Since Howell's revision only one additional specimen has been reported. Anderson (Ann. Rept. Provancher Soc. for 1939, p. 71, 1940) reported it from Table Mountain, 3888 ft., Gaspé County, Quebec.
In the collection of the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History there is still another specimen. It is an adult male topotype (No. 6483 KU, formerly No. 72 in the collection of Alfred E. Preble) obtained on August 21, 1905, at Fabyans, New Hampshire. The measurements of this specimen are as follows (measurements in parenthesis are those of the type as given by Howell, op. cit.): Total length, 135 (132); tail, 26 (24); hind foot, 22 (20); condylobasilar length, 25.1 (25.8); rostral length, 6.5 (6.8); rostral breadth, 4.7 (4.9); interorbital breadth, 3.3 (2.8); zygomatic breadth, 15.4 (16.0); lambdoidal breadth, 12.1 (12.4); incisive foramina, 5.9 (5.7); height of skull, 9.1 (9.3).
Howell (op. cit.:30) characterized S. b. sphagnicola as: "Large and high [skull] with narrow interorbital sharply ridged, the ridges of the type being joined for a distance of 4 millimeters; interparietal narrow and rectangular. The rostrum is long, tapering very little, and the nasals, slightly constricted medially are quite narrow posteriorly. The incisive foramina are long and wide." Howell further stated (op. cit.:30-31) that: "It is hard to predict what will be found to constitute the most valuable cranial characters in distinguishing this race from adult medioximus. The discernible differences now are in the shape of the interparietals, rostral characters, and interorbital differences that will probably not hold good when animals of the same age are compared."
As can be seen from a comparison of the measurements given above for the type and the topotype, some of the characteristics given by Howell are not found in the topotype: The interorbital region is not narrow (in fact it is wider than it ordinarily is in some other subspecies of Synaptomys borealis) and the incisive foramina are not longer than in other subspecies of Synaptomys borealis.
As far as present material permits us to judge, Synaptomys borealis sphagnicola is characterized, cranially, by: Skull large; interorbital region sharply ridged (the ridges being joined for a distance of 4 mm. in the type and of 4.5 mm. in the topotype); rostrum long, tapering relatively little; nasals slightly constricted medially and unusually narrow posteriorly; interparietal narrow and rectangular.
Clethrionomys occidentalis caurinus (Bailey)
1898. Evotomys caurinus Bailey, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 12:21, January 27, type from Lund, east shore Malaspina Inlet, British Columbia.
1935. Clethrionomys gapperi caurinus, Racey and Cowan, Rept. British Columbia Prov. Mus. for 1935, p. H 25.
Prior to 1935 caurinus was considered to be a monotypic species. In 1935 Racey and Cowan (Rept. British Columbia Provincial Museum for 1935, pp. H 25-H 26) examined material from southwestern British Columbia of C. caurinus, including a series of 24 specimens from Alta Lake, and compared it with Clethrionomys gapperi occidentalis and C. g. saturatus. They found caurinus to be distinct from C. g. saturatus but were "not convinced that occidentalis and caurinus both merit systematic recognition; should they prove to be indistinguishable, as the little available material indicates, occidentalis will take precedence on grounds of priority. It is our opinion that further study of the distribution of the genus in British Columbia will lead to the recognition of occidentalis as the form inhabiting coast-line and saturatus the interior of British Columbia" p. H 26. In the face of these opinions Racey and Cowan nevertheless recognized caurinus under the name Clethrionomys gapperi caurinus (Bailey).
In spite of the treatment by Racey and Cowan (op. cit.) of occidentalis and caurinus as subspecies of C. gapperi, later authors arranged occidentalis as a member of the "californicus" group although they retained caurinus in the gapperi group. For example, Davis (The Recent Mammals of Idaho, The Caxton Printers, pp. 307-308, 1939) assigned C. caurinus to the gapperi group, although he regarded C. caurinus as a species (not a subspecies). He regarded also C. occidentalis as a species (not a subspecies) but assigned it to the californicus group. Dalquest (Univ. Kansas Publ., Mus. Nat. Hist., 2:344, April 9, 1948) considered occidentalis to be conspecific with Clethrionomys californicus and wrote (op. cit.:101): "The californicus group, I feel, contains only the races of Clethrionomys californicus, while the gapperi group contains C. gapperi and its races, including caurinus, and possible other species." Dalquest gave no indication that he had examined any specimens of caurinus.