56 INSECTIVORA. 
2. BLARINA. 
Blarina, Gray, P. Z. 8. 1837, p. 124. 
Brachysorex, Duvernoy, Mag. de Zool. 1842, p. 37. 
This curious New-World form seems worthy of full generic distinction, being 
specially characterized by the minute size and peculiar structure of the external ear- 
conch, which is folded forwards so as to cover and completely conceal the auditory 
meatus. The genus has been divided by Dr. Elliott Coues into restricted Blarina and 
Soriciscus—the former with five “upper unicuspids,” making the whole number of 
teeth %—32, the latter with only four, so that the teeth number %=30 in all*. 
From Dr. E. Brandt’s observations it appears that the tooth which is wanting in the 
latter section is the last lateral incisor t. 
The only two species of Blarina which have yet been recorded from our sub- 
region belong to Soriciscus, and may be diagnosed as follows :— 
1. B. micrura. Dark greyish-brown above, shading to dull grey beneath, washed 
with fulvous on the breast and belly. Length 2°30, of tail 0-80. 
2. B. mexicana. “ Unicolor, entirely sooty blackish-brown, merely a little paler 
below.” Length 2'-50, of tail 1-00. 
1. Blarina micrura. (Tab. V. fig. 2.) 
Corsira tropicalis, Gray, P. Z. 8S. 1848, p. 79 (sine descr.)’. 
Sorex micrurus, Tomes, P. Z. S. 1861, p. 279 (descr. orig.)*. 
? Sorex, sp., Frantzius, Arch. f. Naturg. xxxv. 1, p. 323°. 
Blarina micrura, Alston, P. Z. 8. 1877, p. 446°. 
Blarina (Soriciscus) micrura, Coues, Bull. U.S. Geol. & Geogr. Surv. iti. p. 638 (footnote) °. 
Hab. Guaremata, Coban (Mus. Brit.14, Salvin”); Costa Rica (Frantzius? ; Carmiol, 
UWS. Nat. Mus.°). 
This is another of the Guatemalan animals which Gray named in 1843 without 
giving any characters 1; and it was not till eighteen years later that the species was 
described by Mr. Tomes from specimens collected by Mr. Salvin near Coban (not Duefias 
as stated by Mr. Tomes), one of which was picked up dead in a forest path?. Further 
south of Guatemala a small species of Shrew was observed in Costa Rica by Dr. v. 
Frantzius; but he was unable to obtain specimens. Examples from that country, how- 
ever, have lately been sent to the Washington Museum by the well-known collector 
Carmiol, one of which was kindly intrusted to me by Dr. Elliott Coues; and I was 
unable to find that it differed in any respect from the Corsira tropicalis of Gray and 
the Sorex micrurus of Tomes. 
Dr. Coues remarks that the Costa-Rica Shrew is “very closely related to United- 
* Bull. U.S. Geol. & Geogr. Surv. iii. pp. 647-649 (1877). t Zool. Rec. 1866, p. 27. 
