SHORT-TAILED MEADOW MOUSE. Lagurus curtatus (Cope)

Field characters.—Body size about twice that of House Mouse; tail very short, less than 1/4 head and body; pelage dense and lax. Head and body 4-1/4 inches (110 mm.), tail 1 inch (25 mm.), hind foot 3/4 inch (19 mm.), ear from crown about 3/8 inch (11 mm.); weight slightly over 1 ounce (32.5 grams) [one individual only]. Pelage light ashy gray above; paler, almost white, on under surface.

Occurrence.—Recorded only at Mono Mills, east of Sierra Nevada. Lives on and in ground beneath sagebrush.

The Short-tailed Meadow Mouse was collected in only one locality, the extreme eastern end of the Yosemite section, at Mono Mills, south of Mono Lake. Two female individuals, an adult and a half-grown youngster, presumably representatives of one family, were obtained, June 7 and 10, 1916. Both were taken in one location, under sagebrush on the edge of a dry gully. The stomach contents of the adult consisted solely of chewed-up leaves of sagebrush. There was neither water nor meadow nor grassland anywhere near the place where the two animals were caught. This species appears not to require such surroundings, but to be adapted to life in an arid situation. It is distributed throughout a considerable portion of the Great Basin sagebrush country.