A Study Of The California Jumping Mice Of The Genus Zapus

Author : Edward Alexander Preble
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781332290307
Total Pages : 48 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (93 download)

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Download or read book Revision of the Jumping Mice of the Genus Zapus (Classic Reprint) written by Edward Alexander Preble and published by . This book was released on 2015-08-05 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Revision of the Jumping Mice of the Genus Zapus History and material. - The Jumping Mice of North America early attracted the attention of naturalists, but their true status and relationships long remained in obscurity. The first reference to any of the species seems to have been made by Thomas Pennant, in the latter part of the last century, who mentioned the animal under the name of the 'Long-legged Mouse of Hudson's Bay.' In 1780 Zimmermann, basing his description on that of Pennant, and supposing the animal to be congeneric with the jerboas of the Old World, named it Dipus hudsonius. Subsequent authors, recognizing the inapplicability of Dipus, referred the species successively to Gerbillus, Meriones, and Jaculus, until finally Dr. Elliott Coues, in 1875, after showing that all the generic names previously used were untenable, proposed Zapus. Previous to 1857 a number of specific names were used for members of this genus (see pp. 10-13), but were applied mainly to specimens from the eastern United States and Canada. Suffice it to say that Baird, in 1857, and Coues, in 1877, recognized but one species, having a range nearly coincident with the present geographic distribution of the genus in North America. This resulted mainly from two causes - poor quality of existing material and the prevailing tendency of the times to lump distinct species having a superficial resemblance to one another. The material consisted mainly of poorly preserved alcoholic specimens, or skins badly made (in most cases with the skulls inside), and without satisfactory measurements. The characters distinguishing the species, therefore, were not apparent or were considered as being due merely to individual variation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.