aspina 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_.

When Dalquest (_op. cit._:344) arranged _occidentalis_ and
_californicus_ as subspecies of the same species, he used the name
combination _Clethrionomys californicus occidentalis_ because he
ignored, or was unaware of, the page prior