Sorex vagrans obscurus Merriam
Wandering Shrew
Specimens examined.—Total, 8: Morfield Canyon, 7600 ft., 75972, 75973; Upper Well, Prater Canyon, 7575 ft., 69235–69238; ¼ mi. N Middle Well, Prater Canyon, 7500 ft., 69239–69240.
The specimens from Prater Canyon were trapped in the grasses and sedges of the meadow comprising the floor of the canyon. The ground and vegetation were dry at the time of capture, September 2, 3, and 4, 1956. Microtus montanus was the only other species taken in the mouse traps in the sedge and grass. Five of the six specimens from Prater Canyon are young, having slightly worn teeth; the sixth is an old adult male the teeth of which are so much worn that only a few traces of the reddish-brown pigment remain. His testes were 5 mm. long. These specimens are from an area of intergradation between S. v. obscurus and S. v. monticola. The length of the maxillary tooth-row in these six specimens averaged 6.23 (6.1–6.4) millimeters. Comparison with average measurements of 6.6 and 6.8 in samples of S. v. obscurus, and of 5.9 in a sample of S. v. monticola (Findley, 1955:64, 65) reveals the intermediate size of the specimens from the Mesa Verde. The gap between habitat suitable for Sorex vagrans on the Mesa Verde and the nearest record-station for S. v. monticola to the south and west in the Chuska Mountains is wider than the gap between the Mesa Verde and the nearest record-station for S. v. obscurus to the north and east, one mile west of Mancos, 75971, 7000 feet, or at Silverton. On geographic grounds the specimens from the Mesa Verde are referred to S. v. obscurus. The two specimens from Morfield Canyon were trapped on November 4, 1957, and are grayish above and silvery below. Their pelage contrasts markedly with the dorsally brownish and ventrally buffy pelage of the September-taken specimens from Prater Canyon.
Myotis californicus stephensi Dalquest
California Myotis
Specimens examined.—-Total, 3: Rock Springs, 7400 ft., 69243, 69246, August 21 and 22, 1956; 4505 Denver Museum, within the Park (exact locality not recorded), R.L. Landberg, July 27, 1931.
The specimens from Rock Springs were an adult male and a non-pregnant adult female. Both were shot over the road in pinyon and juniper. The specimens are referred to M. c. stephensi on account of their paleness, stephensi being paler than M. c. californicus from east of Mesa Verde in Colorado.
Myotis evotis evotis (H. Allen)
Long-eared Myotis
Specimens examined.—Total, 4: Chickaree Draw, Prater Canyon, 8200 ft., MV 7841/507, probably in the summer of 1935; Rock Springs, 7400 ft., 69241, August 23, 1956, and 69249, August 18, 1956; Museum, Headquarters, 6950 ft., 69251, August 24, 1956.
An adult male (69241) was taken in a Japanese mist net stretched fifteen feet across a dirt road where it entered the stand of pinyon and juniper at the south edge of the burn on Wetherill Mesa between 7:20 and 8:30 p.m.; at the same place and time I captured five other bats of four species: Myotis thysanodes, Myotis subulatus, Eptesicus fuscus, and Plecotus townsendii. A piece of mist net attached to an aluminum hoop-net two and one half feet in diameter was used to good advantage in capturing bats rebounding from the larger mist net, and in frightening bats into the larger net when they approached closely. An adult male (69249) was shot at 7:20 p.m. while flying six to eight feet from the ground between pinyon trees up to 20 feet high; the air temperature was 70° F. A female (69251) was found seemingly exhausted on the floor in the museum at Park Headquarters in the daytime, and was immature as indicated by small size, open basicranial sutures, unworn teeth, weakly ossified zygoma, and open epiphyseal sutures of phalanges.