Distribution of Some Nebraskan Mammals

Part 1

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UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Volume 7, No. 6, pp. 479-487 April 21, 1954

Distribution of Some Nebraskan Mammals

BY J. KNOX JONES, JR.

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1954

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, A. Byron Leonard, Robert W. Wilson

Volume 7, No. 6, pp. 479-487 Published April 21, 1954

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas

PRINTED BY FERD VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1954

25-2530

Distribution of Some Nebraskan Mammals

J. Knox Jones, Jr.

Because military service will interrupt my study of Nebraskan mammals, I am here placing on record certain information on the geographic distribution of several species--information that is thought pertinent to current studies of some of my associates. Most of this information is provided by specimens recently collected by me and other representatives of the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History, although specimens from other collections provide some of the records herein reported. The other collections are the Biological Surveys Collection of the United States National Museum (USBS), the Hastings Museum (HM), the Nebraska Game, Forestation and Parks Commission (NGFPC), the University of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ), the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (MZ) and the University of Nebraska State Museum (NSM). Grateful acknowledgment hereby is made to persons in charge of these several collections for lending the materials concerned. Specimens mentioned in the following accounts are in the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History, except as otherwise stated. All measurements are in millimeters. Color terms are those of Ridgway (1912). A part of the funds for field work was made available by the National Science Foundation and the Kansas University Endowment Association.

=Sorex cinereus haydeni.= (Baird). CINEREOUS SHREW.--Two male shrews were trapped on April 7, 1952, among rocks along an old railroad fill, 4 mi. N, 1/2 mi. E of Octavia, Butler County, thus extending the known geographic range of S. c. haydeni approximately 60 miles southward from a line connecting Perch, Rock County, Nebraska, with Wall Lake, Sac County, Iowa (see Jackson, 1928:52-53), and providing the first record of occurrence in the Platte River Valley. Two additional specimens, taken on July 17, 1952, are from 2-1/2 mi. N of Ord, Valley County, along the Loup River, a tributary of the Platte from the north.

=Blarina brevicauda carolinensis= (Bachman). SHORT-TAILED SHREW.--J. S. Findley and I, in a forthcoming paper, review the distribution of Blarina brevicauda in the Great Plains region, recording B. b. carolinensis from the extreme southeastern and southwestern counties of Nebraska. A series of five shrews of this species recently obtained from three miles south and two miles east of Nebraska City in Otoe County, average significantly smaller in both the cranial and the external measurements than typical B. b. brevicauda and fall well within the range of carolinensis. Average and extreme external measurements of the four adults from Otoe County, three males and one female, are as follows: Total length, 110 (109-112); length of tail-vertebrae, 24.2 (22-26); length of hind foot, 13.8 (13-14). Another specimen from 3 mi. S, 1-1/2 mi. E of Peru, Nemaha County, also is referable to carolinensis. These recent records indicate that the range of B. b. carolinensis extends up the Missouri River Valley, approximately to Nebraska City, Otoe County. Five specimens from Louisville, Cass County, the next county northward, along the River, are referable to B. b. brevicauda.

=Eptesicus fuscus fuscus.= (Beauvois). BIG BROWN BAT.--One big brown bat was obtained on July 23, 1952, from one mile west of Niobrara, Knox County. While not so dark in dorsal coloration as some specimens of E. f. fuscus from eastern Nebraska (Cass and Sarpy counties), this specimen is noticeably darker than a series of E. f. pallidus from Ft. Niobrara Wildlife Refuge, 4 mi. E of Valentine, Cherry County, being near (16" j) Snuff Brown as opposed to near (16' i) Buckthorn Brown. Previous to the taking of this specimen, Webb and Jones (1952:277) reported as E. f. pallidus a specimen, saved as a skull only, which was picked up dead at Niobrara. It seems best to assign these two bats from the vicinity of Niobrara, Knox County, to E. f. fuscus.

=Sciurus carolinensis carolinensis= Gmelin. GRAY SQUIRREL.--An adult male gray squirrel shot by Mr. Terry A. Vaughan in the heavily timbered bluffs of the Missouri River, 3 mi. S, 2 mi. E of Nebraska City, Otoe County, on October 10, 1953, provides the only museum specimen of a gray squirrel from Nebraska known to me. Residents in the area concerned report small numbers of this squirrel as still occurring on the heavily wooded bluffs along the Missouri River in Nemaha, Otoe and Richardson counties, Nebraska, at least as far north as Nebraska City.

Gray squirrels from Nebraska have been reported twice before in the literature as follows: "Mouth of Platte [River]" (Baird, 1858:262) and Barada, Richardson County (Jones and Webb, 1949:312). Swenk (1908:80), while listing no actual records, says of this squirrel, "Common in the timber along watercourses of southeastern Nebraska, but greatly outnumbered everywhere by [Sciurus niger] rufiventer. I have no records west of the 97th meridian nor north of the Platte."

=Spermophilus franklinii= (Sabine). FRANKLIN GROUND SQUIRREL.--A specimen from 2 mi. NW of Lisco, in Morrill County (NSM 3324), extends the known geographic range of S. franklinii approximately 200 miles westward along the Platte River Valley from Kearney, Buffalo County (see Howell, 1938:134), and suggests a westward movement of this ground squirrel along the Platte River in recent years.

=Perognathus flavescens flavescens= Merriam. PLAINS POCKET MOUSE.--P. f. flavescens occurs in the Sand Hills and adjacent mixed-grass plains of central Nebraska. Eastern marginal records of occurrence are: Neligh, Antelope County, 2 (MVZ 1, NSM 1); 1 mi. E of Ravenna, Buffalo County, 2 (MZ); unspecified locality in Adams County, 1 (HM).

=Perognathus flavescens perniger= Osgood. PLAINS POCKET MOUSE.--This mouse occurs in northeastern Nebraska. Osgood (1904:127), in the original description of the subspecies, listed two specimens from Verdigris [Verdigre], Knox County. Additional records of occurrence are: Beemer, Cuming County, 2 (USBS); 1-1/2 mi. SE of Niobrara, Knox County, 3; 1-1/2 mi. S of Pilger, Stanton County, 2.

The two specimens from Beemer are typical perniger. All of the other Nebraskan specimens are intergrades between P. f. flavescens, geographically adjacent to the west, and P. f. perniger to the east but are best referred to perniger on the basis of greater total length, larger cranial measurements and darker dorsal coloration.

P. f. perniger was originally described (Osgood, op. cit.) on the basis of its darker dorsal coloration and encroachment of the lateral line on the posterior parts of the venter. The latter character is not present in all Nebraskan specimens. Mice from the two localities in Knox County have buffy underparts; those from other Nebraskan localities do not. Of nine specimens of P. f. perniger examined from Elk River, Sherburne County, Minnesota, none has buffy underparts whereas a specimen from Randolph, Fremont County, Iowa (NSM) does. In addition, in two of five specimens of P. f. flavescens from Kelso, Hooker County, (MZ) the lateral line encroaches on the underparts. The encroachment of the lateral line on the underparts, or failure of the line to do so, is thought to be only an individual variation and of no taxonomic use.

=Perognathus flavus piperi= Goldman. BUFFY POCKET MOUSE.--In the description of P. f. bunkeri, Cockrum (1951:206) allocated to the new subspecies, without comment, a specimen from Alliance, Box Butte County. I have examined this specimen along with all other Nebraskan specimens known to me and, although all approach bunkeri in cranial measurements, they seem best referred to piperi on the basis of darker dorsal coloration and larger external measurements. Additional records of occurrence, several of them marginal to the eastward, are: 10 mi. S of Antioch, Garden County, 1 (MZ); Kelso, Hooker County, 4 (MZ); 5 mi. N of Bridgeport, Morrill County, 1 (MVZ); 6 mi. N of Mitchell, Scotts Bluff County, 1 (NSM). A specimen not seen by me that was reported from Valentine, Cherry County (Beed, 1936:21), is presumably also best referred to P. f. piperi.

No specimens of P. flavus are known to me from south of the Platte River in southwestern Nebraska although they probably occur there. If so, they may be referable to P. f. bunkeri, which is found in counties of Kansas adjoining the southwestern part of Nebraska.

=Perognathus hispidus paradoxus= Merriam. HISPID POCKET MOUSE.--This subspecies occurs commonly in central-and western-Nebraska. Eastern marginal records of occurrence are: 2 mi. SE of Niobrara, Knox County, 1 (NGFPC); 4 mi. E, 2 mi. S of Ord, 1; Bladen, Webster County, 2 (HM).

Part 2

=Perognathus hispidus spilotus= Merriam. HISPID POCKET MOUSE.--Jones and Webb (1949:312) first reported this subspecies in Nebraska as from 5 mi. SE of Rulo, Richardson County. Additional records of occurrence are: 3 mi. SW of Barnston, Gage County, 1 (NGFPC); Bennet, 1 (NSM), 9 mi. NW of Lincoln, 1 (NSM), 1-1/2 mi. S of Lincoln, 1 (NSM), Lancaster County; Peru, Nemaha County, 1 (NGFPC); 3 mi. S, 2 mi. E of Nebraska City, Otoe County, 3; Barada, Richardson County, 1 (NSM); Pleasant Dale, Seward County, 1 (NSM); 1 mi. S of Williams, Thayer County, 1.

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