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Show 228 EXPLORATION OJ.i' TITE CANONS OF THE COLOHADO. tion indeed, but accompanying it with a grotesque figure from a drawing by Major Davies, representing an amorphous creature with a pair of great skinny, veiny bags hanging loosely from the mouth; the pouches of his specimen having everted, and this being their supposed natural state. The original figure in the Linnroun rrransactions is somewhat improved upon in the General Zoology, but is still a very ludicrous ohjcct. The animal is said to have come from "Canada,'' where it was taken by some Indians in 1798, and afterward presented to Governor Prescott's wife. According to the description, the animal was in the plumbago state of pelage. There is no doubt whatever about the species (though some writers have refused to recognize it); even the wretched figure in the General Zoology shows the grooved incisors clearly. Moreover, this identical specimen, which once formed part of the Bullock collection in London, and subsequently passed into the hands of Temmiuck, seems to have been examined bot.h by Kuhl and Lichtenstein; and, at about the same time, each of these naturalif'ts made a new genus for its special benefit, Kuhl calling it Saccophorus bursarius, after Shaw, and Lichtenstein renaming it Ascomys .canadensis. This title prevailed with most German authors. Contemporary _ French authorities considered it a Hamster, and referred it to Cricetus. Say established, in 1823, the genus Pseudostoma, generally accepted by American writers. The original mistake (arising from faulty taxidermy, that prolific source af error with the dcrmatomaniacs) of supposing the pouches were pendulous sacs opening into the mouth was scotched several times before it was finally killed. Meanwhile, before Kuhl, Lichtensteiu, and Say had 8evcrally made their new genera, species of the genus had already entered the peculiar field of vision, or supposed vision, of M. Rafincsque, who furnished two new names. The Diplostoma of this writer is diagnosticated by an expression few terms of which are founded in fact; for he denies the auimal tail, cars, and open eyes, and only credits it with four toes to each foot, whereas it has a tail, cars, opcu ey.e s, and five digits before and behind. I n t'h e same p1 a ce. Rafin esquc estabhshes another genu , Geomys, which is bused upon fair char-acters, though there is nothinbrr in them to l)l'OVC whether h I ..J rrz. c mn a .L nmnom tiS ~r a true Geo~ys in view. The primary reference i~, however, to Mitchell's ·' Hamster of Georgia'' (G. pinft·is ), which fixes the matter. Rufinc~q uc COUES ON GEOMYS AND THOMOMYS-G. BURSARIUS. 229 gives a number of species of each of his two genera. Twelve years subsequently, in 1829, Dr. Richardson discussed Rafinesque's names, coming to the erroneous conclusion that they both represented good genera, in one of which the cheek-pouches opened into the mouth, t hese being wholly external in the other. He describes several new species of Thomomys under the name of Geomys, supposing them to all have pendulous pouches; gives the present as Geomys~ bursaTius; and refers one Tlwmomys to Diplostoma, having satisfied himself of the true state of the case in this instance. The Mus ludovicianus of Ord (1815) is a name which may be supposed to refer to t his species, but it is probably not determinable, and in any event is antedated. Dr. Mitchill named the species Mus saccatus in 1821. The only late Rynonyms I have met with are O'regonensis of LeConte and brevicep:; of Baird. LeConte, in<lccd, in his excellent sketch of the famil,v, which placed the group upon a far more satisfactory footing than that it had previously occupied, calls it Geomys canadensis; but this is merely the restoration of Rafinesque's generic name, coupled with Lichtenstein's specific one, upon the presumption that the faulty Mus bursarius of Shaw ought not to be recognized. Dr. LeConte's oregonensis is founded upon an animal said to be from Oregon; but this locality is doubtless erroneous, for, as now well known, Townsend collected all the way from the Missouri westward, though his specimens fell in the way of being marked " Columbia Hiver," or ''Oregon,'' with little regard for actual localities where procured. T he name m·egonensis, be ides being geographically erroneous in all probability (no Geomys is known to occur west of the Roch:y Mountains), rests upon characters not in the least incompatible with the now known G. bursarius. T he types of G. breviceps now before me are all smaller than average bursa'rius, but within the range of variation of' that species; and I fail to substantiate any tangible characters by which this supposed species may be held to be distinct. The English name of" gopher,'' applied to this and other species of the family, is evidently a corruption of the French term "gaufre,'' given by Canadian voyageurs. It re-appears in German as Golfer. In the West, where the Spernwphili are universally called gophers by hunters and settlers, the( species of this family are distinguished as ''pocket-gophers." The application 1 |
