Geomys bursarius bursarius, Black, 30th Bienn. Rept. Kansas State Board Agric., 35:181, 1937.
Geomys breviceps, Baird, Expls. and surveys for a railroad route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, pt. 1, Mammals, 380, 1857.
Type locality.—Lincoln, Lancaster County, Nebraska.
Distribution in Kansas.—Northeastern Kansas, westward certainly to Clay and Marion counties and southward certainly to Greenwood County.
Description.—Color: Upper parts Mummy Brown in fresh appearing pelage of February but in more worn pelage of March more reddish being near (16') Prout's Brown; top of head and sometimes back darker than rest of upper parts; underparts usually with some whitish anteriorly; fore and hind feet and approximately distal half of tail white. Size: Large, total length averaging more than 280 mm. in males and 257 in females; hind foot averaging 35 mm. or more in males. Skull: Large; rostrum averaging more than twice as long as wide; sagittal crest high in males and barely present in females; occiput vertical when skull is laid top down; least width of braincase less than distance from alveolus of upper incisor to middle of lateral border of P4 at alveolar border.
Comparisons.—From Geomys bursarius lutescens, majusculus differs as follows: Color darker, Mummy Brown to Prout's Brown instead of Buckthorn Brown. In both sexes: head and body a fifth to a sixth longer; hind foot 5 to 6 per cent longer; skull averaging larger in all parts measured except that premaxillae (in each subspecies) extend equally far posteriorly to nasals; diastema longer in relation to basilar length; rostrum longer relative to its width; sagittal crest higher; rostrum often more depressed distally; angle of suture between maxilla and jugal more obtuse.
From G. b. bursarius, according to Swenk (1939:6), majusculus differs in larger size.
From G. b. illinoensis, majusculus, according to Komarek and Spencer (1931:405), differs in brownish instead of slate-gray coloration and in two cranial characters as follows: Nasals straight-sided instead of shaped like an hour-glass, and superficial canals on palatine extending anteriorly beyond first molar, and from there anteriorly more or less separated. The first of these characters does not always hold; occasional individuals of majusculus, for example some from Douglas County, have the nasals shaped like an hour-glass.
From G. breviceps dutcheri, majusculus differs in larger size (hind foot more than 33 mm. in males, and 29 in females; basilar length more than 42 mm. in males and 36 in females); dorsal exposure of jugal longer than width of rostrum measured between ventral margins of infraorbital foramina.
From G. bursarius major of southcentral Kansas (for example Harvey County), majusculus differs in slightly darker color, being Mummy Brown instead of Prout's Brown; size larger (in males total length more than 284 mm., hind foot 35 or more, basilar length of skull more than 42, and in females total length 265 or more, hind foot averaging 33 or more, and basilar length 40 or more).