56 FIELD COLUMBIAN MUSEUM ZOOLOGY, VOL. III. 



FAM. TALPID.E. 



SCALOPS. 

 Scalops aquaticus. 



Scalops aquaticus. (Linn.) Syst. Nat., 1758, p. 53. 

 Four specimens: i Apex, North Carolina; 2, Catawba; i, Cal- 

 houn Falls, South Carolina. 



At both Apex and Catawba Mr. Surber found this species fairly 

 abundant, but rare at Calhoun Falls; but in Georgia he failed to 

 obtain any specimens. 



Scalops aquaticus australis. 



Scalops aquaticus australis. Chapman. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. 

 Hist., 1893, p. 339. 



Scalops anastasice. Bangs, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1898, 



P. 212. 



Sixteen specimens: 3, New Berlin; i, St. Charles Creek; 4, 

 Enterprise; 4, Gainesville; 4, Espanita, Anastasia Island, Florida. 



I have placed S. anastasice Bangs as a synonym of S. aquaticus 

 australis, as my specimens from Espanita cannot be distinguished 

 from those obtained in the various localities on the main land, 

 for neither in color, nor in the shape or peculiarities of skull or 

 mandible can I detect any appreciable differences from the other 

 examples. On the mandible of one of the examples from 

 Gainesville, between the coronoid process and the condyle 

 is a well developed secondary process, thus showing that 

 this cannot always be relied upon as a character for distin- 

 guishing australis from aquaticus. I do not observe it on any 

 mandibles of the other specimens, but it is very prominent in 

 this one. 



On the east coast Mr. Surber states that moles were " very 

 rare in the hummock land, but everywhere common in the flat 

 woods and on the sand hills. They were very rare at Micco and 

 on the East Peninsula opposite, I saw none of their work at all." 

 At Gainesville, he says, "they are very common about the city 

 and surrounding country, and next to Sigmodon hispidus it is the 

 most abundant species." On Anastasia Island, which he visited 

 in January, he says, " moles and their runways are scarce, and 

 hard to trap owing to the looseness of the sand. Apparently 

 they do not differ from other moles in their habits, and are found 

 in the more level interior of the island, as well as about the 

 sand hills." 



