eyes of the p\h& vole, tbgethef with its Sittiilir Size, Might easily deceive a cdslial obseiVet and mike Otie coMdUfld it with the shfew. The piiie vole, hbwevet', is a fodent add one of the Strictest Vegetafiatts Of its order. It can be instantly distinguished from any of th^ JHievHtwra, afld froifl the shteW in t)a!fticular, by its totihded heftd, Short, bluiit shOUt and the space ih the jaws separatiMg the long cutved fore teeth ffoiii the flat prista^ efowhed cheek-teeth or hiolats. ih the shtew this vacaticy is filled by a fetocioUs attaatufe of fattgS, afid the pig-like Shdut is Idttg aftd pointed ,' the eyes also are heatly iiivisibie, while the pine Vole has W611 develtlped, bead- like ey^Si the Shrew is of a tlHifbriM, dark, glossy lead color, slightly btOWti- ish and silvery iii certaiii lights, while the Vole is rusty or broWfi^l-ed above ahd grayish lead color below. The pine vole belOilgs to the same genus as the common meadow tiioiise which hauttts our fields and swamps, making th6 intricate ttdtWotk Of surface tuiis Which Shows sO plailily aloMg the feiice rows When snowdtifts melt aWay. tJtilike the meadow Vole, the subject of our sketch tarely comes to the Siitface of the gWUhd, bbt is almost as SUbtef- ranean as the mole in its habits. Beitlg less poWetfiil that! the mole, it coft^ fines its tutinels to looser soils, preferihg saildy, fallow ground for its foJraging and is especially fond of cultivated fields along the edge of woodland. Should Siich a field be planted With some tubet-bearing cfop th# vole is lii its ele* merit, arid the hiimbet of bUrrOws which honeycomb the grourid is almost ifictedible. Itt some SWeei potato fields Scarce a squate ftJot of the Whole field adjoining the woods was left unvisited. The amount Of damage Which such an atmy of foderitS can perform may be imagined. I have ktiowft them to follow alOhg the drills of ttewly coveted seed corri, peas arid wax beabs so industriously as to require the entite replantirig Of parts of the field. Their diet howevef may include the toots and bulbs of some tioxioUs plaflts. They eat wild garilc foots, often smellirig Offetislv^ly of it. Whethef insects aire eatea is ah Iritefesting question. It does not hesitate to use the butroWs of the mole ; ih fact, moles, shrews, deet mice arid pihe volfes makS free use of each other's highways in a most democratic fashioto. Mayhap first goes along Scalops, the four-footed plowman, industriously heaving the sod and devouring earthworms and larger insects that fall into his furrow ; then the mole shrew {Blarina) trips through the passage gathering fragments and nosing about for larger game. A pine vole, making a cross-cut, falls into the breach and goes off on an easy exploring expedition for tap-roots, and in due time the deer mOUse {Bst-oWtyscus) tiptoes along gathlfihg Cfumbs. In these excursiohs the various teriants of the manot ofteh collide, the great 104 MAMMALS- OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. moleundqubtedly being lord of misrule, the bloodthirsty shrew his licensed retainer, while the mice quarrel over .the cr,umbs. They in turn fall a prey tp the arch spoiler Blarina, and are by nature's processes reconverted into grass or worms or shrews and the endless cycle is again, complete. Well jnay we exclaim, ' All flesh is grass ! ' and wonder, while man goes on interfering with the nicely adjusted economies of nature, what difference it makes whether shrews eat vegetables or devour the vegetarian. In either event the grass must suffer ! " On April 19th, 1901, my man plowed over the nest of this species set at a depth of eight inches under the soil in an open field, and captured the parr ents with 5 young all in the same burrow. Three of the young were twice as large as the other two, the smaller being about an inch long. The nest was globular, of dried grass and weeds. I have taken nursing and gravid females of this species, as with other of the native mice irrespective of season. They probably have 4 to 6 broods yearly, averaging zo to 30 young per annum. Mr. Miller (Key to Land Mam. E. N. Amer., 1900, p. 104) says this species "generally occurs in colonies." This remark does noj: apply to any I have seen. It is more applicable to the meadow mice. He also restricts its northern range to the lower part of the transition zone, but it will be seen in my list that it goes farther, venturing into a mountainous, rocky country quite the anthithesis of that in which it mostly abounds; Description of species. — To the characters already given for this animal, it should be added that the fur is dense, soft and more mole-like than in the meadow vole. The ears are small and concealed from view. The tail is very short, less than \ the length of head and body. The northern subspecies, scalopsoides, is less rusty than typical pinetorum of Georgia, having a grayer or more plumbeous cast. Specimens examined. — Pa. : Chester Co., Thorndale, i ; Westtown, i. Clinton Co., above R. Island (1800 ft.?), 4. Delaware Co., Marple, i ; Tin- icum, 2. Greene Co., Waynesboro, 2. Monroe Co., Pocono, i,near Cresco, I. Pike Co., Porter's Lake, i. Philadelphia Co., Germantown, 3. Baird records specimens from Carlisle, Cumberland Co. N. J. : Camden Co., Had- donfield, 8j Audubon, 7; GoUingswOod, i. Cape May Co., Tuckahoe, 17. Cumberland Co., Bridgeton, 15; Port Norris, 2. Gloucester Co., Bridger port, I. Ocean Co., Tuckerton, 2. Warren Co., Delaware Gap, 2. . Genus Fiber Cuvier, Lecons d' Anatomic Comparee, i8ob, vol. i, tabl. i. Southeastern Muskrat. Fiber zibethicus {Ikaa^wi). ilbfi. {_Cas/or'] zibethicus Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, vol. i, p. 79. 181 7. [^Fiber"] zibeticus Cuvier, Rdgne animal, vol. i, p. 192. . MAMMALS, GF PpNNSYtVANIA .ANJ) NEW JERSEY. IO5 TJ'/if fefa/z/);.:— Eastern gaBada. . .. • • : ,. Faunal distribution.— -■'Th^ rpuskrat has been recently separated into several jaees so that the .original zibethicus is now restricted, to eastern N. America from the Rocky Mountains to- (not including) Labrador and Newfoundland, and tlie Atlantic Ocean,, and from Georgia and Louisiana, to the Arctic zone. Distribution in Pa. antf N. y. — Omnipresent in all situations where there is enough water to float it. ! . . .; Habits, etc. — This animal is rightly regarded as. a great nuisance by those who have the care or ownership of artificial water embankments, because of its extensive and persistent burrowing. Owing to its aquatic habits, wariness and prolific breeding, it defies extermination in the most populous, regions. Were it not for the value of its fur and meat, which latter is largely consumed by those who trap it and by the negroes and Italians, it would speedily be- come a pest in some districts. Some of the Canal Companies of Pa. and N. J. give a bounty on the scalps of muskrats taken on their property besides employing regular trappers to hunt them the year around. In some of the large reclaimed tide marshes of Salem and Cumberland Cos., N. J., the trap- ping of these animals for fur is so profitable that the larger owners of these dyked lands lease the privilege of trapping upon them for considerable sums of money yearly. An examination of the reports of fur dealers in Pa. and N. J. shows that muskrat furs number five times as many as all other kinds of fur put together, with an aggregate value about double that of all the others. The food of the muskrat is rarely secured at the expense of man, being con- fined largely to aquatic vegetation of little use in agriculture. I have known" one in severe winter weather to travel overland through deep snow to a corn- crib after grain. They damage some grain and vegetables, but the aggregate amount is trifling. They have been accused of eating fish, and have a habit of gathering mussels from the niud and piling them upon logs and rocks to die. The shell thus opens and the contents are devoured by some animal,! presumably the rats, though I have never seen them do it. No doubt, min]^sy coons, foxes, etc., participate in this feast. The muskrat, like the beaver, has two distinct classes of homes, the earth burrow and the house or lodgie, in either of which they live, but only rear their young in the former. Along swiftly- flowing streams or lakes without extensive marshy tracts the first kind" of home is alone practicable, but in tidewater and open swampy areas which are always submerged and inaccessible except by wadingsdf boat,>thfe fj'ats pile up heaps of grass, reeds, mud and sticks to the height of 2 or 3 feet and 6 in diameter, making an oven-shaped chamber near the top and. entering it from below by two or more waterways leading to the distant bed of the stream. This home generally overtops highest tides and flood, and is often so bulky as to fill a cart. The muskrat gives birth to young at all seasons. Godman states that their lodges are only used in winter .and new ones are built each to6 MAilAlALS OF PfiNNSYLVANfA AND NEW jEfeSiV. season. This is not always the case. On the! brackish tid« ftiarShes of Cdhan- sejr Cfeek, Cumberland Co., N. J., I found thes6 rat hous^§ tenanted by other itthabitantiS of the rtiarSh. The ftieadow mice, least Shfews, and tnafsh fat {Oi^SoMp) had their galleties itt the base ^ttd ttests ill the tOf) of the hottse, ail three living in brie house *vif h the mttskrat.> The eggS of the SnaJ)|yef and teridt)ift ate also foimd in these houses, AM a lafge cWb's remains »ef e bften found. The latter may have been brought there, howevet, td be eatefl by the muskrits. Iti fat notthem climates, these houses are built over watet of Suf- ficieflt depth ttj iiisute agdiist a free2;ihg oUt. Hedtne states that the tats are sometimes frozen iri and all perish becatise df the great size afid hatdness of the outer doitie, which also resists the external attacks of Wild animals. DescHpiidn of species. ^^OVix Pa. and N. J. muskrat diffefs from Othet nom^ inal forms So slightly as to often be indistiuguishabie from them. It needs no description here, being so different frotn any other mammal. Genus Synaptomys Baifd, Mammals of Notth Ametica, fSs;^, p. ggS. CdoJieii:"g Lenlffliiil^. SyHaptomys cooperi Baitd. 185 f. Synaptomys cooperi Baiidf Mammals of N* Amer., p. 558. Type locality e^-^oX. known. Type presented by Cooper of Hoboken, Nj J. I probably captured in N. J/ or N. Y. near New York City. Faunal distiibutionf^ljyiiet Canadian and transition zones, N. England to Mississippi valley. Distribution in Pa. and N. ^.^East of the Alleghanies in Pa. I have not found this rare animal except in the upper transition zone and lower edge of the Canadian^ One was taken in the Ohio valley (upper austral zone) in Beaver Co., in similar Situation to those taken by Quick and Butler in Indiana. In N. J. it is^ strictly speaking, confined to the transition zone, beponring modified in the cedar swamps of southern N. J. into the race stonei. Habits f description of species ^ etc. — See next article. Specimens examined.-^'Pa.. : Beaver Co., Beaver, i. Cambria Co*, Kings, S ; Ctessonj 3. Clinton Co.y Mt. above Round Isl., 7. Monioe Co., near Cresco, i. Sullivan Coi, Lake Leigh, i. Stone's Lemming. Synaptomys cooperi stonei (Rhoads). i80j. Syhdpiomys stonei Rflbids, American Naturalist, vol. 27, p. 53. 1897. SytidptoMys cooperi stonei Rhdads, Ptoc. Acad. N. Sci., Phila., p. ^gi ', also ibid., ^&^^, p. 305. Type iodMfy.-^U.3.y'5 Landitlg, Atlantic County, N. Jersey. PdUhdl diiirl6ittiott.T-%ph&gaata bogs, upper austral zone, eastern botder, ^dutherrt N. J. to Lake Dtummorid, Va. MAIMMALS OF PPNJJSYLVANIA ANp NpW JPRSJEy. 197 J)is(ril>viipn in /fe, and iV. ^.^-rNot found in P^f Jn N- J» copfinpd closply tp ,sph.agni}TO ]ipgs in tjue cgdar swamp belt. History, hftHfs, fU,-'^Tlie air pf tpystejy surrojmding tlje discoyejry of Copper's mouse gnd tfef Ipng periotj ejapsing after Baird's an^jpijncejfl^nt pf it before any specimeniS were feeuj-f d easJ of the Allegheny ijipvjpt^ips h^v§ made its history peculiar. AWPlJiffr notsWe thipg about U is the h^i 'bat it repTad«pes or Tatber extpjids ji)tp the austral zone a type of mpuse life which had heretofpie h^en considered peculiar to an Afctic cUmate, jEven iq fhe present day with improved methods and knowledge of mouse trapping if is rarely caught, and certainly seems to hp vpry rafe compared with its ^bu&d- ant associates, a^d aUies, the meadow find woodland voles of the genera Microtus and ^votpmys. Stone's lemming wa§ first trapped in the deep sphagnum surrounding a small open pool or spring of water near the edge of the big dam at May's Landing. A cedar swamp was near by on one side and the pine barrew woods nearly cast a shade over it next to the pondf Not five feet from the same spot Mr. Stone caught his new wood vole, Evptomys, while we were here on a previous visit. Specimens of both novelties were taken' later in the same' place, and, ^s will be noted, several others have been secured in other parts of N. J. Of the habits of this lemming we are quite ignorant from observation of the living animal. The places where I have found true cooperi in the east have never been in woodland, but generally swampy mountain clearings near woods ampng dense grass and weeds, and appearing to use the same paths as the common meadow mouse. By setting traps in these you generally have to thin out the meadow mice before a Synaptomys will have a chance to be caught, ratio of the two being as x to 30 in favor of Microtus. Undoubtedly swamp grasses and succulent weeds such as we know to form the main food of Microtus are the lemming's chief diet also. The same remarks apply to Stone's lemming, only it keeps more closely to the sphagnum beds where there is no need for it to expose itself to the sun and heat of a warmer clime. In these places it acts as a sort of go- between for Microtia and JSvotomyf, yet it is more essentially Microtine in its associations here also, and frequent are the trapper's disappointments to find so many lemming-like captures turn out to be voles when their long tails come to view. I have never found the nest of Synaptomys, but Quick and Butler (Amer. Nat., 1885, p. 114) describe it as "always under cover, gen- erally in a hollow log or stump ^nd composed of fine grass. It is not so securely built as the nests of some of the other species of this family." An- other peculiar circumstance in regard to Cooper's lemming is the difference of its chosen habitat in the Ohio Valley from what we find east of the Alle- ghanies. I took a specimen in spring, 1898, on a high, dry, rocky hillside pasture among grass and stump land about a mile from the town of Beaver, Pa. A large colony of M. pennsylvanicus lived on this hillside, but this was. ids MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW' JERSEY. the drily' lemming captured among a large number of voles. Quick and Butler {supra citat.) found them solely in such places in Indiana, saying: "This mouse is found on hillsides in high, dry, blue grass pastures where flat stones are irregularly scattered over ihe surface; it ' especially prefers what are known as ' woods pastures ' containing little or ho undergrowth." He con- tinues : " Cooper's mouse has been found breeding from February to Decem- ber. It has never been known by the authors tO bring forth more than four young at a time. In all suckling females brought to our attention the mammae have apparently been but four." A female taken by me Oct. 7, 1898, in Chnton Co., Pa., contained five embryos. Quick and Butler say that the food of Cooper's mouse is chiefly stems of blue grass and white clover, and the tuberous roots of "wild artichoke '^' (Helianthus). Description of species.^-The cooperi form of lemming looks like a stump- tailed, thick-set and undersized meadow mouse, Microtus pennsylvanicus , the color being very similar but the fur is softer and fuller. The color above is grizzled gray and yellowish-brown, thickly' sprinkled with black, the belly a frosted or silvery lead color. From an examination of specimens from In- diana and Ohio I am inclined to class these as intergrades between cooperi and gossi. The peculiar habits of Ohio Valley specimens strengthen this view. The Beaver Co. specimen is nearer cooperi of course. In subspecies jtonei the size and body measurements are greater than in cooperi; the rela- tive size of skull and teeth is much larger and the colors darker, especially on the under side, with a strong wash of clay color over the abdomen and breast not seen in cooperi. In these differences there is a significant parallel to those distinguishing Evotomys gapperi and E. g. rhoadsi of the same regions. Naturalists have recognized them in Evotomys but are slow to accord the same to the Synaptomys under consideration. Dr. Merriam, who later described a Synaptomys from Dismal Swamp, which differs from cooperi in the same particulars as those given for stonei, ignores stonei, making it a synonym of cooperi. ' He makes his helaletes a full species, and a form he named gossi from Kansas as a subspecies of his Dismal Swamp animal ! See Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc, Washn., 1896, p. 58, etc. For a resume of the relations of these forms, see my article in the Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., i897,J)p. 305, 307. ' Measurements. -^{cooperi) total length, 118 mm. (4^ in.); tail vertebrse, 16 (^); hind foot, 19^ (M); ^"^t greatest length, 26.5 (i^V); greatest TV'idth, 16 {i/i). {stonei), in same order, 125 (4f|); 20 (^); 20 (J-f); skull, 27.8 (ixV); 17.7 (H)- Specimens examined. — Atlantic Co., May's Landing, 3 ; Cape May Co., Tuckahoe, i ; Cumberland'Co., Port Norris, 3. MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. IO9 Family DiPODiDiE ; Jerboas. Genus Zapus Coues, Bulletin U. S. Geolog. Surv. of Territories, 2d series, vol. I, p. 253. Hudson Bay Zapus, or Meadow Jumping Mouse. Zapus hudsonius (Zitnmermann). " 1780. Dipus hudsonius Zimmermaiin, Geogr. Geschichte d. Menschen, Thiere, vol. 2, p. 358. 1875. Zapus hudsonius Coues, Bulletin U. S. Geolog. Survey, Territories, id series, vol. 1, p. 253. ■ Type locality. — Hudson Bay. Faunal distribution. — 'Hudsonian, Canadian and Transition zones ; Hudson Bay and Gulf of St. Lawrence to northern N. Jersey, west to northern Rocky Mts. and Great Plains, south in the AUeghanies to North Carolina. Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Abundant, locally, in open meadows. Swamps and in fields contiguous to water ; rarely entering woodland. Re- stricted in its typical form to the parts of Pa. and N. J. included in the tran- sition and Canadian faunae ; giving place in the upper austral zone to sub- species americanus. Records in Pa. and N. y^. — In the limits of distribution of typical hudson- ius it is so universally, and in many cases, abundantly represented where swampy meadows abound, that it is superfluous to record localities where it has come under observation. Habits, etc. — Many people who know this elegant creature from chance observation in their outdoor rambles, and easily distinguish it from all other of our so-called " wild mice " by its enormous leaps, long tail and kangaroo- Jike hind legs and feet, have no acquaintance with its habits. It does not do much leaping in ordinary life, but rather as a quick way of escaping the thousand terrestrial ills to which its humble, every-day life is subject. It is of a most timid nature and ill-fitted to combat tooth and nail with the ■