1930. _Microtus amakensis_ Murie, Jour. Mamm., 11:74, February 11,
type from Amak Island, Bering Sea, Alaska.
When Murie (Jour. Mamm., 11:75, February 11, 1930) named the meadow
mouse from Amak Island, Alaska, as _amakensis_, he arranged it as a
separate species. One of us (Hall) and K. R. Kelson examined the type
and topotypes of _amakensis_ in the Biological Surveys collection in
the U. S. National Museum and compared them with series of _Microtus
oeconomus operarius_, _M. o. sitkensis_, _M. o. elymocetes_, _M. o.
yakutatensis_, and _M. o. kadiacensis_. Among the specimens examined of
the latter subspecies were 17 from Izambek Bay, Kodiak Peninsula, on
the mainland opposite Amak Island, the type locality of _amakensis_.
The characters given by Murie (_op. cit._) serve to separate
_amakensis_ from closely related neighboring kinds of meadow mice, but
are of the degree and kind that, in this group of meadow mice, separate
subspecies rather than species. Although actual intergrades are
lacking, the animals from Amak Island are considered to be only
subspecifically distinct and to belong to the _oeconomus_ complex. The
name _Microtus oeconomus amakensis_ is applied to them.