Reports of the Princeton University Expeditions to Patagonia, 1896
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«f 1892 \%S J. PJERPONT MORGAN PUBLICATION FUND. Reports of The Princeton University Expeditions to Patagonia, 1896-1899 J. B. HATCHER in Charge EDITED BV WILLIAM B. SCOTY BLAIR PROFESSOR. OF GfiOLOGY AND PAL.«ONTOLOGV, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY VOLUME III ZOOLOGY Part I. Mammalia of Southern Patago^i^ BY J. A. ALLEN AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW Y9RK (Pp. 1-210. PI. I-XXIX) PRINCETON, N. J. The University STUTTGART E. SCHWEIZERBART'SCHE VeRLAGSHANDLUNG (E. NaGBLE) 1905 ^ Issued April £6, 1905. FRf M Of THE NSW ERA PRINTING COHPANV LANCA»TfB, PA. PART I. Mammalia of Southern Patagonia. BY J. A. ALLEN, American Museum of Natural History, New York. INTRODUCTION. THE area covered by the present report includes that portion of Argentina situated south of south latitude 40°, Tierra del Fuego, and the southern part of the Chilian Territory of Magellan, or that portion of it lying west of Tierra del Fuego. The main Andean chain thus forms the western boundary. Its basis is primarily the collections made by the Princeton Expeditions, gathered mainly in the Territory of Santa Cruz, to which material it was intended at first to restrict the report. Later it seemed desirable to extend the scope to include what seems to be a fairly well marked faunal region. Finally, to impart to it something of the character of a monograph, and perhaps thus add to its usefulness, it was decided to include not only full bibliographical refer- ences, but also, in most instances, descriptions of the species, and such accounts of their life histories as could be conveniently brought together, including especially the field notes of the collectors. The Princeton Expedition's collections of mammals were made partly on the coast, and partly in the interior at the eastern base of the Andes, by O. A. Peterson in 1897, ^i^*^ Mr. E. A. Colburn in 1898, and aggre- gate about 600 specimens. A few specimens collected by Mr. Barnum Brown in 1899, and by him presented to the American Museum of Natu- ral History, and various specimens belonging to the U. S. National Museum have also been utilized, while great assistance has been derived from the examination of the material from this and adjoining parts of South America in the British Museum. 2 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS : ZOOLOGY. Mr. Peterson's collection^ numbers about 370 specimens, of which 134 — 70 large mammals, and 64 small mammals — were taken along the coast, at different points from the Rio Gallegos to the Rio Coy, from May 13 to November 29, of which the greater part were collected in July and August, and are thus in midwinter pelage. They include a large series of the Guanaco and Gray Fox, and about 64 Rodents of various species. The remaining, and by far the larger part of the collection (about 240 specimens), was made on the headwaters of the Rio Chico de Santa Cruz, at the eastern base of and in the Cordilleras, including a few from the Pacific Slope. These embrace a small series of the Chilian Deer or Gua- mul, the rest being Rodents, which number nearly 20 species. The Cor- dilleras collection was made January 31 to March 6, and hence consists of midsummer to early fall specimens, and they are thus not satisfactorily comparable w'ith the coast series. The coast series, however, fortunately contains, in several instances, summer and winter specimens of the same species, showing the quite different pelages of the two seasons. The Peterson collection was purchased by Dr. C. Hart Merriam for the Bio- logical Survey, and now forms part of the collection of the U. S. National Museum. Mr. Colburn's collection consists of about 200 specimens, of which 18, representing five species, were taken at Punta Arenas during the first week in January; and lo were taken near Port Desire (labelled "Mount Observation"), February 21-23, ^^'^ represent three species. Then fol- lowed a continuous journey of some 250 miles up the Rio Chico de Santa Cruz, to the mouth of the Rio Belgrado, during which no specimens of mammals appear to have been collected, and only a few (about 25) were taken on the way north from the Rio Belgrado to the vicinity of Lake Buenos Aires. ^ During the month of April work was prosecuted con- ' While Mr. Peterson was charged with the collecting of the recent material, it should be noted that Mr. Hatcher at all times cooperated with him in the work, and that many of the specimens were collected by him. (See Hatcher, Narrative of the Expedition, pp. 62, 65, 1 38, 144.) ^ Most of the specimens are labelled " Arroyo Eche" (= Aike) a locality not indicated on maps nor even mentioned in Mr. Hatcher's Narrative of the expedition, but which he has kindly located for me as covering the Basalt Canons and Swan Lake localities, the dates on the labels indicating to which they refer. While Mr. Colburn's specimens are well made, and are accom- panied by measurements, indication of se.x and date of collecting, he informs me that he " took no field notes." Besides this, about one third of the skulls are unavailable for study, owing either to their actual loss or to the loss of their labels, or to illegibility of the labels due to soiling from lack of care in the preservation of the skulls. ALLEN: MAMMALIA OF SOUTHERN PATAGONIA. 3 tinuously at camps in the Basalt Canons, a pampa country having an altitude of about 3,000 feet. A few specimens were collected near Swan Lake, some fifty miles to the southward, in March, but none were taken after May 15, during the return journey to the coast. Hence nearly all of the 200 specimens collected by Mr. Colburn were taken in March, April, and the first half of May, or during the season corresponding to fall in northern latitudes, and in the elevated pampa country, at the east- ern base of the Andes, between the mouth of Rio Belgrado and Lake Buenos Aires. This collection is the property of the Princeton Univer- sity, except a series of the duplicates which has been presented to the American Museum of Natural History. The coast material is especially important as containing practically topo- types of a number of Waterhouse's species of Muridas, based on specimens collected by Darwin during the voyage of the " Beagle." The sub-Andean series represents a wholly new field, and, as might be expected, contains forms allied, on the one hand, to species previously known only from Tierra del Fuego, and on the other, to species described from Mendoza, nearly a thousand miles to the northward. A number of these prove to be new, though not widely different, respectively from their northern or southern allies. In attempting to work up this material — the first collection of mammals of any magnitude ever received in this country from Patagonia — it was recognized at the outset that it would be of the utmost importance to make direct comparison of the species represented in it with the types and other authentic material from the same general region contained (almost exclu- sively) in the British Museum, in which are the types of Bennett's and Waterhouse's species, described more than a half century ago, and the types of Thomas's more recently described species from northern Argen- tina and Paraguay. Accordingly a good series of specimens was taken to London during the summer of 1 901, and through the kindness and cordial assistance of Mr. Oldfield Thomas, Curator of Mammals at the British Museum, I was able to make the necessary critical comparisons with the historic material relating to South American Mammalogy contained in this great Museum. Following the custom of earlier days, the Bennett and Waterhouse types were exhibited for many years as mounted specimens, and thus through long exposure to light suffered much deterioration, but they are still, of course, invaluable as standards of reference. 4 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS: ZOOLOGY. In the present report only such species are included as have been defi- nitely recorded from within the geographical limits of the region here under consideration. Possibly a few already recorded have been over- looked. However that may be, doubtless many described from points further north will be found to extend into it, and probably some, not here included, described from the coast district of southern Chili, will be found to extend southward and eastward into Patagonia. As very few of the species of this region have been adequately figured, as regards the skull and dentition, advantage is taken of the present oppor- tunity to publish illustrations of the cranial and dental characters of a considerable number of species, particularly among the Rodents, to serve as standards of comparison in considering allied forms. As regards the general facies of the Patagonian land mammal fauna, the paucity of types is noteworthy, due to the high southern latitude of the region. It is of course far beyond the range of monkeys and marsupials, while bats, of one or two species, barely reach its northern border. The families Leporidae, Dasyproctidae, and Sciuridae are absent, and the Ruminants are represented by the Guanaco, this region being its metrop- olis, and by a single species of deer. The Mustelidae are represented by three genera, Conepaf/ts, Lyncodon, and Liitra, while' the Canidae and Felidae have each several species. A single species of Armadillo is found as far south as the Rio Santa Cruz. There are two representatives of the Caviidae, and the family Chinchillidae is represented by one of its three genera. The abundant genus Ctenomys alone represents the Octodon- tidae ; but the region may be said to be the headquarters of the Murine genera Reithrodon and Enneomys.