54 | INSECTIVORA. 
which was captured by Mr. Salvin in Guatemala, and obtained from that gentleman in 
1864; and, through Dr. Peters’s courtesy, I am enabled to copy the figure prepared to 
illustrate the work on the Chiroptera on which he has been so long engaged. 
Order III. INSECTIVORA. 
This order is but scantily represented in the New World, two families only (Talpide 
and Soricide) being found there. Both are confined entirely to the Nearctic Region, 
with the exception of two genera of Soricide, which have extended their range as far 
as Guatemala and Costa Rica respectively. The total absence of Insectivores from 
the fauna of the Neotropic Region in general is a striking fact, but may reasonably 
be attributed to the competition of the numerous small insect-eating Hdentates and 
Marsupials, whose range they thus overlap in Central America. 
Fam, I, SORICIDZ. 
1. SOREX. 
Sorex, Linneus, Syst. Nat. p. 73 (1766). 
The American species of this very widely distributed genus have lately been divided 
by Dr. Elliott Coues * into three sections, founded in part on the number of “ unicus- 
pids” in the upper jaw, between the large median incisors and the molars. In regard 
to the homologies of these teeth I have here adopted the views of Dr. E. Brandt f, 
which seem to me to be more satisfactory than any other that have hitherto been 
propounded. Dr. Coues’s three subgenera are Sorex as restricted, Microsorex, and 
Notiosorex, the two last having been thus named in manuscript by Professor Baird as far 
back as 1861. Only the first and last demand our attention as occurring in Central 
America. In Sorex there are five “upper unicuspids” (four incisors and a premolar 
being present), making the whole number of teeth [=32; the ears are moderate, and 
the tail more than half the length of the head and body. In Notiosorex only three 
upper unicuspids are present, so that the teeth are $=28; the ears are thinly haired, 
large, and conspicuous, and the tail less than half the length of the head and body. 
* Bull. U.S. Geol. & Geogr. Surv. iii. pp. 6438-647 (1877). 
+ ‘Izslyedovaniya o zubnoi sistemye kutor i zemleroek,’ St. Petersburg, 1865 (cf. Zool. Rec. 1866, pp. 24-27); 
“Untersuchungen iiber das Gebiss der Spitzmause,” Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Moscou, xli. (2% pt.) pp. 76-95, 
pls. i-vi.; xlvi. (2% pt.) pp. 1-79. . ; 
