I15 Vol. 74, pp. 101-104 19 May 1961 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON A SYNTYPE OF FEROMYSCUS MANICULATUS NEBRASCENSIS (COUES) By J. Knox Jones, Jr., and B. Mursaloglu The name Peromyscus maniculatus nehrascensis was orig-inally proposed by Elliot Coues {in Coues and Allen, Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv. Territories, 11:79, 1877) in synonymy under Hesperomys leucopus sonoriensis as "Hesperomys sonoriensis var. nehrascensis. " Coues credited the name to Baird, but the latter employed it as a nomen nudum, and nehrascensis has since been credited to Coues ( see Jones, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash-ington, 71: 107-111, 1958, for a review of the history), al-though he obviously did not intend his usage of the name as an original description. Subsequent revisers designated "Deer Creek, Nebr." [= Wyoming], from which Coues {op. cit.: 80) listed two specimens (U. S. National Museum nos. 4310-11), as the type locality of nehrascensis, thereby establishing the two specimens from Deer Creek as syntypes. One of us (Jones) searched unsuccessfully several years ago in the collections of the U. S. National Museum for the specimens concerned and concluded that they probably were no longer in existence ( op. cit.: 109). Subsequentiy, one of the specimens from Deer Creek was discovered among the contents of a routine loan of "Nebraskan" mammals from the Museum of Comparative Zo-ology at Harvard, and it is this specimen that is here discussed. The specimen (now MCZ 5528) has four different labels attached to the left hind leg. One, a faded blue label that appears to be the original, bears printed across the top, "Expl. head waters, Missouri, Yellowstone. Capt. Raynolds, U.S.A.," and in the lower right hand comer, "Dr. F. V. Hayden." Handwritten in ink between the two is "Deer Creek January 19th 1860." The back of the label bears two numbers, "7" and "80." The latter is the original field number of the specimen, but we do not know the significance of the other. A second label bears essentially the same printed information as the first, along with "Deer Creek, Nebraska," printed in the lower left hand comer. This label also bears the date, 12— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash^ Vol. 74, 1961 (lOi; V ObfkMn i 6MnHi>Uiyt/\r<: INSTITUTION MAYl 9 1961
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